FAQ about Crafft

Hu­go Vuyk | 12. Ju­ly 2022 | 4 min read­ing time
 

Fre­quently asked ques­tions about Crafft as a design agency that we're happy to an­swer.

First, second, third: What do you spend the most time do­ing in­tern­ally?

First, work­ing on de­vel­op­ing and im­prov­ing products for our cli­ents. Second: Ad­apt­ing our own pro­cesses to stay com­pet­it­ive. Third: Do­ing a bunch of small-scale work that is of­ten te­di­ous, but moves the "whole" for­ward. 

What would you say you are par­tic­u­larly good at? 

Be­ing stra­tegic and cre­at­ive at the same time.

What's in your DNA? 

Design, tech­no­logy and the abil­ity to make bold de­cisions. 

What does design mean to you?

Design is pur­pose. Design is form. Form fol­lows a func­tion and a strategy. Form sup­ports everything, makes things clear, friendly and use­ful.

And what is tech­no­logy?

Tech­no­logy is about the fu­ture of our cus­tom­ers. We de­vel­op and im­ple­ment tech­nic­al solu­tions that are not only ef­fi­cient, but provide real busi­ness value. Our tools, pro­cesses and train­ing are de­signed to equip our cus­tom­ers for the fu­ture. 

You of­ten talk about strategy: when is a strategy cred­ible for you?

Cred­ib­il­ity comes from trust. And trust comes when you act trans­par­ently and hon­es­tly. 

What's ac­tu­ally the coolest, what's the most ex­haust­ing thing about your job?

The best thing is the vari­ety and fast-paced nature of the job and the fact that we really do things that make our cus­tom­ers more suc­cess­ful. The most ex­haust­ing thing is the big dif­fer­en­ce between hav­ing an idea and im­ple­ment­ing it.

How do you mo­tiv­ate your­self with­in the agency when you have to do things you're not com­fort­able with?

Take a step back and see the task in the over­all con­text of all the oth­er tasks that you are very com­fort­able with.

Are you friends with each oth­er? 

We be­lieve that work is more fun when you also func­tion well to­geth­er per­son­ally and share com­mon val­ues. It's then even easi­er to get in each oth­er's way, be­cause you can build on a great basis of trust.

What val­ues are those? 

Al­ways be­ing open and curi­ous, hon­esty, col­legi­al­ity, re­li­ab­il­ity.

What makes you stand out? 

We have a good feel­ing for the re­spect­ive com­pany cul­ture and the con­text of the task. From this we cre­ate solu­tions that strengthen or in­crease the value of our cli­ents' busi­nesses. 

Is it im­port­ant to you that people re­cog­nize your style in cus­tom­er solu­tions?

We care more about sub­stance than style. So we fo­cus our com­pass on pro­cesses - and find suit­able solu­tions for dif­fer­ent cus­tom­ers. If you like: that's our style

Is there some kind of over­arch­ing prin­ciple for Crafft's work?

Sim­pli­fy everything you can. Here's what we've learned: the simplest things you can see are com­plic­ated.

What has im­pressed you the most over the past few years?

PEOPLE! People who are curi­ous - no mat­ter what their func­tion or age. Curi­os­ity about new things, curi­os­ity about the oth­er per­son.

And what dis­tin­guishes these people?

The com­mon de­nom­in­at­or is prob­ably their rad­ic­al open­ness. And the abil­ity to listen. 

If I want to work for you, what's the killer in­ter­view ques­tion I need to pre­pare for? 

"Tell us something about your­self" - it doesn't mat­ter what comes next, but we listen care­fully and try to find out what kind of per­son you are: ana­lyt­ic­al, pas­sion­ate, chummy, ima­gin­at­ive, etc. The con­ver­sa­tion is more im­port­ant than any CV. 

How did you come up with the name CRAFFT?

The name is in­spired by a book by US so­ci­olo­gist Richard Sen­nett - The Crafts­man. The mes­sage is simple: Crafts­men:ins are all those who feel the de­sire to "do something well for its own sake". This de­sire and ex­per­i­en­ce of be­ing com­pletely ab­sorbed in the work - be it a piece of mu­sic, a com­puter pro­gram, or carving a wooden table - is what mod­ern psy­cho­logy calls "flow." That's what we strive for: a good flow with part­ners and cli­ents.

And why do you write CRAFFT with 2 FF?

The two F's stand for func­tion and form. And that is ba­sic­ally what we have been bring­ing to­geth­er for around 15 years. The tech­nic­ally func­tion­al with the aes­thet­ic.