Rachel Gertz // January 9, 2012

Small Teams Doing Big Things

Well, hello there!

We’ve been out for a couple weeks, taking some time to sift through the triumphs and kinks of 2011. It’s given us a chance to see where we went wrong, where we did okay, and just where we’d like to go in 2012. And we’re excited—this year feels especially big.

Seeing a Connection

The world’s a crazy place and 2011 offered no exception. Oil spills, SOPA, Occupy movements, and the collapse and death of hostile dictators marked an unrelenting wave of changes to digest—some good, some bad—to a point where I lost track of the headlines. However, one thing that really stood out to me was the shift of our role as human beings amidst those changes. Our capacity to influence this tumultuous world has seemingly shifted from a short-term tenancy agreement where we’re given little say in important matters and are kept deliberately uninformed to one where our voices are not only heard but heeded. From Twitter, to online campaigns, to influential projects and products, I think this shift is influenced largely by the volume and intensity of our connections. I’m not just talking about digital tools here. Our remote connections and ability to spread information like wildfire is truly stunning, but in addition we also have the time—the ‘cognitive surplus’ as Clay Shirky would put it—to innovate ways of sharing that information that benefit us all.

Small Teams, Big Deeds

This year, nGen is anticipating a world where small groups do big things. Where trust and transparency come first and where the people we work with and projects we dive into must be fun, or they’re out. Where we are no longer simply an agency but an agent of change. Using the technology around us and the tools at our disposal means we can do more than just ‘build a website’ or ‘create an app’. Simply delivering a product isn’t enough. We want to work with our clients to make things that equal a better place to exist. That isn’t some gushy promise to pull out our power cords when we’re not using them (we would anyway) and it doesn’t mean we’ll suddenly work exclusively with not-for-profits—it’s simply a genuine sentiment we want our clients share with us to ensure we’re both reaching for the same goals.

That’s the point after all, isn’t it? Doing things that connect us to something bigger than ourselves? Something that means a bit more than just a final payment or design award? Something that keeps our lives simple and meaningful and lets us look back without regret?

Last year we spent a lot of time trying out our new skin. We had to grow into it and stretch it out in other places as we wrestled with the whys and hows of doing things, but the end result was that nGen fit like a glove. And we now have a stronger understanding of who we are and who we need to be this year. 2012 will be a time to focus our energy into understanding and sharing the big picture in and out of our industry. It’ll be about how we can use the simplicity of small teams to make big shifts to current systems and perceptions. We’re already digging in.