The new 3DILA patent drawing service provides patent attorneys with a premium drafting service to illustrate the ideas in their patent applications. 3DILA drawings are used in global patent applications.
This project is still in progress. This page last updated 1/5/24.
Overview
A patent illustrator handling multiple attorneys faced challenges in planning, billing, and completing work, leading to project delays.
The 3DILA patent drawing service was introduced to streamline tasks through an “invisible system” with automation, including task management, prioritization, client communication, estimation, and billing.
The soft launch has already demonstrated reduced stress for the illustrator, improved client communication, and invoiced work worth thousands of dollars. The system will evolve based on feedback, with ongoing efforts to explore additional automation opportunities and optimize workload management.
UX Design Process
User insights
The users of the drawing service are patent attorneys and their assistants. They need effective communication with the illustrator, as well as transparency, work delivered early and on-time, and quality drawings, as always.
The user of the project management system is the primary illustrator at 3DILA. The illustrator has just gone through an overhaul of the 3D/drawing pipeline, and is continually finding ways to automate for increased efficiency on the drawing side.
The company needs a system that can scale up with the business as needed.
Problem Definition
Planning, billing, and completing work were becoming difficult tasks for a patent illustrator juggling over 20 individual attorneys.
Completion of projects was falling behind, as the illustrator struggled to keep up with day-to-day communications and the work itself.
System Diagraming
I worked closely with the illustrator to gain insight into the process and discover where improvements could be made. He walked me through the then-current process of being emailed with details for a new project, but without deadlines. This is at the heart of the problem, a lack of management and prioritization.
Further down the line, when a project was completed and ready to be billed, the process was cumbersome, time-consuming, and daunting.
Choosing the Platform
I began to research ecommerce solutions that allow for payment, integrations, and scalability.
I came across Shopify, which covered all of my requirements, and more. Along with Zapier and several app integrations, the system sends information from the intake form through invoice.
Branding
The unusual thing about this project is that the branding, mostly, came last, and is actually still in progress.
I had to priortize the project management system that runs behind the scenes of 3DILA.com. This allowed me to hand off the working system to the illustrator in December. This allowed him to get unburied from the workload, while testing the system.
Shopify has been a bit limiting, with a convoluted theming system, as far as the colors. I’ve had to adjust my designs in Figma, to meet the Shopify limitations. I believe there is still much I can learn about customizing the site through overrides and code modifications, rather than through the page builder.
Working Towards the Solution
In order to kick off 3DILA for 2024, we needed to create a new brand presence – identity, website, everything. The new website would rely on a project intake form as a gateway to project management and successful collaboration.
Due dates would be crucial to scheduling. Agile methods would be used to estimate the complexity of items in the backlog, allowing for planning and prioritization.
The solution is from the ground-up and iterative. The estimated time to start and finish would be approximately two months.
After that, we would test the new website with real clients, slow and steady til the bugs would be worked out. Prior to launch we’ve already been testing and improving the system.
Results
The Solution
I was increadibly impressed that I could connect data collected through an intake form, and use webhooks to pass the data to the following:
- form receipt as a record for attorneys and illustrator,
- a calendar due date event on a Gmail Calendar,
- a Trello card generated for the project as a task with attachments,
- an auto-generated file structure in Google Drive, with attachements placed,
- and smoothly generating project estimates with a two-click process in Quickbooks.
Feedback, Testing, and Iteration
The soft launch has already seen a dramatic ease in billing projects. Billing was once thought of as a lengthy, convoluted, copy-paste process, and now it’s almost fully automated.
There has been a noticeable reduction in stress on the illustrator, allowing him to concentrate on drawing and complete projects. Therefore, there’s been an increase in money billed already.
Next Steps
Marketing
This project was a rush, and so certain tradeoffs were made in order to get the system in place immediately. Marketing was an area that needs to be developed further. I will be creating the following marketing pieces:
- Refinement of the logo and brand. I will be going back through the site for an accessiblity check.
- Business cards. I’ll be honest, a weak point of mine is print design, so not the funnest task.
- Price sheets. Pricing of the work is delicate balance, one we are looking to update after a careful base analysis when data comes in.
Feedback
After launch, I will be seeking system feedback from the attorneys, and adjusting where I need to as they stress test the system.
Monitoring
The 3DILA business has set a monthly money goal, and will be looking to grow at a steady and manageable pace. As part of project management, the illustrator will estimate work capacity in story points and monitor burndown charts. We want to monitor the buisiness so that it doesn’t grow too fast, although the new system is built for scalability.
My Final Thoughts – For Now
It’s nice to see money roll in to one of my online stores again. In the past I’ve seen millions of dollars in ecommerce sales in stores I’ve developed. Today I’m seeing the numbers grow in Quickbooks. We are developing monthly goals, and so far, meeting daily goals.
My burn down charts are not working yet, so I’ll have to fix that. I’ve been thinking lately that obtaining a Scrum certification would benefit myself and others. So I’ll start looking into this.
