Handle

____

“We have a great product.
We need a great story.”

HANDLE
 

The Problem

 

Handle had a bold vision. Founder Shawn Carolan (Partner at Menlo Ventures) wanted to do for digital work what Henry Ford did for manufacturing cars. Workers spend 20+ hours per week in their email, and growing bodies of research show the tools meant to make our days easier instead distract us to the point of getting very little done.

Handle leveraged the best of productivity methodologies to sort your email, covert it into to-dos, prompt you to action at the right time and allow you to focus at others. They just had one problem. “Email productivity app” isn’t a phrase that wins hearts.

 


 

The hard-core David Allen “Get Things Done” productivity disciples already had a system (and a little red book). One engineer handed me a copy and said

“read this and you’ll understand our product”

I replied

“if I have to read that book to understand your product, you have a big problem.”

We needed a way to connect to the mainstream customer, and tug at their heartstrings.

 
 

The solution

My answer was a mission shift, prioritizing mindfulness.

I rewrote their brand guide using Simon Senek’s “golden circle” or “why / how / what” framework to re-frame their purpose.

 
 

Why:

We believe in making the most of our time.

A human-scale statement of our purpose, beyond profit.

 

HOW:

We won’t simplify your life, we help you handle it.

Our value statement, drawing boundaries around our influence. We will help you make better choices, not promise a panacea to the epidemic of ‘business’.

 

what:

We help you prioritize what is important, and let go of what isn’t.

A concrete mission statement, what we promise to do. Create contextual prioritization.

 
 

Productivity is what my boss wants, not what I want. I want moments to myself. I want to be empowered to choose how I spend my time. I want my technology to serve my life, not to feel more consumed by my phone.

 

In creative, this would mean a voice that spoke to results rather than process and features, messaging calm and empowerment, and a design system infused with humanity, tranquil imagery, and white space.

In the product, it meant reflecting the customer’s own priorities back to them. Thoughtful guidance like suggesting tasks from your personal to-dos when your professional ones were lighter than normal, or prompting you to tackle a task that had been pushed multiple times first thing in the morning.

In the end, we inflected the messaging, product, and startup in a bold new direction, from identity and campaign work to inflecting features and UX.