Single Source of Truth
Make our job a little easier by appointing a single source of truth for your business.
As your branding agency, we share a common goal — your business's success. We believe that a rising tide raises all ships, and we're here to ensure your ship sails high.
We often work with large teams where one member must lead the others into alignment (or submission?). Aligning a team is intense work, especially when the work can feel subjective or conceptual.
That’s why we like to kick off our relationships with a conversation about the Single Source of Truth.
What is a single source of truth?
If you Google the term, you’ll find tons of articles about data collection and processing, but that’s not what we’re discussing here. What we want to discuss is much more (inter)personal.
A single source of truth is the one person who delivers all the facts and relevant information about your business and the scope of your contract with us. This person is appointed to be your project’s sole speaking voice when it comes to communicating with your agency.
They’re the one to come to us to say, “This is a problem that the whole team has,” rather than several different people coming to us saying, “This is a problem that I have.”
Their real challenge is to get the team to agree on their feedback in the first place.
We often receive feedback that is copied and pasted from multiple sources; this feedback can be conflicting or even stripped of context; as the team receiving this feedback, we don’t know whether to try and execute all of it or if some people’s opinions hold more weight. When the feedback doesn’t align, we waste time and energy that could be managed internally and without cost.
Enter the Single Source of Truth or SST.
If you’ve been appointed your organization’s single source of truth, there are a few things you need to do so that we can engage in a successful business relationship.
You must gain internal alignment on feedback, which is probably the most challenging task. It’s not easy to be the person deciding at the end of the day, and you will most likely let some people down. You must be able to communicate thoroughly with your internal team before coming to us. As your organization’s single source of truth, it is your job to decide whose opinion matters most and what feedback should actually be delivered to us. Feedback must be cohesive and consistent so that we can fully understand any problem and make changes to your deliverables accordingly
You must keep the project on track. To maintain budget and timeline, the SST often has to follow up with the internal team to gain alignment in a timely fashion. As the SST, you are the point of contact for the agency, so we’ll be coming for you when it’s crickets after the big presentation.
Having a Single Source of Truth makes things easier for all involved. For you, it ensures a way for everyone’s voice to be heard and for your business to get your deliverables on time and the way you want them. For us, it makes it easier to receive feedback so we can proceed with clear goals in mind.
Long-term relationships start with aligned expectations; the SST is a great place to start.
