The old saying about the cobbler’s kids that have no shoes is as true in concept now as it was a millenia ago. At Oasis Digital, where we find great solutions to increase the success of our customers, we have been so focused on those projects that we find ourselves lacking our marketing shoes. Our marketing efforts have been tertiary at best.

Life Magazine, 1946: An orphan with his first pair of new shoes.

A few years ago we realized the need to develop our brand, a few months ago we started moving forward, and a few weeks ago we sat down and started the process with our team. I asked them to articulate what we are really good at, what they were proud of. The list was broad, and spoke to their understanding of the value they bring to our clients. Here is the list:

• We don’t just build what the customer describes, we address needs in a well-thought out manner. We creatively solve problems, not just execute.
• What we build can last (longevity). and scale
• Our teams communicate and collaborate
• Challenges/problems are shared in the team
• Our tech stack stays fresh
• We teach about what we use
• High quality, comprehensive design documents that hit the mark the first time.
• Continuous learning/continuous improvement professionally
• We can bridge the gap between techies and lay people
• Our team can communicate effectively
• Always look to improve, solve the problem with less code
• We push for regular delivery, to finish items, not have long-standing open work items

This is the first bit, what we do well. The further question is how do we do these things. Very often, how you do things communicates your value to your customers. For example, people find our training very valuable because it is intensely workshop based, and taught by an actual practitioner of the craft, not a professional teacher.

• We build high quality software
• We empower our customers to prosper
• We leave customers and projects better than we found them

We are a values based organization, so the “what” and the “how” are not the full answer. When you answer the “why” you find the values that motivate your work. The answer I came to was two-fold:

• We love to solve problems
• We love to help people

The wording will change over time but our core motivator is solving hard problems that have value. We really enjoy that process. Adding value, helping people and businesses to be successful, those are solid values that we believe will resonate with the right kinds of customers.

I love the powerful words pushed forward by the team. They are full of meaning and demonstrate the consistency through the team of our values.

love, empower, build, communicate, help, teach, improve, finish, learning, effective, collaborate

I cannot wait to have these ideas permeate our web presence and our marketing communications. If we can push this to conclusion I believe we will finally have a nice pair of shoes!