making the future human #4 - april 2024

edition #4 tl;dr - renaissance day, peppermints, publicity + 4 years of dcdx

dcdx who?? sightlines, cfo, the muse + more

April showers bring May flowers, right?? The press did sure shower in this month, so May…waiting for what you have in store! We kicked off the month with a FASCINATING convo with our friends at Sightlines (full video linked on the image above and here) talking Gen Z with Kate Bernot and Bryan Roth (no, we’re not related, but yes, it is a great last name). We discussed marketing from a place of fear, "the year of discovery," the search for human connection, and why focus groups often miss the mark when it comes to Gen Z…but is Gen Z even a demographic?

The real shining moment from all of this was not what happened during the chat, but what happened directly after. Mara’s (multiple) mentions of her favorite beer, an Allagash White, prompted this from Allagash’s marketing lead. A 101 on how to make life-loyal fans 🤌

We also found ourselves with exclusive coverage from CFO.com on our latest workplace research, in addition to a profile on dcdx from the Muse, from our origin story to our practices of transparency within dcdx, my leadership philosophy on leading Gen Z, and work-life balance. Here’s a highlight from the piece on WLB:

“I’m a big believer in the power of habit, and in our innate desire to be consistent in our actions. If my work-life balance isn’t there, I will not expect my team to keep their own,” Roth says.

“I am at my best when I have the space to rest my mind, which requires sleep, exercise, and a life outside of work,” he adds. “It’s essential our team has the autonomy to design that balance in the way that best reflects their personal lifestyles.”

Read the full story here (and scroll to the bottom, dcdx is fourth!).

ICYMI 🔦: two public reports

This April, we released two new reports, one of which was commissioned by our partners over at Abode on Gen Z and the workplace, and the second of which came out last week on Gen Z’s Top 50 CPG Brands.

The release of the CPG report also coincided with our busiest day of traffic this year (!!) I’m no mathematician, but this sure looks like it has a nice trendline:

💙 inside dcdx: happenings in culture

April was an innovative month inside dcdx, and excited to share some of these developments with you all.

April 15: Cultural Renaissance Day 🎨

I read a great piece called The Shape of a Year, where I pondered on this challenge:

How can we be most intentional about how we use the shape of our years, as well as the rhythms of our quarters, months, and weeks, to place our collective attention on what we care about most?

I love this idea - and immediately wanted to put something into practice. Someone who has inspired many parts of what we do at dcdx - Leonardo da Vinci - happened to be born on…you guessed it! April 15. Happy 572nd birthday, Leonardo! In honor of Leonardo and his legacy, we instituted what we now call Cultural Renaissance Day, where everyone at dcdx took the afternoon off to go visit a local museum. We shared our lovely afternoons the following morning; here are some photos! Guess which one was made by someone on our team…I’ll bet you can’t!

peppermints 🍬

I recently read Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara, who co-owned Eleven Madison Park, which was voted the #1 restaurant in the world in 2017. The book is all about Will’s journey to that achievement; one of excellence, class, and shockingly…unreasonable hospitality. Naturally, I was inspired…

We’ve decided to institute a new part of our client onboarding, beyond the traditional kickoff calls and stakeholder interviews. I won’t disclose too much here, but it involves not only thinking about our clients in ways outside of work but also recognizing them in these ways, too. I know I’m being unreasonably vague here, but for those who have worked with us (and those who will!) I’m pumped about this surprise addition to our client experience.

case studies and big wins 📈

And a last little update before the EOM reflection, we added a new case studies section to our site, highlighting some of the great work we’ve done with partners. While much of the work we do is hidden behind NDAs, more and more is becoming public, which is also helping us in turn bring in more business.

One of the immediate impacts of this addition has been more direct inbound leads, from RFPs to website contact forms. Some of these have led to some really big wins this month - excited to share more on these in the coming months…

Reflections on April 2024 and 4 years at dcdx.

On April 25th, I celebrated my fourth dcdx anniversary. Which is also the fourth birthday of dcdx, if you put two and two together (although OG’s remember it was called “GenZ Designs”). I always hesitate to name a “day” as the birthday. That day, April 25, happened to be the one I got a letter from the government saying I had a business. But it certainly did not mean I had a business. Nor any clues on what that would mean, for that matter. Not until nearly 6 months later did we actually get paid to do something, and not until over a year later did I start working full-time on dcdx.

But regardless of this silly debate in my head over the real birthday of dcdx, four years is a long, long time. And yet it is also no time at all.

I distinctly remember the moment, sitting at my kitchen table on a rainy Saturday in Ohio, just a month after COVID shut down the world, opening the letter from the Secretary of State.

I distinctly remember the moment 6 months later, when I opened my Twitter DM’s to see a message from Tressie Lieberman, the at-the-time VP of Digital Marketing at Chipotle (now CMO of Yahoo), saying she “Would love to connect and learn more about what [we] do”.

I distinctly remember when another 8 months after that, listing my first job post on LinkedIn in June of 2021, I thought hey, I know what will get us the right student looking for a startup to join…a “Chief Strategy Officer” role! And how that wildly ignorant job listing turned into a group of advisors that has helped me learn more than I could ever imagine.

The path from that day four years ago to this one is scattered with memories like these: ones that I continue to right-click and save in my memories…and in my iCloud.

It is a path that challenges me to reach into the future and one that reminds me to never forget the past. A path of triumph and humility.

A path I am grateful to have chosen - and to continue to choose - every single day.

Here’s to the last four, to the next four, and to the memories that will illuminate the path to our future.

Onwards to May’s flowers!

-AR