HOW ELEKEN WORKS: - Clients Guide / eleken’een) Pa Contents BE Ul RUD Cm oN teil Rere)| stele oli al re Why work with Eleken 7 cy Our processes: project kick-off and what happens next 7 9 eal cecil re Doe ese irae 10 Design from scratch (MVP) 7 3 Dee AC LA oe cero eee i) Scania Uv een nee rc DeSean eeu etc cr) Pee Rr aE eae a esol 20 Derek 1: nee) Lee Rol eat Pz ‘Team structure and roles 7. = we = = we aed Cee ere al 30 i A 0S" een eeeeOTOOEEOOEEE] PMN Suck Senne ene] coal 4 Dealing with urgent situations 7 35 (oe one 7 ioe 38 Neale aoe rt PES mac ale 46 Be a ay BSE elo ee diel oa cd rete tutes ia 7) BC ee eg Ed Setting the relationship between Eleken and our client 7 rd eleken’ Eireeen) Best practices for clients to succed with the Eleken design team 7 _ Dede aoa EES at hers Gee NR ecu er here eae au cues) Soe c) 60 eleken’ EireChapter 1 4 Transparency as the key to effective collaboration At Eleken we know that the successful outcome of each project depends on open communication, real-time feedback exchange, and mutual trust between us and our clients. Therefore, we created this guide to be transparent with those who're looking to work together, communicate and see progress daily. We will give you aclear description of how all processes at Eleken work and cover everything, from our sales process and project proposal to project kick-off and finally design handoff to show howwe help SaaS product companies overcome their design challenges. Eleken team at the New Year company party eleken’ ELEKEN 2021, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.Chapter 2 5 Why work with Eleken Expertise in SaaS design We specialize in designing exclusively for SaaS products. Therefore, we had a chance to gain unique skill sets while working with many great cloud companies around the globe including an innovative precision agriculture company, a data engineering startup, an established 20-year-old marketing service provider on the verge of expansion, and more. Besides, we are super attentive and precise when it comes to choosing a new team member. Each of our designers goes through complex hiring and onboarding processes, so that we make sure they have the appropriate skills to create high-quality SaaS product design from start to finish. - “lye = eleken’ ELEKEN 2021, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.Why work with Eleken 6 Complete dedication to your project While design agencies or freelancers have many projects, we focus on one. You hire a remote product designer who is completely dedicated to your project. They can be responsible for user experience, visual design, UX research, and everything needed to create high-quality design solutions. Eleken designers become a part of your team, like an in-house employee with whom you communicate directly. No middleman between you and the designer We don’t put the project manager in the middle and let our clients and designers talk to each other directly. This way we make sure there won’t be any misunderstandings or miscommunications. On Project Manager ——— DIRECTLY ——» Designer Client eleken’ ELEKEN 2021, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED,Why work with Eleken 7 An individual design approach to each specific project We know that every project we work with is unique and there’s no one-size-fits-all design process that can fit each SaaS product. That’s why we are ready to dig deep into your business and your target audience to understand your product design challenges and develop approaches that best suit your project’s individual needs. Benefit from a team effort We're a team, not freelancers. Every designer collaborates with the team to get feedback and improve. We hold regular meetings where we discuss projects, share both positive and negative experiences, look at each other’s works, brainstorm ideas together, and get each other’s feedback. So, when you hire a designer, you, in fact, get the knowledge of the whole Eleken agency. Go into a project instantly Our hiring cycle is quick. It takes days or even hours from project request to the moment our designers start working on your project. Once you decide to work with us, we select a designer for you, who will start working immediately. eleken’ ELEKEN 2021, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.Why work with Eleken 8 No overheads The responsibility for the overhead cost is on our behalf. This way, our clients save the budget and time, as they don’t have to pay for sick leaves, vacation leaves, or taxes for each employee. Besides, it’s much easier to focus on the project’s progress when. you don’t have to worry about physical space requirements, buying new office equipment, or paying electricity bills. 3 days free trial To reduce your risks and help you make an informed decision on whether you want to cooperate with us, we provide a three-day trial, free of charge to our prospective clients. During this time you can understand if our way of work meets your expectations and make your choice. eleken’ ELEKEN 2021, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.Chapter 3 9 Our work processes: project kick-off, and what happens next How we design SaaS product that provides the value your customers are looking for Project kick-off Project kick-off is the time our designer(s) get acquainted with your product team, stakeholders, and everyone involved in the project to establish common goals, understand the essence of the project and its main purpose, and develop a further plan of work. It usually takes our designers from one to two weeks to dive into a project. During this time period, we communicate with representatives from different departments to gather valuable information, get a clear understanding of what we are working with, identify key requirements, understand everyone’s roles and responsibilities, and ask some additional questions to be able to work on design without the need to make constant clarifications eleken’ ELEKEN 2021, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.Our work processes: project kick-off, and what happens next 10 UI/UX design process We adhere to the iterative design process which means we strive to get closer to the optimal solution by twisting and tuning through the design process, looping back, and repeating at least one or more tasks in our work process. We believe that an iterative working process is the only way to ensure our design will be a precise fit for your vision. To start the first iteration we usually split the whole job into tiny bits. In UI/UX it’s fairly easy — we just iterate screens one by one. Each iteration of the design process goes through three stages: creation, testing, evaluation. p= Testing + Pointing likes & dislikes % Creation + Research + Observation + First iterations > ROW MOCKUP + Gathering feedback > REFLECTION DESIGN PROCESS v Evaluation + Newideas * Gathering feedback > IMPROVED MOCKUP eleken’ ELEKEN 2021, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.Our work processes: project kick-off, and what happens next n e Wetake the first screen and make a guess on how it’s going to work based on our initial observation, research, and requirements we gathered. We shape our guesses into a raw mockup and send it for approval to the client’s Project Manager. That’s the stage of creation. e The Project Manager points us to the ideas they like and those that they don’t. We gather the feedback and leave to reflect on it. That’s the stage of testing. Wecome up with new ideas on how to improve the mockup based on the feedback we got. That’s the evaluation stage, that closes the loop. Where the first iteration ends, the second starts. Thus, iterations work like spiral turns, that bring us closer to the goal with each turn. You review your solution, refine your guess, review the revised solution, and repeat until you get the answer that satisfies everyone. Heration #2 Iteration #3 It was a general overview of the way we work. Still, as each specific project differs in its type, scope, and duration, it requires a different design approach. Therefore, we singled out three main types of design services we often deal with. eleken’ ELEKEN 2021, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.Our work processes: project kick-off, and what happens next 2 Our design services We offer three types of design services depending on the type of engagement: e Design from scratch (MVP’ @ Redesign of existing project e Team extension Below we will describe what the design processes may look like depending on the type of engagement. Eleken Redesign Design from scratch Team extention eleken’ ELEKEN 2021, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.Our work processes: project kick-off, and what happens next B Design from scratch (MVP) We design a minimum workable set of features that allows you to test your SaaS idea on the market. Our designers integrate into your product team and take your idea (or early mockups) to the final stage. Design from scratch Ideation phase changes equi inted resources Discovery Wireframes © Competitor analysis, © Main sereens wireframes «© Productidea validation = © Wireftame clekable prototype for testing Features prioritization © User flows Product discovery Implementation phase changes may reque alot ofretources Visual Solutions Project Support 's Allsereens = Adding new features for the product D © Adging missing © Clickable prototype Rlemerta fortesting ' Supervising execution euiKit We'll have a session with you to discover your product vision and understand how we can strip it down to an MVP. At the end of product discovery, you'll get auser flow - a path a user will take to do a job they hire your product for. eleken’ ELEKEN 2021. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.Our work processes: project kick-off, and what happens next “4 Wireframing When we have a user flow, we start mapping user experience. Wireframes show the structure of each screen in your app. We design low-fidelity wireframes that include content, typefaces, colors, image dimensions, and branding elements, and high-fidelity wireframes that capture the look and feel of your product. User testing With wireframes, you can already test your product with potential users. We'll make all the needed changes to the wireframes based on the feedback you get from your users. Visual design With the screen structure tested and approved, we create a visual design for your product. You can give us some references for inspiration, or we can put together a mood board for you. To have a better understanding of how we design products from scratch read our case study for Hubstash, a startup that helps people navigate savings needed to buy homes. eleken’ ELEKEN 2021, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.Our work processes: project kick-off, and what happens next 6 Redesign of existing project The main goal of our product redesign is to bring more value into your product so it does a better job at serving its users. We redesign to improve user experience, not to update the graphics and make the solution look trendy. Redesign steps UX audit Redesign process * Competitor analysis * Visual solution for all —_ screens of the product * Heuristic analysis, . * Ulkit for new design * Collection user feedback * Design system analysis UX Audit Our UX audit reveals what your users are struggling with. We define how they interact with your product, what works and what doesn't, and how to make it better. Our solutions are based on Jakob Nielsen's 10 usability heuristics and our years of experience designing simple products that users love. eleken’ ELEKEN 2021, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.Our work processes: project kick-off, and what happens next 6 UX Redesign To redesign your app, we look at other similar products and patterns. This analysis helps us discover new design practices that could improve your app's UX. Then, we iterate screen by screen to redesign the whole product. Competitive analysis Unless you're operating in the blue ocean, your product has some alternatives. We analyze the landscape of existing design solutions to figure out what they are missing, what issues users have with your competitor's product, what features people lack, and so on. By learning this information, we get inspiring redesign ideas. Visual language Once the UX redesign is done, we need to make sure your product can move forward with speed. Colors, typefaces, photos, and illustrations are all parts of your product and they need to tie together in a structured and unified way. We fix inconsistencies and build a unified visual language to help you create a scalable product. To have a better understanding of how we conduct product redesign read our case study for|GridleJa client experience platform. eleken’ ELEKEN 2021, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.Our work processes: project kick-off, and what happens next v Team extension We offer a collaboration model that is perfect for running long-term projects. In case you want to grow your product, but don’t have enough designers or your employees lack the needed expertise, our designer or a group of designers joins your product team and starts working on your project immediately. We offer 3 days of work free of charge to let you try before you buy. If your product scales up, we'll help you build a design system to maintain design consistency. Your company Your design team Eleken A.guy with design expertise your projectneeds To understand how this service may work in practice, take a look at how we helped 'TextMagic| klesign new features for their customer experience platform. eleken’ ELEKEN 2021, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED,Our work processes: project kick-off, and what happens next 8 Additional services Though we pointed out that we provide three main types of design services, there are additional services available for those who came for product design. That is, if you decide to design or redesign your SaaS product with us, we can also help you with designing: See your Financial Future now Landing page design for Pritt, personal financial assistant Responsive website © Landing page Coming soon page © Product Hunt presentation e Pitch deck Social media ads eleken’ ELEKEN 2021, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.Our work processes: project kick-off, and what happens next 9 Design handoff and launch At Eleken, we don't provide software development services, but we make as many iterations and refinings as needed until you’re fully satisfied. As well, our workflow involves collaboration with your developers, we ensure they have all they need to implement the product we've designed. We align our ideas with developers and agree they're feasible within the given time and budget. Once the launch is complete, our time-based retainer pricing modeljallows you to continue working with Eleken. This relationship lets us continue working on features that may have arisen during the project, or provide ongoing support to you and your team. eleken’ ELEKEN 2021, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.Our work processes: project kick-off, and what happens next 20 Design thinking and Agile methodologies As we've already mentioned, Eleken uses an iterative design process. And iterations underlie design thinking, as well as Agile project management methodology. Therefore, ‘we can state that Eleken’s team consists of Agile designers and design thinkers focused on creating products that users love. Design thinking facilitates an offbeat, outside-the-box approach to innovation, and serves as an effective way to define the problem. In its turn, Agile helps us provide more flexibility and responsiveness to market changes than traditional project management techniques and helps to solve the problem in the most efficient way Possible. We adopted and incorporated these methodologies to ensure our clients receive the best possible outcomes and below we will describe what you can expect when implementing them. Additionally, we will provide you with the terminology we frequently use. Best outcomes - — — ~ N N Ns ie Build things right eleken’ ELEKEN 2021. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.Our work processes: project kick-off, and what happens next 2 Agile Agile is a framework that focuses on iteration, flexibility, and adaptation to feedback. Instead of designing a perfect plan and executing it flawlessly, we make new decisions as the development goes and learn along the way. Agile helps us to break down big projects into manageable chunks of work with the goal of delivering quick results. While being more human-centered than older methodologies, Agile relies on values and principles stated in the Agile Manifesto which are close to our company values. Here are basic Agile principles from the manifesto: Individuals and interactions over processes and tools. © Working software over comprehensive documentation. Customer collaboration over contract negotiation. © Responding to change over following a plan. Iteration Iteration Iteration Iteration Discover Discover W Ideaton Discover Z Ideaton ae 2 Discover z Ideaton i 6 Creation ae & Ideaton & Creation oo ie Creation => Review —> TIME eleken’ ELEKEN 2021, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.Our work processes: project kick-off, and what happens next 22 Design thinking Design thinking is a process that entails empathy and creativity in order to generate innovative solutions for complex problems, while also focusing on customer needs. User research plays a big role in uncovering insights about user needs (problems) and ensuring that their experience with the product is delightful. This is achieved through multiple cycles of prototyping. a ~ Zz : . oe ra ws, & we a Empathise (=) Ideate Prototype 4) UNDERSTAND EXPLORE MATERIALIZE The design thinking process consists of five phases: Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, Test. Each following phase goes from the previous one, and it's important to strictly follow the order. During the whole design thinking process, we are listening to users’ feedback and implementing changes to the solution based on the feedback. This creative method lets us ask the right questions and reveal the core of the problem we are trying to solve. eleken’ ELEKEN 2021, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.Our work processes: project kick-off, and what happens next 23 Important terminology EV AT) ry — TOCA LIES ait: In the following short glossary, we have brought together a collection of terms used in design thinking and agile methodologies that can help you better understand Eleken’s designers. A/Btest is a method that involves showing two versions of a product to users in order to compare them and see which one performs better. It allows you to confirm hypotheses for making potential improvements in comparison with the original version and see what works better for your audience based on statistical performance analysis. A/B testing can also be called split testing. © Backlog is a scope of work to be completed. The Agile Product Backlog is a list of priority features. © Buyer persona is an archetypal character that represents different user segments that might use a product or service ina similar way. eleken’ ELEKEN 2021, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED,Our work processes: project kick-off, and what happens next 24 e Competitive audit is a research method that involves analyzing and comparing competitors’ products (their features, target audience, and such.) to understand the industry trends, and opportunities to improve your product. © Customer Journey Map (CJM) is a visualized experience of the client using the product that takes into account thoughts, emotions, and goals. The map is drawn from the customer’s point of view and looks like a graph with points of the client’s interaction with the product. CJM reflects the customer journey to the product, identifies problem areas, and advises on how to increase conversion and customer loyalty. © Define is the second stage of the design thinking process, which requires stating your users' needs and problems. Empathize is the first stage of the design thinking process which requires researching your users' needs. © Focus Group/User Interview is a group of potential users of your product that is formed to get feedback from them. Participants express their opinion on prototypes, tasks, and strategies chosen to create a product. © Heuristics is a set of established principles used in design to ensure your product/website is usable and provide an easy and quick testing regime to identify issues and possible solutions. Heuristics evaluation is a method in which a designer (or another expert) analyses the product and compares it toa list of design principles (known as heuristics) to define where the software/website fails to follow those principles. eleken’ ELEKEN 2021, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.Our work processes: project kick-off, and what happens next 25 Human-centered design is an approach that focuses on solving design issues by placing users at the center of the design process and identifying their needs, pain points, goals, and behavior to create a product that effectively solves users’ problems. Iterate is a repetition of a process with the goal to achieve the desired result. Each repetition of the process is also called an iteration. In design thinking it refers to the cycles of prototyping, testing, and revision. © Iterative design process is a series of steps that you repeat, tweaking and improving your product with each new cycle (prototyping, testing, revision). ‘The goal of iteration is to get closer to the optimal solution with each repetition. © Minimum viable product (MVP) refers to the basic set of functions, with which we can launch a product to get started. Products are often launched as MVPs to quickly release and collect valuable user feedback. © Mockup isa static representation of a product. You cannot click on it or interact with it. In essence, they represent a picture of what the final product will look like. © Prototype (1) is the fourth stage of the design thinking process that requires start creating solutions for your users’ problems. A prototype (2) is a detailed representation of the final product that simulates the interaction between the user and the interface. The interactions must be accurately modeled and have significant similarities to the final experience. It allows users to assess the basic functions of the product and product owners to test the viability of their business idea. eleken’ ELEKEN 2021, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.Our work processes: project kick-off, and what happens next 26 Lowfidelity prototyping is a way to quickly turn a design concept into tangible and testable artifacts. Low fidelity prototypes allow a team to visualize their ideas and gather feedback. e High-fidelity prototype is a prototype that looks very close to the final product; ithas a detailed representation of the future product’s interface and functionality. © Sprint (or iteration) is a specified period of time, within which an assignment must be completed. A sprint can last anywhere from one to three weeks depending on the business. In design, a sprint is a unique five-day process of testing ideas and solving big problems by prototyping and testing ideas with clients. e Testis the fifth stage of the design thinking process which requires trying out the solution you created to solve your users! problems. © Usability testing is performed with end-users. It shows how the product matches the expectations of the target audience, identifies problem areas in the interface, and makes it possible to look at the product through the eyes of users. In the process of usability testing, the user performs typical tasks with the product in the lead testing mode. © User flow is the order of actions that a user performs on site or application. User flow helps you understand whether all processes in the product have a logical order. The main task is to show the process of user interaction with the product. eleken’ ELEKEN 2021, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.Our work processes: project kick-off, and what happens next 7 e User stories are a way of describing the requirements for the system that is under development formulated as one or more sentences in the user's everyday or business language. The text of the story should explain what the user is doing, what they feel, and what kind of result they want to achieve. UXresearch is the starting point for any project. UX research helps to understand users: their behavior, goals, needs, and motivation. It also shows how people navigate the site, where they have problems, and how they feel from interacting with the product. © Wireframe is a low fidelity design image clearly showing the main content group, information structure, and basic visualization of the interaction between the interface and the user. eleken’ ELEKEN 2021, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.Chapter 4 28 Remote work at Eleken We are a design agency that has been working remotely since 2015 Team structure and roles Eleken is not a typical design team with roles common for most UI/UX design agencies. The main characteristic that differentiates us from common design agencies is that we don’t have project managers, our designers will communicate directly with you. Here are the roles in our team: CEO e Ul Teamlead © Head of Design © UXTeamlead Head of Sales e Product designers Ilya Dmitruk Maksym Chervynskyi Mari Churkina Founder & CEO Head of Design Head of Sales stEleken Darina Silchenko Alex Kostiuchenko UTeamiead UxTeamiead eleken’ ELEKEN 2021, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.Remote work at Eleken 29 Head of Design The Head of Design's main duties is to supervise and mentor designers, fully accompany newcomers throughout their onboarding, provide feedback, and give advice if designers face some challenges. Head of Sales The Head of Sales oversees the agency-client relationship. As well, she serves as the contact person for clients that want to provide any kind of feedback/apply some changes related to their cooperation with Eleken. Ul and UX Team Leads The Ul and UX Team Leads are responsible for providing our product designers with support and advice on UI/UX standards, helping them cope with visual and usability challenges. Thus, our clients can be sure that each decision our team member makes is professional and effective. Product designers Product designers at Eleken are independent individuals (as we don't have product managers) and are all dedicated to their specific projects, where they are responsible for user experience, visual design, UX research, and everything needed to create high-quality design solutions. eleken’ ELEKEN 2021, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.Remote work at Eleken 30 Our hiring process First of all, it’s important to state once again that all of our designers are in-house designers. And hiring at Eleken is a lengthy process. It usually takes four-five months from the moment the designer applies for a job and until they start working on real projects. We are super attentive and precise when it comes to choosing anew team member and put a lot of effort into finding and educating great SaaS design specialists. When our recruter updates job positions eleken’ ELEKEN 2021, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.Remote work at Eleken 3 Hiring at Eleken consists of three levels: © Portfolio evaluation. We create a job post and people send their CVs and portfolios. © Test task. If we consider certain candidates suitable for our position we send them a test task. When analyzing the test task, we mainly pay attention to the applicants’ ability to create logical design decisions while adhering to major design principles. Interview. Finally, we invite the candidate to the interview which we can divide into three blocks: personal background and motivation to work in this industry, logical questions on basic understanding of the essence of the design, and finally, communication skills in English. The third block is especially important for us, as we want to make sure our designers will be able to clearly explain to our clients each step/idea/decision they made. After we make our choice based on the interview results, the onboarding stage begins. ‘Onboarding Interview Test task Portfolio evaluation HIRING PROCESS Job post TIME eleken’ ELEKEN 2021, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.Remote work at Eleken 32 Each newcomer goes through a three-month boot camp where they have to design a product (an imaginary one) from scratch. They undergo all stages of the design process including brainstorming, competitive analysis, user research, wireframing and visual design for each screen until we get the final result. During the whole onboarding, our design lead monitors the process: he constantly communicates with the designer, discusses each step, provides feedback, points out their strengths and weaknesses, shows the right direction for further development, and makes sure they understand what makes a good SaaS product. Only after the design lead approves the candidate, they can work on real projects. It takes much time and resources to get a new employee for our company, but this way we are confident our clients get access to the top design talents and receive only high-quality service. eleken’ ELEKEN 2021, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.Remote work at Eleken 33 Team management and coordination As it was already stated, designers at Eleken are independent and when you hire them they become a part of your team, like an in-house employee with whom you communicate directly. We believe that when you let your designers make decisions and take responsibility on their own, they grow professionally quicker and are more likely to come up with unique design decisions. Therefore, for the most part, Eleken’s designers don't need thorough management from our side. There are two main cases when our design leads supervise and coordinate designers: © New member onboarding. When a new person comes to Eleken they receive full attention from our design lead. © On-demand. When designers feel they need some help, they can address Eleken’s Ul and UX design leads anytime and receive full support, advice, and m @ eae S safas mentorship. eleken’ ELEKEN 2021, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.Remote work at Eleken 34 How we distribute designers among projects As we’ve already mentioned, we have a harsh selection process and a lengthy onboarding period, during which each of our designers is supervised and mentored by Eleken’s Head of Design. He pays special attention to the newcomer’s strengths and weaknesses to be able to properly distribute designers among projects in the future. This way Eleken’s UI/UX designers receive all the needed knowledge to cope witha variety of design challenges, and we ensure that our clients will get a highly qualified specialist with a proper skill set for their specific project. © With the help of acomplex and thorough onboarding process, we make sure that each designer at Eleken is ready to work on real projects and has all the necessary skills to create designs for products at different life cycle stages. We distribute designers among projects, taking into account your specific case and the designers’ personal strengths and talents. © Incase you have any comments regarding the work of the designer, you can contact the account manager anytime to discuss the issue and find a proper solution. eleken’ ELEKEN 2021, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.Remote work at Eleken 35 Dealing with urgent situations We strive to do our best to make our collaboration smooth and pleasant. Still, we understand that from time to time issues may arise. Here are some common issues that may occur and how to deal with them. With the help of a complex and thorough onboarding process, we make sure that each designer at Eleken is ready to work on real projects and has all the necessary skills to create designs for products at different life cycle stages. We distribute designers among projects, taking into account your specific case and the designers’ personal strengths and talents. Incase you have any comments regarding the work of the designer, you can contact the account manager anytime to discuss the issue and find a proper solution. eleken’ ELEKEN 2021, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED,Remote work at Eleken 36 Changing the scope of a team Eleken’s clients have an opportunity to get more designers or downsize the team if they need. You will be in touch with our account manager throughout the project. When you need to make some changes, it's enough to let them know about it. Changing the designer Designers at Eleken are always open to communication. We listen to other people's feedback and criticism and if any issue arises you can always talk directly to your designer. Still, in case you feel the need to change the designer that was assigned to your project, you have to reach out to the account manager and let them know that your question requires taking immediate actions. We will discuss the situation with you and pick another specialist. Canceling the project You can cancel the project at any time. In order to do that, you have to contact the account manager, but do let us know about it beforehand. If you have a monthly subscription, let us know that you want to cancel your project a month before that. Contact details for all of the above will have been supplied at the point of signing the contract, eleken’ ELEKEN 2021, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.Remote work at Eleken 7 Communication Fora team, it’s vital to have a possibility to share thoughts and opinions, and most importantly get feedback or criticism from others. At Eleken, we hold regular weekly meetings where we discuss projects, share both positive and negative experiences, look at each other’s works, brainstorm ideas together, and get each other’s feedback. This practice allows everyone to stay tuned, create a common source of knowledge, and exchange experiences. As well, we regularly hold workshops and lectures to enhance our product design skills. We work remotely, that’s why it is essential for us to think out ways to deal with any remote communication challenges. Means of communication: we work with any means of communication that is convenient for our clients (more details about the tools we use are in the next section ). © Type of communication: our clients talk directly with the designer, without any middlemen. This way there are no misunderstandings or “Broken Telephone”. © Frequency of calls/meetings: it’s up to our clients how often they want to contact the designer. They can set up weekly meetings to receive general updates about the project’s progress, or have daily standups. eleken’ ELEKEN 2021, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED,Remote work at Eleken 38 Tools In this section, we will provide you with a list of tools we as a fully distributed team use on a regular basis. For your convenience, we grouped them into three categories: © Tools for our internal collaboration © Tools for collaboration with our clients © Tools for collaboration with users » 6? o *€ loon, © ty) eleken’ ELEKEN 2021, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.Remote work at Eleken 39 Tools for our internal collaboration It’s a stack of design team collaboration tools that create a shared workspace among the group working remotely. F Figma, the main design collaboration platform Acloud-based Figma is Eleken’s ultimate tool to design wireframes, mockups, or prototypes and gather feedback on them. © Figmais a cross-platform app. You can open it from any device, whereas Photoshop was available only for Windows users, and Sketch worked only on MacBooks. Figma runs on browsers, so developers or clients don’t need to install an app when they need to view a design. They can simply open a link in any browser they have. e Figma includes all possible extra features a product team may wish for. For instance, it has a tool that allows you to create clickable prototypes. Also, the product offers an easy way to extract code information from a specific page element — it makes Figma one of the best designer-developer collaboration tools. Figmais cloud-based. It means that all the files are held on the web, so they don’t take up space on your computer and allow you to work on them collectively. eleken’ ELEKEN 2021, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.Remote work at Eleken 40 at Slack, for ongoing communication Most of Elekens’ communication beyond specific design edits happens in Slack. This tool works like a faster, better-organized email alternative. Perfect for announcements, team-management issues, and watercooler conversations. Project team discussions also happen in Slack chats. Moreover, you can’t take a three-day pause before replying like it was with emails. Slack communications imply almost instant replies © Slack calls / Zoom / Meet — to discuss something too complex for chats In order not to overwhelm colleagues with a massive Slack message flow, sometimes it’s useful to schedule short voice calls. Slack calls fit well for this. For longer calls or regular team meetings that require screen sharing, we use Zoom. Meet by Google is another tool with very similar features, it also makes video conferencing work for our team. eleken’ ELEKEN 2021, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.Remote work at Eleken 4 W Notion, as a knowledge base We use Notion as a tool for building and structuring the company’s database including project management and employee onboarding information. Eleken asa Service / Product Product Design as the main product of Eleken, designer-client communication, design guidelines, tipstitricks, materials BB Working with client Im Working process B Design quidetines Tools Bi Tostriks B Glossary BB Design handott eleken’ ELEKEN 2021, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.Remote work at Eleken 42 Tools for collaboration with clients To collaborate with clients and their product teams, we use some of the tools we've already mentioned above, as well as some other software. First of all, you can’t go without video conferences — when people hire us as UI/ UX designers, we have to gather requirements, discuss our ideas, and share results. We use Zoom, Slack, Google Meet, or another tool that our client prefers. Figma is also a must-have when you need clients to see wireframes or prototypes. What's new here is presentation tools used to communicate ideas, research results, and designs. ? FigJam, a whiteboard to generate and present ideas Since Figma sits in the center of our design galaxy, using a single ecosystem for both UI design and whiteboarding sounds tempting. Figjam is a cloud whiteboard created by Figma to help people work with mind maps, flowcharts, double diamonds, and other visual frameworks. You can transfer things between Figma and im simply by pressing Ctrl+C or Command+C, and it’s a huge time-saver. What is not a time-saver is Fitjam’s cute stamps, emojis, and a hi-five feature. eleken’ ELEKEN 2021, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.Remote work at Eleken 43 * Loom, for recording and sharing screencasts Loom is a screencast tool that we use to record and share short pitch videos. It’s useful for asynchronous collaboration of remote teams when different time zones or busy schedules don't allow them to set up a meeting. Loom also saves a lot of time as it allows to omit writing long guidelines. Our clients can just record a few minutes with their voice, and they are done. Loom on. Meetings off. Faced chide pita ouroom snseutcounietnes by 20% eleken’ ELEKEN 2021, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED,Remote work at Eleken 44 Tools for collaboration with users Our design duties involve collaborating with people to test our work on different stages, from product concepts to prototypes. We have two favorite tools that help us to facilitate this task. @ Maze, for unmoderated tests Unmoderated tests with Maze require minimal designer involvement. You only need to define study goals, upload your prototypes, write task descriptions, and voila, after some time the results are ready for analysis. A huge advantage of Maze is its integration with Figma. We can import a working prototype directly from the page we designed it. © Ws encndiee GB Build tests as simple, or dynamic, Bo ‘Open Question, as you like a“ frourecetnsore Conitone Coen 8 Mission C9 Lookback, for moderated tests That’s a tool created for tests where a researcher is talking to users, watching their reactions to prototypes, guiding them through the tasks, and getting their feedback in real-time. The process can be recorded and saved so that other team members can explore it later and make timestamped notes. eleken’ ELEKEN 2021, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.Remote work at Eleken 45 Managing timezones Asa fully remote design team, Eleken had a chance to work with clients from San Francisco, London, Montreal, Amsterdam, Singapore, New York, and more. We learned to successfully cooperate with companies of a different scale while working indifferent time zones. We adjust our schedules to our client's time zone as much as we can. Our work hours can extend from 8 am to 8 pm EEST. So, it’s easy for us to find overlaps and run productive team meetings even if our client is located in Australia Trying to figure out time zone for launch meeeting with our client eleken’ ELEKEN 2021. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.Remote work at Eleken 46 Designer rotation Demanding, long-lasting projects may risk burning out UI/UX designers. At Eleken, we strive to avoid this as far as we can, as it may negatively influence both the designer and client's project. One way we solve this issue is by giving the designer an opportunity to rotate off onto other projects. However, our designer is able to ask for rotation only after a six-month period if they feel the need to do so. Before it happens, we will discuss the situation with you and take the necessary steps to mitigate any impact on the speed and quality of the project. eleken’ ELEKEN 2021, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.Remote work at Eleken 47 Sick leaves There may be occasions when people fall ill and are temporarily unable to perform. their duties. In such a case, the designer themselves will contact you/the project manager as soon as possible. Our clients don’t pay overheads, so they won’t receive an invoice for the time period the designer had sick leaves. When you are sick, but you got job to do v eleken’ ELEKEN 2021, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.Remote work at Eleken 48 Vacations and public holidays At Eleken, all team members are free to take public holiday breaks relative to their local provisions. And as you communicate with the designer without any intermediates, they will personally alert you about the upcoming public holidays at least a week beforehand. As for the vacations: the more days off the designer wants to take, the sooner they will warn you. For example, in case they need 1 day free of work, the designer will tell you no later than one week beforehand, if they need a 1-week break you’ Il be notified a month earlier. ‘And again all the overheads are on our part, you don’t have to pay for Eleken designers' days off. When you tell your manager how many vacation days you want eleken’ ELEKEN 2021, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.Chapter 5 49 Pricing model Our pricing model was developed to perfectly fit the needs of SaaS companies Eleken works with the time-based retainer pricing model: clients pay a fixed service fee — equivalent to hours of labor planned per month for the entire project. In other words, you buy a subscription and receive designer(s) working on your project full- time. You only pay for the actual design with no setup, management, or overhead fees. Relate Fixed-Price Monthly fee Time and x number of Materials months needed Average project time Estimated number of hours x15 x hourly rate eed x hourly rate “additional hours overhead costs Paid upfront Paid upfont + additional eleken’ ELEKEN 2021. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.Pricing model 50 Having a designer working on your project full-time for a fixed monthly fee sounds alot like... hiring a full-time designer. What is the point of using agency services then? e Save time. The hiring process is often long, exhausting, and requires a dedicated HR professional. We find you a designer experienced in SaaS and you can start working the next day. e Save money. You don’t have to care about social security, insurance, work benefits, and all that stuff. We take it off your shoulders. e Get the best talent. There’s no way to avoid risk during the hiring process. Eleken minimizes the risk. We only work with professional UI/UX designers who have experience in SaaS. There are no freelancers. Our designers work ina team, share their work and get advice from colleagues. © Insurance for any design-related accidents, like a designer quitting for a better offer, the fuss of finding a new employee, and all the other things that might happen. In case our designer quits, we will onboard another qualified professional from our team and provide a seamless transfer that won't affect your project. Flexibility. You can change the size of the team at any moment without the pain of the firing/hiring process. © Free trial. 3 days of working with our designer on your project. After that, you can decide if you want to proceed or leave. No registration or card required. eleken’ ELEKEN 2021, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.Pricing model 51 How do | know how long the work will take? There is no definite amount of time that is optimal for product design. We can estimate the period of time needed based on our experience, but we strictly follow the pay-per-month rule. Working closely with our designers, you can follow designers’ work constantly. Each iteration is under your control. Our monthly charges are not subject to change. This way, our clients know exactly how much and when they will pay which makes budgeting and accounting super easy for them. Often our design process ends up being faster than fixed-price because the team works directly with designers skipping the intermediation through project managers on the agency side. That way, the communication, and feedback are constant and lead to a more productive workflow. PRODUCTIVITY Client PM Client Designer an Designer TIME — Retainer agency Fixed-price agency eleken’ ELEKEN 2021, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.Pricing model 52 Summing up, working with Eleken you will get: AUI/UX designer working full-time on your project Supervision of the project by the Head of Design © Support and advice for the project from UI Team Lead and UX Team Lead e Assistance from the Head of Sales, who oversees the agency-client relationship eleken’ ELEKEN 2021, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.Chapter 6 53 The sales process From scheduling the first call to the project kick-off Settling the relationship between Eleken and our clients Our sales team's responsibilities are not to get the most profit from sales, but to build a clear and transparent relationship between our agency and the client to facilitate further effective work and the ability to get the most value out of our cooperation. Besides, people from Eleken’s sales department are also your possible account managers. They are those that later coordinate our clients, answer their questions, and help resolve issues that may occur during the collaboration. Submit the form The sales process usually starts with submitting the form. The best way to reach us is by submitting the contact form on our website. We will reply within 24 hours to schedule a call so we could discuss the details of your project. We usually use Zoom as our video conferencing tool, as it’s a scalable, quick, and easy-to-use way to communicate with our clients. If we set up a Zoom call, it’ll be simple and pretty straightforward for you to dial in or join by clicking a URL. However, if you prefer some other video-conferencing software, like Skype or Google Meet, we will gladly contact you by any other means. eleken’ ELEKEN 2021, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.The sales process 54 The first call Our first conversation is aimed at learning more about your product and your needs, giving you enough information about our design agency, and figuring out if we are a good fit. ‘The conversation takes as long as we both need it tobe, but it can also be short if your need is urgent. What you will learn during the first call: Our working model © Our design methodology Ourhiring process © Ourpricing model What we want to learn about you and your project: Howitall started (Why do you want to create this product? What is its main purpose?) e Thecurrent state of the project (Do you have an idea/concept/prototype/test version/existing product that you want to refine?) Your plans (What do you want to achieve with design in the medium term?) e Your team structure (How does your team usually work together?) © Your expectations from the designer/s (What kind of help/assistance do you expect to receive from designers?) ‘To begin with (What is the first thing you want the designer to do for you? UX audit, design of a certain screen, redesign of certain already-existing screens, and so on) e eleken’ ELEKEN 2021, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.The sales process 55 Defining if we are a good fit. ¥ e e e e e e We are nota fit if: You have a short-term project. We can’t design just a landing page or some icons. You have tight deadlines. Working in a rush is not about Eleken. We prefer creating well-thought-out design solutions. You are not SaaS. Eleken focuses on creating a design for software-as-a- service products. You are not willing to participate in the design process. If you don’t have time for daily communication and exchanging feedback and want a designer who will make each decision independently, it’s not our case. You just want to make it pop/a piece of art/cool. We don’t make it pop, we make it work towards your business interests and your users’ needs. We are a good fit if: You are a SaaS company with or without a product on the market. You are looking for long-term engagement because you know that design is a process, not an event. You are looking for somebody to work together, communicate and see progress ona daily basis. You want somebody to understand your business needs and target audience, and make optimal decisions towards the set goals. You want somebody who would make the decisions based on research, data, tests, analytics, and not based on “trust me, I’m professional”. eleken’ ELEKEN 2021, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.The sales process 56 Get a designer and start immediately or get a free trial Once the conversation has reached a point where we are both certain that we can deliver a solution according to your needs, we'll choose you a designer that would be the best fit for your project. Then, we’ll send a proposal and you can start working with them immediately. If you feel like we're a good fit, but would like to see us in action before accepting the proposal, we can provide you with a three-day trial, free of charge. This way you will get to know us better and will be able to make an informed decision on whether you ‘want to go on working together. The trial period starts with a meeting, where you get acquainted with the designers and give them a small task to be completed in three days. As the three days pass, we meet to present the work our designer performed during the trial period. After that, you will have a couple of days to make your final decision about further cooperation with Eleken. Design great stuff If you are satisfied with our 3-day collaboration, we can continue with the subscription. Once we agree on the proposal you'll receive an invoice that is to be paid within three to five days from the subscription start day. Finally, we prepare a more detailed plan on the work approach in terms of product design, timing, and other design tasks you have for us. eleken’ ELEKEN 2021, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.The sales process 87 Designer onboarding When the full-fledged work process begins, the first step is to get your team and our designer(s) together to establish lines of communication, set project roles, and give the team a vision of how the project will move forward. Here’s a list of things we may need from you at the very beginning: Communication with other team members You are definitely not the only person who takes part in the product development process. To better understand the essence of the product, and therefore to be able to create effective designs, it’s vital for our designer to get acquainted with each team member. e Tell the designer what people work on the project and explain their roles © Share the list of all specialists with their emails/ Slack profiles and tell your new employee how/when they can contact them. Make sure the designer gets an appointment with the representative from. each department (stakeholders, other designers, developers, marketers, customer service, and the like) eleken’ ELEKEN 2021, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.The sales process 58 Additional materials that will be useful for your designer from the first days of work The next point in the onboarding process will be sharing all files, documents, and the like related to the project with the designer. Don’t forget about: Access to profiles and team workspaces on different apps Content, images, copy texts © Figma/Sketch files with wireframes/existing design/sketches, and so on e Dataon user feedback e Records of user interviews Access to HotJar, Pendo, or Google Analytics © User journey maps Moodboards © Company’s brandbook P.S. Don’t worry if you don’t use HotJar, don’t have a brandbook, or anything else from the list. Our designers can live without those. The only thing you should understand is that the number of materials/info your designer receives influences the duration of the design process. eleken’ ELEKEN 2021, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.Chapter 7 59 Best practices for clients to succeed with the Eleken design team Recommendations on how to make our collaboration even more productive and successful As we stated at the very beginning of this guide, we at Eleken believe that the successful outcome of each project depends on open communication, in-time feedback exchange, and mutual trust between us and our clients. We workas a design partner that has their own opinion and can give useful advice to make your ideas even better. And for partners, it’s equally important to put the effort from both sides to receive the desired result. Therefore, we singled out three main recommendations that can help us and our client collaborate even more effectively and productively on our way to a high-quality design solution. Mie eleken’ ELEKEN 2021, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.Best practices for clients to succeed with the Eleken design team 60 Have a clear product vision When the client doesn’t understand their product’s purpose, or can’t give clear directions about further designers’ tasks, they should be ready to wait until our designer finds answers to all the questions by themselves. It would take additional time to conduct user research, competitor analysis, develop concepts, present them to you, and iterate on a suitable solution. Overall, it’s not always a problem if you don’t mind waiting and don’t have strict deadlines. To avoid such situations, before our first call, find time to understand what you want to create and why. At this moment it’s enough to take a pen anda paper, get concentrated, and think on the following questions: ‘© What is the main goal/idea of my product? e Whatusers’ problems am I going to solve? © Whyare users supposed to choose exactly my product? The clearer you can communicate your needs and product vision, the quicker our designer will be able to deliver a suitable final result. eleken’ ELEKEN 2021, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.Best practices for clients to succeed with the Eleken design team 6 Be fully involved in the process Unfortunately, designers can’t read minds. If the client doesn’t invest enough time and effort in communication then they risk blocking their designers’ work processes. ‘Therefore, if you decided to work with us make sure you’re ready to communicate with the designer regularly (everyday or every other day), answer any questions, and provide feedback as fast as possible. eleken’ ELEKEN 2021, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.Best practices for clients to succeed with the Eleken design team 62 Provide your designer with access to all team members, and as many materials as possible Each employee that is somehow connected to the product has something useful to tell the UI/UX designer. If, for example, the designer can't reach out to developers they can’t be sure whether the mockups they create are possible to implement technically. Without the ability to talk to a customer support representative, designers can omit some essential user pain points that will later affect the overall user experience. At the same time, it's important to share the access to the materials that allow the designer better understand your product, the number of materials/info your designer receives influences the duration of the design process. Therefore, give the designer a possibility to talk with the representatives of all the departments that work on the project and make sure to share valuable data with them. Feel like doing some great stuff with Eleken? eleken’ ELEKEN 2021, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.Want to learn more about how we work at Eleken? Schedule a call with Eleken > ® eleken’