ChatGPT as Technical Sales

This is a followup of this post.

Me: lets reverse the roles. I will be the Artwork Manager and you will be me. I will start.

Artwork Manager: Hi, thank you for taking the time to meet with me today. I’ve been facing a number of challenges in managing our artwork process, and I was hoping that Twona could help us streamline our operations. Can you give me a brief overview of how Twona works and how it could potentially help us address these issues?

Me: What? I said let’s reverse the roles. I will be the Artwork Manager and you will be me.

ChatGPT: Apologies for the confusion. Please go ahead and start the conversation as the Artwork Manager, and I will respond as the Technical Sales consultant at Twona.

Me: hi, thanks for taking the time to speak with me. I work as an Artwork Manager and I would like to know more about Twona and how it can help my team.Technical Sales Consultant: Hi! It’s my pleasure to speak with you today. Twona is a Cloud SaaS Artwork Management System designed to help organizations streamline their artwork processes. Our solution can help you address a variety of challenges commonly faced in the artwork management field, such as managing workflows and versions, handling approvals and feedback, and tracking KPIs.

Twona’s key features include:

  1. Workflow and Version Management: This allows you to create and manage artwork projects, track progress, and maintain a clear version history.
  2. Approval Management: Streamline the approval process by involving all relevant stakeholders, both internal and external, with configurable parallel or serial approval processes.
  3. Online Proofing: Twona provides a platform for visualizing and comparing artwork versions, enabling easy identification of changes and reducing manual proofing efforts.

Additionally, Twona offers reporting capabilities through a powerful API that can be used to create custom dashboards for KPI tracking.

If you could provide more details on the challenges your team is currently facing, I’d be happy to explain how Twona can specifically address those issues and improve your artwork management process.

Me: Well, one of the key difficulties is that everyone sends me a lot of emails asking me to give them updates on the project, or sending information mid way while the artwork is being designed. So….its a lot of emails.

Technical Sales Consultant: I understand how managing emails can become overwhelming and inefficient. Twona can help you significantly reduce email clutter and improve communication within your team.

By centralizing all project-related information within the Twona platform, you’ll be able to manage and track project updates more efficiently. Team members and stakeholders can access project information, view the project status, and provide feedback or additional information directly within the platform.

With Twona’s task assignment and notification features, you can assign tasks to specific team members, set deadlines, and receive notifications when tasks are completed or when there are updates on the project. This eliminates the need for email-based communication and ensures that everyone has access to the latest information and updates.

Furthermore, Twona’s approval management feature helps to streamline the feedback process by allowing all relevant stakeholders to review, comment, and approve artwork within the platform. This eliminates the need for email-based feedback loops and ensures that all feedback is consolidated in one place.

Overall, Twona will help you to reduce email clutter and improve the efficiency of your artwork management process by centralizing communication and providing a single platform for project updates, feedback, and approvals.

Me (giving feedback on its performance): As Technical Sales, you need to be more proactive and ask more questions towards the end so the conversation can flow and there is a higher chance of closing a deal or getting one step closer to a deal. Please rewrite that last text and follow this general rule: talk less, be precise, ask more questions relevant to the client

Technical Sales Consultant: I can see how managing numerous emails can be overwhelming and inefficient. With Twona, we can help centralize project-related information and streamline communication.

Using Twona, your team can access project updates and provide feedback within the platform. This reduces the need for email-based communication and ensures everyone stays in the loop.

Could you provide more details on how your team currently manages approvals and feedback? This would help me better understand your process and explain how Twona’s features can specifically address your needs.

Me: We do everything via email. When the artwork is ready, I send it to the different people that need to review it. But because the process is a mess, I usually send it one person at a time. This takes a long time and I usually have to chase people because they have not done the review. Once I get all the reviews, I collate all the feedback and send it to the agency so they can create a new version.

Technical Sales Consultant: Thank you for sharing your current process. Twona can definitely help streamline the approval and feedback process, saving you time and reducing the need for chasing down reviews.

With Twona’s approval management feature, you can create approval loops involving all relevant stakeholders at once, rather than sending the artwork individually. The platform will send out notifications to reviewers and provide them with a centralized space to review, comment, and approve the artwork.

Twona will also send automatic reminders to those who haven’t completed their review, reducing the need for you to chase people manually. Once all feedback is collected, the platform consolidates it for you, making it easy to communicate with the agency for creating new versions.

Would you like to see a demonstration of how the approval management feature works in Twona? This can help you better visualize how it could fit into your existing processes and improve your workflow.

Me (giving feedback on its performance): Let’s assume the customer said yes and you demo the product. Proceed to the next question.

Technical Sales Consultant: I’m glad you found the demonstration helpful. Now that you have seen how Twona’s approval management feature works, I’d like to address any other challenges you might be facing in your artwork management process.

Are there any specific pain points or concerns, such as version control, reporting, or collaboration with external partners, that you’d like to discuss? Understanding your unique needs will help me better demonstrate how Twona can be tailored to your requirements and further streamline your operations.

Me: As I said in the beginning, I have to reply to a lot of emails for people asking me for an update. Then at the quarterly review, it is a bit embarrassing not being able to provide metrics on how many jobs or how long it took for them to get done. I also don’t know where to start improving my process, because everything is manual.

Technical Sales Consultant: I understand how important it is to have a clear view of your process and to be able to provide metrics during reviews. Twona can help you not only reduce the email clutter but also track and report key performance indicators (KPIs) for your artwork management process.

  1. Project status updates: Twona offers real-time project status tracking, so team members can easily check the progress of a project within the platform. This reduces the need for update requests via email and keeps everyone informed.
  2. Reporting and KPIs: Twona provides a powerful API that allows you to create customized dashboards for reporting and tracking KPIs. This way, you can have a clear overview of the number of jobs completed, average time taken for each job, and other performance metrics. Having this data at hand will make your quarterly reviews more insightful and help you identify areas for improvement.
  3. Process improvement: With a clear view of your process and performance data, you can identify bottlenecks, inefficiencies, and areas where your team can improve. Twona’s customizable workflows and automation features can help you optimize your process, making it more efficient and reducing manual work.

Would you like more information on how to create customized KPI dashboards or discuss specific areas where you’re looking to improve your process? This can help us identify the best way Twona can be tailored to your needs.

Me: Wow, those are great features indeed. How long would it take for Twona to be implemented for my team?

Technical Sales Consultant: We’re glad you find the features valuable! The implementation timeline for Twona can vary depending on your specific requirements, the complexity of your workflows, and how quickly your team can adapt to the new system. However, our goal is to make the implementation process as smooth and efficient as possible.

Typically, we can have Twona up and running in under a week. We assign a dedicated Customer Success Manager (CSM) to guide you through the onboarding process, assist with gathering relevant data, configure the platform, migrate existing data, and train your team on how to use Twona effectively.

The CSM will work closely with you to ensure the implementation timeline aligns with your needs and resources. They will also provide ongoing support to help you optimize the system and get the most out of Twona’s features.

Is there a specific timeframe you have in mind for implementation, or any concerns about the onboarding process that we can help address?

Me: I would like to present this to management first. Will you be able to share a quote with me?

Technical Sales Consultant: Absolutely! We’d be happy to provide you with a quote tailored to your specific needs. In order to give you the most accurate pricing, we’ll need some more information about your team size, the number of users who will be accessing the platform, and any specific features or customizations you might require.

Once we have this information, we can put together a detailed quote for you to present to management. If you’d like, we can also provide additional materials or join a call with your management team to help present Twona and address any questions or concerns they may have.

Please feel free to share the necessary information, and we’ll get started on preparing a quote for you right away.

Me (giving feedback on its performance): Make it more specific and try to close the call with a specific action point, for instance a specific date for a follow up call.

Technical Sales Consultant: I understand that you’d like to present this to management first. To help you with that, we can provide a tailored quote and any supporting materials you might need for your presentation.

In order to give you the most accurate pricing, please share the following information:

  1. Your team size
  2. The number of users who will be accessing the platform
  3. Any specific features or customizations you might require

Once we have this information, we can prepare a detailed quote and additional materials for you to present to your management team. To ensure we’re available to assist you further, let’s schedule a follow-up call after your presentation to management. How about we pencil in a call for next week on [specific date] at [specific time]? This will give us an opportunity to address any questions, concerns, or feedback that may arise from your management team.

If that date and time work for you, please confirm, and we’ll send you a calendar invite. Also, feel free to share the necessary information for the quote, and we’ll get started on preparing it for you right away.

A demo for ChatGPT

My prompt

You are an Artwork Manager that works for a pharmaceutical company. Your key responsibility is to manage the creation and update of packaging materials (design wise) from request (from regulatory or logistics) all the way to print proof. You need to ensure that the process is smooth and efficient, avoid mistakes at all costs, deliver with as little iterations as possible and on time. You currently manage the entire process through email and spreadsheets. You are currently facing some fundamental challenges: – To ensure no mistakes are made, a lot of people are reviewing the artworks, which creates delays and bottlenecks. – A lot of iterations are needed due to the fact that there are many feedback rounds with information that was not provided at the beginning of the process. – Consecutive versions need to checked manually. – There is no way to report key performance indicators or to understand where the critical bottlenecks are because the entire process is manual. – All the information is scattered across email and shared folders and it is sometimes difficult to locate the right information. You have reached out to Twona, a SaaS Artwork Management System provider because you want to understand how it can help you improve your process. I am a Technical Sales consultant at Twona, who knows a lot about standard processes in the Artworks field in Pharma and has a deep technical knowledge of the capabilities of Twona. Let’s start a conversation that would typically happen during a demo. You can start.

The conversation

Artwork Manager: Hi, thank you for taking the time to meet with me today. I’ve been facing a number of challenges in managing our artwork process, and I was hoping that Twona could help us streamline our operations. Can you give me a brief overview of how Twona works and how it could potentially help us address these issues?

Me: Twona is a Cloud SaaS Artwork Management System that helps organizations streamline their artwork processes by means of three key areas: Workflow and Version Management, Approval Management and Proofing of Artworks. Since it is a web SaaS application, you can use your browser to access all your data from anywhere. Can you perhaps elaborate a bit more on your challenges so we can focus on which parts of the system might be more relevant to you?

Artwork Manager: Sure, let me provide more details on the challenges we’re facing. One of our main issues is the number of people involved in reviewing the artworks, which creates delays and bottlenecks. We also have multiple feedback rounds due to missing information at the beginning of the process, leading to numerous iterations. Additionally, we need to check consecutive versions manually, which is quite time-consuming.

Furthermore, we have no efficient way to report key performance indicators, making it hard to identify critical bottlenecks. Finally, our information is scattered across emails and shared folders, making it difficult to locate the right information when needed.

With these challenges in mind, can you explain how Twona can help us improve our process and overcome these issues?

Me: Thank you for that explanation. Let me try to answer one by one those challenges you are facing. We see frequently across our customers that there are many stakeholders involved in the review and approval process. Twona’s approval functionality allows you to manage the process in an efficient way. It works both with internal and external stakeholders (external stakeholders do not need a license for the system) and it can work both with parallel approval process as well as serial approval processes. So lets say the artwork needs to be reviewed at a certain stage, this is how it would work: You select the artwork version for which you want feedback and/or approval and then include all relevant stakeholders (both internal as part of your team as well as external, for instance CMOs, printers, etc). Twona will then send an email to all stakeholders with a link where they will be able to review, download, comment, upload supporting files and even record a video/voice message. All the relevant information will be collected in one place for you to review, without having to read one single email. To simplify the process, Twona will also notify you when all approvals have been collected. And if someone forgets, Twona will send them a reminder one week after the approval was requested and you can always send them a manual reminder directly from the application. How does that sound?

Artwork Manager: That sounds really helpful! It would definitely help to have a centralized platform for managing approvals and feedback. I’m also interested in how Twona can help with reducing the number of iterations and managing consecutive versions. Can you explain how the system addresses those challenges?

Me: A large number of iterations is typically symptom of a broken process. Twona can help you by streamlining the workflow and making sure everyone is aware of what they have to do. There are a few key bits that are relevant in that process. First of all, Twona does all the version tracking for you. Since we work with Pharmaceutical companies, Twona is very strict and compliant with market standards. Each version is uniquely identified by a number and cannot be deleted. Twona can also help you identify the state of that version: approved, obsolete, rejected by setting specific version states which are configurable and setting automation rules to set those states under specific circumstances, for instance “when all stakeholders have approved, change the state of the version to approved”, or “if a rejection is received, change the state of the version to rejected and move the project back to changes required”. Additionally, and this is not tool related but process related, we always recommend to our customers that a quality check is put in place to ensure that all information related to the creation of the artwork is correct and complete. This helps avoid iterations due to poor brief information. One additional feature that can help there, is the ability to configure brief forms to introduce all relevant information before a project is started, avoiding also the back and forth email process or unnecessary iterations due to faulty information. Does that answer your question?

Artwork Manager: Yes, that definitely answers my question. The version tracking and configurable workflow sound like they will help us minimize iterations and improve efficiency. One remaining concern is the ability to generate reports and track key performance indicators. Can you explain how Twona can help us with that aspect of our process?

Me: That is a great question. Across all our customers, we see very different needs when it comes to reporting. Some want KPIs on time to process, others want KPIs related to workload for their team. It is very difficult to create KPI dashboards that can answer all needs, so we do something different here. We provide a very powerful API that allows customers to create and configure completely customised dashboards for KPI reporting. Because APIs can be used across a multitude of systems, this provides the flexibility to create something completely tailored to your needs. One example is using Zapier, Google Sheets and Google Looker to create powerful dashboards without code. We are always happy to make a dashboard for your needs (this is usually just a couple of hours of work).

Artwork Manager: That’s fantastic! Having a customizable solution for generating reports and tracking KPIs will be really beneficial for us. It seems like Twona could be the solution we’re looking for to address our challenges and improve our artwork management process.

Before we wrap up, I have one last question. How easy is it to implement Twona into our existing processes? What kind of support do you offer during the implementation phase?

Me: That is a difficult question. We always say that we can have Twona up and running in under a week. However, in general the bottleneck is on the customer side given the complexities and number of people involved. The way we approach the onboarding phase is as follows: we assign a Customer Success Manager to you, who will guide you step by step during the onboarding and who will help gather all relevant data related to your workflow, configuration, automations, migration of data, reporting and who will also be responsible for training you team on your new tool. Your CSM will go as fast or as slow as you need depending on your current capabilities and resources.

Artwork Manager: That’s reassuring to know. It’s important for us to have a smooth implementation and a dedicated Customer Success Manager sounds like a great way to ensure that. I appreciate the detailed explanation of how Twona can help us improve our artwork management process. I’ll need to discuss this with my team, and we’ll get back to you with any further questions or to move forward with the implementation. Thank you for your time today!

Me: I have one last question before we close the conversation. What do you think would be the biggest challenge for you to get Twona implemented for your team?

Artwork Manager: I think the biggest challenge for us would be ensuring that our team adapts to the new system quickly and that we can successfully integrate it into our existing processes. Change can sometimes be difficult, and it will be important for us to have a clear communication plan and proper training in place to make the transition as smooth as possible. However, with the dedicated support of a Customer Success Manager, I’m confident that we can overcome these challenges and successfully implement Twona in our artwork management process.

Improving Collaboration between Designers, Artwork Coordinators, and Regulatory Affairs Professionals

Midjourney

In the complex world of product packaging and labeling (Pharma and Food mostly), effective collaboration between designers, artwork coordinators, and regulatory affairs professionals is crucial for ensuring compliance, efficiency, and overall success. With ever-changing regulations, tight budgets and timelines and a large set of very different stakeholders, having a streamlined process that connects everyone is essential. Below you will find some key aspects of how to optimize collaboration centered around the benefits of using an Artwork Management System (AMS) like Twona NeXT.

Establish Clear Communication Channels

One of the main challenges every organisation faces when there is a large number of SKUs and stakeholders involved is maintaining clear and effective communication. To address this, you must establish a clear communication channel for each project, where all stakeholders can share updates, feedback, and relevant information. While tools like Slack or Microsoft Teams can help facilitate these conversations, they are hardly suitable for highly regulated environments due the lack of traceability. Additionally, they tend to be disconnected from the projects themselves, serving only as a platform for discussion. Ensuring a Single Source of Truth is key wile Slack or Teams can be used as secondary channels by means of an integration. This means, for instance, a notification can be sent from your system to Slack when a project reaches a certain milestone.

Define Roles and Responsibilities

It is essential to outline the roles and responsibilities of each team member involved in the packaging workflow. Clearly defining who is responsible for what tasks or step ensures accountability and helps prevent confusion and potential bottlenecks. Create a detailed SOP that outlines each step in the workflow, add your work instructions to facilitate adoption and prevent errors and arrange training for every stakeholder involved in the process.

Implement a Centralized Artwork Management System

Using a centralized AMS like Twonas can significantly improve collaboration between designers, artwork coordinators, and RA. Twonas offers a unique set of features that are tailored to meet the needs of the Pharmaceutical, Food, and Retail Industry, making it a perfect choice for managing your artwork projects.

Some of the unique selling points of Twonas include:

  • Automated Workflows: Twonas streamlines the entire process by automating tasks, reminders, and approvals. This helps to eliminate manual processes and reduce the risk of errors or delays.
  • Real-Time Collaboration: Twonas allows team members to collaborate on projects in real-time, ensuring everyone is always on the same page. This feature is particularly useful for reducing the number of feedback rounds.
  • Version Control: Twonas offers a robust version control system that tracks changes and maintains a complete history of all artwork files. This feature helps to prevent confusion and ensures that everyone is working on the latest version of the project.
  • Integration with Third-Party Tools: Twonas integrates with key applications making it easy to connect your existing workflow and systems.

Continuous Improvement

Finally, always be open to learning and improvement. Regularly review your processes, gather feedback from your team (both internal and external), and identify areas for improvement. Implementing a culture of continuous improvement will help ensure that your team is always working efficiently and effectively.

Want to know more? Then drop us a line and we will be happy to discuss your process needs.

Streamlining Label Design Projects: Leveraging Google Sheets and Twona Integration for Efficient Artwork Coordination

With Midjourney

In today’s fast-paced retail environment, companies specializing in providing products to retailers require efficient solutions to manage the high volume of label design projects. When selling a product, these organizations need to create or adapt and existing label and sometimes even customise it for their clients to include their details and design components. For Artwork Coordinators, streamlining the project management process while maintaining accuracy and efficiency is crucial. A remarkable solution that we have found works well with our customers is the integration of Google Sheets and Twona, our artwork management system, using an API via Zapier – a connector system.

This innovative integration has proven to be a game-changer for many organizations, as it allows them to create 50 or more label design projects in one go. The process is simple: Artwork Coordinators fill in the required details in a Google Sheet, which can be fully customised, and the API connection with Twona automatically creates projects for each entry. This setup provides the best of both worlds – the familiarity and speed of a spreadsheet, combined with the robust tracking capabilities of a project Artwork Management System. Furthermore, the sheet can then be kept updated as the project proceeds, giving teams a great deal of visibility.

The benefits this integration brings to the workflow include:

  1. Familiarity and ease of use: Google Sheets is widely recognized for its user-friendly interface and seamless collaboration capabilities. Teams can effortlessly input project details and requirements into the spreadsheet without any additional training.
  2. Speed and efficiency: By merely filling in a Google Sheet document, companies can create 50 or more projects in one go. This bulk creation feature significantly reduces the time spent on setting up individual projects, leaving more time to focus on other aspects of the work.
  3. Accurate tracking: Twona’s Artwork Management System enables organizations to monitor the progress of each project, from design to completion. With the integration in place, manual data entry and miscommunication among team members are eliminated. Real-time status updates help manage deadlines and ensure project deliverables are met.
  4. Time and cost savings: The integration of Google Sheets and Twona eliminates the need for manual data entry, significantly reducing the time spent on project setup. Consequently, this translates into cost savings, as resources can be allocated more efficiently.
  5. Error prevention: The API connection between Google Sheets and Twona ensures that data is transferred accurately, reducing the risk of errors. This not only saves time but also helps maintain a high level of quality across all projects.

The integration between Google Sheets and Twona via an API through Zapier has been instrumental in optimizing label design projects for some of our clients who manage very large volume of designs with short timelines. By leveraging the familiarity and speed of a spreadsheet along with the tracking capabilities of a project Artwork Management System, organizations can streamline their workflows, save time, and prevent errors. If your organization is looking for ways to improve artwork coordination processes, consider integrating a popular spreadsheet tool with a reliable Artwork Management System – it might just be the game-changer you need.

Connecting your AMS with APIs

In today’s world of tech wonders, companies require robust and efficient systems to manage their workflows, and packaging design for pharmaceutical and food companies is no exception, specially considering the complexity in the process and the number of stakeholders involved. In order to streamline the process of exchanging information during the different steps of the workflow when more than one system is involved, companies can use REST APIs.

What is a REST API?

REST (Representational State Transfer) API is an interface that allow different software applications to communicate with each other over the internet. REST APIs use HTTP requests to send and receive data, making it easier for software applications to exchange information and interact with each other.

One-directional and Two-directional communication

REST APIs can facilitate one-directional or two-directional communication between different software applications. In one-directional communication, data flows only in one direction, for instance sending an approved artwork to an ERP system. In two-directional communication, data flows both ways, allowing for a more robust exchange of information between different software applications, for instance obtaining a Material Number and providing an approval over a packaging material.

Benefits of using REST APIs for packaging design

REST APIs provide several benefits when it comes to packaging design for pharmaceutical and food companies:

  1. Streamlined workflow: REST APIs can facilitate a streamlined workflow by enabling different software applications to share data with each other. This reduces the risk of data corruption by ensuring a single source of truth. It can also reduce the amount of time and effort required to manage the packaging design process.
  2. Increased efficiency: REST APIs can reduce manual data entry and other repetitive tasks. This can lead to faster turnaround times, improved accuracy, and reduced costs. A good example is a Pharma company working with a CMO. Each have their own AMS and both insist in using their own for quality and audit purposes. Without an API connection, data needs to be entered in both systems, usually triggered by email communication, while an API connection can automate the data sharing process reducing in less manual work.
  3. Improved collaboration: REST APIs can facilitate better collaboration between different teams involved in the packaging design process. For example, designers and printers can use different software applications to work on different aspects of the packaging design process, and REST APIs can be used to share data between these applications, making it easier for team members to work together.

Challenges of implementing REST APIs

While REST APIs can provide several benefits, implementing them can also be challenging:

  1. Compatibility issues: Different software applications may use different data formats, which can make it difficult to share data between them. When such compatibility issues arise, the time and effort required to implement a connection tends to grow.
  2. Security concerns: REST APIs can create security risks if not implemented properly. Companies must ensure that their APIs are secure and that data is encrypted to prevent unauthorized access. A good API connection implementation will always secure protocols to encrypt the data while in transit.
  3. Maintenance: REST APIs require regular maintenance to ensure that they continue to function properly as the different systems involved change over time. Companies may need to allocate resources to maintain their APIs and ensure that they remain up to date with the latest software updates.

REST APIs offer several benefits when it comes to optimising your packaging design workflow. By enabling different software applications to communicate with each other, REST APIs can streamline the process, improve efficiency, and facilitate better collaboration between different teams while reducing manual work and reducing risk.

If you want to know more, check out our public API documentation to see how it can help your process.

Improving your Artworks Workflow

With Midjourney

As an artwork coordinator working for a pharmaceutical company, I oversee the packaging design process from start to finish. It’s a complex process that involves multiple stakeholders and departments: regulatory, supply chain, printing houses, customers (we also do Contract Manufacturing), Quality Assurance, etc. It requires careful coordination to ensure that everything runs smoothly. Over the years, we’ve refined our process to the best of our abilities, but as with any complex system, there’s always room for improvement. We make our process work, but it requires constant emails, reminders and nudges to certain stakeholders to keep everything in check.

When we decided to purchase an Artwork Management System, we agreed to bring in an external workflow and process consultant to help us optimize our packaging design workflow as we intended to digitise our process. At first, I was a bit skeptical. After all, I knew our process inside and out, and I wasn’t sure how an external consultant could provide any value. Our initial plan was to simply move from a manual email based workflow to a digital one. However, after a couple of phone calls regarding the process, we realized that an external set of eyes can sometimes identify issues in your process that you simply cannot see because you’re too close and too busy.

The Consultant

The consultant that came in had extensive experience working with other pharmaceutical companies, not only within brands, but also in CMOs, design agencies, etc. He got us started by going thought our current process, which was drawn on a white board and asking a lot of questions as we went through every stage: who is involved, what information is provided, when, what are the challenges, what happens in this and that scenario, etc. Very quickly he was able to spot a few areas where we could make improvements. There were a couple of key aspects that were particularly interesting where he suggested some changes in the process by analysing and justifying those suggestions. The following was one of the most relevant ones:

Our Process

In the beginning of our process, the Regulatory Department provides the key information related to the change that has to be implemented in the packaging material: a new text, a set of annotated changes due to a change in regulations and anything in between. When this information is received, the Artworks Team checks it and forwards the request to the agency to execute the changes. Later in the process, once the design has been implemented, the Regulatory colleagues check the artwork to make sure it complied with their request for change. The consultant asked: how often does an artwork need to be redone because Regulatory spotted a mistake in the content (not a mistake introduced by the design agency). The answer across my team was consistent…..very frequently. The consultant then made an estimate of the amount of hours involved across all teams between the moment the request is sent by RA and the moment the design is sent back to them for changes. We calculated around 40 to 50 hours of work.

The Suggestions

His suggestion was simple: add a four eye principle on the information provided by Regulatory BEFORE the artwork request is sent to the agency. The objective was to validate the information before those 40 to 50 hours of work were spent on the artwork so that the number of iterations would be reduced. We quickly involved the QA team, who happily agreed to review the data before it was sent to the agency. It was brilliant. A simple suggestion, a nudge to the colleagues in QA and the potential time savings were incredible.

At first, I was a bit intimidated by the prospect of implementing all suggested changes. After all, change can be difficult, especially when you’re dealing with a process that has been in place for years and many stakeholders involved. However, with an open discussions and proper justification of each suggested change, I realized that these changes were all aimed at making our jobs easier and more efficient. By embracing these changes, we could reduce the amount of time and resources we spent on each project and ensure the best possible outcome. Having an external set of eyes also helped align all relevant parties (external people are not afraid of starting difficult conversations).

Over the next few months, we worked closely with the consultant to implement the changes he had suggested. It wasn’t always easy, and there were a few bumps in the road, but overall, the process went smoothly. We saw an consistent improvement in in our process. and our workflow became much more streamlined. We were able to complete projects more quickly and with fewer errors, which made everyone involved in the process much happier.

Looking back, I’m so glad we decided to bring in an external set of eyes to help us optimize our packaging design workflow. I’m excited to see what other improvements we can make in the future, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to work with such a talented consultant.

If you want an external set of eyes on your process, setup a call with us and let’s work together to make your workflow flawless.

Contact us

Accountability and Authority, The Saga

Image with Midjourney

Once upon a time, in a packaging company not so far away, there was a team of designers tasked with the creation and management of product packaging for their Ancestors . The designers were excited to start working on the project and put their creative and technical skills to the test. They had been trained by the master Designers and could summon the Gods of Regulatory.

The Gods of Regulatory were responsible for ensuring that the package met all necessary regulations and guidelines, Lord praise the FDA, the EMA and the local regulatory bodies. They were accountable for the content that was placed on the packaging design. And they were good at it. They had to appease the recall demons, for one mistake could cost them dearly.

After many times together in the battle field however, the Designes and the Gods of Regulatory realized that while they were accountable for the packaging, and would suffer the consequences of an attack on their impeccable recall record, they lacked the authority to make any meaningful changes on their battle process. There were simply too many stakeholders, too many hidden decision makers and way too many KPIs to fulfil.

One day, the designers submitted a proposal for an improved workflow model that they were particularly proud of. They had worked hand in hand with the regulatory team tirelessly on it for weeks and were excited to finally present it to the higher court, the Decision Makers. However, they were swiftly denied their wishes. The Decision Makers had rejected the proposal outright, without providing any concrete reasons for their decision. They simply said: It shall not be done.

The designers were frustrated, the regulatory experts were angry. They all felt like they were being held accountable for something they had no control over. If something went wrong, their heads would roll, but without the means to change course, they felt abandoned and desperate. They began to lose their faith, their motivation and engagement in the project. To make matters worse, they soon discovered that the same thing was happening to other teams in the company.

The problem wasn’t just with their process; the company’s organizational structure and old fashioned culture made it difficult for anyone to have the necessary authority to make meaningful changes. Everything had to be escalated to the high court, where decisions were made without hands-on knowledge of the actual work that had to be done.

As a result, the frustrated designers and regulatory experts decided to take matters into their own hands. They started taking actions outside of their workflow to expedite the pressing deadlines and reach their tight objectives. They were operating under the blanket of cover and darkness, very much aware of the lack of compliance and added risks. But they had no choice, it was the only way to complete the assigned tasks.

The moral of the story is that accountability without authority can be a frustrating and demotivating experience. Furthermore, when the processes in place do not match the actual job requirements, the non-authoritative stakeholders are usually forced to take action, stepping outside of the agreed models to accomplish their tasks. When key stakeholders lack the necessary authority to make changes, it can lead to a lack of engagement and creativity, and in most cases non-compliance with SOPs. In the case of packaging companies, designers and regulatory experts must work together to ensure that the design process is collaborative and efficient, but they need to have authority to make changes to the process when it no longer works.

Do you feel accountable but lack authority?

Be like water….

Image with Midjourney

When it comes to corporate packaging design, transparency is key. We always insist on this aspect, specially when on-boarding new teams that are used to a more traditional approach where compartmentalisation of information is common practice.

A packaging design workflow involves multiple stakeholders, including internal teams such as marketing, product development, and design, as well as external partners such as packaging manufacturers, suppliers, and distributors. This complex network of stakeholders makes it essential to have a clear and centralised system of information sharing to prevent errors and reduce risk.

Compartmentalisation vs Transparency

Compartmentalisation is the approach of separating information into individual units or silos, which can only be accessed by certain individuals or groups. This approach can have some benefits, such as providing increased security for sensitive information or enabling clear lines of authority and responsibility. However, there are also significant risks associated with compartmentalisation that can hinder the success of a business or organisation.

One of the biggest risks of a compartmentalised approach is that it can create barriers to effective communication and collaboration. So basically some individuals might not know at one given time what is going on because information is hidden from them. This can lead to a lack of coordination, missed opportunities, and duplicated effort, which can ultimately hinder business growth and success.

On the other side of the spectrum, transparent processes can have many benefits. When stakeholders have access to the same information and there is clarity about what is going on at any time, it can help to identify and mitigate risks early on, before they become significant problems.

Transparency can also lead to greater accountability and trust.

Transparency how?

Transparency for packaging design can be achieved through the use of a centralized AMS tool, such Twona NeXT. It allows all stakeholders to have access to project-related information and updates in real-time, reducing the need for manual updates and reducing the risk of miscommunications.

In addition, transparency can also ensure the final product meets all necessary requirements and standards such as compliance with legal and regulatory requirements.

But how far do we go?

The line between transparency and compartmentalisation can however be difficult to spot. Too much of either and the process will suffer or the risk will be too high.

A good rule to thumb for packaging design processes within pharmaceutical teams follows these key aspects:

  1. High visibility – Being able to understand the status of a project within a complex workflow creates trust, clarity and a sense of belonging by all relevant stakeholders. Keep it open, let all relevant parties see what is happening. Limiting visibility is only advisable when dealing with competing external stakeholders such as multiple design agencies.
  2. Silo the actions – For compliance requirements, it might be needed to limit what each stakeholders can do. This is ensure everyone can fulfil their own actions while reducing the risk of mistakes. For instance, the Design team should be the only one capable of uploading new versions while approvals can only be granted by the Regulatory team.
  3. Train everyone on the entire process – A key component of digitising a process is the training that each stakeholder needs to be part of. For larger teams, it might be wise to split the teams to focus on their part of the process. However, the entire process should be shown to all stakeholders to ensure there is clarity and a complete understanding of what is going on at every moment.
  4. Don’t give access to external stakeholders – When collaborating with external teams such as suppliers, printers and others, it is a good practice to establish a collaboration model that is based on an on-demand basis. This means only when the core team requests something from the external members, the information can be provided or consumed, keeping access to the larger process blocked at all times. This approach reduces risks and simplifies the actions that external stakeholders need to take on your process.

In summary, defining the level of access (both views and actions) when digitising your artwork process should be considered as one of the most relevant task before you get started. Think through it, check with all stakeholders, determine which level of transparency fits your team and remember that silos are the enemy of collaboration.

We make more rounds to avoid mistakes…the Fallacy

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Have you ever heard from a client that the reason they make so many rounds or checks (and they seem to be proud) is to avoid mistakes in the final product?

I translate this as “reducing the probability of making a mistake” in the design of the packaging.

Well….let me tell you this:

THEY ARE LYING TO YOU

Anybody that can do statistical analysis

Designing and creating designs for packaging materials, specially for food, retail and pharma, is a complex process that involves multiple rounds of designing, checking and refinement. One might expect that with each additional round of design and checks, the probability of making a mistake decreases. However, this idea is counter-intuitive and exploring the math clearly shows how more rounds of changes do indeed lead to a higher probability of making ANY mistake. Let’s check it out, it is not too complex.

The Setup

Let’s say that the probability of making a mistake when implementing a design is 1/10, or in other words, 10% of the times a designer will make a mistake. It does not matter if this number is realistic or not. More experienced designers will make mistakes less often than more experienced ones. The numbers do not affect the calculation and are only used to showcase the scenario.

Let’s also say, that we want to know that is the probability of making ANY mistake when making 1 design round versus 4 rounds of changes. In the first case, for a single round, the probability of making a mistake is set at 10%. For the second case, the probability of making ANY mistake after 4 rounds, we need a bit of math. Don’t be afraid, it is simple.

The Proof

The probability of NOT making a mistake on any given design round is 1 – 1/10 = 9/10 (so 90%). The probability of NOT making a mistake on all four consecutive design rounds is (9/10)^4 = 6561/10000 (so 65%).

To find the combined probability of making ANY mistake, we subtract the probability of NOT making a mistake on all four consecutive actions from 1:

1 – (9/10)^4 = 1 – 6561/10000 = 3439/10000 = 0.3439 = 34.39%.

So the combined probability of making ANY mistake if you execute 4 consecutive design rounds is 34.39%.

That is more than 3 times the probability of making a mistake on a single round. This is key, so clients can understand that a well-defined brief and instructions improve the odds of nailing the design in the first round, which then reduces the probability of making a mistake on further design rounds.

Fell free to send this proof to your clients so they start sending better briefs (including accurate technical specs).

Are you measuring your team’s performance?

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Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are a set of metrics that help organizations evaluate the success of their strategies and models, and monitor their progress towards achieving their goals. In the context of a design team working on packaging materials for pharmaceutical products, KPIs are particularly important as they provide valuable insights into the team’s productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness. They help track your chosen workflow and allow you perform a continuous improvement programme. By tracking and analyzing KPIs, the team can identify areas for improvement, make more informed decisions, and achieve better results.

There are many KPIs that can be used to evaluate the performance of a design team. Different organizations work under different predicaments and models, which can influence the overall objetives: reduce time-to-market, reduce number of reworks, minimise risk of errors, etc. Three of the most common design KPIs are: the number of iterations required before approval, the time spent in each stage of the workflow, and the number of processed jobs per team member.

N versions before Approval

The number of iterations required before approval measure the number of times a design has to be revised before it is finally approved. A high number of iterations can indicate that there is a problem with the design process or that the team is not communicating effectively with stakeholders (if you are experiencing this, maybe you want to consider THIS article). It can also be a sign of a lack of clarity in the design brief, an unstructured design process, a lack of relevant SOPs and documentation and a wide range of other design-process maladies.

Time to move on

The time spent in each stage of the workflow, measures the amount of time the team spends on each stage of the design process, from conception to final approval. It allows you to zoom in on each step of the process and see what is really going on. This information is valuable as it helps to identify bottlenecks in the workflow. Additionally, the time spent in each stage can provide insights into the team’s capacity, allowing them to plan more effectively and allocate resources more efficiently.

What’s your workload

The number of processed jobs per team member, measures the productivity of each team member by tracking the number of jobs they complete in a given time period or in certain stages of the workflow. This information helps to identify individual strengths and weaknesses, which can then be used to optimize the allocation of tasks within the team. It can also provide insights into the workload of each team member, helping to ensure that they are not overburdened, which can lead to burnout and decreased productivity. It is important to filter this information with the right parameters, not all jobs are the same nor they take the same amount of time and resources. Filter wisely, one designer processing 3 multi language packs per day might be more efficient than another who moves around 10 simple jobs.

Kaizen baby, kaizen

KPIs are not only useful for evaluating the performance of a design team but also for setting a starting point for process improvement. By regularly tracking and analyzing KPIs, the team can identify areas for improvement and make informed decisions about how to optimize their processes and improve their performance. This is not only valuable for in-house processes, but also for evaluating external stakeholders. If your design efforts are outsouced, you can gain valuable insight into their effectiveness. If your customers are giving you a hard time with delays on approvals, hard KPI data will be valuable for a hard discussion with them about meeting deadlines.

Are you measuring your design team performance? If you said no, you need to take some time to think about it. If you said yes, the follow up question is: how exactly are you tracking the progress?