New service Rshi is aiming to assist designers in improving their processes and communication with clients.
Rather than providing prescriptive process recommendations, Rshi will instead enable those who use the service to investigate and customise processes used by other designers. It will also generate documents for meetings and timetables.
.net spoke to Rshi’s Virgil Palanciuc (VP) about the service, the problems it’s designed to solve, and when it will be opened up to a wider audience.
.net: Why did you feel the need to create Rshi?
VP: A common characteristic we’ve observed in successful designers is their ability to drive the relationship with the client, establish the right expectations and convince clients to follow the right process. Often, clients cannot articulate the problem they’re hiring designers to solve, but when the designer can get the client to work together with them towards a solution, the relationship works well for both and the results are good. If the designer just executes what they’re told to, the end result is less likely to work out.
.net: What problems does Rshi solve in this area?
VP: The idea behind Rshi is in becoming more successful in how you communicate with a client, and that doesn’t have to take years of trial and error. What we offer is proven roadmaps that got people from A to B, and the tools to start using them right away in the real world with your clients. It’s both a means of tapping into the knowledge and experience of others and presenting your process to the client.
.net: Is there a danger in selecting someone else’s process and hoping it will fit? Where did these processes come from?
VP: We presume if something doesn’t really fit, you’ll make adjustments, and we make it easy for you to do so. As for the initial batch, we have agreements with successful freelance designers and web design agencies to contribute processes.
.net: When are you planning on opening Rshi for public beta/final release?
VP: We’re accepting invite requests now and plan to open an early prototype next month to a limited set of people. This will enable us to see how they react and what needs to be improved. From there, we’ll enlarge the number of customers. The important part for us is to get the initial critical mass of people contributing their process to the community.
