CASE STUDY
How we investigated, identified pain points and created tools to make everyone's work much easier.
Indicius
2023
Analysis, User Research, UX, Documentation
A rapidly growing design agency
Indicius is a design agency based in Buenos Aires, specializing in creating exceptional branding solutions and digital products. It has a team of approximately 20 people. I was part of this team as an in-house designer during 2 years (2019-2021), and I later continued to collaborate as a consultant for internal projects. This case study details that collaboration.
A rapidly growing design agency
Indicius is a design agency based in Buenos Aires, specializing in creating exceptional branding solutions and digital products. It has a team of approximately 20 people. I was part of this team as an in-house designer during 2 years (2019-2021), and I later continued to collaborate as a consultant for internal projects. This case study details that collaboration.
Some processes were very clear, but many others were a Pandora's box
With high complexity projects, figuring out their definition and briefing was like solving a puzzle. Planning often needed a makeover mid-project, causing some hiccups and slowing the agency down. High customization meant they had more on their plate, less room to scale, and fewer opportunities to reuse their processes and resources. Without any documentation, all the knowledge stayed only with the project members, making continuity and adaptability a bit of a gamble. And without standardization, they were left guessing about deliverables, which could muddy the waters and leave clients less than thrilled.
Why was it a challenge?
01
Some projects did not proceed as planned, resulting in additional costs and strained client relationships. I needed to identify the cause of the discrepancy in expectations between the agency and the clients.
02
The lack of guidelines for certain processes meant that each project was unique. I wanted to understand how these processes were executed, standardize them, and document them accordingly.
03
We wanted to progress fast, making and testing small improvements along the way as quickly as possible.
Mismatched expectations
I promptly identified that the problematic projects stemmed from briefing errors in the early stages, even before the design phase began.
I created a blueprint to accurately identify the primary challenges and pinpoint areas for improvement.
Ensuring full agreement among stakeholders
We first standardized the briefing process to ensure stakeholders share a common understanding. Some prospects had clear needs, such as a website or branding, while others suggested more intricate projects that required validation and understanding before budgeting. To handle these projects, we established a specialized research process utilizing various tools to gain a deeper understanding of the project scope.
We also created a tool to swiftly estimate the requirements of simpler projects. This important step streamlined the project estimation process, making it more efficient and saving considerable time. As a result, we could allocate more resources to other project aspects.
Finally, we enhanced our Kickoff presentations for increased clarity. This helped clients understand the project stages and what they should expect at each stage, along with the necessary feedback. This improvement made the process more interactive and effective.
Deeper understanding customer needs
We refined the strategic phase of website definition by removing some steps and adding complexity to others. We also revamped the library used to build sitemaps, making it more visually clear what each page would entail. This significantly reduced issues in customer relationships.
Lastly, our CMS Websites service posed a significant challenge: building easily manageable systems for customers without compromising design quality. To address this, we interviewed developers to understand limitations and to devise a process that is as straightforward as possible.
New Website Strategy & Structure process
Seeing through the customers' eyes
In this case, I was redesigning processes for agency members, who were my users. As such, I conducted numerous interviews with all team members to propose appropriate solutions. However, I also wanted to consider the perspective of their users, the customers. Therefore, I arranged a series of interviews to identify additional pain points. This led to some interesting insights.
In an effort to create a more streamlined process, I took the initiative to revise and iterate their feedback forms. This allowed us to gather these valuable insights in a consistent manner, ensuring every piece of feedback was given equal attention and consideration. This systematic approach not only simplified our data collection but also facilitated a more comprehensive analysis of the feedback we received.
Delving into the bigger picture
Having the opportunity to step back from daily design tasks and critically examine the processes of an agency was an enriching experience. I highly appreciate the opportunity to engage in meta-design, which involves designing design processes. This task is challenging, yet it tickles my curiosity.
Furthermore, witnessing the significant impact of our proposed low-cost interventions was both surprising and rewarding. I take great pride in establishing scalable solutions specifically tailored for the problem at hand. I learned a lot in this project and it gave me the opportunity to criticize my own ways of designing, which is invaluable.
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I highly recommend working with Maca if what you are looking for is to get a return on your investment based on processes and deliverables that add value. If at the same time you want to experience the benefits of autonomy, enjoy the process, and meet an incredible professional (and better person), then Maca is the one.
Hernan puente · CEO & Founder
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Maca has the ability to combine her intelligence, knowledge, and experience with super organizational power to unravel any problem put in front of her. Her contribution allowed us to visualize certain blind spots and implement processes and improvements aligned with our imminent evolution.
Gini Lustig · Chief Management & Culture
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Collaborating with Maca was key to Indicius's growth, as it allowed us to explore, discover, and delve into our processes. Her analytical ability and business knowledge provided us with implementable and sustainable solutions in the context of our agency.
Milagros Figueroa · design director