Working Together.
I’m a Freelance Consultant. Freelancing isn’t a side-gig for me or a bridge to my next job—it is my job, and I love it. (More on that below).
(Free) Friday Office Hours
My Fridays are for open-ended conversations: it helps me stay in touch with a wide variety of people, projects, and industry trends. Feel free to throw some time on my calendar for a chat about anything! Book time on my calendar
What contracts tend to look like
I’m an independent freelancer working through my LLC, Gnefkow Studios. Every contract is custom, but there are a few archetypical relationships that have worked well with past clients.
| Project Based | Fractional | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Fixed timeline, Fixed deliverables, fixed rate | “Bucket of hours” that can be used on anything. | Hourly rate, meeting 1-2 times per week |
| Best for: Research projects, consultancy subcontracting. | Best for: startups and innovation teams. | Best for: teams with in-house junior designers |
Project Based, Fixed timeline, Fixed deliverables, Fixed Rate Engagements
Best for: Research projects, sub-contracting. We scope a timeline, deliverables, and rate. For projects 8 weeks or longer, I bill monthly. For projects less than 8 weeks, I bill once at the end of the project. This type of engagement works well when the needs of the business are well-defined and there is a timeline in place. A few examples:
- Sub-Contracting with Design Firms. Design firms and design research firms often have long-term relationships with an end-client and need some help during a certain phase.
- Design Research. Design research projects often have a well-defined need, and they progress in a normal progression (Definition, Recruit, Interview, Synthesize, Report, Workshop).
“I’ve engaged Kyle as a consultant at Guidea Design to support our clients in the early stages of product ideation and definition. His skills as a researcher, strategist, and designer and his high level of client-facing professionalism make it easy for us to call on him when we need more support in these areas.” Theresa Neil, CEO of Guidea Design
“I’ve collaborated with Kyle on multiple engagements and would gladly work with him again. He is thoughtful, reliable, collaborative, and always delivers high-quality work within demanding timelines.” Huanwen (Gavin) Jiao, Co-Founder ad Pond Innovation
Fractional Engagements
Best for: Startups, Innovation Teams We block a number of weeks/months and an approximate amount of hours per week. I work as a fractional member of the team with priorities decided day by day.
- Flexible hours buckets. We agree on an allocation and a total number of hours—usually 25% (10 hrs/wk) 50% (20hr/wk) or 75% (30hrs/wk). We aren’t ridgid week to week (so on a 20hr/week contract, I might work 22 hours in one week and 18 in the next).
- More embedded on teams. I go to internal meetings, join Slack, work directly with engineers, and function as a member of the team.
- Priorities decided fluidly. My priorities and work are defined by the cadence of the business—be those an agile engineering cadence, a weekly all hands, or whatever the company does.
Why this works well for startups In startups and innovation teams, needs change week to week—sometimes day to day. This structure gives us two types of flexibility:
- Time/Priority Flexibility: if things change, my work changes without paperwork overhead.
- Scope Flexibility: I can be designing a logo on Monday, a marketing asset on tuesday, running an interview Wenesday, and building a Mixpanel report on Thursday, etc… Without fixed deliverables, I can shift to whatever task is the most useful at the time.
“Kyle is very adaptable. Startups like ours need people who can pivot very quickly to the business’ changing direction or needs. Kyle quickly transitions between strategic and tactical work which has been key to our success.” John Dubuque, CEO of Rebind AI
“I hired him to help us fix a badly broken UX/UI model and what I got was excellent App product strategy, consumer needs understanding, UX/UI definitions, engineer project and task management and delivery of an outstanding result.” John Lees, General Manager Vice President of Rocketbook
“I hired Kyle as a contract designer while I was working as the VP of Engineering and Product at an early-stage startup. What started as a three-month contract to assist with our product backlog grew into a 10-month engagement thanks to the significant value he brought to the team.” Charla Kunkel, VP of Engineering and Product at Quantified AI
Advisory Engagements
Some teams have internal junior designers who just need some guidance. For these teams, I have regular check-ins to advise. This also works well for teams working in some of my areas of expertise (for example, finance).
- Meet Weekly These meetings are sometimes with the broader product team, sometimes with the designer. Meetings tend to be 1-2 hours per week. I review designs, give feedback, and outline the next week’s goals.
- Contract for a number of sessions We’ll choose a number of sessions to be completed within a time frame. For example: 12 one-hour sessions to be completed within 14 weeks.
- Billed monthly I charge hourly for these sessions and send an invoice for hours worked at the end of the month.
- Async Sessions Sometimes, teams need quick async feedback. I provide this over video.
Let’s Chat!
Every engagement is different—that is the beauty of working with an individual contractor. Even if a project is still in its early stages, feel free to message me on Linkedin or Book time for a chat. I look forward to hearing about your project!