How to Design for resource constraint projects - 3 Strategies to overcome

Working in a timeline constrained project and resource constrained project and money constrained project, it's very difficult for a product designer or a creative designer to solve the problem or address the exact need of a client. Right. So how do you really overcome that? This podcast is going to give you three strategies on how you can able to overcome that. And that's coming out of my experience. Out of 65 projects, what I did, dealing with multiple cross functions, teams and addressing them, very short timeline projects, addressing a big projects and very rapid kind of a projects where it can be done in hours of time, where we did a group hackathon. So all my experience, I'm going to share you in this podcast. Take a lot of notes. Let's jump in. So having said that, what is really a constraint when you do a project, right? Normally what people tell is timeline constraint. There are other constraints also which is there? Like let's say if you're working in a startup or if you're working in an MNC or MSME or maybe a full style design studio. There are different, different challenges people face. The first is timeline, as everybody says. The second is resources constraints. Sometimes you will have a budget problem, sometimes you'll have no budget for resource, for doing research, for buying some tools and softwares, for conducting an extensive field study where it requires extensive travel, this, that and also sometimes expertise in people is also a big constraint. You won't have much seniors and what you call expertise and skills built in that particular arena. Like let's say if you're taking a project in augmented reality design experiences where there is no expertise in your team. So that's also a constraint and there is no clarity in the management itself. Lot of industries, they really don't know what design can do for them. That's the big problem. That's why senior management will not spend much money and budget and timeline and resource on design teams. It's a very common prominent constraint. So management problem, people, expertise problem, money problem, time problem, knowledge problem. So how do you really overcome that? Okay, so the very first strategy, which is one of the best strategy I would say is competitor benchmarking. Okay, you can make a note of it. It's very, very important. See, if you don't have enough knowledge in your product, if you don't have enough team or maybe enough timeline, you want to really deliver this in few days. The best way to do is go and find out who is your best competitor and just try to make study out of them. Okay? Don't just copy them, just study it, understand it. If they have taken a parameter, if they have given an option, if they have given a interface or if they have given a particular feature, try to understand why they have given and then just copy paste it. Simple. You don't have to think much. You can do a lot of tweaking. You can improvise it, or you can change the color, or you can even modify that for your customer, for your audience, for your Persona and match it out. See, if you take all the products like let's say car or maybe a mobile phone or iPad or a laptop, you can see lot of competitors like the, let's say laptop, Dell, Sony, hp, all the products a little bit similar, right? They have the same kind of a keypad structure, they have a similar mousepad area. Only the mousepad area will difference, like let's say mouse pad technology and everything will be there, but the area will be little different based on the customization they have in order to make the patent, in order to make the design distinctions and in order to make a advantage. So nobody has completely a different kind of a device other than laptop. So it is good to understand competitors because extensive research is needed to find out whether a trackpad is needed for your laptop or not. And what are the technology behind developing this trackpad and what is the optimal size and sensitivity and what you call the material which we can choose to attain the sensors, to attain the touch. It's a big science, guys. It takes years of some company or a firm to only design trackpad. So that's why it's best to understand what competitors have did just copy, paste it. Copy is not like literally taking their entire material dimension, everything, changing it in your own way. Okay, in an industrial term it's very professionally called benchmarking. But ideally speaking we are just copying. But we are trying to understand how it will fit to our context. Okay, so if you are not having any, what do you call if you're having a lot of problems in your project? Like let's say time, money, people, management. Just do a competitive benchmark and do it. It's a very simple, superb strategy. Okay? The second strategy is trust your own intuition first. Do your own research, do it as much as possible, like your own expertise. I'm not saying your team or your everything. Okay, Just consult with your senior design teams. Ask your management, maybe can I consult with my senior design team who are really a potential partners for them. If it is not there, no problem, leave it. Post it in your community about this problem statement and ask them the feedback. Don't Share your company confidential details. Just give an overall framework and a rough dummy project kind of a thing and ask your design community people. That's why it's good to have a community, because your knowledge will definitely expand your creativity will really cross your horizons because a lot of people will come and pour you feedbacks and all. Okay? So it's good to consult with your community so that the collective knowledge will be utilized by you in order to find out what your competitor really wants. Sorry, your client really wants. Your customer really wants. And then you go and fix it and solve it. See, this saves lot of research, extensive study and lot of timeline and everything to include it. Then you can reference your competitors also. Okay? In order to make sure your intuition and everything is good, check with your senior management or maybe your senior design community people and also reference it with your competitor one more time and cross check. Yes, this feature is also there. Let me do it. I. Okay, this feature is like this, modified. Let me do that. So you can able to quickly deliver if you really understand these two first strategies, guys, one is competitor benchmarking and second is your own intuition mixed with the collective knowledge of your community as well as mixing with your competitor judgments. The third important thing is very important, guys. Collect your information from your competitors. Do your intuition, study and everything. And now create a big puzzle out of it. Okay? Create a big storyline out of it. Try to fill the gaps and bridge them and form the entire product feature out of it. Like let's say, I'll give you an example, you wanted to build a. Like, let's say, you wanted to build a table, let's say a physical product, okay? So you don't know what material to choose, you don't know how much height to keep. You don't know nothing. So you're taking five competitors of your market who is in your direct competitor, indirect competitor. Okay? So once you've chosen your competitor, try to understand what is the material they have, try to understand what is the height they have, try to understand who's their target audience and then check whether that audience is also there for you. Then you do one thing directly, go and copy paste the material directly go and copy paste the size what they had and little bit tweak it here and there and then go and research it out and find out is this really fitting ergonomically and comfortably, what is the average size of a table and a chair for a human to really set up? This takes not more than a hour or two to find out this ergonomics information for A designer. Once, if you're clear, then you can start designing some form and everything, right? And then once, if your form looks really good, or maybe you're convinced, you can take it forward for your client approval. Or you can go back to your competitors and study the form language which your customer has. Try to find out the international market, national market, your local market, and what is your customers audience really prefer, which is the best selling table in the entire region, what you're selling, what is the best furniture brand. And try to take their own understanding and tweak it in a different way and do it in your own style for your own market, for your own audience. Okay, you're not copying, you are tweaking, you're benchmarking. Okay. It's called horizontal deployment. They call in even more professional sense. So it's good to understand this mixed approach with your own intuition and then make it as a story. Your story is to make your, what you call your customer sit comfortably in a table, right? In order to make that story happen, what are the elements you need? You need competitor study, you need your own intuition, you need your own puzzle fixing. Like let's say you create the entire story. Okay, my user is going to sit in a table. For that he needs a chair. For that he needs a comfort. Okay, let's say if your audience, your competitor doesn't have any sponge kind of a feature where your table or your chair is really a cut sharp design, you can add that feature because your story is to make your audience comfortable, your customer comfortable. In order to add comfort, you can add cushion, you can add more sponge, you can add more spring, you can add more. See these are all some of the additional elements which you can fill. Definitely your competitors doesn't have, but you can add that. See, you are improvising on top of the existing design which is already proven in the market for years. So by this you are saving huge amount of research. By this you are saving huge amount of time. By this you are saving huge amount of expertise which is there as a R and D in your team in order to develop that knowledge. This is how many companies are able to develop product in very, very short span of time. In months you get a product released, even if additional products, people release it in weeks. So this is the strategy behind this guys. So reflect upon these three points. Competitive study, your own intuition and forming a whole story and making a mix and match approach and then solving the need of a customer. If you're able to do it, you will be able to deliver a project. Even in one week. Even in two weeks. Even in a span of two days, it's possible to deliver it, guys. So think smart. Act smart. That's the big strategy behind delivering a project in an optimal way. Particularly if you're working on a resource constraint project. Okay, so see you in another episode. Take care. Bye bye, guys.