Meet the Pro

Andrea Jeffrey is the CEO and principal designer of Jeffrey Design Studio, a full-service design and build firm in Livermore, California. Since opening in 2017, her company has grown to manage an impressive 34 active projects simultaneously, handling everything from interior design and architectural drawings to complete construction build-outs.

The Problem

Like many growing design firms, Jeffrey Design Studio was drowning in disconnected systems.

"I was constantly trying to find a system that gave us at least 90% of what we needed. I've tried Trello. I've tried ClickUp. I've tried Asana. I've tried so many various programs... they were all great in some way, but they didn't do the other things that are visual that our team needs."

The breaking point came during a particularly stressful morning. Andrea was working on a paint schedule for a client who frequently changed paint selections when her computer crashed.

"I went in and I couldn't find the Excel file anymore. I had old copies that I had with all my red line notes, but I had to create it all over again... the painter was there. He was trying to buy paint, and I was like, I just can't. I just can't hack this anymore."

At that moment, Andrea realized they were juggling an unsustainable 10 different systems just to run their projects.

"We were working with Canva and one of those project management systems plus text messages plus in person meetings plus meeting the client at their home just to show them selection boards or vision boards of some kind, and it was all over the place."

The emotional toll was evident:

"I came in, and I cried on Jen's shoulder, and I said, 'We need something that's better than what we're doing now.'"

With Materio as a Partner

After discovering Materio through an Instagram ad, Andrea knew she'd found something different. Coming from Studio Designer, which was "very analytical" and "much more data entry," the visual nature of Materio immediately stood out.

"I went on a binger all nighter watching all the tutorial videos to try and just hit the ground running. One of the huge differences between that program and Materio is the visual ease of working in the system. Because in our line of work we're very visual people. So it needs to be visually user-friendly and non-cluttered for us to be able to have a clear mind to work."

The decision to transition was strategic:

"Any new project that we sign on, we're gonna start them in Materio. We're gonna phase out studio designer with the other projects we're working on."

The Transformation

The impact on client experience was immediate and dramatic.

"With Studio Designer, there was no ability to really have a client portal. The huge difference is that we've been able to really dial in... sharing the materials with the clients. I now will send, or anyone on my team will send the selections via Materio. Then what we'll do is we'll record a loom video and we'll send that through Materio to the clients."

This new process revolutionized their client meetings:

"Rather than 6 hours for a client meeting, it's brought it down to anywhere between 2 and 4 hours, because they've already seen the selections. So we've been able to upload the 3D renderings. They can see all the plan sets when they log into their project. They can see all the selections. So they're really able to tie the project together before we even meet."

The operational benefits extended throughout the entire project lifecycle.

"Material tracking from selecting to approval, to invoicing, to ordering, to actually tracking the lead times and updated shipping timelines... all of that has saved us a significant amount of money, because you can track all that in Materio."

For her construction team, the impact was equally transformative.

"When they're out there they're on their tablet, and they say, 'Well, where is this material going? I can't find my plan set'... They can go into Materio, and they can click on that selection, or they can click on the floor plan, and it has a selection right there, and they can go to the specs from there."

Success

Today, Jeffrey Design Studio operates as a unified, efficient operation.

"Materio is the only system our team has been able to find that meets a hundred percent of our needs and cuts out the clutter of extra systems"

The team's satisfaction is evident:

"I know my team loves it, too, and we're constantly talking about how we can use it even more... they don't want us to change again."

Even new hires immediately see the value, with recently hired designers expressing they

"love the visual representation that it gives you, the reduction in spreadsheets that it gives you."

When asked what would happen if Materio disappeared tomorrow, Andrea's response is telling:

"Everything I would miss. I would first cry... I would miss the ability to have a system that does what we need. So we don't have, we can focus our entire being on the clients and the projects instead of the struggles of the software."

For other scattered designers considering a change, Andrea's advice is clear:

"Go to Materio and just try out the test project... when you're a creative, your brain is firing everywhere like, 'oh, that's cool, that's cool, squirrel.' And you need a system that is going to hone you in and organize you in one place, and that is Materio... I will guarantee it will not be anything like any system that you've tried, and it will serve the majority of your needs if it doesn't serve all of them."