Proactively Manage Your Design Budget
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The document discusses the importance of utilizing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for tracking design spending and managing marketing budgets effectively. It emphasizes the need for real-time insights into costs related to design revisions, project durations, and overall spending trends to facilitate informed decision-making. It also provides guidance on implementing KPI tracking systems within design teams to improve processes and budget planning.
Proactively Manage Your Design Budget
- 1. Title Text Where Have All the Dollars Gone? Utilizing KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to track your design spend phototype.com
- 2. “That’s what it costs” For years, the time it took for a designer to develop the big idea was very hard to challenge. Design often took as long as needed, with rounds of revisions adding up quickly. Marketers were often left feeling reactive vs. proactive as costs escalated. It felt like no one was in control. But those days are gone. phototype.com
- 3. “What am I paying for?” Today, Marketing is being asked to manage budgets more closely than ever. The demands of less expensive, better and faster have made their way into design. Delivering the big idea may still take longer and cost a little more, but finding out late in the game causes an unwanted ripple effect. phototype.com
- 4. The truth is, every “what if” and each additional color study takes time – and time is money. phototype.com “Why so much?”
- 5. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) track your spend in near real-time, so you… • Know where you are relative to budget, at any given point in the project • See overarching trends by department, brand or activity • Get an objective overview of your process and identify areas for future improvements phototype.com
- 6. Create an Executive Dashboard of all your KPIs phototype.com See, at a glance, an overview of all your customized reports, manage your spend at a high level, or “click” to evaluate specific details
- 7. phototype.com Review overall category spend Drill down to individual custom reports Compare spend to see trends
- 8. phototype.com Customize reports to view month, year or any date range needed Review data by custom date ranges
- 9. phototype.com Isolate costs based on activities such as design, production art, separations or print materials Create spending reports Review and share customizable charting for best analysis and comparison
- 10. phototype.com Identify which categories are generating the most rework Track costly revisions at a high level Review rounds of project revisions
- 11. phototype.com Drill down to see revision costs at a brand level Get an in-depth view of revision costs
- 12. phototype.com Get easy to read details about who is requesting changes See who is requesting revisions
- 13. phototype.com See what’s driving the change requests and how frequently they are occurring Review why they are making revisions
- 14. phototype.com Look deeper and see the number of changes within the scope of the design brief, as well as how many were out of scope Understand revisions and budget needs
- 15. KPIs are a valuable tool to help you... • Make informed process improvements by focusing on areas causing delays or increasing costs • Plan yearly budgets • Have an accurate idea of the cost and time associated with getting an idea to market • Make high-level business decisions while you have time to affect change phototype.com
- 16. How to get started… • First, meet with your design teams and see how they’re recording project information: estimates, budgets, allocated hours, revision requests, etc. If they are using any form of database for order entry, you’re on your way. • Next, determine how to track and publish the information, creating KPIs that are actionable and produce effective results. This will require some type of business reporting software. • We’ve developed our own system, Phototype BizIQ™, but several business intelligence software solutions are commercially available. phototype.com
- 17. What to track • Work with your design teams to determine what to track; they have a unique perspective on your business and may suggest metrics you wouldn’t have considered. • Remember to keep the metrics actionable – for example, tracking the number of times the color blue is used may not be an actionable metric. • It’s as important to track the reasons for a change as it is to track the number of changes. If you are tracking design brief revisions, establish criteria for the reason behind the revision. • Lastly, be honest. When tracking revisions, incorrectly attributing the reason for the change will produce false data and make it difficult to make real process improvements. phototype.com
- 18. Sample metrics... Many of our clients find it useful to track: • Total number of projects by category or sector • Number of projects by brand • Types of projects by brand or category • Project duration, time budgeted versus actual • Budget versus actual spend (by brand and/or project) • Design brief revisions (scope creep) • Revision requests and costs • Reasons for revision requests phototype.com
- 19. We’d be happy to share specific information with you! Where Have All the Dollars Gone? was written by thought leaders: Keith Beckelheimer, Director of Brand Strategy at gravity (a subsidiary of Phototype) Chuck Rovito, Vice President of Creative Services at gravity (a subsidiary of Phototype) Want to know more about KPI technology? phototype.com