10 Strategies to Deal Scope Creep in creative Design projects

Welcome to this Design for Change. Thank you for staying tuning in with me. We are discussing lot of pain points in this particular season and with respect to all the designers, real time problems has been addressed here. Today we are going to address a very important part called Design Scope crep. What is mean by crep? Crep is actually expansion of something beyond its limit or maybe getting deformed over time. Okay, it's a definitely a materials terminology but let's come to design scope. Let's come to a design project scope. Okay, what does mean by design scope or Design scope is Project scope is really expanding beyond whatever is expected. Many designers and industries and design studios really face this problem. What if the customer expectation is different and how to really tackle this and and what is the overall scope crep and issues happening? This podcast is going to address you 10 different pain points and a solution strategy to overcome this. Take a lot of notes. This is going to really flip your way in which you do the project. Okay, when it comes to scope crep, it has been a very big issue with lot of projects. I'll tell you for what is the reasons. Okay, the very first reason is unclear project objectives. Lack of a very clear objective that will lead to a constant changes in the project. Right. How you can deal with this is begin with a detailed project brief, ensure all the stakeholders are aligned on the goals. Lot of times people really don't do this. Even management also doesn't take big interest towards it because it takes some considerable efforts and people are little bit lazy to do it. Sometimes people are not aware to do this. That's the two major issues. So you need to get clarity on this. Once you are doing this step then you will have a very clear objective. The unclear project objectives will not become a very big crep problem for your design scope of your project. The second is inadequate research and discovery. See, incomplete research will lead to a lot of foreseen changes. If you are not defining the project scope clearly using your research, what happens is at the end of the project, customer will ask you to do even more exploration asking you to move one more discovery phase to uncover some potential issues which is already there. So this could be avoided by investing some time in doing a very thorough primary secondary research. If required, you can do another field study also to ensure and cross check with secondary research. Okay, this is a solution for it. The third important thing is poorly defined, deliverable. Yeah, this is a major, major concern guys. Because lot of times what happens is project management or the project manager who takes this is in A very constant hurry or in a pressure to get more projects, right? So you will be working on a project scope of one or two projects in parallel. So you will be rushed to deliver and submit it over the particular timeline so as to retain the customer. So the deliverables will not be very clearly understood initially. So they'll have a very vague deliverable. This will cause a lot of misunderstanding. The very best way to do this is by having a clear design process at your studio, at your place, at your design project, whatever you're working. You know what guys? If you have the design process, the deliverables will be very clear. If the deliverables is clear, then the understanding for the customer will also be clear and the timeline will also be accepted. If you ask eight weeks or 10 weeks or even more than that, because they know what the deliverable. If you give a vague commitment, we'll deliver the product in next month. That's not the way, right? Product might require a lot of prototype testing, initial assessment and you will have to do a usability engineering test and you will have to go to the field and test it. Delivering is not the. That's a vague deliverable, right? So you need to be very specific. We are giving the tested Pre sample with 10 users by next month and 30th. See, now it becomes very clear. So you have to only test 10 samples. That's a pre sample which is like a prototype or something mock up and you can deliver it. It's as simple as that. So that's why it's very important to define that deliverable. Fourth is limited stakeholder involvement. See, a lot of times initially only main one or two people or project managers will make the project goals clear. What happens is rest of the team, which is 90% of the people, will be totally misaligned. That is why regularly we need to involve them in the meetings, discussions and decision making calls so that this problem is avoided. Okay, so involvement of multiple stakeholders at every point of time in the project. Fifth is very important thing which is called effective communication. Ineffective communication. I have to say, when it comes to communication, if you're not really understanding the importance of communicating it to different teams or project managers or your client or your customer about what is really happening, what is the missing gap, what is the way forward and how it could be improved or what are the progress that you are making, Definitely it will have a big impact. If you are meeting client only at 2 weeks ones or 3 weeks ones or in a very longer duration. That's not going to help you anyway, if your project is very crucial and complex, meeting regularly like once in a day or twice in a week would be an effective way to do and bridge this gap. This will lead to lot of gaps. Holding this will lead to lot of understandings clear and it will make our communication very robust. Ensure all team members are also on the same page. 6th is undefined project scope. See, this is where the big problem happens. Project scope continuously changes over time. People have defined project for eight weeks, six weeks. I'll tell you in real time case study. Okay. In my office there was a project we defined for six months, six weeks. Okay? But ideally speaking, when we did the project, it took a lot of time initially. The brief itself is not very clear from the customer. We will have to understand and even clarify the brief to the customer. Hey, is this a real problem what you're trying to solve? Then we have a better solution for you. You know what, because of the effective communication, we told to the customer, we got two more weeks extra because we can deliver a great output. They were really happy that we found out the real problem and earlier customer was not knowing that. So that is why you need to understand. You need to define the scope clearly and work on the reality and then show the potential alternations of it. Then what happens? Customer will definitely accept your timeline or your budget or anything this happened. I am telling you the real time story, right? So it is definitely possible because customer at the end of the day he expects a great quality product. If you're able to do it and show that potential benefit, definitely timelines will be extended and definitely budget will also be extended. Even you can convince your management for the same issue. So that's the point. The seventh is lack of change management procedure. Nobody has a Windchill management system or SAP to track record the changes in your software or in your project management tools like SAP or Windchill. Windchill is a project management tool. SAP is a. SAP is a data collection and real time running tool. So you can use both of this information to collect information of your project, your product or your prototype, your samples. Where it is moving and how is the changes happening. Let's say version 1 change, version 2 change version 3 change of a product, you will have a clearer track of it or else what happens is your customer will come and ask, hey, I need this project to be done for this version. Hey, I need the project Scope will exacerbate. I mean exacerbates in a more extensive way. That's what is called a scope crep. A lot of people have this problem. So implement a very formal change management procedure like for version one to evaluate them and get it modified then and there. Then and only this could be managed well. Eighth is unrealistic timelines, right? So don't be hard on that rushed timelines to get the customer very happy. If you deliver a poor output, your customer will leave you forever. Think about that cost and then think about before you make a timeline. Because that's where project management people also make a very big mistake in setting a realistic timeline. They will not do it. They will try to crush the team, they will try to crush the management resources or they will try to understand, okay, we will cover up this customer. We will give a better faster output. But the quality and the real time efforts, whatever we are discussing will not be coming in picture. The ninth important thing is client expectation management. Very very vital thing. If you don't manage your client expectation, there will be a very big problem in scope expansion. Definitely if I am a customer, I will also ask for more things at the end of the day. But whatever has been agreed, whatever has been delivered, whatever has been signed as a deliverable for that budget and that timeline should be met. If that is getting expanded, then we will take an additional resource, additional budget, additional timeline. Normally customer will not understand this. Customer will try to. Hey, you try to give this. Hey, you try to give this. This is a very poor management of a project manager not with the customer. As a customer even I will also expect some more extra things only because I'm getting it done right within that budget so I can convince my management in that way. But as a project management, project management manager who is drawing the timelines in the resource, you need to definitely manage that client expectation clearly then you will have a very transparent communication with them. Okay, the 10th is insufficient prototype and testing. See lot of times because of the timeline rush, people don't test their samples, they don't test the prototype. This can lead to disaster changes in your end goal of your customer to meet. Or even the customer will get a poor feedback or the customer will not like your product. So incorporate certain timelines for testing out your prototype phases in a very effective way. These are all the 10 different challenges and the strategies to do. Additionally, I'll tell you guys, if you do documentation properly, you can definitely have a very good project scope clearly done for your things. So those are five steps. Whatever I'm telling you now is very important for making sure how you can define the project scope crep properly so that the creep doesn't happen at the end. You need to have a very good proper documentation to make sure the timelines, the project scope and the changes very clearly. And you need to prioritize your activities. Lot of people do not do this and they give a very very failure attempt to it. And you know what? Definitely the project scope will expand and it will blot and due to non prioritization of the major activities, lot of times people will have a big nightmare at the end of the project. Delivery people do have this problem, so you need to prioritize that. Third is team alignment. Definitely communicate to your team transparently and then have a very clarity so that everybody is aligned with the project's vision, mission and goal of a customer. Absence of continuous valuation. This is a very big issue and you can have very good evaluation continuously done weekly, twice or every day, once and then resistant to scope changes first. This is a very important thing. If you are really resistant, this is what we can deliver. Beyond this we can't do. Then the customer will also rely on accordingly. Your management will also look to you very superbly. The trust will be built carefully and the expectation will be managed properly. This is a big way to avoid your scope crepe. Guys. See the five important things. What I last told you is important. Inadequate documentation. You need to make sure you have to document the things properly. You need to prioritize your features options in a sequential way. You have to align your team. You have to continuously evaluate and you need to resist to scope changes. Then and only you will have a better clear defined project scope. Guys. Okay, so there are effective communications which a manager can do for managing the scope cup in a better way. Having a very clear defined communication project from the outset. Regularly update them with the stakeholders, establish a very formal communication and a meeting forum and encourage them to have a very open and transparent communication. Actively get feedbacks, make a system to get feedbacks, articulate the consequences if changes are made and use some visual aids, presentation method, mock up to enhance those communication and document everything and hold a regular accountability for that. If you're able to do this guys, you can overcome all the challenges whatever I told you in scope script management like unclear project objectives, inadequate research and discovery, poorly defined deliverables, limited scope, ineffective communication, undefined project scope, lack of change management, unrealistic timeline, client expectation management and insufficient prototyping testing these all problems could be solved in one go and you will deliver a 100 hundred times better project within a proper time and proper budget. Having more referrals and projects from your same customer because we have did this in our projects also, and we got a lot of projects lined up because of the way in which we manage it. Again, I'm telling you, this is not about the technical design, it's about the way in which you manage that matters. Okay? So reflect on this podcast. Thank you so much. Take care. All the best. Bye bye. Let's see in another podcast and subscribe me for for further episodes. If you find this as useful and give me best star rating in Spotify and Apple. And additionally, if you need my mentorship support, do hit me@dfcdesignforchangemail.com I'll be happy to help you in my mentorship program if you're serious. Okay, thank you so much guys. Take care. All the best. Bye bye.