Let others brag about you

Daniele Catalanotto
Dec 30, 2022
A Service Design Principle to make sales a little bit less awkward.

As I visit the team page on the Goodpatch agency website, I notice that below each name, there is a little description.

Such descriptions are usually a moment where everyone has to show how smart he is by showing off all his education and crazy experience. In my culture, it always feels weird when we brag about ourselves.

But here, the people behind the Goodpatch website do it differently. For example, the text of Samuel is written by Akiho.

The team page of the Good patch website shows photos of team members with a small text below each photo.

So instead of being a bragging contest, the page shows how the team members really respect each other.

Action question

How can you avoid the weirdness of bragging about yourself? What are alternative ways of pitching the value of your service?

Daniele's notes

  • These are the very first rough notes for this principle.
  • One day, this principle might be part of a book in the series Service Design Principles.
  • Feel free to share opposing ideas, examples and feedback 

1 comment

Daniele Catalanotto
Jan 17, 2023

Second draft

This is the second draft of this Service Design Principle

I'm on the website of the Goodpatch agency. There, on the team page, I notice under each name a short description.

These descriptions are usually a bragging moment where people show how smart, educated and experienced they are. In my Swiss culture, it feels pretty to brag about yourself.

But here, the Goodpatch team avoids this problem. For example, the text of team member Samuel is written by Akiho, another team member. Instead of being a bragging contest, the team page shows what team members really admire in their colleagues. That's much nicer (1)!

Action question

How can you avoid the weirdness of bragging about yourself? What are alternative ways of pitching the value of your service or yourself?

Footnotes

(1) The Goodpatch agency doesn't work anymore in Germany; their team page has changed since then and doesn't follow this idea anymore. Nevertheless, it was a pretty good idea.