The Who* Behind The Why Work

The Who* Behind The Why, or The Who* Work is the single most critical layer for Local* Agency clients and teams*. Everything within building Branded Products stems from this inside out methodology.

The Who* Work architects and unpacks the foundational platform of each client by personally connecting with the people of each organizations in a way that cannot be recreated without putting our boots on the ground, rolling up our sleeves, and cross-examining the entire chain of any given organization.

With Local* Agency, our teams* spend quality time getting to know people at the people-level, through The Who* Work. From the groundskeeper to the CEO—The Who* Work ensures Local* Agency operates from a place a trust, truth, honesty, and relatability, first, no matter where the client is or what their ask is. We* meet the client where they are at to study, uncover , and invent within the framework of "all the parts are already here—our* job is to connect the dots and guarantee a personalized level of Branded Products that stems from the inside out."

Pictured left: Trish Becker, Executive Director of The Cohousing Association of the United States, Savannah Kruger, Founder & Executive Director, and August Elliott, Co-Founder of the Neighborhood Accelerator Program.

Early-Stage Processes

Creating the scaffolding for the clarity, utility, and value found within each Branded Product build, Early-Stage Processes create a Core Infrastructure Layer that yields meaningful, sustainable, and visionary Branded Products through Local* Agency's foundational protocols. For each Branded Product engagement, these protocols are not simply discovery—they are co-architectural frameworks that establish the internal logic, rhythm, and contextual DNA of each client project. Systems that exist upstream from Branding and operate prior to production to ensure that no build is disconnected from the people behind it.

Early Stage Processes are vital for:

1. Building durable, co-authored IP for further clarity and cohesion
2. Designing with people, not just for them (boots on the ground)(irl/url)
3. Preventing downstream drift, bloat, or disconnection that is felt by teams*, @users, shareholders, and partners*

The entire scope of each *Agency project better relates to the people who* create the work, when Early-Stage Processes are met and upheld. Thus, the entire system of scale (from *Agency to client to team* and ultimately the end-user) takes on the characteristics of relatable, Early-Stage Processes when everyone can feel the direct value of The Who*  Work.

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Principle Constants

Principle Constants are the Design rules, moral geometry, and methodology grammar that make something inherently Local* (inherently relative) — clients must see their reflection in the systems we* build, i.e., systems are built with clients not just for them. Principle Constants provide the relative and consistent frameworks and scaffolding of collective Branded Products. Branded Products are items, tools, or experiences where the brand is not just added—it’s built into the product itself.

For Local* Agency and the Designers we* operate with, following Principle Constants means that by baking The Who* Work into proposals, contracts, budgets, and timelines, we* are intentionally stepping into the natural environments of our clients for longer durations of time (typically, an entire month) before Design enters into the room. Principle Constants are followed by Local* Services, Local* Agency, and Local* Studios and define out as:

1. The Who* Work: Deep mapping of individual and team psychographics, values, rhythms
2. Contextual Architecture: Identifying the environments (digital, physical, cultural, etc) that the brand/product will operate within
3. Internal Language Invention and Settings: Creating common language frameworks to guide team decisions
4. Tool Affinity Mapping: Understanding how the team naturally works with systems & tools, to future-forecast and reverse engineer new systems and tools for long-term visions
5. Boundary-Setting & Role Shaping: Clarifying scopes of ownership and creative flow
6. Pre-Stake Diagnostics: Evaluating what the client is willing to stand behind and scale

Value Relatives

The expression of relative values within any given project shifts depending on the domain—arts, civic, tech, food (for ex), and things like cultural tone, or economic constraints all render a unique set of values within the framework of Principle Constant scaffolding. Value Relatives must be discussed during scoping and onboarding to ensure the values and cultural specificities of each organization are framed within Local* Principle Constants—not against them. Value Relatives become contextual expressions of the principles followed, and are shaped by specific client goals, their culture, economic forces, and strategic positioning.

When combined, Principle Constants and Value Relatives shape HOW The Who* Work is identified, re-rendered, valued, made accessible, used, extended, and re-worked.

The Who* Work

To extrapolate the Who* mentality, further, Principle Constants work within these larger methodologies and first principles:

1. Who* We Are Is Who* Our Products Become
2. The Who* Behind The Why  
3. The How Behind the Who*
4. Who We* Are Matters

Who We* Are Is Who Our Products Become

Our internal values, identities, and cultural DNA shape every product, service, or experience we* bring into the world. Products are not neutral—they are extensions of the people, intentions, and ecosystems that create them.

1. This principle requires coherence between internal culture and external offerings.
2. The emotional, ethical, and aesthetic signatures of our team* are embedded in what we* make.
3. If we* value care, courage, or clarity—our Branded Products must carry those same traits.
4. This is a call to infuse character into creation.

The Who* Behind The Why

Every decision has a face. Every mission has a voice. Behind every reason is a person or a group whose lived experience shapes that reason.

1. This principle centers accountability and narrative.
2. It asks: Who* shaped this initiative? Whose needs, desires, and experiences define this direction?
3. It acknowledges that logic is born from identity—what matters to us* is rooted in who* we are.
4. It encourages transparency: not just what we’re doing, but who* it serves and who* it stems from (who* we are is relative)

The How Behind The Who*

Our methods are not just tactical—they are reflective of our deeper identities and identity systems (Branded Product ID's). The way we* work, build, lead, and relate is a direct output of our values and self-understanding.

1. This speaks to integrity of process.
2. It reminds us that culture isn’t only what we say—it’s how we do things.
3. The “How” includes rituals, rhythms, team* structures, communication norms, and governance models.
4. We* must continually ask: Do our methods reflect our self-declared identity?

Who* We* Are Matters

Each individual—each Who*—is not only symbolic, but substantive. Their presence adds measurable weight, perspective, and value to the organization.

1. People are not interchangeable parts; they bring specific mass, meaning, and momentum to a collective.
2. This principle insists that we* measure not just productivity, but presence, energy, contribution, and resonance.
3. Who* someone is—culture, craft, curiosity, care—has quantifiable impact.
4. We* seek to build systems that register and respond to these human variables.
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Within The Who* Work, restraint surrounding the timing and application applied to these four principles and their relative values becomes a practice and set of tools that ensures Designers, clients, and the collective teams* are not rushing into the process of Design. This harness into Early-Stage Processes yields many major benefits of long-term growth through scale over 1, 3, 5, and 10+ year timelines, otherwise not found in sprints and fast deadlines:

• Ensuring Designers and clients find commonalities and camaraderie, i.e.,—things to relate to on the social level for the duration of the build:
  
  • This ensures that our team* finds synchronicities typically not found in standard client vs team relationships (teams* don't operate fluidly in "us vs them" partnership)
  • This changes the energy of the build that effects end-outcomes
  • The best work is accomplished when both parties can constructively criticize each others work without ego, bias, and "taking sides"
  • When clients and Designers operate on equal grounds, vulnerabilities are eked out faster and with stronger conviction; great Design stems from being comfortable with being uncomfortable
• Slowing down the process of Design requires understanding of process, itself:
  
  • Process points to The How Behind the Who* which yields innovation into personalized Branded Product Identity Systems
  • The "How" of a Brand build is what builds Living Systems; toolkits that evolve with clients to yield truth, personalized accessibility, and global content over time
• Taking time to step back, restraint encourages Designers to think deeply and look at the bigger picture as a constant form of check-in with the process of Brand Design and Product Development:
  
  • Rather than rushing into Design and Development, restraint activates note taking, noodling, doodling, and the process of sitting with Design Thinking and its development process
  • Connecting dots and building within a Communal* Design process; stepping back encourages Designers to follow their instincts and threads otherwise missed by rushed timelines

Think about it this way; if everything up until 40 is research (Carl Jung), why do we rush or tack-on the most important processes of Branded Product identity, development, integration, and communication?

Moving into the processes of Design too early yields “hooks” for clients to draw from. This means that clients may fall in love with a Design before Early-Stage Processes (like Creative, Product, Organizational and Business Strategies) are complete; muddying a clear path forward for all parties. Cascading and ripple effects, when these Early-Stage Processes are discarded lead to future issues of Brand, Product, Business, Department, and ultimately economic scale; things that can be mitigated and rendered inert prior to blowing out budget, timelines, scope, and recreating the misuse of Creative trust we* were hired to eradicate.

Early-Stage Processes like The Who* Work become critical spaces for Designers to play within. These open containers for play and contemplation advance all engaged parties ability to think, walk, hike, run, or sit in a coffee shop and noodle through HOW (The How Behind the Who*) Design Systems can be better accomplished based on the immediate needs of task or project at hand. Paying attention to these Early-Stage Processes and principles like The Who* Work ultimately create sustainable time-scales that encourage teams* and their Branded Products to find shared value and move forward, amicably, together.

Local* Early-Stage Processes shape momentum; our Principle Constants hold the compass. Value Relatives give us the room to evolve, while The Who* Work ensures we never forget who's driving, who's impacted, and who* we’re becoming. So the question is—how does your Who* show up in the work? And what might we* build together when place, purpose, and people are all in alignment?