Studio Note #82: What They are Going to See.
What you leave out matters.
Image: Ed Ruscha, Standard Station; Mocha Standard
Cheese Mold Standard with Olive; and Double Standard
Sometimes it takes someone looking from the outside to recognize what you've been overlooking.
I spent some time recently reviewing a resume for someone in my professional network. What started as a relatively straightforward exercise in editing quickly became a conversation about how we present ourselves and the value of our experience.
The issue wasn't a lack of experience. It was how that experience was being communicated.
There were accomplishments, responsibilities and relationships that deserved attention, but they were competing with information that did little to establish a clear professional identity.
And I think businesses struggle with the same thing.
We become so familiar with our own work that we assume other people understand its significance.
We know what we've accomplished, the challenges we've overcome and the value we bring to the table.
But the people encountering us for the first time don't have that context.
They only know what we choose to show them.
That's where perspective becomes valuable. Not because someone else necessarily understands your business or your experience better than you do, but because they can see how it's being received without the benefit of everything you already know.
Sometimes the solution isn't adding more.
It's deciding what deserves to be there in the first place.
Whether you're presenting yourself, your business or your work, the objective isn't to tell people everything you've ever done.
It's to make thoughtful decisions about what they're going to see, and give them a reason to understand why it matters.