Project inspiration 💡

In 2024, I read a Bloomberg article by Matthew Boyle called ‘Why Every Employee Needs a Personal User Manual' and it got the wheels turning.

At an annual review with PitchBook’s Creative Director, I mentioned that it’d be rad for our growing Brand & Creative team—which was ~12 people based in Seattle when I was hired and now includes 25+ people across 3 cities (and 2 continents)—to create Me Manuals. A few lines from the article that resonated:

“With most teams now split between office and remote, and spread across time zones, it’s a big mistake to assume anyone else’s preferences. Workplace user manuals allow you to focus on getting stuff done, rather than struggling to remember everyone’s idiosyncrasies.”

The process 🎨

I had the pleasure of linking up with my design colleagues Cora McKenzie and Landan Earley, as well as our multimedia crew, to get this project off the ground.

First, we issued a survey to capture everyone’s work preferences, communication styles, love/hates, and silly stuff, too. Then we orchestrated portrait shoots, where we encouraged everyone to put their personality first. We also designed templates and led a design playdate where everyone on the team—even non-designers like me—got a chance to personalize their final docs.

The outcome 🥳

Completed in December, the output took two forms: First, a set of Me Manual posters that now hang in the Brand & Creative team nooks at our offices. These showcase fun facts, higher-level info, and tidbits that could make for good conversation starters. They're meant to grab peoples’ attention and introduce them to the team. Secondly, we created digital Me Manuals. These docs are longer and more in depth—they really dig into each person's unique work preferences and needs.

The goal was to create a set of “co-worker cheat sheets” that we could reference to get to know each other better and hopefully do even better creative work together. It got me thinking about the conditions under which I do my best work, too. Thank you to my entire PB squad for carving out time to participate in this creative exercise!

⭐ To see the full digital version of mine, click here: https://lnkd.in/gHckcpBw ⭐