Project Setup

Timing

To be completed within five working days of the upfront invoice being paid.

Project Setup

Step 1: Project Setup Typeform

Once a client has confirmed and the dates with the team are agreed on, you can set up the project infrastructure, i.e. the tools and communication channels.

This Typeform will send calendar invites to the Deep Work Studio calendar, which you may need to arrange properly (see Step 2).

Select the appropriate project template from the list and make sure you cover the following tasks:

Make sure the client paid the upfront invoice

Before setting up the project, make sure the client has paid the upfront invoice and the team, who blocked their availability, will get paid. It's also important for all other transactions during the project.

Make sure you have all the necessary files and information

To manage the team's expectations during the project, make sure you also have:

• The budget breakdown

• All invoices

• Deep Teams project

• Additional notes from the onboarding

Double-check member's skills

Check the team members' skills in Deep Teams to understand who may need assistance or already knows the latest process.

Full context on client or stakeholder expectations

Especially if the initial conversation was held by a different Creative Director, it's crucial to have a clean handover and understand exactly the expectations of the client. Once the handover is complete, the previous Creative Director will hold no responsibility for error or misunderstanding. So please make sure you know exactly what the client expects and that you can over-deliver.

User Researcher Zap

In Zapier, you will have to add the project name (needs to match exactly) to the User Researcher's Zap.

1. Go to Deep Work Project Process

2. Find and click on the Zap with the User Researcher's name (not the Tester Recruiter)

3. On the top right of the screen, click on "Edit"

4. Find the step that says "ADD PROJECT TITLE HERE"

5. Open the step and go to the list of project titles

6. Add the title of the project, make sure the project title is one single word

7. Make sure to use an OR condition when adding your project to avoid conflicts with other projects of the user researcher.

8. Confirm and click on "Publish" on the top right of the screen.

Here's a short video tutorial: https://www.loom.com/share/c6b7255de4ff4aeea4d3bd012efc129e

Set up calendly

Set up a Calendly link based on the User Testing Template with the project name (needs to match exactly). Use the "[e-mail]" account to log into Calendly and make sure that you spell the title of the project as one word, exactly as in the previous step.

Here's a video tutorial: https://youtu.be/LZx7s1dr4iA

Make sure that the User Researcher is aware and agree with the opened time slots for the days of the research.

Create a project channel in Discord

Ask a representative or Creative Director if you don't have the rights to create a channel. Give it a recognizable name. You can make it exclusively private to Deep Work experts by limiting the permissions to the "DEEP Expert" role.

With the exception of being all lower-case, make sure the project channel name matches exactly the spelling of the project title from the Calendly and Zapier.

Completing the Typeform will set up most of the tools and create an onboarding message in Discord to ping the team.

Please make sure you pin the automated message to the channel.

Keep the email addresses of the workshop participants ready

You will need to add them to the calendar invites later.

Create working files for the team

Make sure the team has all collaborative spaces to work in. A notion document, a Figma file, Miro file based on a template.

Here's a template for most workshops in Miro: https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVPvEuAGg=/?share_link_id=583280792485

Step 2: Calendar Invites

The Typeform will create a basic set of calendar invites from the [e-mail] Google account on the Deep Work Studio calendar. In most cases you will need to adjust the calendar invites - adding iteration workshops if necessary and adding email addresses from the invitees.

Remember to set the invites to the Deep Work Studio calendar

Make sure to invite the internal Deep Work team to all Deep Work activities, even if their attendance is not required. This helps each role see exactly when there is a handover with the next/previous role (e.g. between Designer and User Researcher).

Step 3: Client message

Before the project starts, send an onboarding message to the client to prepare them.

Make sure you ask the client for upfront details on the project. This is especially important for Branding and Visual Identity projects - ask them upfront for visual and illustration references in order to prepare the illustrator.

Here is a template you can use, obviously replace the parts highlighted in bold:

Hi team, I’m [your name]

I will be leading our design project. But before it starts, I just want to make sure everyone is set up and ready.

[customize this section] IMPORTANT: Please send us anything that could better prepare us for the project in response to this email. User journeys, visual references, wireframes, etc.

Meeting and Workshop Agenda

You can find the agenda of our meetings in the Miro board linked on each of the calendar invites. Each row of exercises represents one calendar meeting.

Design Process

If you’re not familiar with the Design Sprint process (or its updated version we will be going through) - be mentally prepared that it might feel intense and unusual, so please join in well-rested and maybe have some healthy (sugarless) food around you to give you some energy in the breaks. Especially on Session 3, which will be the most intense workshop.

What to expect

During the sprint, we will go through several exercises to find challenges of the current project, define a goal, come up with individual solutions and finally merge all solutions into one concept storyboard. The storyboard will contain the best ideas to our current knowledge and act as the basis for us to use all available technology and design skills to create a high-fidelity prototype. By the end of the sprint, you will receive all the data gathered during the Sprint, the finished prototype and a comprehensive report from the user tests.

Our Team of Experts

Our Experts will be guiding you through the workshops and do the hard work designing the product. Each of our Experts on the sprint may also be supported by a Collaborator from our community of designers.

Workshop Facilitation: [add their name]

Prototype Design: [add their name]

User Research: [add their name]

User Tester Recruiter: [add their name]

Aside from the Collaborators on our team there might be a Shadower. They will only observe how we work to learn, they will be muted, have their camera off and have agreed to not share any sensitive information from the project.

Please let us know if you don’t feel comfortable with a Shadower.

Preparation

Google Meet - We’ll use for video chat meetings (the call ID is in your calendar invite)

Miro - For most of the collaborative brainstorming

Please make sure to familiarise yourself with the tools and not have any calls or meetings scheduled during the sprint sessions.

It's important to stay focused and avoid distractions!

On the same note - it's very important that you join the sessions on time. Joining late will mean that you need to skip a part of the linear process and will not be able to catch up, so please respect the schedule.

User Testing

Finally, we will be looking for a pool of testers of around 5 people. If you know anyone you would like us to interview, feel free to send them the following link to sign up for a time slot: [add calendly here]

Let me know if you have any questions, enjoy your day and see you soon!

When you're done, scan through the pre-written client email, edit if necessary and send out to the client. You can let the team in Discord know that the project setup is complete.

Project Onboarding Call

Make sure the team has all the details from the sales call and background of the client. Run through the quote and proposals so the team knows:

• The project and clients goals.

• The process.

• The assumptions.

Check that everyone is happy and answer any team questions.