Year-end notes, 2019

The studio is closing for two weeks tomorrow. A short note on what worked, what did not, and what to carry into 2020.

Things that worked.

Saying yes to fewer projects. The studio was on roughly the same revenue this year as last on three fewer engagements. The reason is mostly that the projects that came in were better-fitted, because the ones that were not were declined earlier in the conversation. This was not a clever move. It was the slow accumulation of getting a little more honest about what the studio is good at, and saying so out loud.

Starting this notebook. Six months in, the writing is doing more for the studio than I expected and less for the studio than the design press tells you to expect. Nobody has hired the studio because of a post here. Several existing clients have said something useful in response to a post here. The audience that matters is small and specific, which is, I think, the right audience.

Writing every contract this year as a kill-fee contract. Three projects this year used the kill-fee clause to settle a cancellation cleanly. None of those conversations would have gone as well without the clause. The clients did not push back. The clause is now standard.

Things that did not.

The Q3 hire. We brought a junior designer in for what was meant to be a three-month engagement and let them go after six weeks. The fit was not there. We learned that “fit” is a thing you can usually feel by the end of the second week. Future hires will have a written two-week trial built into the contract, with a clean exit on either side.

The studio’s own site. Twelve months without a meaningful update. The cobbler-with-no-shoes problem is real. I will say this every December until I do something about it.

Three of the year’s lost pitches were lost on price. We are not changing the studio’s pricing. The clients who chose the cheaper studio are not the clients we want. (I have written this sentence in three previous year-end notes. I keep writing it.)

Things to carry into 2020.

Less ambition for the year, more discipline. Six projects, not eight. Six posts, not twelve. One slow large piece of work the studio has been wanting to do, finally given the time it needs. The shape of 2020 in the studio’s calendar has more white space than 2019 did. I think this is correct.

A two-day off-site in February with a copywriter, to rewrite the studio’s own positioning, using Win Without Pitching as the underlying structure. Last year I said this and did not do it. This year I am saying it again, and have already booked the dates.

The contracts piece from earlier in the year is here if you missed it. Both the AIGA standard form and Andy Clarke’s Stack Sense get a fuller treatment there.

See you in January.