Process Improvements
Meet Anna, a creative with over 15 years of experience, hailing from the picturesque city of Cologne, Germany. At the core of her expertise lies UI design, where she has lent her artistic touch to renowned brands. However, Anna's creative palette extends far beyond the digital realm.
In addition to crafting captivating user interfaces, Anna is a versatile designer offering a myriad of services. From shaping brand identities to designing visually stunning websites and much more.
Anna's journey as a art director is not just about delivering services; it's a narrative woven with passion, dedication, and a commitment to transforming ideas into visual masterpieces.
Anna Jaissle
Art Director
The context
Anna found herself in a rather enviable position that many freelancers would dream of: a surplus of job offers pouring in. These additional gigs were exactly what Anna liked in her job: diversity. To do just that, she needed to bring balance between creativity and time management/organisation.
Our audit
Assumptions are to be validated. I like to perform a thorough audit of my customers so I can deliver a bespoke solution to their problems. Anna and I partnered for a week so I could better grasp her typical workday, customers personas, what different work she would perform and how long it would broadly take her.
Sometimes, the only thing you need to manage your workload – is a little structure
Challenge & Assumptions
Anna has multiple clients from every horizon, each using their own software and work methodology, receiving new requests via email, Trello, Zoom, Slack, Teams…. I wouldn’t add any more complexity to her daily work. What she needed was a simple yet efficient way to gather all her requests and add them to one environment. Creating a 360° view of all the incoming work and their statuses.
But sorting all this work wasn’t the complete concern. She also needed to make sure she could handle the new projects she was about to take on.
Our solution
For the 360° views, I introduced her to Notion. I created a Kanban board like she is used to working with one of her many customers and product team, so there was no need to teach her the methodology.
We configured filters and views to align with her wishes. As we added work, her planning and availability became much clearer.
As a creative, Anna used to be working in a “on-demand” mode. Now, she has a compelling working tool where she can focus on a particular client or a particular day. Even see what’s coming for next week or even next month.
We've created an easy schedule tool for all her tasks...
...our solution
On top of that, Anna is now using her calendar not only to see her meeting but also to visualize how long a task takes her. She now has a powerful setup to understand when and how much work she can handle in the future.
Since her new setup, Anna was able to work more efficiently, spending less time sorting her work and taking on 2 new customers. We still catch up and fine tune her setup from time to time.
If you’re ever in need of creative work, just say hallo, hello or salut to Anna:
www.anna-jaissle.com
