Some ideas are so good, you can easily implement them twice. Freebie Friday is one such idea, and it means nothing less than that from Friday lunchtime onwards, client projects are put aside, and everyone can and should dedicate themselves entirely to their own interests and topics. This desire emerged several years ago from the team's need to familiarise themselves with new technologies and pursue their own projects to build new expertise in the long term.
It all sounds like a great plan at first. In reality, however, the idea quickly reached its limits back then. Agency life is often very tightly scheduled with strict deadlines and projects. Unleashing creativity outside of client projects becomes a struggle, and dedicating oneself to new topics and building expertise becomes a challenge that often gets neglected. A team that was too small at the time and an overly high project density brought Freebie Friday to an end faster than it was launched. Thus, this idea disappeared into a drawer for almost half a decade.
The responsibility clearly lies with the management. If space is not created, the team cannot flourish. And in the medium term, frustration rises at the expense of motivation, and the spirit of innovation is ultimately cast aside. What remains is a team that simply processes day-to-day business. That was not enough for us.
During our annual strategy meeting at the beginning of the year, we reset the course for us as an agency. And now, Friday lunchtime once again means the end of client projects. We believe that innovation can only emerge through personal freedom. The desire to develop personally and as a team, to try new things, to evaluate and possibly discard them again, to make mistakes and start over, must be supported by everyone. We meticulously evaluated where we want to go, what needs to change to get there, and, most importantly, how each individual in the team can contribute best.
Of course, for some observers, this raises the question of economic risk. Fortunately, we can say that personal responsibility is highly valued here, and everyone has an excellent sense of priorities, the necessary sensitivity for resource planning, and a good dose of curiosity.
The message was clear: less external project work and more time to pursue one's own interests, from which the entire team and company ultimately benefit. Therefore, space must be given for ideas to bring about change. The goal is to learn new approaches, utilise technologies not yet employed, and expand existing expertise. In reality, this means a high number of unbillable hours each week, trust in employee autonomy, and a strong trial-and-error mentality. The only condition is that results and insights are shared internally and externally, and, if possible, integrated into future concepts and approaches. Whether it's Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Growth Hacking, Artificial Intelligence, or the development of Drupal modules for specific use cases. The list of ideas is long, and we will share the first fruits of our work with you shortly.
