Problem Statement: A fashion design team in need of direction, new talent, and processes that can manoeuvre their strengths and uncover hidden potentials.

What was the main goal?

Client servicing and new business. Cater to the market's growing needs with speed, accuracy, and innovation.

Strategic Solution:

A project mindset with a start-up attitude

- Characterized by multi-functional and malleable technical skills that can adapt sustainably to various needs.

- Agile processes and workflow optimizations.

- And most importantly, a teaching culture.

With the underlying goal of ensuring no lone dependabilities, current talent was slowly audited through evaluated performances to identify the holes to be filled. New talent was acquired through college placements and carefully scouring hundreds of design students. With the incoming of better talent, the team's older members either stepped up or exited. There was no dedicated category designer. No menswear or kidswear designer. The tools used for all categories are the same, so, there wasn't a need for such specialization, and neither was there enough need to justify a full-time niche position. Each person designed all categories depending on the work pipeline, availability, and some strengths. This created a very divergent mindset focused on applying skills to cater to specific client asks instead of personal preferences and assumed strengths. 

After a few healthy rotations, the talent had settled. Each new member that joined only complimented the workflows. New skills were identified quickly, and appropriate training and support enabled them to become sustainable in their role with little to no hand-holding. Outsourced tasks were converted to in-house capabilities (such as photography). Pinterest boards were created, and slack notifications were configured. For the first time in 3 years, the team was a fully functional design team that understood briefs, held meetings, delivered content and designs, and financially contributed to the bottom line and logo wins. Not only this, the team grew to be an essential first step to most new pitch presentations and meetings. 

The 7 strategies that built a successful sustainable, and efficient design team:

1. Having a project mindset instead of an endless 9-5 culture: A project mindset creates a clear work pipeline, with clear ownerships, a start, and an end date. This gives the team a clear picture of the effectiveness of the work done with an established channel for feedback for future learning. 

2. No bottleneck designers: Designers that were niche to one category or only willing to work on one category alone were not a fit for this team. Having dedicated niche designers was not cost-effective for a B2B setting, where the supplier is well-versed across categories. Instead, they were guided to retail. In this team, with guidance, each designer was successfully able to design not just one but multiple categories, including homes and accessories. This constantly challenged the designers and allowed them to apply the same skills across different products and aesthetics. 

3. Processes over people: Workflows were discussed, and many rounds of improvements were made. Tools were introduced that ensured easy and instant access to all team members without compromising security. No information was exclusive to anyone, which opened up the floor for easy handovers and transferrable duties. Uniform formats and content consistency in delivery were established and automated.

4. Communication done right: Slack was established, and channels for specific projects and ongoing R&D. Notifications were configured for instant pops of progress and updates on status. All communication guidelines were clearly downloaded, and digitalising all approvals quickened the process and saved print time and paper. (Two birds, one stone)

5. Track & Report: Agile tools did the task of tracking and reporting the various processes, such as Kaizens, IPRs, Lead tracking, and design + product development conversions. This ensured summaries of quarterly performances and real data to back up the team's contributions to the overall company performance.

6. Ensuring healthy feedback loops: Establishing communication with the clients and buyers, following up, and asking for feedback gave the team positive encouragement and a clear learning curve, which contributed to the many conversions that led to the figures you see at the top of the page. 

 "Your goal shouldn't be to buy players. Your goal should be to buy wins. In order buy wins, you need to buy runs."

-Peter Brand, Moneyball.