Presentation for the Hyper Island Manchester students about what I learned from taking a 3-month sabbatical.

1. Why I quit my job and spent three
months in Sweden figuring out digital.
And what I learned about
strategy along the way.

2. Hey Hyper Island!
My name is Tijs.
@tijs

3. For the past 6 years,I’ve
worked as a planner for
several Belgian ad agencies.

4. Meanwhile I built my
own projects, both
for fun and pro!t.

5. Twistory.net

6. Kukoo.com

7. I learned quite a
few things about
building products,
lean startups,agile
methodologies,…

8. One-time
boost
Permanent
impact
Surprising creativity
Genuine relevance

9. Everyone wants
their Nike Plus.

10. Now what really
de!nes a good digital
product or service?

11. What makes it really
relevant to users?
How do you sell them
to clients?
How do you build
them as an agency?

12. And what about all
those “different”
agencies? Berg,Made
By Many,Frog,...

13. I had no clue.
And absolutely
wanted to find out.

14. I created a really-want-to-
work-for list of agencies
and tried to get in touch.

16. Three things
I’ve learned
after three
months.

17. It’s not about the
perfectly polished
slide deck.
1

18. A S C P

19. A
S
C
P

20. What’s going to drive
you if you no longer create
your “own” deliverable.

21. Everyone’s
a strategist.
2

22. “The vertical bar on the T
represents the depth of
related skills and expertise
in a single !eld.”
T

23. Could strategy really be
described as a skill?

24. TDesign, development, project
management, sales, ...
Strategic thinking,
creativity, social skills, ...
me

25. Is there a place for
people who are only
just the strategist?

26. Digital products don’t
require yet another
strategic idea.
3

27. There’s no way to
start a project
without a strong
strategic idea.

28. As so many essential
decisions are taken along the
way, why don’t we save our
e"orts for those moments?
STRATEGIC IDEA END RESULT

29. Shouldn’t we just start with
clearly defined business
goals/problems and user
needs/expecations?

30. As we like to tell our clients
how digital disrupts
everything, we should also
consider how it impacts our
own role as a strategist.

31. It may require learning some
new skills and it will take some
additional effort, yet being able to
truly impact the end result is so
much more rewarding.

32. Take some distance,
explore alternatives
and !nd out you were
doing it all wrong ;-)

33. tijs@tijsvrolix.com
@tijs