“Don’t. Screw. This. Up.” These were some of my first thoughts stepping into the creative space here at Red Ventures. I’d been given an incredible opportunity to lead and support the creative team of designers, developers, and copywriters on one of our newly-formed verticals.
Fast-forward a few years – through countless team moves, strategic shifts, re-orgs, acquisitions, plus a new building or two – a lot has changed at Red Ventures. But here’s what hasn’t: I still get to work on incredible projects with the BEST creatives in the world, alongside our world-class marketing and analyst teams. Every. Single. Day.
There is one core value that drives everything I do here – a truth that I absolutely believe in and regularly pass along to others:
Whether you are leading a team or part of team, it’s all the same. Create the culture you want to have.
Refine it. Model it. Live it.
On any team, there are certain cultural attitudes that are important to establish, protect, and maintain. My team has six. To be clear: they’re not rules – they’re core values. And they give us a foundation from which we build toward success.
We’re in this together.
Simply put, we check our egos at the door. As a result, we thrive in a positive, collaborative atmosphere that welcomes professionals from all different backgrounds and invites everyone to bring his/her best. In other words – we know that we’re in this together and we all have the same target. A win is our win.
We dream.
While we appreciate starting within the box by knowing what’s expected of us, we won’t stay there. We create unexpected possibilities that differentiate our brands and accelerate our successes – always going beyond what is and considering what could be.
We don’t hold back.
We understand that full creativity demands that we hold nothing back. So we mutually support each other in speaking up, taking risks, and courageously contributing unfiltered, unconventional, (even audacious!) ideas.
We never fail – we just learn new ways of never, ever doing things certain ways again.
We hit it out of the park. Every time.
Everything we do is about results. We achieve our partners’ goals, but we also aim to continually exceed their expectations. Every person here has a responsibility for his/her own success, as well as our team’s and our partners’ success. Nothing is “someone else’s responsibility.” We own things. End to end.
We watch and listen.
Without identifying/interpreting/leveraging data of traffic and behavior, websites are only good attempts and pretty pictures. Using data allows us to build a more complete picture of various users and brings behavioral factors to the table. We then integrate our theories into testing strategies. We’re data-informed, not just data-driven.
We clear the path.
When approaching design, we start with identifying the target (what we want the users to do). From there, we reverse-engineer the process and begin identifying the best path to get them there. Then, we get to work designing an intentional experience that allows the users to get from point A to B strategically, with as few obstacles in the way as possible.
This is the ethos that has unified our team.
But what about yours? Push past the tasks and projects on the never-ending to-do lists; what are the things that are holding your team together? Are they defined? Are they what they should be? Can you help to make them better? Better yet, are they what you want them to be?
Regardless of role or tenure, everyone has a voice and a stake in the game. We all have the ability and the obligation to ask, “what can I do to make things better?” Then, go do it.
Simply put – if you get paid to do something, it’s very possible that you’re living out what someone wishes they had a chance to do. You get to do this. Never take that for granted.
