The organisation started with a clear plan: run open calls, support artists’ projects and offer them mentoring. It needed a website to introduce itself, and a system through which artists apply for support and the team assesses the applications and pays out the support.
Building everything at once would have taken a long time, and the first open call would have had to wait. So we split it into phases and delivered each one just before it was needed.
- startFirst line of code
- after a weekWebsite in two languages
- after 7 weeksAccounts and applications for the first open call
- after 15 weeksAssessment, contracts and electronic signing
The website first
A website in two languages: who they are, whom they support, mentors and opportunities. We launched it less than two weeks after the first line of code.
Applications
As the first open call approached, we added accounts and applications. An artist can start an application, come back to it later and submit it. The team builds the form for each call itself, including a field for choosing a mentor. In the admin, the team sees every application, adds internal notes and can decide on results in bulk.
Contracts and signing
The next phase came with the first decisions. A selected artist fills in the details for the contract, the team approves them, and the system generates the contract and sends it for electronic signature. No printing, no scanning, no copying details from an email into Word.
All the way to the end of a project
The system also keeps track of what comes after the signature: payouts, and interim and final reports from the artists. The team then publishes the supported projects on the website.
It was quick because we built nothing ahead of time. Each part got built once it was clear how it should work, not on a guess made on day one.