Futureform – based in Örebro, Sweden – is a branding and packaging design studio that only partners with businesses that work for a positive impact on people and the planet. Making it fun and easy for clients has always been an essential part of Futureform’’s strategy.
To make that happen, they have spent a lot of time honing their studio processes and thinking about how to automate the day-to-day work for every project. They use templates for proposals and agreements and always follow up with clients regularly, especially during more extended projects.
They put in place a solid onboarding process because they both noticed that clients often come with the same questions since it is often their first time creating a brand. To help make their clients feel safe and excited, their onboarding includes answers to these questions in structured emails and documents before they arise.
Tools are a big part of their strategy, making it easy to keep the branding process consistent, regardless of which of the team members is leading the project.
Futureform makes it their priority to set up a briefing with the client before starting the creative work. They fill out the brief during the meeting and let the clients make edits afterward. This collaborative way of working has earned them credits with their clients.
Even though their core team is small – Malin is co-founder and project manager, Jeremy is co-founder and lead designer– they often collaborate with web developers and copywriters. Having a document or template to share with them makes those collaborations much easier as well.
Challenge
Many organizations Futureform works with have multiple team members and busy schedules. Before they started using HolaBrief, it took them a lot of time and work to ensure everyone was aligned before starting the design process. Being able to collaborate on a brief and customize the sections to fit the specific client has saved a lot of time and made the whole experience and outcome better for their clients too.
Futureform created their own software to collect files from clients – it’s called getkayla – but they always used to spend a lot of time manually putting together briefs in InDesign or creating Google docs that ended up being confusing for their clients.
“Before we discovered HolaBrief, we used to take copious notes during meetings and spend hours compiling a brief document after the call.”
How HolaBrief helps
Before Futureform started using HolaBrief, they were on parental leave together. Since they had a very limited amount of time to work on their business, they were looking for ways to automate parts of the processes and generally make life easier.
They both love trying out new tools, and it was clear from the start that HolaBrief is flexible and has an excellent interface that clients will intuitively understand how to interact with. It was also a way for them to keep all their briefs together and create templates for similar projects.
Malin, Jeremy, and their team mostly use HolaBrief as part of their brand or website discovery process. They set up a new HolaBrief project before the meeting and share their screen during the call. After the call, they clean up the HolaBrief document and add any last bits they might have missed. Finally, they invite the client to make any edits and approve the brief before they move forward to the next phase of the project.
They have also used HolaBrief to collect text for websites or ask clients to review different design options.
The most significant difference they noticed after using HolaBrief, is the quality of their discovery reports. They used to spend around 5 hours putting reports together for each client. Now, all they have to do is easily share the finished HolaBrief document with their clients after the meeting. Not only is it clearer and feels more assuring for their clients, but they also responded very positively to the collaborative atmosphere during the meetings.
“Being able to set up templates for each client saves us a lot of time and stress preparing for each meeting, making sure we are not missing out on any important question to ask.”
HolaBrief: How easy was it to onboard and integrate HolaBrief into your business?
Malin Lernhammar, co-founder at Futureform: Very easy. Since the overall design language is very similar to other tools our clients use, it makes it easy for them to understand each step of the process.
To make sure our clients know what to expect, we also educate them on our very own collaboration processes during the discovery meeting. Before we discovered HolaBrief, we used to take copious notes during meetings and spend hours compiling a brief document after the call. Now, it is much easier to fill the brief out together during the meetings and let the clients make edits afterward. Clients have even pointed out how nice it is to have that collaborative aspect.
What recommendations do you have for others considering?
Give it a try! You have lots of time in the free trial to give all the functions a go, and see how it can integrate with the rest of your design process before you decide. The support has been great when we have reached out with questions. So know that you are in good hands!
Have you received positive feedback about HolaBrief from your customers?
Yes, loads! Many clients felt excited to try it for their businesses.
How would you rate HolaBrief?
5/5
