The Power of The Design Roadmap

The Design Roadmap System is the tool I created for busy designers who want to get their process and their calendar organized.  I'm getting back to basics in this 5 part blog series to highlight each module of the Design Roadmap Course and explain how they can radically improve your business.  This week I’ll be focusing on Module 2: The Design Roadmap.

The Design Roadmap is the heart of the Design Roadmap System, and the first thing I created that started to transform my business. 

What is a Design Roadmap?

Quite simply, a Design Roadmap is a plan for each of your design projects.  It tells you what you are going to do on the project, when you are going to do it, and how much it’s going to cost.   It’s a simple document that can be used for internal planning in your business.  You can also share it with your clients and contractors so everyone knows exactly what to expect on the project.  

 Why do this?

Take control of your time

If you’re feeling out of control with your time and like you end each day wondering what you actually accomplished, you’re not alone.  But there’s a simple fix for this: learning how to plan your projects.  When you have each of your projects planned out, you and your team can show up each week knowing exactly what to expect, and what needs to get done to keep everything on track.  Things in your business will start to run like clockwork.  

 Look like a pro to your clients (because you are!)

There are a few things that every client wants to know about their project:

• What are we going to do?
• How long is it going to take?
• How much will it cost?

I got tired of  not having easy answers for these questions, so I created the Design Roadmap to answer all of them in one simple document that I can share with my clients.  

 It’s simple- with a design roadmap in place for each of your projects, you can easily answer each of these questions for your clients before they even ask them.  

You know what that means?  You look like a pro.  You know what else that means?  They see you as being in charge and follow your lead in the process.  They relax and trust you to take care of their project.  That means instead of getting stressed and worried emails from your clients asking about what’s happening next or where you’re at on fees, you are free to do your work on your own timeline, with your own process.  It’s a wonderful way to work!

 These are just a couple of the many reasons to learn how to plan out your projects from start to finish with Design Roadmaps.  

How I figured it out

The first project I created a design roadmap for was a whole-house dream project for me - the largest project I had gotten to date. 

I knew if I didn’t figure out a plan, I was going to get behind and botch the whole thing.  I hired a coach to help me stay on track with my time, and the first thing she asked me to do was plan out the project from start to finish. 

Argh!  This seemed impossible, especially since I had never done a project that large, but I was just terrified enough of failure to listen to her and do what she said! 

I listed out everything I’d need to do to get the project done from start to finish.  

But I didn’t stop there… I thought about those three questions I listed above -  the ones I knew the client would want to know.  

What were we going to do, how long was it going to take, and how much was it going to cost?  

I knew if my project plan was going to be effective, it needed to include all three of those things, and it needed to be in a format that I could share with my clients so I would be held accountable to actually follow through.  

So what I came up with was a simple word document that listed out what we were going to do each week with all of our milestones and meetings, as well as estimated fees for everything.  

I called it a Design Roadmap, because I knew it needed to be a living document that would evolve and change as things progressed and changed on the project. 

I shared it with my clients, and guess what?  It gave me a plan to follow each week.  We got everything done on time, and the process ran smoothly.  

It felt like a tremendous achievement to have my largest project to date run more smoothly than any other project I had ever done - almost like magic.  I wanted that feeling on every project, so I started making Design Roadmaps for all of my projects after that!  

How it’s done

A Design Roadmap isn’t rocket science, but there are a few things you can put in place that will make the process much easier.  

First - create your typical process.

You don’t want to be in the position of reinventing the wheel with each new project you get, trying to decide what you’ll do to get the work done.  That would be exhausting. 

Instead, make it easy on yourself and begin with creating a typical design process.  There’s a whole module on this in my Design Roadmap Course, and I also teach a workshop called “The Power of Process” to help you do this.  

 With a standard design process in place, you have a template to work off of each time you need to create a Design Roadmap for one of your new projects.  It makes planning all of your projects quick and easy. 

Keep your Process the Same

A good process doesn’t change with different types of projects.  Designing a bathroom or a whole house?  A fireplace facade or a Kitchen and Primary Suite?  While these projects may seem wildly different, you’ll still follow the same process with each of them.  You're still going to measure, draw as-builts, present a design, refine the design and create construction documents.  

The only thing that’s going to change is the amount of time it all takes, so the timeframe will get compressed or expanded depending on the scale of the project.  Some meetings may be combined for a smaller project, or separated out for a larger scope.  When you realize this, planning out your projects is so quick and easy.  You don’t feel like you’re reinventing the wheel with each new project.   

The Design Roadmap is truly a magical tool for me, one that allows my projects to run like clockwork and frees up my time and energy for bigger things.  

My business completely changed when I started using it because I was finally organized.  

That was when I hired staff, and started doing more challenging and exciting projects because I finally had a system in place to get the work done in an organized and timely manner.  

It doesn’t seem like a simple little document like the Design Roadmap should be able to do all these things, but it really does.  

Ready to find out for yourself?  

 CLICK HERE to schedule a free discovery call with me to find out the best way for you to get started with the Design Roadmap system.  

 I have DIY and full-service options to meet you where you are and get you everything you need to set up and implement this powerful system in your own business. 

 I want you to let go of stress and be the designer you always wanted to be, if you could just stop chasing your tail every day!  Let’s do this!