Set them free to do their thing

When building websites, or really any kind of marketing deliverable, we have to strike an interesting balance.

On the one hand, we have a tight scope of work and a clear directive on what needs to happen.

On the other hand, we’re not always sure exactly what that looks like. If someone needs a new logo, we understand the why and the how, but at the start we have no idea how the new logo will look, which is the beauty of the process.

In his book “ Every Tool’s a Hammer “, author Adam Savage mentions a conversation with filmmaker Guillermo del Toro that I think summarizes this tension perfectly:

“How is it possible to manage a group of dozens of artists to keep to a cohesive vision? At dinner that night I asked Guillermo how he did it. “You have to give everyone complete autonomy within a narrow bandwidth,” he replied. What he meant was that after you get their buy-in on the larger vision, you need to strictly define their roles in the fulfillment of that vision, and then you need to set them free to do their thing. You want the people helping you to be energized and involved; you want them contributing their creativity, not just following your orders. Giving them creative autonomy rewards their individual genius while keeping them oriented to the North Star of your larger shared vision.”