Using Sprint-Based Timelines to Grow Your Freelance Creative Business.
Vol. 026
Why Using Sprint-Based Timelines Will Grow Your Freelance Graphic Design or Creative Business.
“Work expands as to fill the time available for its completion,” so you best be setting shorter timelines.
A quick bite:
The sooner you can wrap your head around producing, learning, and moving on to the next (as opposed to toiling on tiny, minute details) the quicker your creative practice will be a thriving one. Sprint-based timelines have changed the game for Vicarel Studios, and we’re growing quickly because of it!
Continue reading below…
Giving yourself a timeline (even when you don’t have one) can make you better, faster, and more profitable.
Do you feel like you frequently take up until the last second to complete projects? Whether it’s a two day timeline or a two month timeline, you’re sprinting into the finish line at the last second?
I struggled for years to get personal (and client work) done quickly. If I had two months to do a project, it would take me two months to complete — I would somehow find a way to make unnecessary nitpicks, adjustments and readjustments until the last minute.
Why? Because I had the time.
At one point, we had the opportunity to design the branding and visual identity system for a cannabis company in Canada, Garden Variety Marijuana Dispensary.
The scope of work was expansive—it was far more than just a cannabis company logo design. Prior to being given a timeline, I was thinking to myself: “this project will take 3-4 months of full-time work.
The CMO continued to note we had a 4-week turnaround time.
After a more-than-successful execution of this project at 3-4x my normal speed speed, I was blown away by the newfound insight: “work expands as to fill the time available for its completion.” This is also referred to as Parkinson’s Law.
The concept that you will literally work faster by setting a framework that demands a faster output is simple, yet profound.
A process of routinely setting a more sprint-based timeline forces intuitive decision making, reduces over-thinking and perfectionism, and affords the opportunity for more robust output and learning.
A sprint-based timeline forces intuitive decision making.
As a creative individual, you have an innate ability to solve problems with aesthetic solutions...Yes, YOU!
Of course, some projects do need the liberty of research, absorption, and marinating from multiple angles and perspectives. But, we must stop the obsessive, (over)exploration. This over-exploration is rooted in self doubt. Your intuition is stronger and better than you think.
The fact that you’re here reading this says that you’re hungry, driven and passionate; that in itself is indicative of an intentional and intelligent pursuit of knowledge.
When you touch something hot, your innate reaction is to move your hand away.
This innate decision is the right decision. When you’re hired as a graphic designer, logo designer or (insert any and all creative professions here) — your realm of expertise — why wouldn’t your gut reaction or instinct be correct as well? I want to encourage you to leverage your knowledge and confidently lean into your intuitive decision making.
The internet is a black hole of information, resources and inspiration, and you will find congruence from the masses with any thought that you bring to the table.
Your intuition and gut response to things is sometimes the best place to be reacting and creating from. As a creative problem solver, your assignment isn’t to find “the best possible solution” (most people can’t afford this!), most often your assignment is to simply solve the problem in the timeline and with the budget provided by your client.
A sprint-based timeline prevents perfectionism.
The excuse of perfectionism makes my skin crawl. I used to be a prisoner to perfectionism — I was hesitant to put work out on instagram, start blogging, post my case studies, talk about what I do — I was scared to do everything because it wasn’t as perfect as I wanted it to be. I thankfully came to the realization that: nobody actually cares. The only person who cared about perfectionism was myself.
When considering graphic design and other creative fields, the Pareto Principle tells us that 80% of our results come from 20% of the work. I’m slightly skewing this in my favor, but one could reason that this principle tells us that the majority of the success experienced from your creative work comes from an initial sprint (20%) of the work.
I believe that output outweighs perfectionism any day, and Ben Barry, a designer at Facebook, agrees. He notes that “the key to moving ahead is following through.” Get shit done, and learn and adapt on the next “one”...
A sprint-based timeline allows you to learn quicker. You can then apply those findings to your next project moving forward.
Every project you work on is an opportunity to learn and grow from. If it takes you 2 months to complete a project, it’ll take you 2 months to learn that lesson. It’ll take you 2 months until you’ve learned and been able to apply that lesson (which probably makes you faster, more profitable, and better at solving your client’s problems) to your next project.
During this learning period, any additional projects you take on will experience the burden of that lesson you’re in the process of learning.
If you cut that timeline in half, your lesson can be learned and applied sooner thus making your next client even happier than you previously could have.
If you’re spending less time focusing on “perfecting” your work while you’re still a novice (hi, that’s me too — I’m still a novice comparatively speaking) then you can spend more time “learning” through the process of producing and moving forward. Through this approach you’re able to be incrementally better with each new opportunity. Remember the 80/20 rule, and apply your newfound knowledge to the next project.
Before any of you have the opportunity to say “but I don’t know how long xxx project takes me!” I’m gonna yell at you and ask why haven’t you started using Toggl yet?! It’s a free time tracking app, and has been an absolute game charger for me. (There’s also this list of free apps and plugins I use to help manage my design studio and graphic design business.)
There is a threshold when adopting sprint-based timelines. At some point, time is imperative to do proper research or design executions, but I can assure that far less time is needed than you think. Test it, try it, and experiment with it. As always, be sure to document your findings!
Remember: quantity begets quality.
You’ll get better at producing amazing work once you start focusing on creating more work. And, you’ll be able to produce more work if you give yourself some sprint-based timelines. Simple equation: faster = better.
