Wrike’s Hard Skills Matrix for Web Designers

October 6, 2023 - 10 min read

Anton Antoniuk

When we, the design managers at Wrike, decided to update the skills matrix for our team and I started to research examples, including right here on Medium, I was surprised: There’s an abundance of examples for product designers and graphic designers but almost none for web design teams.

As a result, I created a hard skills matrix for our team almost from scratch, assembling pieces from my own experiences and numerous other sources. I’m not holding back on sharing this. And, in a separate piece, I will share another part — the soft skills matrix.

To approach this article from a user’s perspective, I’ll show you the matrix straight away and, only after that, I’ll explain why our team needs it and how we work with it.

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Hard skills matrix for web designers

Our skill matrix spans five different levels of competencies:

Learns
Knows
Does
Helps
Teaches

It brings together skills from four areas:

Visual design and versatility
Web design and usability
Tools
Digital marketing

You can either view the matrix in the following spreadsheet or read about it in the description below.

Visual design and versatility / Conceptual skills

Learns: Understands the fundamentals of conceptual skills and creates web or digital assets aligned with provided concepts and guidelines, with supervision.
Knows: Possesses a robust understanding of conceptual skills and independently creates web or digital assets that align with provided concepts and guidelines, requiring at most two rounds of revisions.
Does: Independently creates web or digital assets that align with provided concepts and guidelines and confidently offers improvements.
Helps: Demonstrates advanced expertise in conceptual skills. Independently designs and elevates web or digital concepts at a brand-wide level and is capable of leading such projects and supervising the project team.
Teaches: Possesses expert-level knowledge in conceptual skills. Independently develops, leads, and presents premium concepts for global campaigns at a departmental level. Capable of crafting guidelines and tutorials for stakeholders and peers and mentoring others on best practices in conceptual skills.

Visual design and versatility / Copywriting and storytelling

Learns: Implements pre-existing copy and follows the proposed story flow in projects. Regularly expands knowledge of UX writing and marketing copy principles.
Knows: Differentiates between marketing copy and UX writing. Identifies potential areas for copy improvement. Uses visual elements to establish a compelling narrative.
Does: Participates in discussions and brainstorm sessions with content teams to propose ideas to enhance copy, messaging, and storytelling in projects. Makes suggestions to content teams to ensure web and digital copy adheres to UX writing and storytelling best practices.
Helps: Collaborates with content teams to deliver optimal solutions for web and digital customer experience, utilizing both visuals and copy.
Teaches: Possesses deep knowledge of UX writing, storytelling, and digital/web messaging. Works with content teams, proposing innovative ways to connect with the audience. Acts as a mentor for junior colleagues.

Visual design and versatility / Visual design

Learns: Designs layouts based on templates with guidance, adhering to manuals. Utilizes and modifies existing illustration, icon, and image libraries. Creates basic compositions using grids and references. Applies predefined typography styles and uses knowledge of color theory for cohesive designs.
Knows: Independently designs layouts and creates custom images using illustration, icon, and image libraries. Crafts static and dynamic compositions with pre-built elements. Offers new typographic solutions under supervision. Uses color theory knowledge to create cohesive designs that guide attention, evoke emotions, and establish moods, while ensuring legibility across devices.
Does: Designs visually appealing, cohesive web and digital projects, promoting brand consistency. Handles composition at any level and creates custom assets. Suggests improvements to typography systems and libraries. Develops new web color schemes upon request and contributes to brand consistency and guidelines evolution.
Helps: Uses experience and research to construct complex solutions for new assets and designs with new layouts and grids. Enhances web color schemes and palettes within the web design system. Proposes enhancements to evolve image asset libraries. Educates and facilitates reviews for others.
Teaches: Continuously elevates web assets and layouts by creating and updating core styles and guidelines. Plans, scales, and enhances templates independently. Manages and enhances libraries with a strategic mindset towards visual design. Masters color and typography, constantly improving them within the web design system.

Web design and usability / Web page layout and creation

Learns: Continuously expands their understanding of web design principles by observing best practices and examples. Utilizes components from libraries and master layouts to support senior team members in creating visually appealing web page blocks.
Knows: Routinely applies best web practices to work, designing web page layouts with strong visual hierarchy under senior team members’ guidance.
Does: Applies knowledge of best practices to propose new, innovative solutions for web design. Has a solid understanding of creating user-friendly interactions, like efficient web forms and intuitive navigation systems.
Helps: Creates innovative web designs aligned with business goals. Oversees junior designers, ensuring they apply the best solutions. Capable of providing design solutions that can be shared as best practice examples externally.
Teaches: Regularly mentors and enhances the company’s web projects by leading and sharing experience and knowledge. Actively shares expertise with other departmental teams, aligning on business goals. Acts as an experienced mentor for junior designers.

Web design and usability / Prototyping and wireframing

Learns: Possesses a basic understanding of web page structure and creates prototypes under senior team members’ guidance and supervision.
Knows: Utilizes knowledge to create web page structures, prototypes, and wireframes for standalone projects under senior team members’ guidance.
Does: Independently creates website prototypes and supports senior designers in creating high-level web projects.
Helps: Confidently creates structures, prototypes, and wireframes for web projects of any level. Supports and guides prototyping for junior designers.
Teaches: Contributes to the continuous improvement of major web projects by exploring, using, and proposing best practices for web page structures.

Web design and usability / Web animation

Learns: Learns the basics of web animation, including types and their effects on user experience.
Knows: Has a basic understanding of web animation principles. Can suggest interface animation ideas to improve user experience and website conversions.
Does: Initiates the creation of web animation. Supports development and provides briefs for motion designers if needed.
Helps: Can independently create web animations using various tools. Proficient in using web formats for animation and supports their implementation within web projects.
Teaches: Possesses a strong understanding of web animation. Can mentor junior colleagues and supports the improvement of the website experience by providing trending and high-performing animation solutions.

Web design and usability / Grid systems and responsive design

Learns: Has a basic understanding of layout differences for various devices and resolutions. Learns to create web project breakpoints under senior guidance using existing layouts.
Knows: Possesses a robust understanding of various breakpoints and flexible grid systems. Confidently creates responsive designs by implementing breakpoints to support senior designers’ projects.
Does: Confidently designs web projects to be visually and functionally consistent across a wide range of devices within the web system.
Helps: Designs or enhances grid systems for web projects using their current knowledge of best practices. Works on any breakpoint as part of the entire web system to create a consistent experience. Develops core responsive grids and systems.
Teaches: Continuously enhances the consistent experiences of major projects across various devices and resolutions. Initiates and supports the evolution of core responsive grids and systems. Mentors and trains junior designers in responsive design best practices, providing guidance to improve their skills.

Web design and usability / Service design

Learns: Understands the fundamentals of service design. Learns the company’s web design system (WDS) by using existing components in daily tasks. Continuously explores the WDS to deepen their understanding.
Knows: Assists in improving the WDS under supervision from senior team members, following requests.
Does: Independently creates new components with the team’s input and reviews. Continually improves and updates the WDS to boost web production efficiency.
Helps: Demonstrates confidence in creating and enhancing the WDS. Regularly supports the development of major components.
Teaches: Continuously contributes to the evolution of the WDS, collaborating with other teams to expand and enhance it at a company-wide level. Acts as a mentor, sharing best practices and knowledge with team members.

Web design and usability / Usability principles

Learns: Has a basic understanding of usability principles, user flow, and web patterns. Consistently learns about accessibility guidelines and incorporates them into their work.
Knows: Has a robust understanding of common web patterns and incorporates them into designs to enhance user experience.
Does: Designs with accessibility in mind, optimizing user experience under guidance or supervision.
Helps: Has a deep understanding of usability principles and web patterns. Uses this knowledge to consistently enhance the user experience of major web projects. Stays up to date with accessibility guidelines and ensures projects conform to best practices.
Teaches: Innovates and resolves complex UI/UX issues. Serves as a mentor, sharing best practices and personal experience. Is a subject matter expert in usability principles and user flow.

Web design and usability / Research and analytics

Learns: Collects data and information for tasks using existing resources, and independently learns about user research methods.
Knows: Conducts visual research for their own projects and contributes to research for department-wide projects. Familiar with user testing and research methods, and assists senior designers in conducting these tests. Participates in research as a notetaker.
Does: Independently conducts visual and technology research for specific projects and areas, and applies findings to their work. Conducts usability testing as an interviewer, and analyzes and interprets user research data to enhance website experience.
Helps: Conducts competitive, industry, and trend research to enhance visual design decisions. Organizes and shares research findings. Conducts user interviews and creates personas. Supports in creating customer journey maps.
Teaches: Initiates improvements in research flows and tactics to deliver optimal results and meet business goals. Mentors and trains others on user research best practices. Creates and maintains customer journey maps to meet company needs.

Tools / Figma

Learns: Familiarizes themself with basic Figma tools to create simple wireframes and mockups. Uses layout grids and guides to position and align design elements. Uses existing libraries and assets.
Knows: Designs complex wireframes and mockups. Comfortable with advanced layout/design tools, like components and instances, design styles and libraries, and design constraints. Can create and share interactive prototypes. Is proficient in using Figma.
Does: Is expertly proficient with Figma’s design features. Creates highly polished designs. Automates workflows by creating and enhancing auto-layouts, components, and libraries.
Helps: Understands Figma’s capabilities thoroughly. Regularly provides improvement ideas and evaluates systems and libraries. Teaches others how to use and enhance components by consistently improving their knowledge and staying updated with new Figma features and best practices.
Teaches: Teaches and mentors others on effective Figma use. Automates workflows by creating personal plugins and scripts. Enhances libraries and components, and shares best practices with the team.

Tools / Adobe Photoshop

Learns: Has a basic understanding of Adobe Photoshop and uses it for simple tasks, such as resizing, retouching, and background removal.
Knows: Has a good foundational knowledge of the main Photoshop tools. Is able to work with provided Photoshop designs and make adjustments.
Does: Has a comprehensive understanding of the program and uses it to create high-fidelity raster graphic assets and imagery.
Helps: Has a deep understanding of Photoshop, using advanced techniques and features to create complex compositions and graphic assets. Is confident in creating their own unique designs.
Teaches: Has expert-level knowledge of Photoshop, as demonstrated by Adobe certification. Demonstrates in-depth knowledge of the program’s specifics and is capable of troubleshooting any issue.

Tools / Adobe Illustrator

Learns: Has a basic understanding of Adobe Illustrator functionality and can make slight adjustments to existing designs.
Knows: Has a good understanding of the main functions and tools. Can create custom layouts and graphics using a mix of existing assets and their own designs.
Does: Has a solid understanding of the tool and can develop new design solutions for their projects.
Helps: Experiments with new and existing tools to create unique designs. Is skilled in using advanced features and techniques to create complex compositions and graphics.
Teaches: Has expert-level knowledge of Illustrator, as demonstrated by Adobe certification. Brings innovations and improvements to team processes by finding and showing the tool’s advantages and educating the team.

Digital marketing / SEO tactics

Learns: Learns basic SEO principles and how to optimize websites for search engines and user discoverability.
Knows: Applies basic SEO principles to improve website performance and visibility.
Does: Understands how search engines operate and uses this knowledge to provide better SEO performance solutions.
Helps: Identifies potential SEO problems and regularly suggests optimization solutions.
Teaches: Possesses a deep understanding of SEO principles. Collaborates with SEO teams to consistently review and improve the website for an SEO-friendly user experience. Mentors the team by sharing knowledge.

Digital marketing / Website metrics

Learns: Understands the basics of website metrics, including various types and how they’re used to measure website performance.
Knows: Possesses basic knowledge of website metrics, analyzes data, draws conclusions, and identifies areas for improvement.
Does: Collaborates with analytics teams to understand and analyze website data. Identifies bottlenecks and proposes solutions.
Helps: Independently requests and analyzes analytical data to validate design solutions and optimize website performance for SEO and PPC campaigns. Ensures availability of sufficient data to validate hypotheses and make informed decisions in projects.
Teaches: Possesses a thorough understanding of website metrics. Consistently works on metric improvement by analyzing analytics data. Uses expertise to mentor and guide others in data analysis and optimization. Regularly shares knowledge and experience to enhance website performance.

Digital marketing / Digital campaigns

Learns: Learns digital marketing terminology, specifics, and principles. Creates assets to assist senior team members in creating campaign pages and generic banners using existing libraries and builders.
Knows: Assists senior team members in crafting digital campaigns. Uses best practices to make visually appealing landing pages and custom banners using existing libraries and builders.
Does: Has a strong understanding of digital marketing tactics and channels. Optimizes campaigns based on analytics data. Collaborates with digital teams to deliver better solutions in campaign production. Confidently creates any level of banners, and improves libraries and builders.
Helps: Uses best digital marketing practices and proposes solutions for different digital marketing channels. Collaborates with digital team leads to continuously review and improve campaigns. Improves banner libraries and builders, and leads effective digital campaign production.
Teaches: Consistently improves metrics with a deep understanding of channels and best market practices. Constantly provides solution improvements for major campaigns, and initiates and supports production process improvements. Acts as a mentor for junior designers, sharing expertise.

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Why does our web team need a skills matrix?

The skills matrix is essential for web designers to see their actual position on the career ladder and understand what needs to be improved to level up.

Moreover, as a design manager, the skills matrix helps me craft an overall skill map of the team and spot which skills are insufficiently covered and unlevelled. This matrix serves as a primary tool for the team’s skills review and helps us inhabit a unified conceptual realm.

How we work with the skills matrix

Our web design team operates with the matrix based on three main principles:

Firstly, openness. The matrix is available to the entire team at any time. Any designer can independently assess which skills need to be worked on. The manager typically reviews the skills matrix during regular team reviews. This helps in conducting a timely checkup, tracking the development dynamics. Of course, any designer can request a checkup out of turn to get a fresh evaluation.
Secondly, objectivity. The designer and manager begin by independently assessing skills and then calibrating them during a meeting. The goal of calibration is to understand each other better and get as close to a joint assessment as possible. If that doesn’t work, we either leave an average evaluation or ask for an anonymous assessment of individual skills by other colleagues. More opinions add up to objectivity.
Thirdly, flexibility. The skills matrix is as much a live process as everything else in our team. As with any other issue, I value the team’s opinion. Any web designer can suggest changes at any time. After a discussion with the whole team, other design team managers, and, of course, the design director, I make the necessary tweaks.

As you can guess, at Wrike, we assess not only hard skills but also soft skills. Since there are many of them and we developed them as a whole team of design managers, I’ll dedicate a separate piece to them.

Please tell me about your experiences working with a skills matrix. I’m curious to learn how you assess designers’ skills. Don’t hesitate to share your opinions and advice!

Anton Antoniuk

After over 10 years of leading and managing design teams, Anton has extensive experience in design, art direction, and people management. His knowledge of all aspects of the design process, due to his versatile work in advertising agencies in the past, helps him elevate processes to a new level.

#Digital Marketing #Creative Teams #Skills & Personal Development

Productivity 10 min read

How to Implement Consent Mode on Your Website: Tips and Tricks

Data protection is a new trend. Users want to be confident that their privacy is the highest priority. Companies need to collect information about their users to make their products more targeted and personalized. Every target audience is limited. And it’s hard to create a target audience and make personalization better without the user’s data. Consent Mode is used to manage tags, scripts, or services’ behavior based on the given user’s consent. The default settings for Consent Mode and the banner requirements depend on the user’s location. There are different options regulated by the data protection laws, for example: GDPR — protects European Union users LGPD — protects Brazilian users CCPA — protects Californian users The main principles are the same: You have a default consent statement and, after the user’s reply, you change the data collection process based on the received answer. Many vendors on the market propose so-called out-of-the-box solutions, but several implementation steps are needed to start. These tools are named Consent Management Platforms (CMP) and mainly consist of two components: A consent banner that is shown based on the described rules inside the tool A consent mode mechanism that sends the user’s consent to your system In most cases, the blocking mechanism is not on the vendor’s side — meaning that you and your company are fully responsible for legal compliance. There are a lot of protective laws, but let’s concentrate on one of the most important ones: GDPR. You can’t collect a user’s data without direct consent if the user is from a GDPR country. The consent mode system works in the mode “fire tags/scripts/services — not fire tags/scripts/services.” Several options could improve the data collection process. The most significant is Google Consent Mode, Google’s solution for improving data collection techniques. Of course, it requires a separate implementation. It’s useful if you use Google infrastructure (Google Consent Mode, Google Analytics, etc.). Try Wrike for free Problematics In a nutshell, we want to collect as much information as possible, be legally compliant, and integrate both CMP and Google Consent Mode (GCM). But what challenges do we face? CMP integration with GCM is quite hard to prepare CMP and GCM work on different principles. Even if the selected vendor has a direct connection with Google Consent Mode, it means that you would have a delay between the page load and the consent received. There is also a problem with returning users. For example, let’s say a user from an EU country visited your website two days ago and gave their full consent. Today, they visited the website again. If you use the built-in GCM mechanism inside your CM platform, there would be the following steps: Default Google Consent Mode command for EU users (denied all the storages) Waiting for the CMP info about the user’s previous consent Google Consent Mode update command In this case, you‘ll either wait too long to fire Google and other tags or collect information that you could collect without consent (which would be extremely limited). And, of course, many vendors don’t have Google Consent Mode integration. There would be a delay between the CMP-sent events and the page load If you have several third-party services on your website, you most likely use ready container solutions like Google Tag Manager (GTM). GTM allows you to simply and quickly implement and change all the code snippets inserted on the website. CMP sends the events that help you understand the user’s consent level. This information influences the tags’ behavior change. That means the user’s consent information could only be sent after the GTM has loaded. It causes a delay of several seconds — and that’s crucial! Most tags should fire as soon as possible. Users could leave the site soon, and you wouldn’t be able to track them at all. No one can confirm that 100% of events are sent properly from the website to the GTM, which is the second reason why we cannot fully rely on this mechanism. There could be restrictions connected to the website structure, performance issues, etc There are some CMPs that (based on their instruction) can be implemented directly via GTM — “no developers needed,” as their advertising promises. In this case, the delay between the user’s consent statement and page load would be so high that data collection becomes meaningless. A CMP is also a third-party system that could negatively influence your website performance, which is crucial for SEO optimization, organic search, and user experience. For example, the site could take too long to load. Implementation issues Let’s come to the moment when you select the CMP. First of all, it doesn’t matter if it has direct implementation with GCM or not. Secondly, if the selected solution has a GTM installation option, don’t use it. Let’s discuss why. Why you shouldn’t implement CMP via GTM 1. GTM should be implemented at the head of the website. Unfortunately, this is not always so due to site performance, load time, security reasons, etc. Because of this, there’s a delay between the site loading and the GTM load. That leads to a delay between the site load and the CMP load, which means potential data losses. 2. We can’t control that GTM will be loaded in 100% of cases. That means you can’t control whether CMP will always work on your website. It could lead to data losses and a fine for a data protection breach. Even large companies like WhatsApp and Google have faced GDPR problems. The biggest fine in history was paid by Amazon in July 2021 to the tune of $877 million. 3. There would be a delay between the page load and banner appearance. The main problem is that you need to wait until GTM loads, run the CMP default state, and only after that set the default consent state. That’s why the delay between the Consent Initialization trigger and the Default CMP mode is too great. We should also be aware of the delay caused by GTM implementation. Those are the three main reasons why it’s not the best idea to implement CMP via GTM. Of course, if you have a simple site structure, you could experiment with different implementation issues, but my common advice is to implement CMP directly on the website. Process flow Let’s discuss the process scheme. The baseline can be found in the picture below. The main idea is to separate the data load process into two main branches: new users and returning users. At the same time, the new user group also should be divided into two parts: users without data collection restrictions and the opposite group. Consent mode loading process With the presented scheme, we achieve the following goals: We are fully law-compliant and collect data only for those users who consent. We manage Google Consent Mode and, based on the received data, the Google-based tags are updated automatically. We avoid delays between page load and data collection beginning. I guess that, at this point, we could call ourselves the Consent Heroes! Try Wrike for free The processing speed: Hints and tricks One of the best ways to speed up the default statement load is to prepare the cookie on the website side, which contains the consent values for the user. There can be different cookie categories. For example, Google separates all cookies into five different buckets. It depends on your company’s needs and the expected user behavior. You need to carefully review the services, tools, and cookies you use and find the balance between the desired categories, implementation issues, and user experience. Be aware of the fact that you should represent each category on your CMP banner. Let’s consider the most classic situation with the three main groups: Requirement bucket: Strictly necessity cookies. The site can’t work properly without them Functional bucket: Supports the site’s functionality and common stat Advertising bucket: All services and functions connected to advertising The idea is to code the bucket values in a cookie that should send the values directly to GTM based on the user’s IP location. For example, you could code a functional bucket as “2” or “b.” In this case, we improve the loading speed because: We should not wait for the CMP full load on the website The default statement will be received before the container loaded trigger when the majority of tags should fire Another option is to unite the region-specific and basic Google Consent Mode default commands. There is an option to manage the Google Consent Mode default state for different locales, which means you need to wait for both events before any other tags can fire. There is a small trick that could improve this stage, which we’ll discuss in the next chapter. CMP and Google Consent Mode alignment: Step-by-step instructions Say you have selected the CMP solution that perfectly meets your needs. You conducted the tests, discussed the process with the developer’s team, and solved all the issues with GTM. What should you do next? How do you align the selected CMP with Google Consent Mode? Here is a simple step-by-step guide. 1. Create a custom template in GTM Templates are needed to create the custom tags and variable definitions, so others within your organization can use them alongside the built-in tag and variable templates. In the case of GCM implementation, there are two main options: Use the custom template created by one of the developers, GTM researchers, or vendors; or prepare it on your own. If you want to use a pre-prepared custom template, you need to carefully review it with security because the template will need to write and read access. Options: Pre-prepared custom template: The best template found during my GCM research is Simo Ahava’s template, which is pretty simple to use and adapts to your needs. Here’s his article with the full description. The Google Consent Mode template instruction: This has the same instruction but needs to be adopted. 2. Implement custom CMP on your website The basic implementation consists of copying and pasting the CMP implementation code. But two action items should be completed first: The place where you implement the CMP code. The basic instruction usually requires you to implement it in the head of your website code. But this can harm your website performance and SEO optimization, so it should be carefully checked If you decide to add a custom cookie to improve the processing speed, this is the right stage to do so. Remember, the main point here is to collect consent before the final CMP load and send it to GTM before the container-loaded event. In this term, we could launch the tags earlier and collect more data. 3. Turn on Google Consent Mode in Google Tag Manager Go to the admin interface and turn on the Google Consent Mode setting. You will see the following sign in your tags section. 4. Make small adjustments in the Google consent mode template Update the region formula. As we discussed earlier, every company wants to collect as much data as possible while remaining legally compliant. The more markets you have, the more laws you have to follow. For example, in some countries, you can collect data by default. However, there is a GDPR law in Europe, so the user’s data can be collected only after the user’s consent. That means you have to use region-based behavior: two separate default commands for the specified regions and all the others. The small trick here is to use the same consent default command for all the regions and make it region-based at the same time. There are two steps to consider: Create a custom constant variable and make it region-based. For example, create a constant variable with the list of countries where you want to specify the user’s behavior. Specify the values for Google Consent Mode storage with the help of custom JavaScript variables. The baseline here is to deny or grant them by default, but change them when the consent is updated. That’s why two commands are usually needed for region-based behavior. I suggest changing their value from the very beginning based on the geo-location rules with the help of the custom variable from the previous step. For example, you could use the following points to make analytical_storage denied or granted from the very beginning before the container has loaded — specify it as the custom JavaScriptvariable: Use CMP country value if applicable to set the storage value for granted countries where it’s normal for the new users. Compare the received value with the region constant variable created in the previous step. Update the value based on the customer-created cookies — this helps update its value for returning users earlier. For example, if the cookie collects “2,” that means that functional storage is allowed => analytics_storage = granted The structure of the default command tag will be the following: 5. Change your tag’s behavior based on the received consent There can be three main categories: Google-based tags Triggers: only the standard one (like pageview) Exception triggers (no need) Change their behavior based on Google Consent Status Google-based tags have the building consent. They will check their values and manage their behavior based on the received data. Here is the description for the Google Analytics tag. Event-based tags — tags that should fire if the specific event occurs: Triggers: Selected event Exception triggers: Triggers based on the denied CMP consent — category-based Fires if the event occurs and we have CMP consent Not event-based tags and not Google-based tags There are two main options: Model their behavior based on Google consent — in this case, they are not modeling their behavior but firing when Google consent was given Model their behavior based on CMP events — the same, but CMP-based 6. Double-check the client Id and ga object settings In some cases, Google Consent Mode use could prevent the loading of ga object and client Id values. Mostly it causes harm if you use the Google Universal Analytics version (or GA4 and Universal Analytics at the same time). To avoid data losses, add the trigger “ga object defined” to the connected tags. For example, the trigger could be created as the custom event trigger that should fire at any event when the ga_object variable is defined. These are the main steps that should be taken to implement CMP and GCM and, of course, to connect them. The next step is to start testing. The best indicator that something is wrong is Google Analytics data: both in the interface and the database if you use the Google Analytics data import (direct or via API). The best practice here is to prepare a list of key and additional metrics and add them to the control dashboard with alerting issues. After this very last step, you can finally be named the Consent Mode Hero! These steps can help you improve your data collection cycle, avoid data losses and page load delays, and eliminate GDPR problems. This article was written by a Wriker, in Wrike. See what it’s like to work with us and what career development opportunities we offer here. Also, hear from our founder, Andrew Filev, about Wrike’s culture and values, the ways we work and appreciate Wrikers, and more here. Try Wrike for free

Project Management 10 min read

Top Tips for Managing Design Projects

Managing design projects requires using a flexible approach to achieve the best possible results. Learn how in this guide to managing design projects.

Wrike Tips 7 min read

Customer Spotlight: Educational Insights’ “How I Wrike” Story

Customers are at the heart of what we do at Wrike. Over the years, customers have provided feedback and valuable insights that have led to us releasing some of our best features to date. We love hearing their feedback and take every opportunity to highlight their experience and stories in case studies, testimonials, and our customer advocacy program Wrike Stars. Today we’re highlighting Kelly Recinos, Project Coordinator for the creative department at Educational Insights, a 60-year-old educational toy company based in Torrance, CA that produces learning toys, games, and educational materials. What department do you work in and how is your team structured? KR: I’m the Project Coordinator for the creative department. We recently went through a massive growth spurt, which inspired us to look closely at our processes as we brought in new talent. We had Wrike blueprints already created from the previous year's production cycles, so we dove right into process mode and built RACI charts for each type of asset we generate. We spoke with the stakeholders in every process and got their feedback. I then updated our request forms and blueprints to mirror more closely what actually happens during development. I use Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed custom fields in the blueprints to add the roles our stakeholders hold in each project. Since the infusion of new talent, we now have a brilliant copywriter and two widely skilled creative teams. Our digital team creates assets for marketing, social media, eCommerce, video, photography, and our website. Our print team designs packaging, guides, and products in tandem with the product development team along with catalogs and sales collateral of every type. Our Sr. Creative Director guides our brand strategy and ensures our design aligns with product positioning. What is your job function? Describe a typical workday using Wrike. KR: I usually start every morning with my Wrike inbox. Most of the messages roll in before 9 a.m. and after 2 p.m. Clearing the inbox first thing in the morning gives me a few hours to attend to other priorities. My inbox has three main priorities: Automated notifications: These alert the assignee (and me) of any potential risk. The triggers are tasks due in three days, approvals in review for three days, and anything overdue. New requests: We have a request form for each type of asset we create. I verify that we have the information needed to get to work right away. I either assign the tasks to the designers or hand them off to the design managers to alert them of anything new. Questions, comments, and general project management: After the first two priorities are addressed, I review all other messages that require my response or feedback so that work can continue moving forward. After clearing my inbox, then it’s meetings, non-Wrike communication, and general project management. I spend a little time each day reviewing allocation so we can reassign tasks if necessary. For that, we’ve just started using Wrike effort to track capacity in our teams. At the moment we estimate, but I expect to track real numbers by this time next year. Next, I check in with Wrike Stars to hear about updates and see what the black belts are up to. I get the best ideas from the workarounds and processes posted in Community. The rest of my time in Wrike is spent building or learning to refine tools and features. Try Wrike free Which Wrike features do you feel most comfortable using or most knowledgeable about? KR: I love a really robust automated request form! Anything that provides the information we need to get right to work without multiple rounds of clarifying questions — that’s my kind of feature. The project intake process is wonderful, but Wrike’s approval feature is what sold us on the platform four years ago. The ability to assign specific approvers to review a file with a deadline and notifications is helpful. An asynchronous review platform with tools to mark up the file and comments linked directly to the marks on the file? That’s a game-changer. The approval feature easily cuts 25% off the time it used to take us to review designs. Having all comments collected in iterative versions is the icing on the cake. In the last six months, I have become a huge fan of Spaces. Each department now has a dedicated Space for better access in finding their files. Users can now see specifically what they need to see and not an avalanche of all the projects and tasks of the last four years. Since Wrike is very robust and includes a ton of useful functionality, I always build a “How to Use Your Space” guide with screenshots showing their views and tools. What are 2-4 examples of processes you use Wrike to support? KR: Our new product design work is seasonal. We start working on the new product line in March for release in September. Late summer is extremely busy as we are finishing packaging and product and submitting every piece for approval. At Educational Insights, 95% of our approvals happen in Wrike, with the final sign-off meeting being face-to-face with the executive team. As we are finalizing the new product line, we are ramping up the marketing launch. Photography, video, eCommerce pages, website landing pages, GIFs, giveaways, every type of marketing asset, and thousands of words of marketing copy are captured and managed in Wrike. And that’s just the new product! The digital team is working on these marketing assets for our existing product year-round. Our OEM team creates “exclusive” versions of our products for big retailers. OEM projects have a concept phase and a design phase so they needed a Space due to their interrupted product cycle. We create concept artwork the sales team presents to buyers at big retail stores. The concept project sits until we hear from the buyer. If the project is picked up, the concept goes to development immediately. The OEM team Space has a calendar for meetings, reports, folders for each product phase, and their user guide. When we have a very big project outside of standard production, I create a Space for it, so it doesn’t get mixed into the standardized requests. So far this year, we’ve designed the interior of our new office, written an enormous brand book, and launched a robot pet (Meet PYXEL!) each with its own dedicated Wrike Space. This year we started with Wrike Analyze and I spend as much time as possible learning how business intelligence streamlines project management. Recently, I earned the Wrike Report Mastery Silver certification and build analytics boards of all sorts looking for the best visuals to illustrate the work we’re doing. Try Wrike free Which Wrike features or use cases do you want to learn more about? KR: Custom item types, in particular, because I use a recurring meeting template that creates three active tasks at a time. I created a meeting workflow and when I change the status to Next Meeting, a message is sent to the managers so they can add to the agenda. I’d like to create Custom item types for some of our quick-turnaround asset requests to make them simpler and differentiate them from other tasks. I need to see examples of ingenious Custom item type templates on their own, not just in Space templates. I also want to keep up the continued development in dashboards and analytics board widgets. I haven’t even started to use all the fantastic new updates added this month, but I will because creating clean, visual stories for my stakeholders is critical to my success. How do you Wrike? Want to join Wrike Stars or be featured in a customer spotlight story? Join our exclusive customer advocacy program that celebrates top supporters! Once you’re a member, you can earn points, badges, and rewards by completing fun activities, participating in the Wrike Community, and amplifying the Wrike brand.

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