One Skinnyj

Shifting Weight with Naz Hamid

Our industry has watched Naz Hamid elegantly and organically grow his studio, Weightshift, from a one-man endeavor into a staffed, multi-discipline design practice. The studio produces work that sits at the intersection of craftsmanship, elegance, usability, and beauty. I recently had the opportunity to speak with Naz about this journey, the decision to relocate to California, the function of self-initiated projects, and the future of Weightshift.

I think it is safe to say that almost every designer, at some point, considers opening their own studio or practice. For some, that realization comes early. When did you decide it was time to do your own thing? What was the first thing you did after making the decision to form Weightshift?

There are two forms of Weightshift — when it was just me and the moniker I operated under, and then what it is today, with four core people and regular people we work with. I’ll answer the question more so to the latter phase of the studio. Moving West to San Francisco had an impact in that I was searching for the next thing — whether to work for one of the companies that I’ve been fortunate to have been offered work at or just keeping doing what I do, but bigger. It was the second part I chose. I place a huge importance on quality of life and independence and so it made sense. The first thing I did when I made the decision to make Weightshift a studio comprised of more than just myself, was to actually register the studio as a company with the state of California.

Did you already have current clients in place or did you have to seek out new work to make the decision feasible?

I had existing clients but again, it was a re-invention of the studio. Now it was many, and so, the work and clients, had to scale. A key client, who we’re fortunate to now call friends and collaborators, was the first client we had as a group and that set things in motion. We’ve been fortunate enough that word of mouth, referrals and the website along with articles we’ve written and other community-driven exposure has led clients to us.

When the time came to actually attract new clients, how did you go about doing so? Email? Cold calls? Networking opportunities (events)? Did anything seem to work more effectively than another?

I’ve been very, very, very fortunate prior to the group studio and now, as a group, that we’ve not had to email or cold call or network to get the studio name out there. Certainly, I think doing those things might bring in more business, but we’ve seemed to figure out who our clients are and who we want to work with.

That’s important to the studio culture and general happiness. Once you identify the types of people you enjoy working with and the kind of work and clients you want to work with, you figure out how to put your best foot forward in getting that kind of work. Your ideals, principles and approach, if you put them out correctly, will hopefully resonate with the right people.

For us, what works is doing good work for the kinds of people we want to attract but also giving back to the community that we’re a part of everyday. Whether that means writing articles, or sharing knowledge, releasing free code or making web applications open to all.

Many studios strike a balance between accepting projects they really want to work on and working on projects that are solely to pay the bills. Were you selective about the type of work you were accepting or did you find yourself in a position, early on, where you had to accept less glamorous work to pay the bills?

Part of the answer is above, but yes, we try to be selective in the kinds of clients we work with. Because we’re a small studio, we can do that, as we tend to have a full load that works out to a quarterly timeline. We tend to get booked in 3-4 month chunks, but we’ve been taking on smaller, shorter and interesting projects in between the bigger ones.

Before the studio, I did indeed have to take on what work I could find. There’s a part of me that will never stop the hustle. When you pursue a path that’s independent, you have this hustling streak — this constant ebb and flow in how you’re sizing up work and how the work defines you. If you work hard and you do the kind of work that you feel closely aligns with what you like working on, you’ll get into a rhythm and find people to jam with that appreciate what you do.

From your experiences thus far, what are some key factors into starting and maintaining a successful studio practice? Apart from the obvious, what do you feel best serves that newbie striking out on his or her own?

Discipline is the biggest. I know some people like to call work “play”. But I think that blurs the line between personal time and professional time and some people can’t turn it off when they should. When you’re younger, it’s easy to burn the midnight oil. I did it throughout my early and late 20s — I was a true insomniac! But that’s how things got done and you can really be prolific that way. However, I think the landscape’s changed — you can work on just a few things and make those things be great and make it work just as well.

Secondarily and supplementary to the above is that you should develop a culture. Have morals, guidelines, criteria and an environment that supports the studio. Since it’s typically a client services driven venture, be sure to set up the studio and the people working within it, for success. Whatever that means to you. The beauty of studios, like people, are the different approaches.

You were in Chicago for quite some time before heading out west. Why the move? How has that move affected Weightshift—if at all?

The winters! Chicago has hardcore winters. Primarily, my wife and I got tired of the weather. We like moderate to tropical climates. Given my background, I’m surprised I lasted as long as I did in Chicago. It’s a great city, but for active people like ourselves, it became tough to deal with mentally and physically.

The move has been great for the studio. It really has. Since it coincided with the time I decided to make Weightshift a larger and shared venture, I’ve personally been amazed, humbled and thankful that it’s working out.

In a more direct manner, we’ve become start-up driven in a way. Most, if not all, of our current clients are start-ups, technology-oriented or creatively-aligned and being here seems to attract that even more so than before. Granted, the work begets the work. It’s a good thing though — we’ve been able to help and shape products, user experiences and brands while they’re small and growing and continue to help them as they mature and become successful. It’s a wonderful experience to be able to form and grow into relationships with these companies. It feels familial.

Do you pursue self-initiated work to supplement down time or slow months? Do you feel that self initiated work can help develop a solid following—from either clients or peers? And further, when doing this work—such as Interhoods or SitBy.Us—how do you go about reaching out to the right people to get it done?

The studio is constantly thinking about internal ideas and as you’ve noted, we’ve produced some of these publicly. There’s a running list of tiny to ambitious ideas that we keep adding to, to see if any keep calling to us to make or develop. Sometimes, it’s about the right opportune moment or when a certain technology or service has matured or is offered to make the initial difficulty now far more realistic. It’s pretty amazing to think that an idea you may have that you shelve because of lack of resources becomes within grasp because someone else out there is offering it as a service or gratis. Our community is generally super-helpful and giving.

I do feel that it does help—making things for the community does undoubtedly foster goodwill within peers and clients. Though I don’t think we’ve ever executed anything expressly with that purpose. We’re just not that calculated! We do it because we ourselves want to see it out there or because it’s just a cool little thing that could be useful to someone.

How does blogging fit into all this? Weightshift maintains a studio blog where you post about a range of topics—personal and professional. Is the blog—from a studio perspective—still a powerful tool for updating your audience and showing your engagement with your profession?

I love writing. I wish I were a hundred times better than I am. I wish the studio wrote more. We traded in quantity for quality though. And given how busy we’ve been, it’s been hard to put words to screen. We’re trying at the moment to write a little more frequently. I’m personally trying to get it into part of the discipline and culture but we also feel a deep commitment to our clients and customer service and so that usually wins out.

Blogs are still great. I wish more of my favorite people wrote. But I understand why they don’t as well. A lot of the conversation has definitely moved to Twitter and it’s an extremely powerful tool in that respect. The brevity is still refreshing all these years later. I actually think it makes people better writers. I sometimes feel that I can say in 140 characters more than if I rattled away for 800 words. Clear and concise, no?

When starting to reach out to new clients and establishing a relationship, what do you feel is most important to maintain that relationship and present yourself in the best possible way? Is there a perfect balance between personal and professional connections with clients?

Professionalism goes a long way. Being prepared. Staying classy. Patience is indeed a virtue. Communication is EVERYTHING. Respect limits. Respect working hours. It’s business, not personal. Be yourselves. Don’t over share. Be polite. Be respectful. LISTEN. Fight for what you believe. Fight for users. Fight for your clients. Be PRO.

Somewhere in all of that is the perfect storm of studio, client and audience.

What have been some of the most rewarding experiences while running your own business? What about some of the scariest?

Most rewarding: seeing work you’ve done have meaningful impact. Seeing work you’ve done get the results they were designed to have. Being able to work with people you admire and respect, whether it’s clients, companies, people in the industry or your friends.

Scariest: taxes. Going back to the drawing board. Brutal honesty. Admitting you were wrong (but fixing your wrongdoings). Standing up for your work. Firing clients.

What are some of the tools and applications that are essential for a small studio?

Insert a list of Apple products here. :)

In all seriousness, it’s whatever it takes to make work feel less like work. It’s whatever it takes to make communication easy. Make things easy for the studio and your clients. Bring in tools that are best-in-class and help the studio and the client in making the work be the best that it can be. Break down the walls as much as possible.

Identify the end. Bring whatever means necessary.

To end on a more open-ended note, what’s next for you and Weightshift?

At a low-level, we’re ever-excited at the work we keep doing and the people we get to work with. Outside of immediate client work, we’re hoping to introduce a product this year that we hope will help other studios with streamlining part of the work process. We’ve hinted at it before, where it goes by the internal name of Sleeperhold, and we’re finally starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel for an initial release of that.

At a high-level, we’d like to continue keeping the quality of work high and the studio culture engaged and interested. That means we turn work down, but it means we’re happy inside and more importantly, outside of work.