Category: Business Consulting

Let me start with recognition: I know that my mind will lose information on the way and I get stressed just by thinking about it. Sometimes I can be a control freak, I know that as well but I also know that my organizing skills save me all the time when I need to check something about a project that has millions of years (yes, I do like an overstatement). As a project manager with different projects in hands is very important that I have as much as possible under control. Each one of us has their own mechanisms for that, mine is Trello.

When I first started with Trello, not enough time has passed when it was really doing the opposite of my intentions: it was boosting my stress and anxiety levels high up and I was losing it. To be fair, it was not Trello’s fault. It was mine. By then I had one board with so much information that it seemed I was not doing my work right and that I had so much to catch up.

After talking with a colleague (you have no idea how much you helped me, João!), he showed me that I was increasing my anxiety by not organizing information the right way. And that’s why I’m here, to give you some guidelines, like dos and don’ts, and hopefully help you if you’re in need.

So let’s go!

First of all, set up your mainboard with simple columns

You need to have a mainboard where you go to daily. The one that gives you the general perspective of your work plan. In that board, you can have as many columns as you wish but I would start with the ones below:

Backlog — This is the column where you put the information/requests you receive and don’t have the time to analyze right away. That email you received asking for a new budget or the next text you’ll be working on for Medium. You don’t have the time to follow up at that moment but it’s something you will work on. The idea is that you drag and drop cards from this column to the ones I’m showing up next.

Today — Here you put the cards you will be working that day. Simple as that. Don’t over complicate this.

This week — The tasks you trust yourself you’ll be working on during the week.

Later — The tasks you know you have to work on but the deadline is far away in time or not that urgent.

Someone else — This one is more than what meets the eye. Really, I do believe this column was the one that changed everything for me. Imagine that: you received feedback from a client on a design, you forwarded to your creative team for analysis and you expect a feedback today, so you leave it on Today column. With the other tasks you need to do and 3 or 4 more feedbacks you’re expecting. It’s psychological, I know, but when you’ll look at that column it will seem that you have so much work to do. And you may have. But there are some tasks that are not on you at that moment: they are someone else’s. And by separating this, you will even be more efficient because you easily know what’s your to-dos and what are the ones you need to be following up.

Done — The good column. This one is purely psychological but it can make a difference. Our brain needs to visually see what has been done, that we are going well. So instead of deleting cards when the task is done, you drag and drop them to a Done column and see it grow. You can archive all cards once a month, but no more than that. Let this column show you how much work you have done!

Personal/Notepad — This one is totally optional (all are, really). Think of it as the column where you put some notes to yourself, which may not even be related to work but that is important to keep in mind.

Every task that doesn’t fit in on one of this columns, goes to a specific board of the project itself, like Documentation or past client requests that you need to save as history. We can talk more about that in another article.

Believe me, just by separating the tasks by Today, This week and Later you are already giving yourself space to breathe.

Now you asked me: Master Marisa, how can you save us from slip on this and create a monster? Well, I’m not taking any responsibility, but listen, I mean, read:

1. Be realistic about your to-do. Add too many tasks for the day will only increase your stress levels when you look at it in the morning and by the end of the day when you realize you left so much work to do. If you work in an agency you know the drill but you really don’t need to add more stress to that.
2. Unexpected tasks will drop on your lap and mess up with your neat organization. Accept it. The faster you internalize that there is stuff you cannot control, quicker you recover from it and minimize the impact of what you cannot control in what you actually can.
3. If it’s not up to you, it’s not on your to-do. Take of that pressure on your shoulders and put it on Someone else column. This doesn’t mean you’re not keeping an eye on it, it just means that it’s not a task for you in that stage.
4. Sometimes tasks won’t be done in the timeframe you scheduled. That happens. More frequently than you’d like unexpected stuff show up and mess up with your neat organization. But it won’t help if you feel less competent. Just acknowledge that and try to fit them in. You’re not superman or woman, you know? And the day really has a limited amount of hours. So if something is left behind, just guarantee that you’ve done everything you could in the time frame you had. Is like what my boss always says: “Good is Great’s enemy”. If you don’t understand, I’ll simplify: you cannot deliver 100% perfection all the time.
5. Maintain your boards up to date. This will guarantee that you always know what to do next and what to follow up, which will really help on your work-related anxiety peaks because you’re in control of yourself.

There’s always add-ons you can use: colored labels, due dates, Trello Power-ups, add your team to the boards, email plugins that automatically generate a card… But the best way to begin is by keeping it simple and don’t over complicate from the start.

Bottom line: it’s important that you have a methodology. Because otherwise you can get overwhelmed by the information you collect and it starts backfiring at you. But above all believe that you are capable of maintaining under control what you can control and that you have the strength to overcome what you cannot. Shift your mindset and you’ll master your work plan.

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Monday was born more than 12 years ago. First of June 2006 was the day. And the truth is that still today, I feel like it’s day one. Every Sunday evening I feel excited to have another Monday starting soon. Because every Monday means the beginning of a new week and new possibilities. New things to achieve and to thrive for. Mondays are great.

But all this feeling comes from a deep understanding that we can never stop reinventing ourselves and rethinking what, how and most importantly why. And this constant questioning and mindset are what keeps us in a never-ending startup mode. And the truth is that this is also what assures we continue to grow, the certainty that if we don’t behave like this, we’ll cease.

Growth doesn’t have to be directly related to more people, projects or even more clients.

People grow when they learn more, when they experience more, when they share more and when they are empowered to take control and be part of the whole by truly impacting the way we do things. Building the right culture comes from everyone.

Projects grow in a way that they are today, more than ever, actually focused on impacting business, nothing else really matters. And so they grow sooner, together with our clients, with our clients’ clients, and a stronger foundation is built for the project to strive and make a real difference.

Clients grow in a way that our knowledge of the business and our relationship with them has never been so real and so true. And we believe the feeling goes both ways 🙂

The positioning we have today defined as a Business Design Consultancy focused on Business and Experience Design started shifting from the Digital Marketing Agency positioning around two years ago.

It all started with an office change from a four-wall open-space office in a well-known business tower to an international co-working space downtown.

We needed to have new perspectives, to see things differently, to breathe things differently and to ultimately behave and think differently.

This started impacting projects, clients, and of course ourselves. By being in a different environment, we began to ask ourselves lots of obvious questions. Why do we store so much paper? Why do we use this software? Do we really need to have all these servers in our office? How can we make sure we have a clean desk workplace? How can we work differently? Remotely? What can we offer differently to our clients? What are we really good at? What are we not good at? What do our clients really want? And lots of other questions.

We got out of our comfort zone (we usually don’t stay in comfort zones very long) and started to change from within. We applied several processes of design thinking and business design frameworks and methods to analyse and restructure our entire business. With these processes, we found things that nobody really cared about. And things clients wanted us to offer. Amongst others, we were already doing well 🙂

This gave us a real sense of power and a clear vision. We had no doubt on the path we should take.

We started reshaping our team leaving all core know-how in-house and setting up a stable worldwide network that allows us to scale when we want, in all areas, like Business Design and Experience.

We also changed the way we do projects. Every project now starts with simple questions. Why do you really need this? What is the real goal for this project? Will it impact your business in some way? The right way? And we work to get this answers through business design processes and workshops in co-creation with our client and their clients. The results are really great and actually lead to another question: how is it possible that we didn’t do things like this in the past?

One side effect of this is the huge impact this has on ourselves inside Monday. Everyone has a different perspective on the project and a real reason for it. Everyone is much more empowered to make things work, to make things perfect. It’s like the project is actually ours, and we want it to work and to be a success more than anything.

And of course, our clients started to change with us as well by gaining a clearer perspective on what, how and why things should be done. For a full spectrum of different needs, whether it was for having a stronger basis for a strategic decision, to launch a disruptive marketing campaign, to totally remake their product UX/UI, to develop an innovative digital platform or to find what could be done to increase lead conversions.

This happened to existing clients as well as for new clients. We got to know our clients and their businesses better than ever before, and they understood and saw many things more clearly. Some already familiar with this kind of approaches, others less experienced. But the outcome was pretty much the same for all after going through our business design process: it was worth it.

Everyone (including us) gained an understanding that they never had before. From the business, the gains, and the pains. Lots of insights not even related to the digital area, but impacting the business anyhow. And that is what matters, to find the real need for what will be done.

It gives us an immense joy and sense of purpose to know that we found true meaning for a project but mostly we helped our client feel the same.

This is why I enjoy Monday(s). We love to make changes, to transform ourselves, our business and our clients. And it all begins on Monday(s). Every week.

The article was written on a Sunday evening. Watch out, new Monday coming up.🚀

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We really do want to hear from you! Get in touch

Monday is a Business Design Consultancy based in sunny Lisbon. We believe in the power of brands and we work side by side with our clients transforming their customer experience. This core philosophy stands at the center of everything we create. Clients include: Snickers, Red Bull, Twix, Philips, M&M’s, Guloso…

 Diogo Romão

CEO and Managing Partner @ Monday 

Meet Diogo

Just to let you know, this article is not meant to point out flaws and criticize any parents in general. Just like you, I am sure that they have always done what they could for us to grow up strong, secure and independent, allowing us to be that unique being that we are.

If you think about it, our parents are our first mentors in life. They teach us, correct us, direct us. Their role is so important that it helps to define who we will be in the future.

As it generally happened to generation X, my parents come from a workaholic lineage, who have always put work in front of their necessities. This happened because they have been taught that their positions were the most significant goal in life. For millennials, this can give chills, but for my parents, the millennials also end up being incomprehensible. Therefore, rather than discussing and identifying who is right and who’s wrong, I would first list five things my parents didn’t teach me and now I would like them to know:

Saying no

Imagine the situation: your peers or leaders arrive with another project for you. The deadline is tight, and they gave it to you because they knew you wouldn’t deny it. You are not obliged to accept everything that is thrown at your table and one thing you may not know if you say no sincerely, you’ll even earn more respect.

Say yes

This is for the 5 minutes looking at the sun that you denied to do because you had so many tasks ahead of you. It was the chocolate bar in the shop so close to the office. Your happy hour beer with friends at 6 pm. Those little treats will give you more energy and will help you to relax. Sometimes we need to say no to work that can be done later, to say yes to ourselves and our mental health.

Procrastinate to take better actions

Here the doer will have to give in because it’s good to procrastinate, only when you don’t feel guilty and it is responsible! How many ideas come after we let them mature? I guess we might miss amazing good opportunities by not saying: “Let me speak with my team about it and come back with a solution”.

Stop overthinking

Do not try to interpret what others think or would be the outcome of a situation if you had done something different. Honestly, doing this is a waste of time. Whenever try to read people’s mind or struggle to understand what he/she meant by that comment, we no longer care about what we feel or think. And in reality, the times when we hurt someone we do not even realize that it happened.

Don’t get tired of adapting yourself

The classical “we have always done it this way” should be avoided at all ends, we know. But when we bring it to a singular person’s perspective, being able to accept criticism in an adult way and improve on that is not something learned easily. I believe parents should always be very realistic with their children, and show them why it is so important to accept that you have flaws and that is important to keep progressing, every day.

After working in 3 different countries and with so many different cultures, I had the opportunity to open my mind and start respecting even more whoever thinks and acts unlike me. As a result, I was able to learn the lessons I now would like to share with my parents.

Being human sure is not an easy task, but is it parenthood, really? If we look to others with empathy, we will be more relaxed. Respect everyone above all.

Thank you for reading

We really do want to hear from you! Get in touch

Monday is a Business Design Consultancy based in sunny Lisbon. We believe in the power of brands and we work side by side with our clients transforming their customer experience. This core philosophy stands at the center of everything we create. Clients include: Snickers, Red Bull, Twix, Philips, M&M’s, Guloso…

For any agency or company running against tight budgets or tight schedules, it may look tempting to start a design project by diving into visual sketches or wireframing a project based only on the site architecture. Nonetheless, almost every time it’s the wrong way to approach a project.

To design and create great user experiences we have to understand the user’s needs and for that, we have to focus on them. With this in mind, we can learn, develop and achieve the perfect task flow for the users.

“If there’s a simple, easy design principle that binds everything together, it’s probably about starting with the people.”, Bill Moggridge, IDEO

We should always begin with the users. Of course specification documents have their relevance, but first, we need to examine what are the users’ objective(s) and what are the business’s objective(s). Going the other way, we are only creating the focus on a product and not on who will use it. Imagine building a car without thinking of who will drive it and for what it will be needed. Different vehicles have different user needs and crafting a digital product uses the same principals.

We should never forget that the easier the product is to work with or use it, the more likely you are to deliver a great user experience. Do you remember the first iPhone? It was a massive market hit because it was acknowledging what the users’ needed.

But how can we create a focus on the user?

First and undoubtedly we have to start with the user. Rather than going through all the specification documents and layering design on it we should explore and research the user’s intention(s) and the business’s objective(s).

For example, in one of our recent projects, we designed a eCommerce website for our customer GoldNutrition, and this included the following steps:

• A user wants to buy a product.
• A user wants to search what related products there are.
• A user wants to return a wrong purchase.

But how can this impact the finished product?

If we map the possible objectives and compare them to the business goals, we can create a better understanding of the arrival of the user on the website to the completion of his task(s).

Then we have to understand and know what the user wants to do. Only then we can define when and who we will get to the finishing point of his needs. The method gives us a better perspective of where the user will come.

Task completion funnels

Here is where we will create a different flow from an entry point to the funnel and finally to the completion of a task:

• Create the entry point. They may exist a series of entry points (Email, Ad Banners, Social media Post, etc).
• Design the page where the user will begin the visit and how will you invite him to start that process.
• Design of the process (What his suppose to do).

The routes can be many and we need to know them.

What considerations should we have for the entry points?

Here we consider what can happen in which entry point:

• Who are we targeting for this point? Is it a group or groups?
• Are they actively searching for our website or product?
• Did they just stumble upon our website or product?
• Are they looking to solve a problem?
• How can we get their attention the time necessary to get them to navigate through our website?
• How can we communicate with the users in a way to show them our product solutions?
• What is the best call to actions to get their attention?
• What type of device are they using when they enter our website?
• How can we create confidence for the user?

The considerations have to be taking account to get through.

User flow design

Creating user flows puts the focus on where it should be, in the interactions with a specific product that the user wants to get involved. This process ensures that the user experience takes priority over the visual design or architecture information and provides us with a solid pathway to the final goal.

“Design is the last great competitive advantage.”, Seth Godin

User flows are the representation of the user experience, and when this is put on practice it ensures that the user and the business get what they exactly want.

What are the final benefits of creating user flows?

Well, their’s a wide range of benefits, but here are some of them:

• Product or service based on real needs of users or businesses.
• They’re a visual representation of the paths the user can follow to achieve a specific goal.
• Understanding what the user needs to complete a task.
• Understand what a business needs to present its products or services.
• Increases conversion rates (product purchase or service purchase).
• A decrease of incomplete tasks (Buying a product or service).
• A decrease in time-consuming of tasks redesign.
• A better way for teams and stakeholders to understand and provide input.
• It’s easier and wiser to make changes on this level savings a lot of money in future changes.
• It allows us to compare alternatives.
• It helps us evaluate and test in an earlier stage with users before the all project is complete.

To conclude

I strongly believe that it’s time to create products and services that generate real value to users and for businesses. It’s like the old say — “One hand washes the other” and creating a focus on the user is that, if we create products that fit the needs of the users, businesses will achieve what they really need to continue to operate and that’s selling their products or services.

Thank you for reading

We really do want to hear from you! Get in touch

Monday is a Business Design Consultancy based in sunny Lisbon. We believe in the power of brands and we work side by side with our clients transforming their customer experience. This core philosophy stands at the center of everything we create. Clients include: Snickers, Red Bull, Twix, Philips, M&M’s, Guloso…

Michael Nunes

Chief Creative Officer  @ Monday 

Meet Michael 

Outros artigos de Michael Nunes

How to start your UX Design career. In a good and affordable way

As a designer, I know that every agency works with different timings and methodologies. My friends, who were in the same area as I do talk a lot about the communication’s market and how times are changing. That change impacts the way of working and when I became part of Monday my method of working changed too.

Now you must have realized that I’m a Visual Designer at Monday and so my work is focused on user interface and user experience for digital environments.

At this point in my life, my professional knowledge is a mix of two different visions. Nowadays I’m working on a Consultancy Agency and before I was working on a regular Creative Agency. As the time goes by, I can feel the difference between these two kinds of companies. I know I’m not that old, although I will share with you my experience in both realities and the differences I find on them.

The reality in a Creative Agency:

• Usually, to reach new clients and new projects, the Creative Agency has to pitch against other agencies;
• Sometimes the work you had developed to pitch new clients never really comes out;
• The time available to work on a project is short and critical. Although, working under pressure brings a massive knowledge to the table;
• The weekly planning can be chaotic because of the several projects that are occurring;
• The environment, relaxed and creative, is one of the perfect fuels to reach better ideas;
• Solving communication problems is the goal;
• To find the best project solutions, you have a good range of resources and technical approaches;
• You can work on small projects as simple product campaigns to 360 brand’s strategy touching different media;
• Agencies work with separate teams of different areas to approach the same project.

What I’ve found in a Consultancy Agency:

• Often, Consultancy Agencies are part of bigger workspaces, like co-work spaces, what brings new clients and projects;
• Projects are focused on business-oriented solutions. The goal is not to present solutions that are only visually stimulating, we dig deep into client’s business and solve problems;
• We don’t pitch;
• You still need to work with creativity, but not just related to design. On Consultancy Agencies you carry the projects across multiple steps where you can do your magic;
• The projects are longer what makes your week plan more organized and quieter. A Consultancy Agency will self-manage its team to solve the problem;
• The work environment is very relaxed and calm. The daily noise can be just project’s discussions;
• The final output of our work comes from workshops with the clients or consulting sessions where we analyze solutions for businesses problems. As a designer, you still deliver the digital product such as website, an app, wireframes or communication pieces, but its based on the outcome of our previous sessions;
• We work side by side with our clients through the project lifespan;
• Teams work together on everything with design thinking oriented processes.

Which one is better?

I cannot give you an answer on that. Sorry! My view about these two ways of work is that you can see new perspectives and new methodologies. So, each experience, independent of the outcome, is a complement to your previous job.

In one hand you have an experience where your creativity is daily stimulated (Creative Agency). On the other hand, you have time to think and find better answers using methodology (Consultancy Agency).

The knowledge I bring from a Creative Agency now makes my decisions fresher on product area. Nowadays, when applying the creative thinking when designing product interfaces its a perfect fit for every project.

The interesting part on a Consultancy Agency is the process and methodologies that are applied and grounded in creativity, and at Monday I can be a great piece to find suitable solutions and add value to projects.

However, in the end, no matter in what Agency you are, the most important things are the strengths and results of the solutions you are seeking for you, for your career, for your business, and for your clients.

Thank you for reading

We really do want to hear from you! Get in touch

Monday is a Business Design Consultancy based in sunny Lisbon. We believe in the power of brands and we work side by side with our clients transforming their customer experience. This core philosophy stands at the center of everything we create. Clients include: Snickers, Red Bull, Twix, Philips, M&M’s, Guloso…

A big part of Monday’s success has always been our capacity and courage to keep reinventing ourselves. We believe that progressive reinvention is the key factor to compete against the largest players on the market, such as the big Agencies or Consulting firms.

But starting last year our biggest transformation ever started. It stopped being about how we treated our team and our clients and it started being them at the center of everything, as the force that drives us all. According to Star Wars, the force is something that grows inside you.

During our short 12 years of existence, our team’s well-being was our main priority. We were against late hours at the office, although sometimes it could happen, but shouldn’t be the norm. Their families had to be their first priority. Living a healthy life, both physically and mentally, had to be a goal. All this was highly important for us as managers.

Now all this is a given and therefore our focus has changed. The company itself has been reinvented by the team, and the projects are created by the client. The force is growing inside each one of us.

Two main changes took place:

1 — The team reinvented the company

How could we promote design thinking Processes for business strategy if we wouldn’t do it ourselves? How could we speak about collaboration and co-creation if we would promote a top-down strategy?

What was different now? This reinvention was led by the team. What we are today as a company is the result of pure collaboration and co-creation by the team, through Design Thinking processes, focused on value proposition creation and client’s alignment. In the end, it’s not what we do, it’s about the value we create with our client.

Management had no influence on the company’s redesign of the services we are offering today or on how the company now presents itself.

We, as leaders today, have to work as facilitators. Our job is to provide our team the support and the tools needed for their amazing performance. We have to be invisible and when we are visible we should be listening 90% of the time.

“We, as leaders today, have to work as facilitators. (…) We have to be invisible and when we are visible we should be listening 90% of the time.”

Another relevant point was coaching. Today information about any topic is available online. Training is not an issue. We believe that we have to facilitate tools to develop the emotional intelligence and emotions management of our team. Quoting António Damásio, the famous Portuguese neurosurgeon, “Emotions and feelings aren’t a luxury, they’re our way of communicating our mental states to other people. But they’re also a guide for us to make decisions.” Coaching is new in the company, but it’s outcome is starting to blossom.

2 — Co-creation and collaboration with clients

There is an amazing dichotomy, the time that we speak about Digital transformation is the same where people are more relevant and at the center. There is no Customer Experience Transformation without empathy. Empathy is, in my opinion, one of the strongest concepts in management today.

The client is our hero. But the client is a company. So the client is more than one person. So we need them. We need to be with them. We need to hear different people. We need to challenge different people inside a company. We need to co-create with them. We need to feel their purpose, because we need to help to transfer that purpose to the consumer. It’s all about emotions.

Purpose comes from inside the company. Purpose comes with feelings and emotions, and these create empathy. Purpose is a healthy and honest way to create communication.

At Monday purpose is a work in progress. Purpose can’t just be defined and imposed. You live it, you feel it. It goes in your blood. We are almost there, and for sure we will share it with you soon.

Thank you for reading

We really do want to hear from you! Get in touch

Monday is a Business Design Consultancy based in sunny Lisbon. We believe in the power of brands and we work side by side with our clients transforming their customer experience. This core philosophy stands at the center of everything we create. Clients include: Snickers, Red Bull, Twix, Philips, M&M’s, Guloso…

Everybody is on social media. Our friends, our grandparents even our pets have something to say about being part of the amazing network that exists nowadays. So, if anyone is on social media, brands have made a statement and have been working to be in the center of this dialogue all the time.

In Portugal, the top second-screen activities are being on a social network (43% of the population) just below chatting with friends (32% of the Portuguese population).*

So if brands want to be on top of mind they can (and should) be at your TV, your Desktop, your bus station and they must talk to you on social media because you’re going to notice them, even if you don’t want to.

Each piece is necessary.

Says Jon Loomer about an effective brand strategy and to create great content in every device that you choose for your brand. If we believe in that sentence (and I do) we should focus on a few points that can make any brand strategy coherent and effective and where social media can have a great impact.

What are the goals?

Another area to look at when creating an integrated marketing campaign is to identify the objectives. Creating goals will enable you to have a clear objective for a successful marketing campaign.

So, what are your goals? Create brand awareness? Reach a more targeted audience? Increase engagement? Generate leads?

When a brand has a clear goal and focuses on that it will help determine the “who, when, where, and how” for sharing content in order to have maximum reach and exposure. When objectives are defined the results will be better and measuring that will be great to know what worked and what didn’t.

Different targets, different social channels

When considering the target audience, the brand must be aware that different social media channels tend to attract a different people. So if you target your efforts to the social media channels that align best with your existing marketing strategy, the results will be better. Brands must have deep knowledge about its target, to make sure there is no waste of time or resources creating and promoting social media content on a channel that does not reach its intended audience.

Social customer care is a new tool

If a brand has various social channels like Facebook, Instagram, etc., it should also be using those touch points for customer service.. Nowadays, a brand has different ways to amplify its customer service: when a customer posts a comment, good or bad, the world can see it. They can also see how the company responds — if the company responds at all. It is extremely important to have a voice that cares about the community and not only about the likes and reach.

Work on good content

Scroll down is the new way to be in the real world. So if a brand has great content people will stop and work with it. Content should therefore be relevant and on a similar tone to other channels where the brand interacts. Brands could be more informal on social media, for sure. But they shouldn’t be bipolar.

Uniform message across channels

Consistency is essential to the success of business strategies. So, brands have to make sure that content and message are aligned, or are consistent with all channels of communication.
When a brand develops a piece of content — a blog post, a video, an article — it should ensure that it can be used across every media. Nevertheless, the brand should adapt it to each media where it’ll be used according to its nature. For example, if a brand has an interview it can be used on a newsletter; on Linkedin — with a little excerpt; make a post on Facebook with a specific sentence from the interview and some photos.
This sort of integrated marketing strategy can be extremely effective.

Trust in (an) agency expertise

Many companies outsource social media to multiple agencies. One for the content, another one for the media and sometimes another one for the daily management. This kind of structure affects the integration of social media in broader strategies negatively, because it’s harder for the agency to have a clear overview of your marketing efforts as a whole. This problem leads some companies to move more social media activities in-house or get different partnership models with their agencies.

When brands build an integrated strategy— with all the channels being coherent — this ensures that the strategy follows closely the goals, news, and interests of the whole brand. So, the social media can have a voice on the strategy and can communicate with the audience making sure they talk about the latest trending topics as well as what people are talking about in social media. In the end, an integrated marketing strategy with social media on it develops a better engaging customer relationship which generates an effective marketing capital and a sustainable competitive edge.

Global Webindex, PORTUGAL: GWI MARKET REPORT Q2 2016.

Thank you for reading

We really do want to hear from you! Get in touch

Monday is a Consultancy agency based in sunny Lisbon. We believe in the power of brands and we work side by side with our clients transforming their customer experience. This core philosophy stands at the center of everything we create. Clients include: Snickers, Red Bull, Twix, Philips, M&M’s, Guloso…

Applying to a job can be a daunting process, but you should never forget to put aside your fears and show that you’re the best candidate for the job. No recruiter will pass on a designer who shows off is personal qualities, a good portfolio and an urge to learn.

The average recruiter may spend about 10 seconds to screen a CV and is looking for something that catches the eye and impresses him to give you a call.

So here’s some advice to pop up that CV and get your dream job.

Stop using Europass CV.

Don’t use Europass CV template. You are a designer and the general idea is to stand out of the pile of candidates. These templates are for jobs where creativity is not one of the required skills, don’t forget.

Don’t use Microsoft Word.

Again, don’t use a program that doesn’t give you the freedom to create something that represents you. You need to stand out from all the other candidates and sending a normal, all the same, CV will not do that.

Percentages for each skill, why?

From some time now designers are using percentages to represent their personal and design program skills. Many examples include something like Web Design: 70% or Sketch: 65%. Using this kind of language is like saying you are not proficient in this skills. Recruiters are not looking for average candidates; they are looking for a special designer.

This also diminishes the main point in this area of expertise, creativity and a design approach that creates real value for any designer and his work.

Grammar and spelling mistakes.

If a potential recruiter spots a spelling or grammar error at first sight while reading your CV, it just means you didn’t bother to check your work. It shows you don’t pay attention to detail. Imagine what would happen if a spelling error in a client’s project ended up being printed on 10.000 flyers or going live on a nationwide campaign.

Before sending your CV to a company, show it to a friend or a relative. If an employer catches a misspell in a few seconds after opening your CV, so will someone you trust.

You don’t have many projects on your portfolio?

Well, we’ve all been there… Working with awesome clients and doing a lot of work doesn’t fall from the sky, but don’t worry.

You have what? Two or three projects not that big? Here’s what you can do:

• Choose a brand/client you would like to do work for
• Study and identify their problems, flaws and propose a solution
• Show how your solution would impact their business
• Highlight the process

This kind of strategy gives you two advantages: one is creating a possible way to get hired and the second one is giving you exposure in creative social media platforms like Behance and Dribbble.

Showing too much work.

Tempting as it may sound, showcasing a lot of work creates a bad way to highlight your best projects. No recruiter wants to go through all of your work. They want to go through it quickly without wasting time. You need to think that some recruiters receive hundreds of appliances. So, less is more.

No more pixelated images.

Opening a portfolio and seeing bad quality images always leaves a bad impression. This only means you didn’t spend the time to ensure that your work was crisp and clear. Signs like this show that you don’t have pride in what you do. No company wants that kind of employee working for them.

Not having an online portfolio. Don’t be lazy.

Have you noticed we’re in the 21st century? Let’s get those projects on the web. Platforms like Behance and Dribbble make everyone’s life so much easier. Don’t forget about the exposure this platforms can give you: a lot of recruiters visit those sites on their quest to find creative talent. On top of this, don’t be lazy presenting your projects: create appealing presentations to make your projects shine even more.

Hey, follow the instructions!

There are a lot of companies who immediately reject your application if you don’t go by the rules outlined by them. Don’t forget to read the requirements: sometimes it’s just a subject e-mail name, the timeframe for applying or maybe some kind of presentation. Just read the requirements and everything will go nicely.

Don’t be a Pinocchio, seriously, don’t.

Lying in applications will certainly shut a lot of doors for you. If you don’t have the skill don’t say you have. A better way to work around is to demonstrate the desire to learn new skills. Every recruiter would love to hire someone who is eager to learn and grow within the company.

Present yourself.

Don’t just send an email with your application. Take the time to present yourself to the person on the other end. Creating a connection with the recruiter increases your chances of getting a call. People like to know who they are hiring, what kind of personality they have. It’s more than just work. Recruiters search for culture fit and this may give you an advantage over your competitors.

Thank you for reading

We really do want to hear from you! Get in touch

Monday is a full service digital and interactive agency based in Lisbon. Weʼre a team of designers, builders & thinkers who craft digital experiences. Clients include: Snickers, Red Bull, Twix, Philips, M&M’s

Michael Nunes

Chief Creative Officer  @ Monday 

Meet Michael 

Outros artigos de Michael Nunes

Focusing on the Users’ needs

In the checkout process, online purchases may offer to the users the ability to checkout as guest or force them to register before completing the purchase or provide both options.

There is no easy way out, so we constantly try to adapt the necessities of the client to the solutions that the market as to offer, the kind of clients that are going to buy the products and any other problem.

There is no right solution, it all depends. In one project we could use one way and in the next we are certain that the same solution is not going to work. Below are the advantages and disadvantages of guest checkout and consumer checkout.

Be my guest — Checkout as guest

Permission to checkout as guest is especially important when the user has first contact with the website/brand. In the first contact the user often doesn’t trust the brand to provide their personal data. Forcing users to register before completing the purchase leads to a decrease in conversion rates (estimated for 35% of abandonment rates). To make a checkout as guest is generally much faster than creating an account.

Forcing a registration often breaks the buying process. Once the user takes the initiative to make a purchase the checkout process to be presented should be as easy and fast as possible, so minimising the number of clicks, and the number of hoops is usually a good idea.

However, although guest checkouts enhance the user experience, there are disadvantages on the merchants’ side:

• The emails provided by users may only be sent notifications and not newsletters with promotions or other similar content
• They will not be able to request reviews after the purchase
• Difficulty reviewing, modifying or tracking orders
• Inability to easily reorder products
• Customer service finding it time-consuming or difficult to assist shoppers with theirs orders
• Inability to link a customer’s order history

As a way of sending new promotions to the guest user, during the checkout process can be presented an option to send promotions, trends and new arrival, as shown above.

However, if a high value is provided as well as a good experience for users they will return, so at this stage, they may register.

On the other hand, if the e-commerce doesn’t get a lot of repeat customers, it is usually to turn customer accounts off completely and give only the option to checkout as guest, saving them the extra click of choosing guest checkout, but this option depends of the sold product or service and the type of customer. These customers could still be loyal to certain brands, but they still might only drop by once or twice a year or during the holidays. In this case, if the merchant wants to make an effort to turn their customers into frequent buyers, there are many marketing methods that can be used — forcing to create a new account isn’t a great way to do that.

It is also a common practice at the end of the checkout process to question the customer whether he wants to save the details for next time, not mentioning the word “register”. “Saving your details” implies convenience, it puts customer experience as the main focus. The word “register” is heavily associated with marketing spam.

Providing a guest checkout option is always a great way to increase conversions on mobile, with a smaller screen and sometimes bad connection speeds can be harder. Thus, simplify the purchase process is a must.

The easier and interactive way — Checkout as customer

Registered accounts give customers a more interactive and interesting experience with the merchant. More meaningful relationships can be built with the customer this way. Registered accounts allow customers to leave reviews and be more involved with the brand community. This relationship is essential to present products, adjusted deals and rewards, redirected to the customer. For example, Amazon never presents the same homepage to 2 different signed-in visitors.

Customer accounts allow online retailers to personalize the experience of the customer, like, the browsed products are stored for later, to show specific recommendations on the website and via email.

User accounts also allow to save customer billing information, so it doesn’t need to be entered for every purchase.

Furthermore, in some cases, when a store sells and shipps physical products and has features like membership, bookings, courses, digital downloads or some other service, having the guest checkout can cause problems. In this case it’s best to ask for accounts to be created during checkout and present the benefits.

One way or another

It is common in e-commerce to offer the option to checkout as guest and offer the option to create/login customer account. Since they both deliver results under certain circumstances.

When enabling guest checkout, it is offered to the customer the option to create a customer account immediately after checkout. In this way, the contact information and billing information of the customer are stored, preventing customers from filling all their information again in the next purchase.

Checkout examples

Above are presented some good examples of checkouts of well-known ecommerce stores.

ASOS a known British online fashion and beauty store, Asos.com, offer their customers to checkout as guest or sign up with social media, as shown below.

FARFETCH an online fashion retail platform that sells products from over 700 boutiques and brands from around the world, uses the same strategy, as well as asos.com. In this checkout, if the user performs a checkout as a guest, it is required to enter his email. This email is useful for shopping cart abandonment campaigns.

NIXON is the premium watch and accessories brand for the youth lifestyle market. During the checkout process don’t show the options to checkout as guest or to create account. So, by default all users checkout as guest. However, the user has the option to login/sign up (in the upper right corner of the website).

BIRCHBOX raking in at least $70 million as of Sept. 2015, the company operates in 6 countries to more than a million subscribers. It has a loyalty program benefits with points (the more the user shops, the close they will be to qualifying for their VIP programme). By this reason when the user make a checkout it is required to register.

Therefore, for some stores, guest checkout offers shoppers a convenient way to place orders quickly and be on their way again without any hassle or delay. But for others, the option can cause confusion and wasted time.

To generate a significant customer loyalty is essential to demonstrate trust, ease of purchase and a great shopping experience. It’s always a big challenge to make a checkout the least difficult part of the customer ecommerce journey (from visit to purchase).

Thank you for reading

We really do want to hear from you! Get in touch

Monday is a full service digital and interactive agency based in Lisbon. Weʼre a team of designers, builders & thinkers who craft digital experiences. Clients include: Snickers, Red Bull, Twix, Philips, M&M’s

We live in a world of never stopping changes. Companies are facing disruption threats from new incumbents and tech-driven business models every day. Three in four CEOs say that their company is striving to be the disruptor in its sector.

“The order is rapidly fading And the first one now will later be last”. Times They Are A-Changin’, Bob Dylan, 1964.

It’s not different in the advertising world. But threats are coming from another way: the consulting firms.

Consulting firms are used to speak directly to the CEOs and other members of the C-suit, not only the CMO, and already have the biggest digital advertising revenues.

In this fast changing world, companies need to have their business problems solved, but communications itself can’t do it alone. Agencies help solving part of the problems, but consultancies brought an end-to-end approach, raiding our once well-protected marketing space and biting a piece of the advertising revenue pie. We, the agencies, need new capabilities and more strategic solutions added to our main product: creativity (something that consultants still have trouble to find).

Our agency transformation

How is Monday is trying to adapt? By becoming more strategic.

We’ve been surfing the good wave of digital services because of our “tech DNA”. Monday has been helping companies like Red Bull, Mars and Philips to bring to life their communication strategies through a myriad of solutions, from sophisticated apps development to websites and other platforms design. We became pretty good at it, specially after 12 years of existence.

But we know it is not enough. Not anymore.

Not only because of consulting firms’ threat and new business models’ approach, but also because we truly believe that if keep learning and changing, we will shall stay relevant for our clients. In these uncertain times, we don’t want them to fear uncertainty, but to embrace it and become future-proof companies.

So that’s what we did: we brought inside new service and business design skills and mixed it with our tech-savvy services. The result was a new kind of agency (or consultancy?). And from that, a new kind of integrated service was created.

We call it Business Transformation.

Our client’s challenge

New world, new focus: consumer needs.

Águas de Cascais is a public concession that supplies water and does the sewer collection in Cascais, subregion of the Greater Lisbon, Portugal.

People are used, as citizens in general, to receive a poor service from public concessions just because they are (of course) public concessions. This kind of company, even if it doesn’t deliver a five-star service, will probably keep its contract for years to come. So it’s quite normal to see a less-than-one-star service in our lives.

That’s just the opposite thinking inside Águas de Cascais.

Putting customers’ needs first, they called Monday to help the company better understand it’s consumers and employees’ points of pain and hidden opportunities, in order to design and deliver a leaner, better and faster service. This was a hell of a good problem to be solved!

And that’s how we did it, together:

Business Transformation in practice

With that challenge in mind, we’ve designed a series of workshops in which we could diagnose problems and propose solutions with the client’s team. It’s important to say that the management team was deep committed to the project. Not only employees with direct contact with consumers but also several heads of department participated in the workshops. That mix is perfect (and mandatory) for the success of this kind of work.

Preparing:

Info: Sometimes we need some clients’ information to design the processes we are going to get through. Usually on the week before, we ask the client for this kind of information. Example: what are the 6 critical processes we should work on and try to find solutions to?

Design: First things first: in the beginning, we tried to identify our client’s main challenges. Then, we looked at our business design toolbox and chose what best suited the work. We like to make a presentation before every workshop, explaining what kind of tool we are going to use and why, and everything we are going to need for the sessions. Makes sense to describe every step of the workshops, with the time of the exercises, pauses, etc.

Stuff: Multi-colored post-its (lots of it) so we can sketch the problems and ideas; marker pens; a big monitor or a projector to show the presentations.

Place: A big room for all the participants to stay comfortable; table and chairs. (Of course you can make it more fancy with puffs and stuff like that.) In this case, the workshops happened at our clients’ office.

People: As I said before, it’s important to have different kinds of people from the company as participants. In this one, usually 8 to 10 people from the client and 2 mediators from Monday.

The workshops:

Finally, the great days. Monday prepared a 4-days-in-a-week series of workshops to identify problems and create solutions to Águas de Cascais (the number of days/hours will always depend on what you need) .

Each day had a special purpose. On the first (6 hours), we wanted to see how the organization worked and how each department related to each other. On the second and third days (12 hours), we wanted to map the processes (mainly critical ones) and identify problems. On the fourth and last day, it took us 3 hours to generate as many ideas as possible regarding the problems we’ve mapped through the week.

But… how have we done it?

Co-Diagnosis

Company business model (Day 1 — morning)

We decided to use the Business Model Canvas, a tool developed to sketch out how a company works to make money (or design new ways to do it). After explaining the concept and the tool to the client’s team, we’ve designed together Águas de Cascais’ current business model. It helped us understand how they add value to their consumers and what they need to deliver it (resources, activities, partners, etc).

Personal business models (Day 2 — afternoon)

In the afternoon, we went into a more introspective exercise: individually, the members of the client were asked to use the Personal Business Model Canvas to design their own canvas as an employee of Águas de Cascais. It helped us understand how each one of them add value for the company and the relations between different departments.

Service blueprints (Days 3 and 4)

That one took us a lot of work: 12 hours using the Blueprint Canvas to map the six processes the client had chosen as the critical ones. In these sessions, we tried to understand not only how the processes currently happened, but the main problems related to them (these problems were going to be used on the last day).

Co-Creation

Designing new value propositions (Day 4 — afternoon)

First, we transferred all the problems mapped on the blueprint sessions from the canvases to a wall were everybody could see. Then, we used all the minds at the room to generate ideas that could possibly solve each problem, no matter the complexity or feasibility levels. At this time, just forget we have regulations, budget, technology or people problems. Every ideia should count. We used a Value Proposition Canvas to guide our thinking.

The Results

These workshops were a great source of learning to all of us. On the client side, they mapped problems they didn’t even know they had (great ideas, even simple ones, came from that) and a plus: a kind of integration between departments that is pretty rare in the “normal days”. Many problems identified (internal and external ones) and even more ideas generated!

On Monday part, besides the problems mapping/ideas generation, it was a deep immersion at Águas de Cascais world. The kind of learning we wouldn’t have even in months of conversations and e-mail exchanges. It’s incredible to see how many fantastic people and processes goes behind what the final customer have contact. As they said, we are never gonna see a water invoice the same way again!

Results: seven of the most critical processes mapped out, dozens of evolution points identified and more than the triple of ideas generated, from the simplest to the more complex ones. Besides that, Monday developed even more ideas, including advertising campaigns, that could help Águas de Cascais to achieve its main objective: becoming a more empathy-centric institution.

Thank you for reading

We really do want to hear from you! Get in touch

Monday is a full service digital and interactive agency based in Lisbon. Weʼre a team of designers, builders & thinkers who craft digital experiences. Clients include: Snickers, Red Bull, Twix, Philips, M&M’s

Glauco Madeira

Strategy Manager @ Monday 

Meet Glauco