Team Setup

Timing

Finding the team should be prioritized as soon as the client confirms. There should be no more than one week between the client confirmation and a potential date sent to the client. Sooner is better.

The Creative Director should preferably be on the project as the facilitator or product designer.

Scope and visualise the project timeline

Add the project timeline and team to Asana. You can use Asana to help plan availabilities against other projects - at any stage. However, please make sure it is up to date and accurate when the team is confirmed.

How to use it:

With the addition of the User Tester Recruiter, please consider the following:

Schedule the work of the Recruiter to start seven days before the start of the user research session. So they can start on the first day of the workshops (sometimes the target audience is clear) and the scheduled work ends on the first day of user testing.

Set up Deep Teams project

Based on the data from the budget sheet (see above) and dates in Asana, please create a new project in Deep Teams. This will give visibility over who is on the project team and allow new contributors to apply to the project.

Before setting up the project, make sure that every team member has an account in Deep Teams and is listed in the project.

Add the project details document to the "Project details"

Finding and Selecting The Team

Who to choose

After the client confirms the project, the Creative Director finds the team.

Role	Notes or Requirements
Creative Director	Should be on the project as the facilitator or product designer (unless the project can not go ahead without the creative director not in one of the roles)
Workshop Facilitator	What's best for the organisation to run more projects and have as many people as possible working. Who's best for the project.
Product Designer, Website Designer or Visual Identity Designer	As above
User Researcher	As above
Tester Recruiter	As above

Request expert applications

Use the project link in Deep Teams and send it to any expert you think would be a fit. You can find a full list of the current Experts in the Actors spreadsheet. This will be automated in the future. Ask them to provide their (un)availability within the specified date range in the application field.

Review applications and update Asana

When you review the applications and someone mentions their unavailability, please update it in Asana so everyone else is aware. This is important because it continuously keeps the team's availability visible.

Make sure you look at their portfolio and previous work. It can tell you whether someone is a good fit and has an understanding of the projects challenge.

Finding the team manually

If you're unsure or want to find the team manually, reach out to them individually and ask for their earliest availability and interest in the project. Mention the following details:

1) Send the expected start date of the project

2) Send them the project budget (calculated above so they can see how much they'll get paid)

3) Send them the proposal and quote (so they can see what the project entails)

4) Send them any details about the client (so they can decide if it's an interesting challenge / if they want to work for them)

Be sure to let the team know the project is not confirmed until the upfront invoice is paid. As CD, please prioritise getting this paid so the team knows the project is locked in. See the financial process for more detail on team payments and the importance of the upfront invoice..

Finding and onboarding new Experts

Some projects might only happen in time if you (the Creative Director) also fill a different role (e.g. the Facilitator or Product Designer). This is a good opportunity to find and onboard new people from outside the Deep Work network.

Check this list of potential Experts if anyone could be a fit. If you know that someone is already an expert, feel free to remove them from the list.

You can also use the #jobs channel in Discord to advertise that you are looking for a mentee.

Get the relevant budget sheet ready

Based on the type of project, you will need a calculation for the payments. You will find it in Coda.

Double-check that everyone knows the latest process

Sometimes there have been updates to the design process and some Experts have missed these updates or are unaware of them. You can check the most recent updates here.

Top up User Tester wallet

The following instructions may require additional attention, please reach out to Andrej if you read this message and need to continue.

1. Multiply €45 (euros!) by the amount of user testers to calculate the amount needed for their gift cards.

2. Convert the amount to dollars. You can use the following link.

3. Send the amount from the treasury to the Tester Recruiter's wallet: 0x44573ffB54C5EA4C2f18Acc1c0bDE2002f4F79b1 who will purchase and send out the Amazon gift cards.