@nicolaus

One of my fundamental design principles is meeting people where they're at. This wasn't something I started my career with but learned over a decade of collaborating with different teams. The most well-made tool is useless in the hands of an untrained worker. When it comes to building brand identities I had to learn this the hard way and take more time to listen at the start of an engagement to learn what clients REALLY needed to overcome their biggest obstacles. I had a fixed mindset about what every brand needed in its identity kit to be able to grow, but the reality is every business is on a unique journey and its needs never fit into a perfect package or template. Design as a SERVICE means taking the time to understand how a founder or stakeholder thinks, what they're comfortable doing on their own, what tools they're familiar with, where they need to be supported, and most importantly where they need to be challenged to level up. Meeting people where they're at means understanding when you need (and it makes business sense) to throw out your existing tools and frameworks and build new ones for the people you're working with; Learning how to deliver at a high quality on new software or reimagining a familiar, tested process from the ground up so it can be understood by newcomers to design thinking. To be clear, it doesn't mean leaving behind all boundaries for how you work and communicate. It means knowing when to be flexible and leave your ego at the door to deliver killer results and truly help others.

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