in 2014 a platform that me and my partner (Development Lead) were working on got nominated by The Next Web, generating a lot of interest in the team and our way of working. We decided to open up shop as a UX & Software agency and allocate resources to this platform and later to other own initiatives.

 

In the 5 years that followed we helped out many (international) clients with a focus on launching new products. We specialised in this early stage and build a team of designer and developers that helped validate new propositions and turning them into scalable products with actual traction.

 

This was interesting for corporates who saw their market being disrupted by clever start-ups. Most companies don’t have the resources and expertise available to quickly design, build, test and iterate or pivot on a new idea. We went through multiple product versions or iterations, validated business modals, user needs and the technical stack before handing the project over to a larger team that would execute the delivered roadmap. Scalability was everything, for both design and development.

 

We Seek Trouble was based in Utrecht, the Netherlands. Our office was located at an incubator and later at an accelerator thus putting us right in the centre of the start-up ecosystem. After going through the entrepreneurial programs I became the chairman of the incubator and coached other (start-up) entrepreneurs. This helped me and the rest of our Designers and Developers to get in the right mindset and bring valuable skills to the table when working on new products for our clients.

 

Besides sales, the day to day running of the company and leading the team I was responsible for everything Design related, doing most UX and Visual Design work myself. Strategy became a standard part of my work as well as coaching.

 

Each year we invested in one project or company, offering our Strategy, Design and Development services ‘for free’ to see if within this year we could gain traction. If we succeeded our investment would convert into a buy-in. This led to some interesting situations, learnings and successes (Joost & Tessa).

 

The team grew to 8 and the focus shifted to larger projects with even more development work. After a period of running solo Strategy and Design projects I decided to jump into the next adventure, leaving the company and continu working on Strategy and Design projects while sailing around in Scandinavia.