Quite a while ago, back in 2012, Rei Inamoto, the chief creative officer at AKQA (at the time), shared some wisdom about how to run the most efficient team. It involved having three types of people: a Hipster, a Hacker, and a Hustler. When I heard this it struck a chord. Coming from a Design and Development background, I have straddled that line between the two worlds for many years. I sit somewhere between the Hacker and the Hipster, and as my business grows, I find I’m also trying to play the role of the Hustler as well.
But, I’m no Unicorn. I need help.
Ideally, I need to find my Hustler and Hipster, so I can take my rightful place as the tinkerer. But, how does a Hustler and a Hipster work for Weald Creative? This has been on my mind, and I created this diagram to help me think it through:
I appreciate the text in this image may be hard to read, so this is how it breaks down:
The geek, the tinkerer, the techie; but more importantly, the Hacker is the innovation engine of your business. Innovation extends to the tools and processes your business deploy, as well as what it creates.
The Creative Vision of the company, it’s output, it’s culture, and above all its tone of voice. The Hipster doesn’t just write the Style Guide, they live it.
Ruthless Business acumen, Marketing intuition, and a silver sales tongue make the Hustler an indispensable partner. The Hustler walks the walk, and is the voice of your business.
These are the traits of each of the elements of this triad, but what is most important are the relationships between each. In order for the partnership to work:
The Hacker has the knowledge and the technology to bring the creative vision to life. By effectively communicating feasibility, rapidly prototyping and enabling tools, they allow the Creatives to ideate confidently.
The Hipster must work closely with the Hacker to ensure their vision is achievable, but malleable within the confines of the technology choices.
The Hustler needs to have an understanding of the Creative and Cultural vision of the company, in order to uphold its values when doing business.
The Hipster must communicate effectively with the Hustler to help the business communicate with its clients and partners.
Funding innovation, research and development is tricky. So the Hacker must work with the Hustler to find the most appropriate way to package it up, and sell it to customers.
The Hustler needs to talk-the-talk; a high-level understanding of technology, its benefits, and use cases is essential.
With this in mind, are you the person I need to talk to? Would you like to help me make Weald Creative a successful business here in the heart of the Kent countryside? I need help to find investment, apply for funding, bring in new leads, and forge long-term relationships with artists, designers and developers.
Is this you? Get in touch and let’s talk about building that Unicorn together.
