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.
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.
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 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.
Branding and UX design is arguably most successful when the client is most happy which arguably happens when the client’s users are most happy. How the heck would you know how to do that unless you dive deep into a qualitative conversation? So many helpful hints can be gathered when you find out what the client and client’s users like and don’t like, and your client can give you that info, for free.
Based on the very small amount of designers we see using moodboarding we are left thinking moodboarding is not getting a fair shake in most people’s opinion. There are many creative briefs or style guide conversation templates we have heard of that basically attempt to do what a great moodboarding conversation with the client can do. Not every conversation will solve all of your problems, but if you approach moodboarding as an opportunity to narrow the focus and demonstrate your expertise you can’t lose.
As a branding pro or UX designer your success is based on how happy the client and the client’s users are. So, why not use a process that qualitatively and efficiently gets you on the same page as the client? This way you create work that is strategically on brand right away, and your clients will appreciate the effort. The conversation will likely demonstrate how much of an expert you are which could turn into more work.
