How Strategy SAVED My Design Business

What is strategy? How can a traditional design business adopt strategy into its core offerings? Chris Do shares his trials and tribulations before discovering a strategic framework in Core.

Chris Do goes into detail about how implementing brand strategy, saved his company.

Chris: Blind was on a steady decline after the collapse of the housing market in 2008. Revenue was slowly evaporating, and we had to make changes quickly. We tried repositioning and adding services like web design and branding, but all of them did not net in the results we were looking for. Then we added brand strategy to our offerings, and it changed the direction of our company forever.

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Host: Chris Do
Producers: Mark Contreras / Ricky Lucas
Cinematographers/Editors: Stewart Schuster, Ricky Lucas, Jona Garcia
Social Team: Elle Money
Typefaces: Futura, DIN, Helvetica Now, Calibre, Knockout, Champion Gothic

[fizzaiftikhar]

Chris, i can't believe you've shared this much value for free. You deserve all that money we waste on schools for years but still not learn the simple basic thing that you've been sharing with us. THE STRATEGY

[spmxo]

5:55 exactly Chris ! Our ancestors had observed the pattern of shadows and invented clock. They had observed the seasons and water cycle and cultivated land based on the climate. There are patterns of how and when stars appear in the sky, plants blossom flowers, clouds rain, seasons change etc. Today we are where we are because our ancestors had observed patterns and cultivated nature for their and our existence. In the same way, observing patterns and data in the business is also important. That's critical for business growth! Always love your videos. Thank you for the knowledge you bring to us.❤❤❤

[eckz]

Going through something similar now. After two decades of doing this, I'm not entirely sure what changed on my end other than just growing business sense on my end. I sat down with the client and actually mapped out their goals, most and least profitable offerings, new roleouts, improvements they'll be making moving into the year and got a really good, firm grasp of how their business worked before I even started on anything else. Thus far it's going really well and the client has become a good friend of mine that I now talk with nightly. I love your content, keep it up.

[Dabu-Dabu]

this channel is sooo good. even though I have nothing to do with design I still benefit from those clips.
can't believe this stuff is free :D

[Martinit]

Wow, appreciate the transparency here. Making that kind of radical pivot is not easy.
I am sure Jose is proud of you.

[barbiefigueroa]

Man this video was pure GOLD… this reminds me of when I finally made the connection between strategy and design… that’s when I went from web designer to Lead Converting Web Designer. Big difference. Strategy and understanding the end goal for the client was when I went from designer to consultant. This also makes me realize I know way more than I gave myself credit for. Thank you Chris. I learn the way you teach and get tons of value from what you share. 🥰

[federov]

It still amazes me how design education fails to offer students a solid business foundation

[theboringuxer]

The less revisions part is something designers need to know more of. Just because you have goals and defined tasks, doesn't mean there will be fewer revisions when you show your digital product. With user testing (key features or even end to end), you will have more revisions because your product is now being validated, and this is part of the Agile process in UX, where you will have more revisions and it's done throughout the scope of the project. Pixel Perfect is at the Design System level, even then, DS's are still updated :D

One key factor here, for those getting into UX Interaction Design, don't marry your design work. The feedback is to help guide your design to understand the users needs.

[doctor-dan]

One year ago I came across your videos while surfing on YouTube, looking for answers on "how to deal with customer objections", such as I'll think about it, I'll let you know, I'll talk to my partner. Took me from making 400€ websites to charging 10 times more for strategy and brand design. When people ask me how I managed to pull this off my answer is easy: go ask Chris Do on his YouTube channel, it's his merit. Strategy and design thinking can help lots of professionals: from web design, to graphics design, branding, social media management, video making, photographers. Trust me, I'm one of them.

[llda]

Feedback: Shared this video with a someone...here is the feedback "This is good. Thanks man, I needed this"

Many thanks for continually sharing words of wisdom

[Emmadfuture]

I needed this. Sometimes we need to hear the stories so we can glean the principles for ourselves. This is not a video to watch once. Thanks, Chris. Thanks, The Futur team.

[Mpacitto]

Problem aware. Solution aware. Product aware.
I've never head of the consideration... whatever the other two stages are I can never remember them
This is brilliant

[MarketingHarry]

Moving from cold to warm to hot lead, takes a deep understanding. Thanks for sharing what changes you decided to make back in 2013, so that you escaped the lower trend. In order to make a winning strategy, one should set goals, be aware of all challenges, gain knowledge of the customers, the brand, positioning and much more!

[thekofiannan]

I see it as this, Strategy is the foundation of any business. Without a long-term solid strategy, no business would stand the test of time.

[bb_]

My favorite Futur video in a while! Thank you, Chris. As i slowly niche down and get tighter positioning, one of the methods I have used is requiring “strategy” for anyone who just asks for a logo. It was implied before but now I am explicit about it. Huge value on this video, thanks again!

[alexakten]

the insane value to come out of every video you guys produce, can’t thank you enough! These things are applicable to many parts of life.

[banziimavusotv]

This is too cool, since 2018 I have been listening to The Futur and the lessons have had so much great impact in my business over the years, now it;s about going deeper and deeper and I truly value this content.

[creatingdigitalassets]

Yes, Chris! This is what I keep trying to tell people who jump into design first

[rxlfe]

I'm a fashion designer but all of this applies to my industry so much as specially as someone that doesn't necessarily run a clothing brand but consults with other designers/brands it's been really helpful in having a better understanding better than business school ever did. it's helped me understand/think about certain things differently that I'm excited to apply all of this to the brand I hope to start hopefully soon, not particularly this video but the teachings I've received from multiple videos especially the marketing and branding ones. thank you

[tlambiam]

Absolutely wonderfully informative and helpful insights. Thanks for sharing Chris!