As a new company we spend a lot of time talking about the operation. We ask ourselves hard questions like:
- Who do we want to work with?
- What kind of people should we hire?
- What don’t we want to do?
- Should we grow? If so, how much?
- What is our value to our clients? How do we express and explain that?
In amongst all this questioning is quite a bit of soul searching. We’re all constantly trying to define ourselves as we define and grow Blue Flavor. For me this is something that’s been on my mind for quite a while. It’s really interesting to me to see how our own personal thoughts on success have been factored into our vision as a company.
I’ve sat down on many occasions and tried to think through what defines me as a professional, and what I think is important to my own professional growth. I thought it’d be interesting to share those thoughts here, and take a look at what it means in terms of Blue Flavor and how we work, what we bring to the table, etc.
So, without further ado, here’s a quick peek into my mind and my own thoughts on success and how these relate to what we’re trying to do with Blue Flavor.
Be People-centered
Working with people has always been what I love most about my work. I think I can speak for my whole team when I say that solving problems for real people is the most important thing we do.
Everything we at Blue Flavor do revolves around people. You. Me. Everyone. People are what we center our design process around. People-centric is how we choose to position ourselves and our brand. People are the most important ingredient in everything we do.
By factoring people into everything we do we’ve begun to develop a real empathy for the folks who interact with our work as well as a point of view that seems to be fairly unique and, in my opinion anyway, extremely valuable.
Beyond that it’s an attitude that seeps into may areas. Being easy to work with (easy to use as it were) as a person is very important to any service related industry. It’s also hard and takes lots of effort and time to get good at.
Be a well-rounded specialist
We’ve spent lots of time trying to discover and define how we should work as individuals and as a team. We’ve had the “specialist vs. generalist” debate quite a few times and I feel we’ve got a pretty good handle on that.
As principals we feel that we should all have a specialty, or area of expertise that we focus on. However, we also feel we need to maintain some generalist qualities. To me, this is a great way to look at it and would work for many professions. For web professionals, the idea is that you’d become a “well-rounded web craftsman” while narrowing in on a particular area as you grow and gain experience.
We’re all trying to become highly specialized while at the same time maintaining a generalist skill set.
Don’t forget your hands
In order to keep that broad skill set we all need to be able to “do the work.” The heads vs. hands debate is one I’ve had with many over the years and it seems like everyone I talk to has a differing opinion. The idea is that as you progress in your career you should be shifting from doing the work (pushing pixels if you will) to a more strategic role. In general, I totally agree with this notion. However, I feel that the only way to do that is to keep doing the work. At least to some degree.
As Creative Director, my role is to blend strategy with creative and do lots of problem solving. Much of this is high level—setting direction and selling ideas. However, I’m not sure I could do that if I didn’t design. As well I feel I need to maintain contact with other areas of “what we do” (see Matt’s bit about the factory) so I need to code CSS or help move IA along. It keeps me grounded, keeps me growing and keeps me current.
Things change and if you spend too much time in the head, you could miss something important. Don’t forget your hands.
Be hardworking and passionate
When thinking about the value we bring to our clients, on of the things I think comes to my mind is that we’re all very passionate about what we do and we are willing to work hard to do it the right way. This means being involved in our professional community, showing thought leadership and making that extra effort.
For me personally it’s throwing myself into a project. About giving my clients the attention and respect they deserve. It’s about being flexible yet honest and sticking to what I believe in while making sure I’m providing insight and knowledge.
One of the things we talk about quite a bit is our “anti-agency” approach. Brian can expound on this in a later post, but the gist is that we want to be very open with our clients and treat them (and be treated) as true partners on the projects we work on. We don’t withhold information, we are willing to share openly our knowledge and we’re willing to battle a bit if we believe we are doing what’s right.
It’s not “all about the money.” It’s doing work we’re proud of.
Be a problem solver not a solutioneer
We’ve got a term we use at work—“solutioneering”. It’s a word I thought I made up (turns out it’s not new at all) that means putting a solution before a problem is fully understood. It’s a very common practice, I’ve done it many times and I’m sure I’ll do it many more. It’s also not the ideal way to work.
One thing I try very hard to do in my life is to understand and see problems before I start to look for solutions. The really hard part is knowing what is a problem. Sometimes will people will describe a situation to you in such a way that they’re actually solutioneering not explaining the problem.
Solving problems starts with becoming a good listener. Listen, understand the problem—then solve it.
Look for the sweet spot
When it comes to problem solving and design, there is rarely a solution that is 100% correct. Compromise, flexibility and constraints are par for the course. Most of what we do requires a delicate balance. Very often this comes right along with determining the problems (or pain points) of actual people, whether they be our clients, our clients’ customers or our own issues.
When it comes to design I’ve written about what I call “The Sweet Spot”—the place where business and user goals meet. However this concept goes far beyond that. In everyday life it’s looking for that perfect work/life balance. Work should be fun (and usually is) and I consider a good balance in everything I do to be very important.
Wrapping up
Well, I hope this has been interesting to y’all. I’d be very interested to hear your thoughts and opinions on the topic of success and professional growth—or anything else this got you thinking about. Please, feel free to leave a comment or shoot me an e-mail.
Sweet!! For the first time, I read something about success which was simple, concise and something that my tiny brains could understand. Great way to start my day!
Its interesting how there is a constant quest for finding THE solution or THE answer for success and personal growth.
Even the phrase “balance” suggests that there is an optimal mix. 60% of this, 40% of that. We are in pursuit of the absolute.
If we consider riding a bike, you must have a nice balance - a balance to the left and to the right, a balance forward and back. But assuming you aren’t spinning in your local health club, your bike is going to go over bumps and around turns - up and down hills.
As things affect what you and your bike are riding on, so must you shift your balance. I think the same applies to success; many things around you in your personal and professional life will alter the “balance” and you have to constantly adjust and re-adjust.
What happens to your definition of success when your market is booming, you can’t handle the demand? Does it then change when the market goes through a downturn and you have to lay people off? I can guarantee you that the definition of personal success changes when you go from single to married with family.
I couldn’t agree more with all of your points - they all hit very close to home for me. The only thing I think you should also be aware of is:
<strong>Expect the Unexpected</strong> Life is not 100% predictable and, like Marc has stated above, you are going to have to learn to adapt to the bumps in the road, and adapt quickly for that matter. I think that many people, myself included, sometimes get so caught up in “the plan”. You have a plan for your career, a plan for your project, a plan for your personal goals. As humans, we need to remain cognizant that these plans must be adaptive to the future and not remain set in stone.