It's tempting to fall in love with our own products. Our own innovative features, fancy design, or quirky wording of choice. And while that is fun, it's more important that your product is loved by your customers. They are (often) not like you.
The best products and communication are designed specifically for certain end-users. Where the producer has carefully discovered their wants and needs. And, (s)he has shaped the product and its accompanying communication and branding to play in tune with their worldview and beliefs. So, even though it's hard, kill your darlings for the greater good.
But then, on a meta-level, we often let this play out onto ourselves. So often we design our companies based on standards, general advice, or expectations of our culture or surrounding. But what if we think of your company itself as a product for one very specific end-user: You.
What would happen if we'd listen as attentively to our own wants and needs as we do to those of our customers?
You'll probably quickly realize that there are lots of areas in what you do and how you work that you might want to see differently.
And right away, knowing how sticky these ideas can be, you'll most likely convince yourself that it is simply the way it is and that there are reasons for it. You'll dismiss it as naïve or wishful thinking.
But what if you could? It's your company after all. All rules are made up. They're not laws of physics.
Can you be chaotic and unorganized? Possibly, if others in the team are skilled and willing to do the project management.
Or, can you not respond to email or slack messages instantly? For sure, if you communicate about that beforehand.
Can you only take on one project at a time? Possibly, if that way of working enriches the projects and you pick clients that fit that way of working.
Can you have a day a week for play projects that have nothing to do with work? Can you go for a walk on a workday if you feel like that's what you need? Can you go on a sabbatical for a few months? All very possible, when you generate enough value in your work.
When you design your company to suit you, you get to work in flow more. Less noise and struggle, and more value. Find the clients that fit with your style of work, and you're golden.
It's all possible. It's your company. And you're its most important end-user. Better start listening to him/her.
These are all examples of how Snijboon run their business. They're super congruent in the way they help organizations see their end users as whole humans, and in how they show up to their clients and to each other. We get into this in our conversation on De Gebakken Peren Podcast.
