The x. Files: What We Do Differently

We Lead with Listening

by Diane Serra - Project Manager

When I first started talking with Patty about joining her team as a project manager, what really spoke to me was how she spoke about her clients. She referred to them as partners and spoke about the importance of building long-term supportive relationships for them as they grow and shift as companies.

While it was important for her to bring on a project manager who could manage a timeline and budget well, for Patty, it was equally important to bring on someone who understood the people behind the projects, to be fully present with them during discovery calls and to listen deeply in each call and interaction thereafter. At Studio x., we do not consider listening as a soft skill; it is the job!

Through presence, deep listening, and high-quality service, we develop long-term partnerships with our clients and hold ourselves to this standard for as long as our partnership has us working together. While other digital agencies may have strict processes and rules meant to be used for every client, we customize and adapt our internal processes to make the experience as seamless and supportive for our clients as possible. It is a workstyle all our own with our client’s satisfaction at the heart of it all.

At Studio x. we do it differently, and I do not say that lightly. When Patty and I sit down with someone for the first time, we come to listen before we come to pitch. We already have a sense of what you have been through because we have heard versions of your story before. What we want to understand is where we can best be of service. What are your goals, what’s your real timeline and budget and what kind of communication cadence would help you feel the most supported? We aim to determine what you actually need versus what you think you need, because those are often two different things and our team are experts at helping figure this out.

We build our strategy around you, not around what is easiest for us to deliver. We stay and walk beside you through the project and after it. We learn your business over time and that institutional knowledge compounds in ways that a rotating cast of account managers never can.That is what partnership looks like in practice. It is also what we consider the foundation of everything we do here.