Before taking off, you need to know where you’re going.

How we understand impact before any project: what needs to change, for whom, and at what moment.

There’s something that happens to us quite often when we start conversations with a potential client.

The first request usually comes with a pretty concrete phrase:

• “We need a new website.”
• “We want to organize the brand.”
• “We need to redesign the experience.”
• “We have to prepare a presentation.”
• “We want to launch something new.”

And that’s totally fine. Very often, that’s the necessary starting point to begin the conversation.

But when we start pulling the thread a little further, more things almost always appear. A deeper motivation. Something that doesn’t fit into a first email, a 45-minute call, or an initial brief.

Because a website is not always just a website.

A brand is not always just a brand.

A presentation is not always just a presentation.

A reel is not always just a reel.

Many times, all of that is just one part of something much bigger.

It’s like when a friend says, “Let’s have some mate.” In reality, they want to tell you something. Or, as the great Ronald Shakespear used to say:

Behind that first request, there’s a lot to read between the lines: a company that’s growing and needs to explain itself better. A team that needs a clearer tool. A funding round that’s starting to appear on the horizon. A C-level team that needs to validate a decision. A business that can’t afford to stop while changing its technology stack. A brand that no longer represents the real size of the organization behind it.

And that’s where the project truly begins. When we understand what that project needs to move.

Of course we care that a brand is well built. That a website loads properly. That an interaction creates enough intrigue for someone to keep exploring. That the visual system is solid. That the content is well told. That the development is well executed. That the craft is there, even in those details that maybe no one will point out, but that make everything work better.

The quality of all that is part of what we do. Something like an internal standard. A way of respecting our work and the people who trust us.

This also connects with something we’ve been talking about quite a bit at /nk: how we use, and how we don’t use, AI. Technology can accelerate many parts of the process: exploring, organizing, producing, optimizing. But there’s something that remains deeply human: understanding the real problem, reading the context, building trust, and deciding what kind of impact makes sense to pursue.

Because going faster is great. But only if we know where we’re going.

And we also understand that quality, on its own, is not enough.

That’s why the key is to become obsessed with understanding impact. And when we talk about impact, we’re not only talking about flashy results, isolated metrics, or awards. We’re talking about something much deeper: understanding what that organization needs to achieve, at that specific moment, for that specific audience.

• Sometimes impact is sales.
• Sometimes it’s clarity.
• Sometimes it’s business.
• Sometimes it’s performance.
• Sometimes it’s speed.
• Sometimes it’s order.
• Sometimes it’s someone understanding in a few minutes what used to take half an hour to explain.

And many times, not to say almost always, it’s a much more complex mix of all of that together, plus a few other things.

In the vast majority of our projects, we start with a discovery program, designed precisely to surface data, information, and conversations that would otherwise be very difficult to access.

It also helps bring together all the teams involved, who may rarely sit down to think together outside of their daily tasks.

It’s a series of dynamics and exercises designed specifically for each challenge. Not because the brief doesn’t matter, but because there are things that are very hard to fully formulate at the beginning.

And there’s never a time when, by the end, someone doesn’t say something along the lines of: “wow, it’s been so long since I actually stopped to think about these things.”

You have to talk. Listen. Understand the context, the moment, the tensions, the voices, the visible objectives, and also everything that starts to appear between the lines as trust is being built.

Because no relevant project, at least for us, is built from a supplier-and-client logic, each one looking from their side of the table.

It’s built as a team. People with different perspectives, motivations, and expertise, trying to push toward the same place.

A startup preparing for its next funding round doesn’t need the same thing as an established company looking to reposition itself. Our job is not to impose a single way of measuring impact. Our job is to help find the needle that truly needs to move, agree on it with the client, and work toward it.

That’s where a big part of the value lies.

A few days ago, we closed a deal with one of the largest organizations in the world. Literally. And while I still can’t say which one it is, I can share something they told us after letting us know we had been selected.

After reviewing 30 proposals from agencies and studios around the world, and finally speaking with the three shortlisted studios, they told us that probably everyone could do what they needed. But something different had happened with us: they felt we understood them, empathized with them, and made them feel extremely comfortable and confident about the decision to work together.

Basically, we had built trust.

And that’s not a minor detail. Because when there’s trust, there’s more openness. When there’s more openness, better information appears. And when better information appears, the project has a much greater chance of touching the place it truly needs to touch.

Of course technical capability matters. Of course track record matters. Of course the portfolio matters. Of course the standard matters.

But in critical business moments, when an organization needs to transform something important into a brand, a narrative, or a digital experience, feeling understood matters too.

Then yes, bring on the indicators. But maybe designing, developing, managing, and thinking are also a little bit of all this.

Supporting organizations in those moments when something important needs to take shape, and turning it into brands, systems, and digital experiences capable of moving them forward.

Because making something beautiful can open a door.

But understanding which needle needs to move is what makes someone want to walk through it.

Lucas
/nk.studio

PS: I finished writing this /nk.news yesterday before the Argentina vs. England semifinal, at 2:35 PM, and I’m sending it today, Thursday, July 16, at 8:17 AM, still pretty emotional —and almost voiceless— after the match.

And when I reread it before hitting “send,” I couldn’t help but think that all of this could also be read from a sports perspective.

Quality matters. Talent matters. Execution matters. But none of that is enough without trust, clear roles, a shared idea, and a team that understands what game it’s playing.

Sometimes what moves the needle is going forward. Sometimes, holding on. Sometimes, waiting for the right moment.

And in all of that, there’s something else, quite difficult to measure but impossible to overlook: heart, passion, and a unique mystique among everyone involved.

That thing that makes a team not just a group of people doing their jobs well, but something much bigger moving together. Pushing. Spreading. Moving people.

I deeply believe that in an organization, or on a pitch, when something truly works, it’s impossible not to notice. Like yesterday, in that incredible match.

To close… sorry if today the topics got a little mixed, but that’s football champagne newsletter champagne.