Bridge the gaps between your vision and your audience with your Brand Strategy Roadmap. It’s a comprehensive, research-backed report with a clear, actionable plan to grow your business with your brand. It’s like hiring a fractional brand & marketing officer, without the full-time overhead.
Common Barriers to Brand Success
We focus on what most organizations struggle with:
ALIGNMENT Aligning your brand with organizational goals and target customers
CONSISTENCY Executing campaigns and projects consistently, efficiently, and effectively
CLARITY Clearly defining and positioning your brand with confidence
Unlock Your Brand’s True Potential
Backed by a full team of creative thinkers, strategists, and storytellers, we help you confidently evaluate, shape, and activate your brand. From organization-wide planning to high-stakes campaigns, we step in strategically to ensure your brand works for you—not against you.
With Rock & Bloom’s Brand Strategy Roadmap you can expect:
Team Workshop
Brand Assessment
Market Research
Direction & Consultation
Strategic Action Plan
The Best Part
It’s not all on you. With our Roadmap, you get an actionable plan with clear direction, messaging, and strategy – no sifting through pages of data for answers. The next steps are clear and ready to execute, with your team or ours.
This summer I was welcomed by the team at Rock & Bloom as a design intern. Fresh out of school as a Graphic Communications grad, this was the most amazing experience I could have asked for.
Since this was my first gig in the design world, I didn’t have many expectations at the start. My main hope was to learn more about my craft, but Rock & Bloom totally exceeded that.
Always sharing, always learning
The entire crew was so open, always sharing what they know and making me feel right at home. They’re always ready to help you out with any questions you have, and they genuinely want you to grasp the reason behind the ‘why’ in terms of how we do things. They’re also really on the ball, aiming for top-notch quality in every project while staying on track.
Work-life balance for the win
Making sure I’m prioritizing a good work-life balance was new to me. I’ve never had coworkers who genuinely care more about their people than about the next job on the list. The team at Rock & Bloom always has your back and are always wanting to help you out. Their consistent support and flexibility creates such a supportive environment.
A place to be who you are
In addition to excelling in their roles, every member of the Rock & Bloom team are genuinely wonderful individuals. I found myself laughing harder at our numerous Slack channels than I ever thought possible, whether it’s the high-stress debates over where to have lunch or the impeccable GIF responses.
The team that plays together, stays together
Another awesome aspect of Rock & Bloom is their homecoming week. Homecoming week is an entire week packed with good food, good times, and yeah, a bit of work too. Every employee (even the remote ones in Toronto and Vancouver) gather in-office to play games and bond as a team. It got pretty heated with a competitive Jeopardy game and multiple rounds of ‘Heads Up’ that somehow morphed into a full-blown sing-along. I can’t express how fun it was to work with these people.
I wouldn’t have changed anything about my time here at Rock & Bloom. I learned so much from an amazing group of people.
We’re a Canadian-based brand studio with a knack for creating beautiful, functional, and results-driven projects. We’ve been fortunate to make a career out of building relationships and creating killer brands for hundreds of clients across North America. We do everything from logo refreshes, to full-blown websites, to crafting game-changing campaigns.
One of our core values at Rock & Bloom is ‘make a difference’. For us, making a difference can be as big as changing the lives of small business owners or as tiny as supporting local restaurants when we eat out. One of the ways we like to make a difference is through working with non-profit organizations and small businesses.
Non-profit organizations and small businesses do so much for our local community, and yet very often lack the budget to elevate their brand or even properly communicate their services and skills to potential donors, clients or customers. They might lack the resources needed to create a strong brand identity, build a fully-functional, and user-friendly website, or to tell their story in an effective and far-reaching way. And yet, these are the stories that need to be heard the most.
Introducing Rock & Bloom’s Brand Aid
We created Brand Aid with the goal of helping clients elevate their brand and tell their story through in-kind donated work. The brands that we choose align with our values and respect the work that we do.
“At the core of our business is to make an impact. We don’t just want to make things that are pretty – we want to affect change in clients’ businesses.”
– Heather Adams, CEO of Rock & Bloom
Our mission is to be the best brand studio to work with and work for. A part of our process involves continually talking to our employees, rating fulfillment after each project, and really listening to the feedback from our team about what projects we love working on.
Brand Aid is not only meaningful to the client, but also fills the cups of our team members who are passionate about the work they are doing.
Are you interested in becoming Rock & Bloom’s next Brand Aid organization of choice?
Who you are
You’re a non-profit or small business, looking to achieve a specific goal, but held back by budget constraints
You’re located in Vancouver or the Vancouver Area
You align with our 5 core values: Make a difference, Take risks, Be open & honest, Share, and Aspire
How to apply
Send us an email to vancouver@rockandbloom.com with details about who you are and what goals you’re looking to achieve
Include what draws you to Rock & Bloom and how you align with our core values
I’ve gone on record stating that if I didn’t have my dream job working for Rock & Bloom, I would venture into the world of professional organizing. And I’m not the only one. For as many bakers and artists our team bears, we have just as many organizational wizards. Maybe one day we’ll launch our own version of The Home Edit, but in the meantime I’m here to pass on a few pearls of home organizational wisdom.
Label everything
And I mean everything. Items in the pantry? Label ‘em. Fridge? Label ‘em. Bathroom, laundry room, closets? Label ‘em. Labeling serves two purposes. Firstly, it keeps things in a designated spot, allowing you to locate things with ease. Instead of just throwing things in a cupboard willy nilly, you’ll be more purposeful about where you place your items. Secondly, labeling looks clean, uniform, and just darn pretty.
Say goodbye to boxes and packaging
Unnecessary boxes and packaging are one of the biggest thieves of usable cupboard space. This is especially noticeable in the kitchen. Storing cereal and pasta in clear containers will help you get the most out of your space, while also allowing you to see when you’re getting low on something. After all, nothing’s more aggravating than grabbing a box of crackers to find that it’s just crumbs at the bottom.
Save time with clear containers
For items that you’re storing – things like Christmas decorations, seasonal items, winter clothing, etc. I recommend using clear storage containers. This allows you to stack containers in your closet or garage, and see what’s in them without having to take down and dig through each one. It’s not the prettiest organization solution, but it’s a huge timesaver.
Use small containers to keep drawers tidy
It’s very easy for a drawer to lose its purpose and quickly become a “junk drawer”. But let me tell you from experience that even junk drawers can be organized. If you’re on a budget, places like Dollarama or The Dollar Tree carry great little containers and trays that will work perfectly. Start by cleaning everything out of the drawer you’re organizing, throwing away anything that’s expired, and donating or selling anything that never gets used. Once you have a clean drawer you can start putting the containers in where you want them. Try to keep each container as its own zone. For example, in our bathroom drawer I have one container for toothbrushes and toothpaste, one for combs and brushes, one for eye care supplies, and one for deodorant. Everything has a place and it keeps the drawer from looking like a stressful mess.
Maximize fridge space
Maximize your fridge space with, you guessed it, containers. Labelled containers look nice, but more importantly I’ve found that they increase the use of fridge space. Like a lot of people, my toxic trait is buying a bunch of groceries and then having to throw them out weeks later, because half of my items got pushed to the back of the fridge and I couldn’t see them. Not only do containers help you keep things in zones (dairy, fruits, veggies, snacks, leftovers, etc), but they also allow you to use the full length of your fridge, easily pulling out the containers to see what’s at the back. No more moldy spring mix!
Use turntables for spices
My partner likes to cook and thus we have an alarming amount of spices. I hated opening the cupboard and knocking over half opened bags of oregano, as I rummage to find the popcorn seasoning. Enter the turntable. I started by pouring all of my spices into matching glass containers, labelling them (of course), and then situating them face out on a turntable that I picked up from Dollarama (if you can find this , it’s a great cost-effective dupe to the Home Edit one). Now I can find any spice faster than you can say “you spin me right round, baby, right round”.
Store tall boots with pool noodles
Whether you’re dealing with a walk-in closet situation or a tiny front hall cubby, storing your shoes is often a game of Tetris. One of my biggest annoyances is trying to store tall boots; the slides flop over, creating creases and also taking up more space than needed. A quick little trick is to grab a pool noodle and cut it into pieces (keep them a bit shorter than the length of the boot) and then put inside the boot to hold it up! Don’t have a pool noodle handy? I used sheets of square construction paper, rolled them, and taped them to my desired width. Easy peasy!
Organize your sock drawer with cubes
This one is for those who can’t stand to open their top dresser drawer and see a mix of mismatched socks, underwear, and probably a few pieces of lint and loose change. Luckily, it doesn’t have to be this way. I purchased a couple of sock storage cubes on Amazon and it has given me so much more space in my drawer! I started by getting rid of any socks or underwear with holes or rips, and any socks that didn’t have a sole mate (see what I did there?). Next, I rolled all of my socks and underwear and put them in the cubes (for thin socks, I would put two pairs in each). And that’s it!
“How many people can brag about having a perfectly organized sock drawer?”
Roll towels and face cloths
Organization is all about maximizing the amount of space you have. This is especially true if you live in a small house or apartment and don’t have a lot of storage or cupboard space. Storing towels can be particularly tricky as they are bulky and take up a lot of room. I’ve found that folding towels in half lengthwise and then rolling them has been the most effective way to store them. I have very narrow open shelves, and this way I’m able to fit them on the shelf and stack them in a way that looks visually appealing. I do the same thing with my face cloths; rolling them and then storing in a decorative basket.
DIY a rolling wrapping paper cart
If you love gift-giving, or perhaps just want to make holidays less stressful, then a wrapping paper cart is a must. I used one of those three-tiered rolling carts (found at Michaels, Canadian Tire, etc.) and designated each tier a different purpose. The bottom stores gift bags, the middle stores gift tags, cards, and bows, and the top is where I store my scissors, tape, markers, and tissue paper. Lastly I zip tied a small, narrow bin to the bottom side of the cart, and then glued a paper towel rod to the top. This keeps my wrapping paper in place and the rod doubles as a place to hang spools of ribbon. Now simply roll the cart to wherever you do your gift wrapping. Voila!
Maybe you love organizing; or maybe you hate it, but your new year’s resolution was to finally get your home in order. Either way, I hope these simple tips will help you get started!
To show you how we practice our core values, both internally and externally, we’re breaking each one down into a lovely little journal for your reading pleasure.
Last but certainly not least, this is how we ‘Aspire’ each and every day.
Share your thoughts, share the burden, share a gif.
Aspire
Keep learning. Mistakes are not a failure, just a correction. So be bad until you’re good, and good until you’re great.
Aspire
Our favourite mantra around here is: “Be bad until you’re good, and good until you’re great.” We love it so much we’ve had it etched into the cover of our company notebooks. The simple definition of aspire means “to seek to attain or accomplish a particular goal”. At Rock & Bloom, it goes beyond that. It’s about creating goals, yes, but it’s also about taking risks (hey, that’s another one of our core values!), failing, learning from said failure, iterating, and coming back stronger and better.
One common thread amongst our team (besides that we have some pretty intense opinions about food) is that we all love learning. This is one of the most talented and skilled teams I’ve had the pleasure of working with, and yet, not a single person believes they’ve mastered their skill or is better than anyone else. There is always something to learn and that shared enthusiasm for growth makes us more aligned as a team.
BHAG: Big Hairy Audacious Goals
We adore a big hairy audacious goal, or BHAG. In fact, the bigger, hairier, and more audacious the better. We live and work by a growth mindset – yeah, yeah, I know you’ve heard this buzzword a thousand times, but for us it simply means we don’t like to get too comfortable or too cocky.
In other words we’ve accepted the fact that we won’t always be perfect, and we see that imperfection as a learning opportunity. Once you’ve accepted that you’re allowed to make mistakes, it’s easier to step out of your comfort zone and aim high. Like ridiculously high. You might not stick the landing every time, but you’ll always achieve more than if you had stuck with what you knew you could safely do.
Our ability to set BHAGs is the reason our portfolio looks like it does – stuffed to the brim with everything from small, start-up businesses to Silicon Valley tech giants to Agriculture industry shakers to your favourite local mom and pop shop. You name it, we’ve done it. And we can’t wait to set our sights on more.
Go big or go home
I know I sound like a broken record, but Rock & Bloom’s Ultimate Brand Course & Workshop – a four-day immersive workshop that helps entrepreneurs dive into their brand – is just that good. And none of it would have happened if our fearless leaders hadn’t aspired to do better; to offer more to the world.
These workshops are the epitome of bold aspirations. When it felt like it couldn’t be done, we pushed harder, and guess what, it worked. Now our leaders get the opportunity to work directly with businesses in a small and intimate setting and help them really move the needle for their brand.
We still love to make pretty, shiny things that you can’t take your eyes off of, but this kind of work is fulfilling in a different way. We’re empowering other business owners to go big – to aspire.
Can we do that?
Our Slack conversations are packed full of “Can we do thats”. No, I don’t mean doubting our ability to do something. It’s more about getting everyone on board with an elaborate or out-there idea.
Fancy chocolatier website? Can we do that? Let’s pitch ‘em.
Create our own branded events? Can we do that? Design’s already got a logo and Content has come up with 10 witty taglines.
Build and brand a secondary microsite for quirky holiday cards, offering both nice and not-so-nice options? Can we do that? Consider it done. Literally.
Some may call us naive, but our ability to believe that we can truly do anything has led us down some interesting paths. It’s how we got Sweet & Sour – our holiday card microsite with both nice and naughty options for your mailing delight. It’s also how we’ve landed clients that should have been a long shot, and launched a game-changing workshop in record time.
Here’s to even bigger, hairier, and more audacious goals!
To show you how we practice our core values, both internally and externally, we’re breaking each one down into a lovely little journal for your reading pleasure.
Share your thoughts, share the burden, share a gif.
Aspire
Keep learning. Mistakes are not a failure, just a correction. So be bad until you’re good, and good until you’re great.
Share
It’s as simple as Kindergarten day one: Sharing is caring. We love to share, both literally and figuratively. We share pizza and silly gifs, but we also share our troubles, our challenges, our wins and our losses.
Share your thoughts
We love sharing so much that we’ve centered an entire meeting around it. Each month the entire team joins for our ‘share session’ – an hour-long discussion led by our leaders that touches on everything from important company updates to equally important debates about what the best type of french fry is (It’s crinkle FYI).
During these sessions we look at ongoing and upcoming projects and even review top-level company finances. Everything is out in the open and questions and comments are always encouraged. Sometimes we even dabble in team-building exercises, which usually brings out our playfully competitive side.
Share the burden
The whole point of sharing is knowing that you’re not alone. When one of us is struggling, we want to know about it so that those who have the capacity to help can lend a hand, and those who don’t can simply listen and learn.
As much as we love sharing our wins, we’re not afraid to share our challenges as well. When we tackle the problem as a team, the problem doesn’t stand a chance.
Share a gif
Rock & Bloom’s preferred communication channel is Slack, and boy do we make it worth our while. Slack is our wild west – where conversations go from “Hey, have you watched this documentary on the world’s creepiest cults” to “What type of socks are most appropriate for everyday wear” in two seconds flat.
Food polls are our love language, sarcastic gifs are our actual language, and we share unpopular opinion rants like we’re being paid by the letter.
For us Slack is so much more than a simple means to communicate; it’s a way to connect on a deeper level, learn new things about each other, and develop severe FOMO when you’re away from the chat, even while on holiday.
Share your spark
At Rock & Bloom, we believe in sharing who we are. We want to know what makes you tick, what grinds your gears, and what your favourite pizza topping is.
And speaking of pizza, our favourite thing to share is food. Whether we’re lovingly crafting homemade donuts and cookies to bring into the office, giving a review of the new restaurant that just opened up down the street, or planning out the nitty gritty menu details of the Rock & Bloom Christmas party, we will find any excuse to put the spotlight on food.
We are so grateful to have a diverse group of individuals that make up our team, and that are willing to share those unique parts of themselves with us. When Mona gifted the team with prayer beads and openly answered our questions about EID, or when Paige took over our social media channels to teach us all about Chinese New Year – those are the moments that shine a light on who we truly are.
To show you how we practice our core values, both internally and externally, we’re breaking each one down into a lovely little journal for your reading pleasure.
Share your thoughts, share the burden, share a gif.
Aspire
Keep learning. Mistakes are not a failure, just a correction. So be bad until you’re good, and good until you’re great.
Be Open & Honest
We see vulnerability as a strength, and empathy as a superpower. We don’t just welcome openness and honesty – we encourage it. In our work, our day-to-day interactions, and everything in between we strive to be who we are, warts and all.
Check-in, don’t check out
At Rock & Bloom, we love a good check-in. Between recurring one-on-ones with our managers, weekly team retros before we plan for the week ahead, and project retros after a project has wrapped, we like to make sure that all voices are heard loud and clear.
Of course, we don’t need to wait for a meeting to speak up about a challenge or potential blocker. Whether personal or professional, our team is open to listening at all times. Sometimes that means voicing a concern over Slack, or taking some time to sit down with one of our team leaders if we’re feeling unfulfilled. No matter the topic, everyone is open and everyone is encouraged to lead with honesty – even when it’s hard.
Recharge your batteries
In 2022, Rock & Bloom introduced the iconic ‘Recharge Day’. The second Friday of every month our office is closed so that our team can rest, relax, and recharge. It’s an extra day a month to say sayonara to responsibility, and do something soul-filling that’s good for our mental health.
The purpose of implementing Recharge Day was to promote work-life balance and put our company values into practice. We know that we do better work when we are refueled & recharged.
After nearly a year of monthly recharge days, we can safely say that they have been a game-changer for our team. But photos speak louder than words…
Mental health before all else
This one sounds obvious, but you’d be surprised how rare it is to find a workplace that puts their money where their mouth is when it comes to mental health support.
At Rock & Bloom, mental health is prioritized in the same way as physical health. And that goes for everyone, including our leaders. We are not limited to a certain number of sick days or mental health days, instead we are trusted to take the time when we need it and come back as the healthiest versions of ourselves.
Whether it’s time away from work or a little extra support from our teammates, sharing is not always easy. It takes guts to lay out the most delicate parts of yourself for the world to see. But it’s a heck of a lot easier when you’re surrounded by a team of people that listen with an open mind and share with an honest heart.
Behind every business is a person
We practice our values both internally and externally. That means these values extend to our brand, our work, and our clients.
It’s important to remember that our clients are not just a Google Listing or a logo, but real people trying to make their dream a reality. When we sit down with potential clients we always share our values with them to ensure they know what’s important to us, and what we expect from them in return.
When our clients lead with openness and honesty, it allows us to do our jobs that much better. Together, we build a partnership that’s healthy and propelled by unlimited potential.
To show you how we practice our core values, both internally and externally, we’re breaking each one down into a lovely little journal for your reading pleasure.
Share your thoughts, share the burden, share a gif.
Aspire
Keep learning. Mistakes are not a failure, just a correction. So be bad until you’re good, and good until you’re great.
Take Risks
Big or small, taking risks is a part of who we are! This means taking creative risks in our work, trying new things, and working with clients who share our values.
Creative risks
We’ve carefully curated our dream team of uber-talented individuals. This allows us to feel confident when making bold design choices or thinking outside of the strategic box. Whatever the project, we don’t like to get too comfortable.
Sure, we’ve made mistakes, but that’s how we learn what works and what’s better left on the cutting room floor. Creative risks help us grow so that we can continue to bloom beautifully. Plus, the work speaks for itself.
Setting boundaries
Our clients aren’t just clients – they are deep and meaningful partnerships. We collaborate on an intimate level, forging ideas and pushing the limits of what is possible.
At Rock & Bloom, we don’t just work with anybody. We work with businesses that share our vision, as well as respect, trust, and listen to us as people. We’re lucky we get to be choosy – it allows us to put people before profits and ensures that everything we create is a true representation of our best work.
New beginnings
Like Forrest Gump’s mama says, “You never know what you’re gonna get.” Sometimes risks don’t pay off, and other times it’s magic.
In 2022 we launched our Ultimate Brand Course & Workshop – a four-day immersive workshop that helps highly-motivated owners, leaders, entrepreneurs, and directors dive into their business and really get to know their brand.
It was a risk. And this time it’s magic.
Shaking things up and adding a new revenue stream is not an easy task. It’s essentially another business alongside our studio work with clients. These workshops are the result of a lot of sweat, swearing, and tears, but it was a risk our fearless leaders just had to take.
“The foundation of Rock & Bloom and why we exist is not just to make pretty things, like beautiful designs or nice websites; it’s to actually help affect change in a client’s business. if we can affect change and help them reach that next level, distribute to a new market, launch a new product – that’s what gets us out of bed in the morning.”
– Heather Adams, Co-Founder and CEO.
Here’s to taking bigger, bolder, and more badass risks!
“Company values (also called corporate values or core values) are the set of guiding principles and fundamental beliefs that help a group of people function together as a team and work toward a common business goal.
These values are often related to business relationships, customer relationships, and company growth” (Hotjar).
Whether you’ve got ’em scribbled into the pages of your notebook or displayed loud and proud on your office walls – core values are the driving force that unites your team and motivates everyone to do and be a little better each day.
We don’t wanna brag but, at Rock & Bloom, we’ve pretty much got our core values down to a science. We live and breathe our core values in everything that we do, including the clients we work with and the people we’ve chosen to be a part of our team.
Share your thoughts, share the burden, share a gif.
Aspire
Keep learning. Mistakes are not a failure, just a correction. So be bad until you’re good, and good until you’re great.
To show you how we practice our core values, both internally and externally, we’re breaking each one down into a lovely little journal for your reading pleasure. Let’s start with ‘Make a difference’.
Make a difference
For us, making a difference can be as big as changing the lives of small business owners or as tiny as supporting local restaurants when we eat out. Big or small, each of these acts make a difference in our community.
Clients come first
Whether it’s helping them expand, add a new product line, or navigate a crazy business challenge like COVID-19, making a difference for our clients is what gets us the most excited.
Our partnerships with our clients are rooted in empathy and understanding. We listen with intent and have developed a process that is collaborative, while also utilizing individual strengths.
At the end of the day, we want to empower our clients so that they can grow, evolve, and continue doing what they do best!
Volunteering
One of our favourite ways to make a difference is by giving back to a community that has given us so, so much. And there is no shortage of ways to get involved!
We hope to volunteer even more of our time in 2023!
Shopping & supporting local
Whether we’re getting swag made for our team or sending flowers to clients – we love to shop local. Supporting our local economy and spreading love to all of our favourite Saskatoon-based businesses is a huge component of our core values.
Even when we’re “out of office”, we put local first. From team lunches at our favourite Riversdale and Broadway eats to group trips to the Remai Modern, our city has so many wonderful places to support.
Workshops
In 2022 we launched our Ultimate Brand Course & Workshop – a four-day immersive workshop that helps highly-motivated owners, leaders, entrepreneurs, and directors dive into their business and really get to know their brand.
The feedback we have received from our community has been nothing short of freaking incredible.
“It was amazing that in 4 sessions, it felt like we had created such a supportive community. I felt 100% comfortable to share with these amazing business owners and it was such a pleasure to hear about their businesses. Can’t say enough positive things about the overall experience!”
– Trish Regier, Realtor, Saskatoon, SK
“This isn’t just about business branding… it gets you to think about all of the elements that contribute to the overall projection and perception of your brand. Knowing these key factors not only strengthens your brand, but gives your brand solid roots with deeper meaning and understanding.”
– Tobi Graham, Classic Law Inc., Saskatoon, SK
“I needed to revisit and rethink from a different perspective and it has been wonderful. I love hearing what other people are doing in their businesses – it sometimes will spark something in myself and our business. I’ve enjoyed the conversations and I’ve taken a million notes that I will go back and look at for many years to come.”
– Joanne Morris, Twig & Bloom, Saskatoon, SK
Here’s to continuing to make a difference in 2023!
Trying out a new, delicious recipe. Snacking on Purdy’s chocolate hedgehogs while getting lost in an audio book. Applying henna and allowing your hands to be free to absorb the natural dye. Tackling an outdoor DIY project. Participating in an all-day gaming marathon. Working out and indulging in an at-home manicure. Exploring the hidden gems in your city. Spending quality time with loved ones. Snuggling your partner, your kids, your dog.
For most of us, a Friday morning looks nothing like this. But for the team at Rock & Bloom, where every second Friday is Recharge Day, this is our reality.
Rock & Bloom welcomes Recharge Day
Recharge Day, you ask? Never heard of it. Neither had I until our dynamite duo (aka the people who run the biz) introduced it as part of our company’s core values. It goes something like this…
Every second Friday our office is closed so that our team can rest, relax, and recharge. It’s an extra day a month to say sayonara to responsibility, and do something soul-filling that’s good for our mental health.
The purpose of implementing Recharge Days is to promote work-life balance and put our company values into practice. We know that we do better work when we are refueled & recharged.
The proof is in the pudding
With burnout rates at an all-time high, the concept of a recharge day feels refreshing and proactive. COVID-19 has changed the landscape in which businesses operate and it’s clear that employee well-being is becoming top priority for many organizations.
While support for recharge days, mental health time, or the four-day work week gains momentum, there is still opposition to overcome. Some believe that working less hours equals getting less work done and, in turn, bringing in less profit. However, the evidence says otherwise.
A Microsoft subsidiary in Japan trialed a 4-day workweek in 2019 and reported that productivity increased by nearly 40 per cent compared to the year prior. A New Zealand firm, Perpetual Guardian, found that employees’ time spent on non-work websites decreased by 35 per cent when working hours were cut by 20 per cent.
That’s not all. According to Forbes, from a financial perspective, research indicates that moving to a four-day workweek can reduce overhead and other costs to businesses. Employees not only take fewer sick days but are generally more productive.
What recharging looks like
Recharge Days offer our team time to spend alone, run errands, get caught up on housework, rest, have fun, or do something that sparks creativity. Our team has been loving the extra days off and making the most of it. Take a look at some of our Recharge Day highlights!
“Recharge Day means an actual commitment to mental health. It feels so good to not only have your employer believe in you as an employee, but fully care about your well-being. It’s a freeing and empowering feeling.” – Matt Horning, UX Strategist & Developer
“I often find that I make everyone else’s care, except my own, a priority. Recharge day is a day just for me. It’s a day where I can reflect on myself and my needs. By taking care of myself I know I’ll be a better co-worker, friend, and mom. Recharge day helps keep me accountable to refilling my tank. It’s magical. – Valerie Baier, Senior Designer
“An ability to slow down and push pause on life. I love that we have created an environment where we can all focus on what’s important to us. What fills our cup. A no guilt, no pressure day just for me.” – Heather, Co-Founder & CEO
“Recharge Day for me is a bonus day where I get to decide what I want to do. Oftentimes, as a parent, my weekends are filled with kid and family things and I often don’t get to recharge myself. It’s nice to save up my appointments for that day so I’m not stressed having to fit them in during the week/weekends or if I’m really burnt out it’s a time for me to do absolutely nothing without feeling like I should be doing something.” – Molly Lux, Account Manager
“It speaks to the culture and values that permeate throughout everything that is Rock & Bloom. It’s a day to recharge, spend outdoors, with family or friends, accomplishing day–to-day tasks, appointments, etc. It means being more efficient with time and feeling like you are not counting seconds or minutes in the work day.” – Larissa Katsiris, Sales & Marketing Strategist
“Recharge Day is the day I get to recharge my batteries, put aside work and life distractions, and focus on what makes me happy. It’s the day where I can sleep in – guilt-free – and wake up without an alarm clock. It’s the day that reconnects me with myself, my family, and my friends. It’s a day dedicated to doing what I love, not to things that don’t matter.” – Jill Leclerc, Designer
“Recharge Day for me has been a day of slow reflection and a day of gratitude. When it was announced in our monthly share session it made me feel seen and heard. I felt like I worked for a company where it wasn’t just the bottom line that mattered. I, we, as employees, mattered. Our mental, physical and emotional health mattered.” – Mona, Project Coordinator
Creating your own Recharge Day
Interested in implementing your own Recharge Day? Here are a couple of things to consider.
1. Communicate
With your team, your clients, your customers, your followers and fans. Get the word out loud and clear about what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. Transparency is key to making a big change and will help to ensure the transition is successful.
2. Be Flexible
Connect and check in with your team to get feedback about what’s working and what’s not. The goal is for employees to feel less stressed, so if there is friction it should be identified and addressed right away. Be prepared to shift and pivot as needed to create what works for your team.
3. Work together
This is an opportunity to work together as a team to be as efficient as possible. Remember that you’re not alone. Lean on your team mates, ask for what you need, communicate your concerns, and most importantly, share in each other’s joy as you work to become stronger and more collaborative.
It is said that the greatest asset of any company is its people. So take care of your people, let them recharge, and watch what happens when that goodness trickles back into the work that they do.
Sought-after Saskatchewan brand studio, Rock & Bloom, is launching their first-ever, fully-funded ‘Ultimate Brand Course and Workshop’
For immediate release. June 6, 2022, Saskatoon, SK,
Rock & Bloom has made a career out of building relationships and creating killer brands for hundreds of clients across North America, from agricultural giants to local small businesses, and everything in between. Now, they’re turning to local business owners, non-profit directors, and senior level decision makers to offer an immersive, in-person, and fully-funded ‘Ultimate Brand Course and Workshop’.
“Your brand is the backbone for business decisions,” says Heather Adams, Co-Founder and CEO. “The companies that know their brand and can communicate it well through every facet of their business are going to be the most successful.”
Facilitated by founders Heather Adams & David Molesky, the decision to offer workshops presents an opportunity to connect with and help businesses that haven’t had the chance to work with Rock & Bloom in the past.
“We want to help businesses, and we hate having to say no,” says Adams. “So when someone comes to us and they’re really excited to work with us, but for some reason it doesn’t align – whether it’s because of budget or timing or a number of other things – it’s really hard. We see this as an opportunity to help these businesses lay the foundation for their brand strategy to truly level up for the future.”
All too often, business owners and entrepreneurs are working in their business, as opposed to working on their business. This course will allow them to focus on their own business’ needs by following a curriculum-based approach that leaves plenty of room to actually apply the fundamentals. Business owners will be able to leverage brand experts to challenge them by asking tough questions and helping them see their brand through a different lens.
“The foundation of Rock & Bloom and why we exist is not just to make pretty things, like beautiful designs or nice websites; it’s to actually help affect change in a client’s business. if we can affect change and help them reach that next level, distribute to a new market, launch a new product – that’s what gets us out of bed in the morning.”
Rock & Bloom is a top-tier brand design studio that leaves a lasting impact on your growing business. We take an authentic and honest approach to every project we touch. We create killer brands that shape perceptions, build an audience and drive sales.
Agile is an iterative approach to project management and software development that helps teams deliver value to their customers faster and with fewer headaches. – Atlassian Agile Coach, https://www.atlassian.com/agile, retrieved June 18, 2021
For those new to the agile methodology or in need of a refresher, I will start with a general overview about what agile is, and then get into a bit of the history. After that, I’m going to tell you how agile methodology works for an agency — our favourite parts, and some issues we’ve come across.
I’m passionate about agile, and this article is a little lengthy. Feel free to skip to the parts of most interest to you:
The Agile Methodology / Method is an approach to project management often used in software development. It uses incremental, iterative work sequences that are commonly known as sprints.
Agile was formally launched in 2001, when 17 technologists drafted the Agile Manifesto. They wrote four major principles for agile project management, with the goal of developing better software:
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan
Traditional Agency Framework vs Agile Methodology
A traditional agency project management approach requires less input from the client, usually only interacting at major milestones. A client presents a challenge (or sometimes their proposed solution) to the agency, agency goes and solves (or attempts to solve) the problem, and reports back with a complete solution. They track time, bill by the hour, and count minutes on the phone. This isn’t how we like to work.
At Rock & Bloom (R&B), we like to work closely with all of our clients, and have them deeply involved in the project. Building a killer brand is all about empathy and listening. Our clients are the experts in their field — it’s essential that we use their expertise to strengthen and guide the work. Aside from being essential to good work, maintaining open lines of communication is necessary for the success of the agile process, too. Our most successful projects are the ones where clients are willing to invest time into the project and the process.
Using Agile Methodology Gives a Competitive Edge
The Harvard Business Review co-authored a paper with Atlassian called “Agile Practice: The Competitive Advantage for a Digital Age.” The paper is a few years old, but the principle still stands: agile methodology can see great success when applied to non-traditional industries. Many of us at Rock & Bloom come from a tech background, and adopting an agile framework felt like a no-brainer. While I am a particularly passionate advocate, many of the other folks at R&B had already bought into the methodology.
A few competitive advantages, particularly in regards to using an agile framework within an agency structure include:
Customer needs are flexible and constantly centered
Organizations can respond to market changes faster
Deliver higher quality products and services
Company and the client / end-user are able to provide valuable feedback at inflection points
Unnecessary work and redundancy are avoided through communication
Collaborating parties both feel heard and valued
The process allows for pivots and work that needs to be done on tight timelines
Feedback is immediately incorporated into the process and the product
The exact product predicted and needed is delivered
Main Frameworks
A process for managing a project that involves constant collaboration and working in iterations, agile methodology is most known for two main styles: scrum and kanban. We pull from these frameworks to build a model that works for our agency.
Scrum
Scrum is a process framework used to manage product development and other knowledge work. Scrum […] provides a means for teams to establish a hypothesis of how they think something works, try it out, reflect on the experience, and make the appropriate adjustments (Agile Alliance).
Scrum is the most popular agile framework. It focuses on a set delivery pattern called a sprint. A sprint is a short, time-boxed period when a scrum team works to complete a set amount of work (Atlassian). Sprints typically last one to four weeks.
The Scrum framework has a set of events that include the following:
Sprint planning — where sprint priorities are identified
Daily standup meetings — daily discussion and coordination of that day’s work
Sprint retrospective meetings — a discussion at the end of a sprint about whether it was successful, and to identify improvements that can be incorporated into the next sprint
Using Scrum, increments of software can be delivered periodically, rather than waiting for large final software releases. For this reason, many tech companies have adopted this framework. Users of the software get small, incremental improvements on a regular basis rather than a bunch of new features and bug fixes once or twice a year.
This is how most software as a service, or SaaS companies operate. You’ll see it in most of your app updates, if you ever read them. The Facebook ios app release notes show an example of shipping small updates in periodic increments:
Screenshot from June 22, 2021 of the Facebook iOS changelog
Kanban
Kanban is a popular framework used to implement agile software development. It requires real-time communication of capacity and full transparency of work. Work items are represented visually on a Kanban board, allowing team members to see the state of every piece of work at any time (Atlassian).
Kanban was started by Toyota in the 1940s. Toyota industrial engineer Taiichi Ohno took inspiration from supermarkets to implement a “just-in-time” inventory system, which increased production levels, improved efficiency, and removed waste (Nave).
Agile software development teams today are able to leverage these same just-in-time principles by matching the amount of work in progress to the team’s capacity. This gives teams more flexible planning options, faster output, clearer focus, and transparency throughout the development cycle (Atlassian).
A main difference between Kanban and Scrum is that Kanban is not necessarily iterative. A Kanban process allows the software to be developed in one large development cycle.
Estimations
Within the agile methodology, there is something called estimations. Agile estimation is about evaluating the effort required to complete each work item listed in the prioritized backlog. Estimates are hard — you need to anticipate how much time / effort you are going to need to complete a given task. At Rock & Bloom, the team who will be completing the work will do the estimation. And it is just that — an estimation. Sometimes we’re off, but that’s a-ok. The point of doing estimation is to help our account managers plan out a timeline, allot work fairly, and scope projects.
In traditional agile, points are abstract and arbitrary, as long as everyone agrees. At Rock & Bloom, we loosely associate points with hours / days to have a reference point.
How it works at Rock & Bloom is that we each estimate tasks in our backlog prior to or during our weekly sprint planning meeting. We use this system:
1 point – some small amount of time
2 points – less than half a day
3 points – about half a day
5 points – roughly a full day of work
8 points – more than a 5
13 points – even more than an 8
We try to never have anything larger than a five. Estimating something correctly is hard. And as tasks get more complex, they get more daunting to work on, harder to review, and harder to estimate correctly. If something is bigger than a five, we will break it up into sub tasks and estimate those instead.
Why no four, you ask? No 10? We use the fibonacci sequence — computer scientists ❤️ the fibonacci sequence. Using these numbers prevents any estimations from being too close to one another, which can make estimating harder. Think of it in terms of weight — it is easier to tell the difference between a 5lb weight and a 8lb weight, than 5lb and 6lb weight. Fibonacci numbers also don’t double (with the exception of 1 to 2), which also makes the sequence very well suited to estimating. When numbers double, we tend to think too much about if one task is “twice as hard” as another task, which is not helpful.
During sprint planning, each team agrees on the set of work they will complete during the sprint based on the total of the estimates. The work we choose is pulled from a prioritized backlog of tasks. We use Monday.com to track our points, tasks, and status.
Agile Methodology at Rock & Bloom
All four principles are important, but here at Rock & Bloom, the last two points really resonate with us:
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
We let this principle guide us through all kinds of projects. It means that we work closely with our clients and get feedback from them at multiple points in the process. We are able to assess that information and implement it, instead of being stuck in what was decided on day one.
Responding to change over following a plan
Often as a client moves through our processes, they start to more thoroughly understand their own problem and needs, and we are able to respond to that. We don’t stay locked into any early decisions, and we are able to pivot as necessary.
Agile methodologies were built for teams of software developers. Since we are not all developers and we are not working on software, strictly following Scrum doesn’t work for our teams. We have cherry picked the things we like from both Kanban and Scrum, and are using those to run a sort of modified scrumban, which we usually just call Our Process.
Some of Our Favourite Things About Our Process / Agile Methodology
We love the agile framework, and it has allowed us to create amazing work while giving employees freedom and flexibility. Here are a few our favourite things about applying an agile framework to an agency model:
Self organizing teams
This is a team that does not depend on, or wait for, a manager to assign work. Instead, these teams find their own work and manage the associated responsibilities and timelines.
All of our teams are different degrees of self-organizing
Our account managers set priority for all of the tasks for the week, and then we are able to start work on the next highest priority thing that we have the skill set to complete.
Work-in-Progress (WIP)
This term comes from the Kanban framework. It limits work that is currently being done. This means that if the WIP limit is one, each team member can only have one task in progress. Applying these limits forces the team to focus on a limited number of tasks and drive work to completion.
Note that some team members abide by this rule better than others…
Ownership of the work
Once a team member has selected a task to work on, they are the owner of that task, and it is their responsibility to get the task completed!
Constant communication and collaboration
We trust everyone to get their work done, in their time. For some people, this means regular work hours, whereas for others (ahem, Nhi), it might mean coding into the wee hours.
At any time in the sprint account managers and other team members can see the status of a task just by glancing at the task board.
Daily check-ins give everyone a lot of opportunity to make sure they are going down the right track with their task, and ask for help if needed. While each team member is responsible for their tasks, we are still a team working collectively towards the same goal.
Adapting Scrumban to an Agency Model
Since the start of R&B, we have tried many different ways to implement a strong agile process. This started initially with having a fully physical board with post-it notes or actual paper index cards that we would physically move around on our task board every day. As we grew and added some remote team members, we moved our task board to a digital format. We started with a simple and free option, Trello.com, and as we felt the need for more functionality, we moved to Monday.com.
Monday.com has allowed us to collaborate with many people on the same board, and effectively keep track of what we are working on. It also allows us to easily predict what a team can complete in a week, which can be used for forecasting when something will be finished or how long it will take for us to get started on a new client request based on the amount of work we currently have in the queue. It has a predictive element for account managers, who can see at a glance when new work can be started and completed.
We sprint from week to week, so every week we take a look at our last week’s work and have a sprint retrospective meeting. This is where we look at the positives and negatives, questions, and going forwards from the week. When R&B had only five people, we did this weekly with the whole company, and took a look at things at a more general level. Now that we have grown and have more specialized teams, we have started to do this per department, which allows us to get more technical and specific in the feedback we give our teams. Design and content, development, and strategy teams each have their own retro and sprint planning meetings.
Our Rituals
We still meet as a company once a month in an R&B share session, where we share company news, timeline updates, and demo a project we have in progress. This lets everyone in the company stay connected without adding a lot of extra meetings to our calendars.
Sharing is one of our core values, and as we grow bigger, we’re finding that many projects don’t touch every single person in the company. Our share sessions are a great way to stay up-to-date on the cool things that our coworkers are working on, see new tech in practice, and hang out with our work fam.
When Rock & Bloom started we had only one person in each different department — development, design, accounts, and content. We were one big team working together on every single project. This made it hard to use traditional scrum because not every person working on the project could pick up every single task. For example, a designer could not pick up a coding card, likewise a developer cannot pick up a design card. It was also difficult to estimate how long a task would take, since “designing a homepage” and “developing a homepage” really aren’t very comparable. We have found our agile process works best when we can break down tasks to a very similar “size,” and this was difficult with the cross functional nature of our teams and the make up of our work.
As we grew, we made the choice to adjust the teams to be skillset based, with the developers forming one team, the designers, content writers, and videographers forming another, and strategy a third. This lets our points per team become more consistent and our work capacity for a sprint more predictable.
Adapting the agile methodology to best suit the needs of agency life has been a huge part of our success. We are thankful for the amazing frameworks that Scrum and Kanban give us to build on. We will continue to adjust our process as we grow and change, and we continually revisit the basics to stay true to our values.
