Design vendor program
With an in-house marketing brand design team inundated by various design requests spanning sales materials, event booths, and digital ads, there arose a critical need to streamline processes and allocate resources more efficiently. Recognizing the importance of focusing internal efforts on higher ROI projects, I initiated the Design Vendor Program. This program aimed to offload less creative yet essential design tasks to cost-effective vendor design providers, allowing our in-house designers to concentrate on strategic initiatives such as website enhancements and campaign development.
Establishing a robust framework, I cultivated a productive partnership with an offshore agency and assembled a bench of onshore freelancers. Through comprehensive training on style guidelines and expectations, we ensured alignment and consistency across all design outputs. Acting as a project manager, I coordinated the workflow and facilitated seamless collaboration between internal stakeholders and external vendors. Continuous improvement efforts were made to refine processes and strengthen working relationships, resulting in enhanced operational efficiencies and cost savings.
The Design Vendor Program facilitated the creation of trade show booths for key events like RSA, AWS re:Invent, and BlackHat USA. By leveraging a combination of turn-key and custom designs, the program ensured the appropriate application of brand visuals and messaging, enhancing Fastly's presence at these events while optimizing cost-effectiveness.
To streamline the creation of various PDF documents such as white papers, solutions briefs, and industry reports, we began with robust templates and optimized the production process for generating new PDFs efficiently.
Implemented a Figma digital ad generator in-house, capable of producing 21 different sizes and aspect ratios from a master component. This tool streamlined copy changes across all ads, allowing modifications to be as simple as editing the text on the master. Design vendors were trained to use this tool, enabling efficient production of ads with various iterations, including A/B headlines, effectively meeting the needs of the marketing team.
The design team faced a multitude of slide deck requests, ranging from conference talks to sales presentations, each requiring precise branding, clean design, and professionalism. Some decks, comprising 50-100 slides, posed a significant workload for the internal team, compounded by last-minute content submissions from high-level stakeholders. Leveraging the vendor program, I trained external vendors to efficiently manage these demands, alleviating the team's burden and ensuring timely delivery of high-quality slide decks.
The implementation of the Design Vendor Program yielded significant cost savings by redirecting design production work to external vendors, enabling our in-house designers to focus on priority initiatives. Notably, the average vendor cost per project decreased from $2,186 to $241 while maintaining high-quality standards and expedited delivery times. By building a diverse pool of design production vendors, freelancers, and premium agencies, we ensured sufficient capacity and consistently delivered high-quality outcomes. Effective management of third-party relationships ensured clear communication, quality control, and timely project delivery, further enhancing operational effectiveness and maximizing the program's impact.