Part and Sum

Part and Summed Up ☝️ #22 is live and we're having a Wickedly good time with it 🫧

Part and Summed ☝️ #21 is here! Mystery boxes rise, Valve game thrives, and creators push back. Check all this out and more of what's on our radar here 👇

Part and Summed ☝️ #20 is live! Retailers are panicking and ads are trying to steal your company’s secrets 🥸 What's the sneakiest phishing attempt you've seen?

How do you gather your acorns? 7 years into running Part and Sum, and finding the right inspiration (your acorns) has never been more important to me. It’s also never been more challenging. I’ve always believed that bringing the right people, inspiration, data, and structured facilitation into a room leads to fantastic problem-solving capability. We create our own muses through the collective curiosity and network effect of others. “Embrace Curiosity” is one of Part and Sum’s values. I'm on the hunt for ways to deepen the ways that my team (and myself) can get inspired, emergently inspire one another, and inspire our clients and partners. Our ability to create a culture that fosters curiosity is directly linked to our ability to grow expertise. These are a few ways we do it on a regular basis, but I would love to know how you do it personally and for your team. Gathering Your Acorns: We host a weekly meeting (formerly known as Think Tank Tuesday), where everyone on our team brings interestingness to share. Think articles, videos, podcasts, trends, tools, etc… It can be directly related to our work, but doesn’t have to be. When you have a team with such diverse perspectives, the “why” they’re interested in is as important as what is actually shared. These POVs often make it into our newsletter (if you want a little inspiration, the link to signup is in the comments). Pro-Dev, Do, and Discover: We have an expansive pro-dev policy where we fund (between $2,000-$6,000 based on tenure) our team's ability to develop, make things, and explore. Again, the justification for why they want to develop a skill is often as important as the thing they are growing. #HelpMe and Swarms: Sometimes you have an explicit challenge you need inspiration or external perspectives on, we have a #helpme slack channel where our team seeks out advice, inspiration, and examples. Team members are also encouraged to book “Swarms” where they can leverage the insights and interdisciplinary expertise of the full team to crack a specific challenge or opportunity. Coaching and mentorship: I believe every professional needs a coach to be at their best, whether you’re an actor, a coach, a leader, or a consultant. You need someone in your corner to help you grow and navigate challenges. Myself and my team have the pleasure of working with Suzanne Fattorini and Kristin Bloomquist (I can’t recommend them enough). Through our broader network and community: Within our Residence network, we’re exposed to some of the most creative and talented makers and thinkers in our industry. Through shared Slack channels (around topics like Strategy and AI) we get a continuous stream of interestingness and inspiration. We also have unique partners like It's Nice That, who champion creativity and community exposing us to work that is beyond what we normally do. How are you and your team gathering acorns and building muses?

Part and Summed ☝️#19 just dropped. Brands are entertaining on Reddit, Jiu-Jitsu got its glow up, and AI can’t summarize (who knew).

What Part and Sum does is a commodity. All service firms can be called commodity businesses. But the experience of working with us is our brand. Similarly, any phone can access the web, but only an iPhone is… an iPhone. How the Part and Sum team does what we do makes us better experts and excellent 🧑🍳 💋. This week marks Part and Sum’s 27th quarterly offsite (our “Together”), and we’re taking the time to get back to basics. It’s been 8 years since we created our values, and while values shouldn’t change often… a lot has happened in 8 years. We’re using this time to look in the mirror, align on our collective beliefs, codify our culture, and set us up for success (did I mention we’re hiring?). Below are our 6 updated values. We’re focused on things we say all the time, that have a unique perspective (how to live them), and are evocative of the accountability we want from each other. Take a look and let me know what you think. The next step is visualizing them to make them sticky, memborable, and us. 💡 Nothing but Opportunity: Bringing a growth mindset to everything you do. Find the opportunity, frame it up, and execute. 🗣  Strong Opinions, Loosely Held: Bring a POV and lean in, but be open to other ways of thinking. Disagree, but be ready to commit and move forward. Don’t take it personally. 🥈 Win Best Supporting Actor: Focus on making your team, partners, and clients look and feel good. Show up for them, say what you mean, and in doing so, you’ll look good too. 🧐 Embrace Curiosity: Dive in, ask all the questions. And when you think you know it all, ask again. Be open to constant discovery and learning. 🔂 Tight Feedback Loops: Growth comes from feedback in all forms, whether that is an ad, a user test, or an internal process. Lean on feedback to listen loudly and iterate quickly. 🎢 Enjoy the Ride: Remember that getting to think for a living is fun. Find moments of joy in the work, let your creativity create, and your fun flag fly. Special thanks to Leila Wu for helping us articulate these.

Part and Summed ☝️#18 is here and between Olympic hype and AI burnout, we cover what you need to know about marketing, culture, and technology.

Part and Summed ☝️#17 is jumping into your inboxes. This week we talk about Meta's returned focus on ads, a major accomplishment at the X Games, and your new AI doctors 🩺

Today, every child with a cellphone is a target. Between 2021 and 2023, reports of online exploitation of children, which include sextortion, have increased by 323%. For children dealing with sextortion it can feel like there is no escape. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children helps parents, not by making them feel scared or powerless, but by bringing awareness to the real risks of what is in their child’s pocket, and giving them the tools and agency to be a part of the solution. No Escape Room is an interactive film that places parents directly into the experience of a kid caught in a sextortion scheme, capturing the visceral, anxiety-inducing panic of suddenly finding yourself trapped. Sextortion is one of the biggest risks kids and teens face online, but most parents are not aware how quickly and easily it can happen. The innovative and interactive campaign sparked conversation not just among parents but also schools, administrations, and young people who resonated with the message of bringing more awareness to the topic and helping stop this epidemic. Special thanks to our friends at Grow, including: Drew Ungvarsky, Sarah Ann McCormick Walters, Eric Lohman, Jordan Crisman, Molly Douglas and Dani Meluski-Jimenez as well as NCMEC’s Gavin Portnoy. It was great to collaborate and bring such an important issue to light. Check out the full experience via the link in the comments section.