Why I quit my job and spent three months in Sweden figuring out digital.

And what I learned about strategy along the way.

Hey Hyper Island! My name is Tijs.

@tijs

For the past 6 years, I’ve worked as a planner for several Belgian ad agencies.

Meanwhile I built my own projects, both for fun and pro!t.

Twistory.net

Kukoo.com

I learned quite a few things about

building products, lean startups, agile methodologies, …

One-time boost

Permanent impact

Surprising creativity

Genuine relevance

Everyone wants their Nike Plus.

Now what really de!nes a good digital product or service?

What makes it really relevant to users?

How do you sell them to clients?

How do you build them as an agency?

And what about all those “different”

agencies? Berg, Made By Many, Frog, ...

I had no clue.And absolutely wanted to find out.

I created a really-want-to-work-for list of agencies and tried to get in touch.

Three thingsI’ve learned after three months.

It’s not about the perfectly polished slide deck.

1

A S C P

A

S

C

P

What’s going to driveyou if you no longer create

your “own” deliverable.

Everyone’s a strategist.

2

“The vertical bar on the T represents the depth of related skills and expertise in a single !eld.”

T

Could strategy really be described as a skill?

TDesign, development, project management, sales, ...

Strategic thinking, creativity, social skills, ...

me

Is there a place for people who are only just the strategist?

Digital products don’t require yet another strategic idea.

3

There’s no way to start a project without a strong strategic idea.

As so many essential decisions are taken along the way, why don’t we save our e"orts for those moments?

STRATEGIC IDEA END RESULT

Shouldn’t we just start with clearly defined business goals/problems and user

needs/expecations?

As we like to tell our clients how digital disrupts everything, we should also consider how it impacts our own role as a strategist.

It may require learning some new skills and it will take some

additional effort, yet being able to truly impact the end result is so

much more rewarding.

Take some distance, explore alternatives and !nd out you were doing it all wrong ;-)

tijs@tijsvrolix.com

@tijs