A design process that helps us get naked

As a branding design agency we are always trying to get better for our team and for our clients, and the book Getting Naked by Patrick Lencioni had a huge impact on how we want to run our business and help our clients.

Getting naked means being vulnerable and humble

Focusing the book’s excellent messaging towards a creative consultative approach is incredibly beneficial for our branding agency. We are striving to stay humble and vulnerable to avoid talking down to clients or acting like we know more about our client’s businesses than they do.

We help, not solve. We collaborate, not direct.

Branding and UX design strategy for startups and other businesses cannot be solved in a consulting meeting where the “experts” just start talking at clients about how they should change their business. We strive to help not solve and collaborate not direct. We don’t pretend to know all the answers, but we have pretty good processes, and we try to ask really good questions, so most of the time we can get to the heart of the issue. Then our experience generally leads to helpful insights and suggestions.

We enter the danger so that we can help our clients

We think this process is so much more enjoyable for clients once we position ourselves as helpful partners rather than know-it-all experts. We would rather be embarrassed by asking a dumb question than offend a client by acting like we know more about their business than they do. Thank you Patrick Lencioni for an excellent book, it has helped us grow as people and a team.

UX design pro tip:

Card sliders are definitely pretty cool (at the time of writing this) but even still it is good to focus on what the situation calls for. Not just the cool mock-up.

Best way to use grids

Grids are great for adding cohesion to uncategorized items, or making it easy to scan through a bunch of similar items.

Then there are sliders

Sliders are excellent to use for featured content or categorized content like Spotify which has many categories.

Design Systems Improve Consistency and Productivity

We’ve heard the term design systems be used in many different ways, some correct and others not even close. So, we would like to clear up the confusion and shed a light on the benefits of design systems. It’s not icon set building, a style guide, or a simple UI kit.

Large companies benefit from design systems, so act like them until you are one

Many large companies have design systems, but they aren’t just for large companies. Often large companies are just more organized and have long since graduated from the frantic mess of repeating the same steps over and over again. Out of necessity large companies added efficiency and productivity. You should too.

Internal Productivity and Consistency is what design systems are all about

Imagine building something complicated with legos, but every time you need a new piece you have to build it from scratch. Design systems are meant to be like all the lego pieces you will ever need for your specific brand, design, marketing, or anything that is outward facing. Designers who need to create the same button dozens of times will tell you that just plug and play is so much quicker.

Everyone on your team benefits from design systems

Growing startups are full of energetic and busy people usually wearing multiple hats. They often don’t have the luxury of pulling valuable designer time to create proposals for sales or assets for marketing. A design system could empower a marketing intern to create materials that perfectly represent your brand in a consistent and beautiful way. When this occurs everyone has more time to spend on big picture items instead of focusing on getting a logo just right because it already is.