Design Leadership :: UX Design :: Strategy :: Creative Direction
Let’s Code It
Design Director for a unique agency formed by a passionate collective of moonlighters
Overview
Let’s Code It is a small, agile group of fiercely passionate experts who work as a freelance collective to execute high-quality products and websites for various brands and agencies. Every member of Let’s Code It works in an I-9 capacity (all senior employees from the tech industry) and join strictly with the goal of stretching their niche skillsets with real-world clients.
Role
I joined Let’s Code It as a founding member, and have served as the LLC’s contract Design Director and consultant over the past 3 years. In this role I have built, led and defined the collective’s UX and Design function, bringing it to the proper standard to compete for contracts from high-profile clients such as Apple, Adidas, and TikTok as well as new business from early-stage products and VC firms.
Context
As a founding member in 2020, Let’s Code It was a small, fluctuating group of less than 5 collaborators with a slack channel and a passion for creative after-hours freelance projects. That year, the 2 founding engineers officially established Let’s Code It as an LLC, and we had a mission to get serious in our approach and make Let’s Code It something much bigger.
I took the initiative to lead the design function, and was named the consulting Design Director.
Strategy for Growth
My approach was focused on growing the business, and that meant ensuring we put our best foot forward as we sought out new business. My approach included the following:
Establish Let’s Code It’s brand identity and brand voice. Use these guidelines to build cohesive and professional series of business materials
Leverage my network to grow our design function and onboard talented designers to lead client projects
Design a visually impactful marketing website that showcases our talent for design and engineering, meant to generate client and talent leads
Create operational systems to streamline design; create Figma File best practices that stress collaboration and archival organization, develop an internal design system to support pitches, develop ceremonies to review and ensure a high quality of UX and design is being met to exceed client expectations.
Grow and establish my presentation expertise to lead point on all design-related client pitches and relations.
I designed Let’s Code It’s website to stand out to clients specifically looking for high-quality design and specialized engineering capabilities. The splash image was built using 3JS and 3D rendering
Accomplishments
Building Let’s Code It to a truly full-service digital agency with a notable design reputation has been a truly humbling experience. The collaboration with other talented designers, opportunities to mentor others and watch them grow and succeed, and grow as an entrepreneur and a design leader has been a journey in itself.
My proudest accomplishments and metrics to measure the success of my strategy are as follows:
New Business Through Design
By building a professional brand identity and leveraging our collective’s network, Let’s Code It gained an exciting amount of interest from clients looking for outstanding digital solutions. For potential client, I met with their CEO or VP of Marketing to identify their goals and needs, and subsequently organized a unique pitch for how our agile design & engineering capabilities made us the right partner.
I helped sign and onboard on 6 clients with end-to-end design initiatives, to which I established unique teams to lead their various projects which spanned anywhere from 3 - 12 months.
