Agile project management approach in Interior Design

Agile project management methodology is the path to a world where creativity and project management not only coexist harmoniously but produce stunning results.

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Post 1. “Agile in Interior Design, Dealing With Large Projects” series. The series answers the question of how to automate and scale the interior design process without loss of creativity.

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Agile approaches to project management feature continuous involvement of the customer throughout the product development cycle. Although agile has its roots in software and IT, Agile adoption is growing and expanding in a wide range of industries.

PMI

In the world of interior design, creating stunning spaces is a labor of love and talent. Something that we usually do not associate with the standardized approach to work process or organized workflow. However, in most of the cases behind the brilliance of captivating spices lays a strong project structure. Especially if we are talking about large complex commercial or public space interior design projects. So how is it possible to maintain this delicate balance between boundless creativity and rigid project constraints like a budget, project timeline, official regulations, safety requirements, and customers’ requirements to name a few? Having over ten years of experience running a turn-key interior design studio, I can say that the Agile project management approach let our interior design team find this balance.

There are no right or wrong approaches to organizing a creative work process.

I want to share our experience of working in the Agile framework in the series of posts, in a hope it might be helpful for other creative teams walking the same path. In this post, I am talking about using Agile practices in developing Interior Design Projects or IDP. By IDP I mean the set of documents that are necessary for successful interior design project implementation. IDP Implementation is a different story and I plan to talk about it in the following posts. For now, let’s get back to the IDP development stage. Here are some Agile practices we incorporated in our work to optimize creative effort.

1. Dividing a project into well-defined tasks and milestones / Backlog Preparation Below is an outline of milestones. Our team sticks to these milestones regardless of the nature of the design projects, while specific tasks vary depending on the specific project. Milestones can be compared with the Epics.

• Collecting Information: Gathering information about the space under design and clarifying the scope of work.

• Identifying Style: Working closely with clients to identify their preferred style and aesthetic preferences.

• Identifying Stakeholders: Creating a list of organizations, companies, and individuals that working on this project in parallel with our team (architectural company, structural engineering company, mechanical engineering company, customer’s operational team, marketing agency, suppliers, etc.)

• Dividing projects into specific areas under design: Commercial or public spaces are often large open spaces. It is essential to split these spaces into smaller areas based on function or other criteria suitable fo the project.

• Creating design concept: Set of documents for one selected area under design that includes floor plans, ceiling plans, elevations, initial material selection, inspirational pictures, etc. This set of drawings allows us to convey a design idea, discuss design direction with the customer, and make corrections in the early stages of the project (minimize rework).

• Creating 3D Images of the design concept: Photo realistic images of the design concept for the designated area.

• Creating preliminary technical drawings: Technical drawings for all areas based on the approved design concept and ongoing consultations with the customer and other project participants.

• Creating 3D images: 3D images for all areas under design, based on the preliminary technical drawings.

• Creating technical drawings: Implementing corrections after 3D Concept approval. Preparing detailed technical drawings for estimation, construction, and manufacturing of custom-made items.

• Creating Specifications: Specifying material and interior design items ensuring their alignment with the design concept and technical drawings.

• Creating a Budget: A comprehensive budget, based on specifications and initial budget requirements.

Each of the listed milestones contains its own list of tasks. As you imagine the list of tasks for the project can be pretty long:). After creating the list of tasks (or WBS) and defining the time for their compilation (based on our previous experience and assumptions) we have a clear road map for the project. Each task can be considered as a story. That allows the team to come up with a realistic timeline and see dependencies and bottlenecks in advance.

2. Daily 15-minute team meetings / Daily standups Every day at 9:15 am the team gathers together and every member answers three questions:

• What did I complete yesterday

• What do I plan to complete today

• What are my problems (risks, obstacles, etc..)

That's it. No problem-solving in these meetings, just simple answers to three questions. The project manager takes notes and later update the Kanban board in Trello and organizes work based on takeaways from meeting and project schedule.

3. Weekly working meetings with the customer / Demonstrations or Reviews

A short 30-minute meeting is held every Friday morning. Present project manager, customer representative, and sometimes other key stakeholders. Project updates are combined with short demonstrations of the progress of the project. For example, showing material board or layout. It does not matter if the material board is not finished yet or the layout is just halfway completed, we are showing it every Friday. From my experience, it might be challenging to convince the team to show the customer unpolished work, but that discomfort goes away once the team sees the advantages of such an approach.

I see three main benefits in such an approach: 1. Customer can give corrections in the early stages. That allows us to avoid rework and saves time and money.

2. Regular communication with the customer forms trust and improves relationships. That in its own turn strengthens mutual understanding and leads to increased team productivity.

3. Regular demonstrations give the project a rhythm.

4. Weekly performance review / Retrospectives

A short 30-minute team meeting that we held every Friday evening. During this meeting, we reflect on our collective performance, discussing what worked well, what presented challenges, and what we could do to improve our work process.

Conclusion:

In the competitive world of interior design, effective project management is the key to success. The Agile framework, with its emphasis on daily stand-ups, incremental delivery, and transparency through Kanban boards and regular demonstrations, has transformed our approach to Interior Design Projects.

The agile approach proved to be a very pragmatic approach focused on reducing rework and minimizing the amount of work done while maximizing the work outcome. Agile has the power to streamline workflow, improve client satisfaction, and elevate design outcomes. In a world where creativity and project management coexist, Agile is the bridge that leads to success.

I will be happy to hear your opinion. Please share your thoughts in the comments below.