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Get a seat at the table and build the design career you want. This podcast is for designers looking to break in, level up, and take control of their careers—whether you're freelancing, climbing the corporate ladder, or just trying to get noticed. Every two weeks, we dive into career fundamentals, design best practices, and the hottest topics in the design community.
I don't want you to miss the amount of the the budget for pencils probably went down. Let's see. Switched from
Nick:Oh, yeah. Exactly. Like, didn't even know
Tyler:to a digital solution. So pencil I don't know if the KPI that'd be actually funny actually to do pencils saved per form completed. Yeah. What's the what's the price of a pencil and extrapolate that down the line?
Nick:Yeah. I mean, it sounds silly, but I what I'm already thinking, what I'm seeing in front of me is a case study where you just have a very cool visual of a stack of pencils. You know, mean, that's that's an excellent way to have a recruiter smile while reading your
Tyler:we're officially live.
Nick:We're officially live. Exactly. I mean, this is just an experiment.
Tyler:Interesting. So Yeah. So we've gone around two of them. So there's make money, save money. I'm very curious.
Tyler:What is the the third the third one on the list?
Nick:Yeah. Third one is we're funny enough, we're going away from money, but we're also going to stay with money, and the third one is to save time, which is perhaps bringing us closer to the big changes we're seeing in today's world with AI, you and all the impact that it's making, you know, because doing things faster means, again, you know, like, you can do more. You know? It's it's I think it's it's somewhat closely related to what you just said about having people focus on the right things because the silly things are not relevant anymore. Well, in this case, it's you being able to do the silly things faster.
Tyler:Mhmm.
Nick:Means there's more time left over to to focus on the non silly things. In practice, thinking about a few of my projects, it's about replacing a paper form with a digital form. You know, the the very, very first project that I did fresh out of school in 2015 was for a construction company. If let's say you're a a crane operator. You know, you're you're you you wear these very big, clunky, like, protective constructor gloves, you know, big fingers because of it, and then you you drop something.
Nick:You know, something breaks, and you have to fill in a form to get a replacement, you know, for a lamp or a tool or a helmet or or something you need on the job. You you get to get off your crane, lose the gloves, and then you're you're sweaty and you've you want to keep working, then you have to fill in a paper form. You have to bring it to someone. They have to understand your handwriting. They have to put it in a computer, and, you know, I can keep going and going and going, and this is a a real life example.
Nick:It's really it really happened. It takes forever, and it's it's just annoying. You know? The the user, in this case, you know, the guy filling out the paper form, just wants to have that replacement tool so they can continue their work. You know?
Nick:It's very annoying. And then the the back office employee has to read, you know, handwritten notes full of mud and and scratches and all that stuff. You know, it's because it's from a construction site. Like, there's going to be dirt on it. You know, it's just annoying.
Nick:They don't nobody here is a winner. Nobody wants to do it. They all want it to be just, you know, I want to just continue my work or I want to not have to deal with stacks of paper that get lost. Doing that digitally in an easy way is just way faster. You will have your replacement tool faster.
Nick:When you're the back office employee, you have something you can read. It's less annoying. You're faster. So happy users. And then for the construction company, it means less delay.
Nick:You know? Yeah. There's way less operators or construction workers waiting on a tool to arrive. You know? So being able to say, I designed this app, and because of it, the time to replacement of a broken tool went from three weeks to three days.
Nick:You know? I think that's a very strong case study. And I'm sure you have as, you know, mister ROI, mister adoption, I think you have something specific around how to phrase it into a case study. You know? From three weeks, three days means, I'll let you I'll let you take it from there.
Tyler:No. Exactly. And plus, I don't want you to miss the amount of the the budget for pencils probably went down Let's see. Switched from
Nick:Oh, yeah. Exactly. Like, I didn't even think of it.
Tyler:To a digital solution. Pencil. I don't know if the KPI that'd be actually funny, actually, to do pencils saved per form completed. Yeah. What's price of a pencil and extrapolate that down the line?
Nick:Yeah. I mean, it sounds silly, but I what I'm already thinking, what I'm seeing in front of me is a case study where you just have a very cool visual of a stack of pencils. You know? I mean, that's that's excellent way to have a recruiter smile while reading your case study, and that that puts you on top of the stack of designer resumes for sure. So, anyway, continue, please.
Tyler:Yes. Outside of the amazing hook that would be for your case study
Nick:Yes.
Tyler:I think if you're looking at, like, in in your example, like, time saves, so, like, what calculate the time it takes for someone to manually it's basically a before and after metric. What is the time it takes for someone to manually fill out that form and then add to that, in your example, the time it takes to decipher said terrible handwriting
Nick:Mhmm.
Tyler:And then transcribe it into the next medium, which I imagine is gonna be into their system. So, like, calculate that is the that is the total time it takes to complete the time currently versus your solution of having a a a digital experience first, which imagine, like, for example, it takes a total of per form filled out today, it takes about, like, twenty five to thirty minutes total versus one minute with your solution. So that's time saved. That's like a it's like a 90%, reduction in in time executed. Yep.
Tyler:And then if you wanted to, like, value stack, like, what is the what is the salaries that you save to do that task? So the construction worker get paid gets paid, whatever, $18 an hour. The back office person gets paid $22 an hour. Mhmm. That thirty minute task equates to whatever.
Tyler:Then they do that about, like, 15 times a day. Do the math there. That's the that's the sunken cost. And then you've essentially reduced that cost down to to a minute per task.
Nick:Yeah. You know, the interesting thing that I'm thinking about now after listening to you is that out of the four reasons that we're talking about, it's there's usually a sort sort of a happens, and then b happens. Like, it's a combination of the two. So you're talking about time saved, and saving that time means also that there's money saved. You know?
Nick:That's the second reason. Or in another way, you can also say because of the construction worker having their replacement tools sooner means they can they save time. They can complete a job quicker, meaning that the company can do more jobs in the same period of time making more money. You know? So maybe that's that's the the two like, the the combination there.
Nick:Maybe it's not just one reason. You're thinking out loud. It's always one reason reason.
Tyler:And that's and that's valuable in a case in a case study, like, in the end. Like, you generally wanna lead, like, in your h one or, like, the purpose of your case study is that you hit this metric KPI. But because, like, your point, it bleeds into the rest, like, you'd ideally, as, like, a as a designer, wanna have three like, two to three or four KPIs as, like, here's the value to the business, but you're leading with that one. But because it they oftentimes bleed into Yeah. One another, you have this value wall of, like, here's my impact.
Tyler:I've hit this I have time saved, save money, make money, etcetera. So it's not just the one.
Nick:Yeah. I mean, that makes sense. So just to make it very practical, if you were going to write a case study, I always start with one paragraph as a role I did thing with the results being results. That results usually revolves around one of those four reasons, but it doesn't mean that you cannot mention any of the other reasons. It's just to make it clear and not overwhelming.
Nick:You know, you just highlight one thing in your h one and in your intro Yep. Just to make it easier to understand.
Tyler:Yeah. Exactly. So, again, like, just to add on to what you're saying, it's like you're we this case study is around we save the money. We save this business x amount of dollars. And then as you go through your process, you hit them again with, we didn't just save money.
Tyler:We also made the money. We and then we save time. And then you have now this value stack at the end.
Nick:Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. One of the case studies that I'm going to write at some point is in 2025.
Nick:One of the projects I was involved with, they went from 800,000 ARR to 1,300,000.0 ARR. And, you know, me being a team member there, you know, may means that I'm part of of that success. Yeah. Not the only part, you know, because we're in a team of, like, 10 people, and then we all have impact in the in a different way. But I already have my case study collected from the founder telling you know, writing about how they are very happy with my impact and that it's a clear and obvious impact from start to finish, from big flows until little details.
Nick:So I have those two already, and I'm going to, you know, quite clearly focus on the first reason, the make money reason, you know, from the from the previous episode. Because it went from 800,000 to 1,300,000.0. You know? It's it's a very clear improvement. And then the case study will just be built upon, you know, before after visuals.
Nick:Like, here's the onboarding flow, you know, 2024. Here's the onboarding flow end of 2025. And it's different in these key areas because of these key reasons, and we've seen this and this happen. You know? So that's what I would probably do and something I will write about in in due time when I get to it.
Tyler:Yeah. The say the save time, yeah, one is really powerful.
Nick:Mhmm. It's my favorite, basically, out of the the four. I really enjoy these strategic games where where you have city builders and that kind of stuff. And when you can make something happen quite, you know, a little bit quicker, you and you just see your game become better, like, that really motivates me. So, yeah, not sure if you have a favorites.
Nick:I'm not sure if it's even important, but I enjoy the third one.
Tyler:I probably have yeah. I have a favorite one that that is a save time one as well. Like, I jumped on a company, launched one of their product lines from zero to one. K. And it was essentially a time saving thing.
Tyler:So it's basically a a software that allows you to do comparison comparisons in, like, the print worlds. You know, if you're creating packaging or you're creating a label for a particular product, like, you're basically going through iterations of that file. So you're first creating copy for for this ad, and then you're actually doing the visuals for it. This software was basically comparing each iteration and making sure that nothing went missing or finding errors in between. And what we're what we're benchmarking, where we're competing against was actually people manually doing that comparison from, like, one file to the next.
Tyler:So Nice. Imagine people two people sitting down at a desk with their finger going through from the top to the bottom, reciting word for word and making sure that the second iteration matches the text from the first. Mhmm. So in my case study specifically, it was going from some a task that you took a couple hours, maybe half a day depending on, like, the the the document's length. Like, it could be a 40 page document to ten minutes
Nick:Right.
Tyler:Via the software that can just, like it goes, like, upload two files. Let me catch the differences. Here's the output report. Go back. Send it back to the graphic designer.
Tyler:They will fix all the mistakes. The the time saving is is clear. And then to your example, it also bleeds into like, it makes money, well, for the business, but it also saves money for the client.
Nick:Yeah. I I think it's very cool. I I like that we both put in some some real case studies that we're working on or have worked on, you know, to make it even more real life. Really, the end of your sentence really stuck with me the most while I was already thinking about something else to say, but is that all these reasons can be seen from either the business or the user. You you can a business helping a user to save money, make money, or probably help the business do something similar.
Nick:So that's something to keep in mind too, I would say. Like, who who are you like, the reason. Who does it apply to? You know?
Tyler:Yeah. And when you're thinking about, like, those metrics, like, it's good to have, like, that visibility. Like, it can affect the business or the persona or the the the customer that you're like, there's metrics around, like, all of it. You can pick which one has the most impact. So if you've only increased the business a little bit, but the major impact is on the client, you can probably lean into the client's KPIs more because it has it's more shiny, I guess, to the to the hiring manager that Yeah.
Tyler:That's reading your case study.
Nick:Yeah. True. I mean, it's it's it's about the cards you have and and making sure you you play the right one while also remembering that sometimes, you know, what a hiring manager is looking for is someone who can do one of those things. You know, They probably aren't aware of it, but they already know, like, oh, man. We're really struggling with this manual operations thing.
Nick:It's really slowing us down. And then if you have a case study about helping someone make more money because of something shiny, like, sure, your case study is great, but it's not what they are looking for. Doesn't mean you should change your case study. But it's it's just good to be aware that, you know, different hiring managers look for different things, and you cannot be any the thing for everyone. You know, you cannot be the the perfect designer.
Nick:So, you know, strong reason to have more than one case study, I would say. There's one more, which I think is the most challenging one.
Tyler:Drum roll?
Nick:And and drum roll. There we go. Dramatic pause is reduced to to to reduce risk. Okay. And yeah.
Nick:So that makes me think about, you know, a health care, you know, medical type thing or personal data projects right away where you just want to prevent a lawsuit from happening or prevent damage to the brand from happening. You know? But I'm I'm not have anything super specific right now, but I'm I'm sure we'll we'll get to it.
Tyler:Yeah. I have an example. In that same example that I was talking about where the main KPI I've put forward was saving, like, saving time. Part of that, because the the industry or the vertical that we were working was in pharmaceuticals, compliance is a big thing. So Right.
Tyler:Imagine when you're creating packaging for, like, an Advil, Tylenol, like, one of those big brands, what there are compliance checks that are being done. One of the things is is do you have in your label a warning label? Like, are there directions? Are there specific milligrams? Are they in a specific format for the country that you're delivering it to?
Tyler:So part of that was part of not just checking is this version have the same content as this one is does are are all the necessary items included in said
Nick:version? Right.
Tyler:And then what that ladders up to is that if you've been you've probably done it as well, done some packaging design. Like, if your product goes out and is being shipped to your client, at the border, there is a check. They're gonna check your packaging, check your things. Does it have the correct elements within your packaging? If not, they'll hold your product.
Tyler:And that's gonna cost the company in reprints. You'll have to that that batch or that crate is gonna be thrown in the trash, and you'll have to go back again, correct the mistake, reprint, and do it again. Like, that you're that the software that I built mitigates that risk.
Nick:Right. Right. And if if fun thing is that even though I thought this one to be in my gut, like, super obvious, like, yeah, sure. It's to prevent the lawsuits. It was also the most challenging one to make specific for me to have an example.
Nick:But now listening to you, I also think it's perhaps the most powerful one out of the four because it has so much impact. Like, by preventing the errors that you're saying, you are reducing risk. You're also saving time because there's no need for a reprint. You're saving money because you do not have to reprint. You know?
Nick:So time is money. And you're also helping them you know, perhaps this is a bit of a stretch, but you're also helping them make money because the thing they're selling is, you know, in in the the stores quickest. You know? Although that might be a stretch, as I said. So so, yeah, I think it's a really interesting one there.
Nick:The okay. Yeah. So I think it's very interesting, the the that final one, the fourth one. It impacts so much, and it really shows you the power of branding, first of all, like the the good name you want to keep, but also the impacts that regulations and constraints have on anything you you work on, which is perhaps a a full episode of itself, you know, learning to work with constraints. But
Tyler:I think I think I might wanna wedge in one final one, and I think this one will be I think we Drum rolls. We've gone through some really tough drum roll, please.
Nick:Yeah.
Tyler:I think one thing that's I still think is valuable and the differentiator for designers is that design is the brand differentiator. There is a bunch of, like, AI slop in the market.
Nick:Mhmm.
Tyler:Also, what value we bring, like like, first principles, what designers do is design. Having that hard skill really separates your product or service from the market.
Nick:Yeah. Yeah. That's true. I think what we're doing by default, by nature, and that's how we learn is to mimic people. You know, just, you know, anyone listening with a small kid at home just knows how it goes.
Nick:Like, at some point, you just see yourself in your child, and you're like and then you're either happy or sad depending on what it's what it's doing. I think it happens on the job as well. And you just you look up to that famous designer, you know, if it's Johnny I from Apple or or, you know, a a product designer or a UX designer, and you just to learn, I think you you that's a bit of advice you always give. Like, you know, you just copy first and then make it your own. Yep.
Nick:Yep. The downside of it is that you have you know, it it all ends up in the middle somewhere. You know? So, yeah, just a long answer to basically say what you're saying. Like, if you can break from that middle Yes.
Nick:Not not everyone will like you, but there will be people who like you very much and are willing to pay you, you know, above average just to do more of that thing. Yeah. So, yeah, big differentiator for sure.
Tyler:Well, because it also bleeds into the, like, the four points. Like, if how does it make you money? Because because you've you've done a rebrand or you've structured the brand in the correct way, it increases conversion because they have your they like the packaging that you've kind of wrapped the brand in. So that goes from, like, the ad to the landing page to the product itself. It's like your like, that design touch is something that's felt from the customer Yeah.
Tyler:That bleeds into these other KPIs that we're talking about.
Nick:Yeah. Yeah. That's true. So maybe if you're really a big shop designer, maybe one of the reasons to hire you is you. Like, they just want to work with you because of who you are, what you've done before.
Nick:Like, it's almost like you look at, like, some sort of event, like the Oscars or or the Grammys or whatever, and then it's like, oh, that person. He's wear wearing a suit by that designer or a dress by that fashion house or whatever. Like, then the reason is the the famous big name. Although that might be just something for, like, the top 1% or the top 0.1% of designers. Like, I'm not there at all.
Nick:Like, the best thing I get closest to it is word-of-mouth. Like, someone recommends me. You know? But then you still would need to have the case studies to bring home that lead. Yeah.
Tyler:I think that's a good example a good example of that is the designer who did the branding for Lovable. This person has is is no short. He is amazing.
Nick:Yeah.
Tyler:He is now, like, that is his funnel. Like, more more great work gets you more great work.
Nick:Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he does, you know, brand these brand sprints of two weeks. Yep. Right?
Nick:And then only one like, you get full focus from him for two weeks, and then you have a thing. But the fun thing is that you can really see his hand in the design. Like, you can really see if put you everything next to each other, you can really see that he did it for all of them. Yeah. And that's not meant in a bad way.
Nick:It's more like you see his signature. And I think that re really reinforces the thing I just said. Like, if you can go away from the middle Yep. That's going to be really useful for you because people will copy him, and then he has to do something better just because, you know, at some point it gets old. So, yeah, lots of respect for him.
Nick:I think we can all learn from him quite a bit. Well, Shubesh. I forgot his name. I think he's also called Nick. Right?
Tyler:It could be.
Nick:Could be. Anyway, we'll that doesn't matter. Not important. Yeah. So that's that's perhaps the fifth reason, the the the big name being a well known person.
Nick:Yeah. Any any bonus reasons? Anything else? Any sixth one, or should this be more than enough for people to revisit their case studies one more time, the final time?
Tyler:Yeah. I think the last quick thing I'll say, we don't delve into this one, but I think what what gets a another re a really powerful reason, what gets a designer hired today is ownership. And what I mean by that is owning the deliverable from end to end. So not just being a cog in the the the hot potato game, but, like, owning the vision for a feature and then executing it out the door into production and then following up. Not just doing the if you're just doing the UX phase or just doing the UI polish or you're or you're just doing the the strategy, like, doing the end to end.
Tyler:I think that's really powerful.
Nick:Yeah. I think so. Agency. The designer is called Nick Patterson, by the way, because I felt a bit silly for not just leaving all of you hanging and ourself hanging there. That being said, what you just mentioned, I have a new project, someone, and he started complaining to me about the whole design finding a designer process.
Nick:Post online, got 100 plus replies. And then he said to me, literally, you're the fifth designer I'm talking to. Please convince me that you're not like the other four. You know? And then he started complaining about, you know, big words, long answers, claiming a lot, but then while working, not being able to do what you say.
Nick:Like, I'm going to work on this today, and then not getting a reply back two day until two days later, like that kind of stuff. I felt like that relates to what you're saying. Like, if you say you do something, do it. You know, have that agency do the thing a to z, like, follow through and, you know, that that little bit of extra drive is really helpful. And I'm not sure if it's something you can put in your case studies, but it could be a reason to hire you if you're that type of person.
Tyler:Yeah. Maybe not a case study item, but a really powerful one, like, doing what you say and delivering it when you say you're gonna deliver it.
Nick:Your
Tyler:beliefs and bounds, like, maybe you're at the top 10% just doing those that one thing.
Nick:Yeah. I think so. I think so. One thing to mention in the end is that, you know, lots of input here. Right?
Nick:Lots of reasons to rethink your case study. And if you're like, well, I have rewritten my case study now, but I'm stuck. You know, we did a help episode a while back. You know? Let us know.
Nick:More than happy to do another one of those episodes. By the time this video goes out, hopefully, we have our form, a landing page ready for people to submit their questions and that kind of stuff. At least, it's going to give me a kick on my behind to make that happen before this this video launches. So it's
Tyler:not done. Reach out to Nick personally.
Nick:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Yes.
Nick:Please do. Plea all of you do. So we're helping, you know I'm helping myself and then helping you, so this is a deadline I'm putting on myself. But the message is we're here to help. I think the design community could use a bit more of that than with all the the fighting that sometimes happens.
Nick:More on that later, I guess. Alright.
Tyler:That was a great episode. So if you like this content and wanna hear more, please like and subscribe.
Nick:Yeah. And if you want to see more, please go to designtablepodcast.com, Spotify, Apple Music, all the big players, and more.