This post is about all the non-technical steps in starting up a new project. First you have to get a new project, then you have to keep track of all the details related to it. This is what works for us for getting the project off the ground.
Someone has handed one of us a business card at a social gathering or sent us an email though our contact form. Voilá, a potential client! We keep track of potential clients in an email folder called, you guessed it, Potential Clients. (We always follow-up on any direct contact with an email right away, so there’s always an email trail.)
Sometimes we’re just too busy and that follow-up email will tell them that we’d love to work with them but we can’t start a new project until [insert timeframe in the future here]. They may get back to us and tell us that’s fine, otherwise we will try to refer them to someone else. (If you’re a professional web developer in the Massachusetts area with a decent portfolio, let us know because we don’t have a good selection of firms to refer to.)
Turning a potential client into an actual client
When do you give a ballpark estimate?
An important part of the initial contact is to make a determination about whether the client is a good fit for us and vice versa. We’re providing an (often undervalued) service to clients who are trying to run a business or non-profit organization as efficiently as possible. That means that the main question on their mind often is “how much is this going to cost me?” We do a bit of selling when necessary to emphasize how much a well-implemented website can increase their business (and why we’re experts) so that they realize the value they will be getting for their money. If we think the client is on a tight budget, we’ll usually conclude the meeting with an estimate of the cost based on what we’ve learned that day and on our experience. That lets both of us know if it’s worthwhile going any further in the process. We prefer not to give estimates since we haven’t finished scoping the work (because it’s hard to come back with a different quote later), so it’s a judgment call every time whether we do.
The first thing we do with a potential client when we’re ready to start a new project is to set up a face-to-face meeting. If the client isn’t local or they’re just “too busy” we’ll do this on the phone, but that’s not our preference. The goal is to learn the client’s needs to the extent that we need to in order to write up a project proposal. (See the section on “Discover - First Round” in the process post to read about the four key questions we ask.) This meeting is usually very informative for the potential client and we enjoy meeting new people, so even if the project we’re discussing doesn’t get off the ground, it’s never wasted time. (Who knows when the potential client might be in the position to do another project or to refer someone else to us.) An important thing that happens at the “coffee meeting” (as we call it) is an exchange of business cards.
If we come away from the coffee meeting with a verbal agreement to continue, now it’s time to set up a project.
The steps in setting up a new project
The first thing we do is give the project a short name. If there is a business name or domain name already, we’ll use that. Otherwise we’ll use the name of the client (mariagreene, for instance). We use that project name to make:
- An email folder (or Label if we’re using gmail)
- A computer file folder
- A physical file folder
- A bookmarks Tag on del.icio.us, the social bookmarking service
Keeping track of email
When dealing with a small business or organization, we usually use straight-up email. As I already said, we always follow up phone or in-person communication with a summary email (that we try to keep brief and friendly) so that we have records. Everyone has their own method (drag and drop, filter actions…) to keep track of the messages associated with a project, but I use a combination of search and manually dragging things to folders on my Mac.
Just Magic Design is a team of two (or more if we’re using subcontractors). We always insist on having one contact with the client (with authority to sign off on deliverables) but there may be other stakeholders who want to be kept informed. If there are too many involved to just use CC and Reply All, we’ll set up a Google group or YahooGroup to manage the message list. This has the side benefit of keeping a log of all the messages in one place and giving us a password-secured place to share project files. We’ve considered using a more sophisticated solution like Basecamp but haven’t taken the plunge yet.
Setting up the computer file folders
Now that we have a way to communicate, we’ll set up a top-level project files folder on our computer(s). I like to keep mine all together under my home folder in a JMD Projects folder. For the JustMagicDesign.com website project, for instance, the directory structure looks like this:
/Users/mariagreene
/projects
/justmagicdesign
/wordpress (or drupal, or...)
/assets
/documents
/backup
The actual website files go in the www folder.
The assets folder has original artwork like Photoshop page mock-up(s), logos or other branding elements in their native format (usually from Illustrator), client-supplied or stock photos in their original resolution, and so on.
The documents folder contains the following (copied initially from a folder called “JMD Projects/01 Blank Project”):
- ClientInfo.doc
- ProjectProposal.ppt
- Schedule.xls
- Invoice.xls
- Contract.doc
I’ll talk more about these files in later posts.
Speaking of backups…
It’s a waste of time and money to lose work. To avoid this, I take several precautions:
- I have an external drive (an Apple Time Capsule) and I have my Mac configured to do automatic backups of my hard drive. I can use the Time Machine app to recover files if I have a problem with my laptop or if I accidentally delete something.
- I keep any folders under www that I modify (like the site’s theme files) in a version control system (Git in my case). This keeps me from losing work I’ve done if I want to undo some changes.
- I keep backups of the site’s database (and I try to automate this) so we never lose too much content in the case of a server problem. I also configure the publishing system’s revision system (if it has one) so that we keep different versions of the content and can revert if we mess up or (in some cases where we allow user contributed content) the site gets vandalized.
- If I’m modifying the same files as Diane or another team member (like the CSS files), we’ll either use a shared source control repository or at the very least we’ll make policies about which files each person “owns”.
The backup folder will eventually contain the most recent backup(s) of the site’s database.
When the project is finished, this whole directory structure (from the project directory on down) gets copied onto a CD and given to the client.
The physical file folder
The physical file folder will start off containing the client’s business card, but eventually will have the signed contract and any material provided by the client in the content gathering or competitive analysis phase. (It might also contain the odd menu or other printed item, swatch of fabric, or anything else with some design element that inspired us during the design phase!)
When we’re setting up a new project I use my handy-dandy label maker to print a neat label to go on a manila folder. That folder usually goes to in-person meetings with me (and the printed label makes me look like I’m a paid professional.) In my file cabinet, I have a section of hanging folders for active projects where the folder lives. When the project’s finished, some of the content gets sent back to the client (originals or copies) and the folder gets moved to the archives drawer which I actually bother to keep in alphabetical order.
Del.icio.us bookmarks
We use del.icio.us to share bookmarks of project-related sites on the web using the Network feature. We use the project short name as the Tag. If you haven’t started using del.icio.us you should investigate it since it makes your bookmarks portable to any browser and is fantastic for sharing links and notes about them.
The project is set up — now get it done already!
That’s how we go about setting up a new project. The next step is recording the client contact information in the ClientInfo document, followed by filling in the blank ProjectProposal. It may seem like we’ve done a lot of work before the deal is officially made (the contract is signed and deposit paid) but these steps actually only take about 20 minutes to perform and set us up for rapid progress once we officially kick off the project.