Eigenverantwortung

There are two ways of working in a team. One waits: for the briefing, the approval, the moment someone notices that something is going wrong. The other acts. It sees the gap and fills it. It sees the mistake and names it.

As a small team we depend on the latter. A workshop only works if everyone keeps their own bench in order and at the same time sees what is happening next to them. This article is our shared standard for proactive work, not a rulebook you tick off, but a promise we give each other.

Ownership on two legs.

The one: Everyone carries their own role. You are responsible for your area, in substance, in time, in quality. Not “how would you have liked it”, but “this is how I did it, for this and that reason. Do you see something I missed?”

The other: Everyone carries the shared aim. Everyone is a corrective for the other roles. You do not look away when something outside your area does not carry. You look, and you say it, whether or not it is your field.

The shared corrective

A corrective is not a watchdog. It is a look over the shoulder. You are not there to judge the others’ work, but to make it better, with what only you see from your profession, or simply because the look is fresher. As part of a project team you share responsibility for the shared result and actively point to problems or gaps.

Concretely: if something strikes you, say it immediately, directly, constructively. Do not wait for the next check-in, not for someone else to notice, and above all not for it to be noticed “from above”. If that sounds like friction to you: it is. But it is the productive kind, from which better work comes. Quiet endurance is not loyalty. It is the opposite.

The roles and their responsibility

Each role carries its own part of the whole. Here is what we may expect of each other.

• Project management: briefing, flow, feedback loop
  As PM you look after a smooth and transparent project flow. With the briefing you sketch a clear vision of the project that gives everyone involved clarity about the aim and their role. The information needed for that, you actively request from the clients. You watch and coordinate the flow, and after the project you initiate a feedback loop that includes everyone.
  
  

• Concept: substance, logic, clarity, efficiency
  As the person on concept you are responsible for the substance the project stands on. You make sure the steps that build on it can be justified logically and that the following roles can work efficiently. Your concept is prepared so clearly that its essence is understood without having to dive into the depth of your work. Even after the handover you watch that the implementation stays true to the concept.
  
  

• Copy: narrative, voice, clarity of the message
  As copywriter you are responsible for the language of the project. With us, form follows narration, so you carry the narrative that holds everything else together. You make sure every message is told clearly, consistently and in our voice, instead of only filling gaps. And you notice when the concept does not yield a story that can carry, then you actively request that ground before you write.
  
  

• Design: style, consistency, quality
  As designer you are responsible for the creation and implementation of the conceptual vision. You pull style, consistency and quality through the whole of the design. And you notice when the concept does not give a clear ground for your work, then you actively request it from those responsible.
  
  

• Coding: implementation, performance, durability
  As developer you are responsible that the design survives the jump into technical implementation, without losing quality. You watch performance, accessibility and clean implementation, so that what we build does not only look good today, but carries. And you notice early when a draft does not hold technically or an idea tips in implementation, then you say so before it is built, not after.

Why we hold it this way

We want to be a workshop, not a factory. Small enough to get into every project. Large enough to solve very different requirements in the team. And that only works if not one person carries everything, but each person their own part, and everyone the whole.

Ownership is not extra effort piled on top. It is the ground on which loose ends become a shared aim. Our values in lived form, in which “First ask why” and “Done. Perfect. Perfectly done.” actually happen in the everyday. You do not have to wait until someone gives you the space. The space is already there. Fill it.