Reflections on My First Month at Slope: My Top-3 Observations
I’ve been at Slope about six weeks. It’s been busy. The agency is growing in both breadth and depth: our work and partners are moving into new industries, geographies and services, we’re deep in an internal rebrand and our team is expanding. It’s a lot to manage, but explicitly why I came on board.
The ramp-up has been a mix of consciously organized moves, quick tests, and scrappy adjustments. At times, I’m drinking from the firehose, and other times, I’m seeing visible controlled growth as we’ve planned it. The team is excited. Leadership is hungry. It feels like the right mix and I’m energized every day to get up and get after it.
Just entering my third calendar month at the agency, here are my Top-3 Observations on what’s distinct about Slope:
1. Agency Founder Experience and Technical Knowledge
What makes Slope fundamentally different from other agencies is our leadership’s deep technical knowledge. Slope was founded by Karine Hsu and Jeffrey Zhao, Y Combinator Alums and serial venture-backed founders with computer science degrees. So much of the work we do at Slope involves translating deeply technical products, services, and therapeutics into approachable brand identities and digital experiences navigable by their target audiences and true to the longterm aspirations of their companies and founders. Alongside Karine and Jeffrey, and as a founder myself, I feel like rather than sitting across from our clients, we’re sitting on the same side of the table as them. Our approach to our engagements encompasses not only the perspective of designers but that of founders and business strategists as well. We work to understand intimately the technologies we’re working with as the foundation of what we do, building our creative services from there.
2. Remote Culture Done Right
Remote work is tricky but it’s also now the norm. We are a 100% remote agency at Slope (with the exception of our offsites and occasional NYC/LA get-togethers!), with most of our team based on the East and West Coasts of the US, with a few sprinkled in between. Our work spans the US, Asia, and Europe at the moment, so we are truly global. Time zones are one challenge, but creating a productive and positive culture in a remote setting — both internally and with our partners — is an entirely different beast. I have led development teams in Europe and Asia and worked with consultancies and agencies remotely across the US and my experience at Slope feels totally different. A big part of this is how we engage with tech; platforms like Slack, Google Workspace, Fathom, Zoom, Loom, Figma, etc… are necessary, but a conscious approach to how we leverage and engage with them collectively as a team has been a game-changer. Soon after I joined the agency, I had a potential client in the Nordics express concern about a remote engagement given the scope of the project at hand. I was actually taken aback by my own confidence in our ability to execute and the ease of communicating my sentiments to her. This was a unique feeling — and immediately evident to me as a very good sign. The team is doing much more than just keeping the green dot alive!
3. A Differentiated Business Model That Works
Without giving away too many secrets, our business model at Slope is built different from that of other agencies in terms of how we source exciting projects and build lasting longterm relationships with our partners. This distinction exists both in team structure and in the way we are able to create a system of consistent organic dealflow. Having this automated pipeline in place is obviously great for the security and growth of the agency but it’s also a huge win for our clients in that it allows us to take on projects with an unusually large range of scope, budget, and details. Ultimately, beyond the opportunity to build and grow the agency, what excites me about my position here at Slope is getting to meet innovative and interesting people building game-changing companies. Beyond the high quality of our work, our business model is the biggest enabler of that.
Ultimately, I believe firmly that judgement of our quality as an agency should rest in the work we put out into the world and the growth and ongoing success of our clients. In my first month at Slope, I’ve seen the distinction of our expertise, business model and culture as fundamentally differentiating and I’m excited for what’s to come.
