This Business-to-Business (B2B) project was a good showcase of our ability to act as a marketing and web development agency firm, presenting design concepts to pitch corporate client.
Key Skills
Project management
Branding
UI wireframes
My Takeaway
“Being a project manager is to bring out the best synergy of a team.”
Company
Agency pitching "Google" for Holiday Fundraiser event
(1) To prepare and present a business proposal to pitch corporate client “Google” for holding their Christmas Party Fundraiser event.
(2) To prepare 2 design concepts, and develop one into digital and website mock ups, and present to client for final approval.
The Process
We acted like an agency specialized in corporate festive events. The theme is to hold a Christmas Party Fundraiser, with an aim to create positive publicity for the company, facilitate more in-person interaction under the work-from-home/ hybrid working mode.
In this project, we simulated the B2B workflow with following phases:
- Phase 1: Prepare an initial business proposal with scope of work and proposed timeline;
- Phase 2: Develop the brand style guide and 2 design concepts with low-fidelity mock-ups;
- Phase 3: Develop one of the design concepts into high-fidelity mock-ups and wireframes; present to client for approval.
I was the project manager leading a team of 5 talents. My contribution was to lead the discussion of our branding and marketing strategy, organize our project folder with control document, prepare business proposal and presentation deck, constantly communicate with the “client” (in this case our course instructor) regarding his requirements and deliverables, manage job division and disagreement, and manage crisis in phase 3 of the project when there was sudden increase in deliverables requirement.
Phase 1: Project Management
We are a happy team of 6 each with our own special talent and strength. In our first discussion, we quickly divided our roles according to what we are good at, and brainstormed the project theme with an intention to showcase our ability to work in an agency with B2B model.
In our Business Proposal, we have proposed the event details, the event objectives and measurement, the target audience and persona, our scope of work, and a proposed timeline. The proposal was designed with an intent to introduce our agency, stipulate event details and project scope, to secure the project contract from the client. Project details was listed in details to make sure that we are on the same page with the client.
Phase 2: Branding and Marketing Strategy
To maintain brand consistency of the project, we developed a brand style guide with logo, mood board, imagery, color palette, typography.
The major challenge is that the client “Google” already have a vivid and well-recognized color palette. We had to come up with a look and feel that is complementary to Google's brand colors and not overtaking their brand identity. Thanks to our talented designer, we agreed on a color palette based on Google's with less intensity and saturation. In this way, audience would know this is a Google event with a festive feeling.
Apart from the brand style guide, deliverables in this phase also included low-fidelity sketches of 2 design concepts, the “Classic concept” and the “Snowball concept”. Classic concept uses complimentary color palette with a traditional Christmas look and feel; while Snowball concept has a winter, snowy look and feel. For each concept, we had developed 1 Instagram post graphic, 1 Facebook post graphic and 1 digital poster.
Phase 3: Teamwork towards Crisis and Final Presentation
During this phase, luckily we have been constantly speaking to the “client” regarding his deliverables requirement that, we found out there was a sudden increase of one extra set of mock-ups that we needed to deliver. Originally in Phase 2, only 2 social media post and 1 poster was needed for each design concept, but in Phase 3 the client had requested 4 social media posts and 2 posters for the chosen concept.
I could sense the stress and heated up atmosphere in the team, and decided right-away to twist some of the graphic designs used in the not-chosen Snowball concept, and incorporate them into our final deliverables. I communicated with our graphic designer how we can twist the designs, marked comments in the graphics for the team’s easy reference, and marked what graphical assets we would need her to export so that I can rearrange them into new mock-ups. I’m proud that we had a great teamwork and handled crisis quick and well.
The final presentation deck was crafted with an intention to get client’s final approval on the deliverables. The whole design process was reported, with the finalized hi-fidelity social media graphics and digital posters, and the hi-fidelity website wireframes shown in Figma. We had enhanced the details of the event timeline, including the launch of the website, execution of each poster or graphic in each social channel, to boost ticket sales to the max.
Summary
Our course instructor Richard commented that our project is the first B2B project he had ever seen in this program. He was very pleased with our ability to prepare high quality deliverables and pitch the client as if we were already working in an agency. We are highly satisfied with how the project turned out, and glad that our team had a great teamwork and successfully completed this project alongside 4 other projects (I was also the project manager of 3 other projects at the same time).
It moved me in a way that I was very much entrusted by my peer in my project management ability. Teamwork was all about putting people into the right place with their strengths, but also not forgetting that people may want to challenge themselves for new roles. No matter how good the synergy is in a team, it is always possible for disagreement at work. In my opinion, being a project manager is to influence without authority, to serve instead of to command; being prepared that the leader has to do more work than the members, and handle extra admin work such as documentation or human resources that are hidden behind the glamorous design side of our work.
