News

From King Arthur to the 1990s Chicago Bulls to the Beatles to the international scientists who successfully mapped the human genome, people succeed when they’re surrounded with team members who push and uplift them.

Even Steve Jobs and other seemingly “solo” mavericks of the innovative world knew they needed smart people to help them accomplish their goals.

It’s this focus on building our team one person, skill and talent at a time that has led Upstream 360 to work every day with the world’s biggest, billion-dollar brands.

Learn more about why we consider our curiously nerdy team vital to what we do and what we look for when building our team.

Diversity of Thought

The biggest advantage to working with more people? Diversity of thought.

(Duh, we’ve all heard that two heads are better than one.)

At Upstream 360, we don’t just believe in diversity of thought—we also believe in erasing hierarchy. What that means is, when working on a project or in an innovation session, you are as likely to see work and hear ideas from junior employees as you are from senior ones.

It also means that we pull in people from all different job titles, from directors and producers to illustrators and copywriters.

Why? Because each of us thinks through and tackles a problem differently. And the kind of work we do requires as much breadth of thinking as it does depth.

It’s how we find solutions to our clients’ stickiest, trickiest problems.

Because our director is a whizz at kitchen sink logic and can think of ten solid demos off the top of her head. And our youngest graphic designer sees design with new, fresh eyes and brings that learning to the team.

The beauty and excitement we bring to our work exists in the wide range of skills, processes, and talents of our team.

Building a Curiously Nerdy Network

Make no mistake: building the right team is vital business, but it takes a lot of work.

Upstream 360 started with a handful of employees and has exploded in growth to over twenty employees plus contractors, freelancers, and more.

Here are some tips for how we have built the kind of curiously nerdy network that succeeds project after project—and has fun doing it.

We are always evaluating our strengths and weaknesses and asking ourselves where we could use more support to make projects the best they can be. It’s how directors end up in innovation sessions and copywriters attend commercial shoots.

What’s the difference? Skills are the technical parts of a job—our team members need to know how to use certain software or be able to live-draw during innovation sessions.

Considering talent along with skill allows us to put the right team member with the right project. For example, CCO Ben Patrick is a former art educator which means he can break down science into easy-to-understand stories and visuals. He has the talent and the skills to make it happen.

We mean professionally and personally. Fostering a sense of curiosity about the job but also about the world at large allows our employees to grow, whether that’s learning new software, attending important accessibility training, or learning a fun, new skill (like 3D printing or a new style of animation).

Look for the people who give a damn. Not just because it’s required of them or it’s part of the job. But because they want to go the extra mile to do cool stuff because they love making cool stuff. People who give a damn make the work infinitely better.

What do a fog machine, static electricity maker, and gavel all have in common? They’re tools our employees have asked for—and received. Creativity involves some pretty strange requests, but these tools are what lead to some of the cutting-edge creativity that our team delivers time and time again.

Sometimes we take an afternoon to go hang out and have a beer. We bring our dogs to work (who are secretly our favorite coworkers…). We set up Nintendo on the big screen in the ThinkTank for a quick and vicious game of Mario Kart at lunch. Because we’ve found that teams who relax together work better together.

Interested in teaming up with Upstream 360? We work with all kinds of clients on all kinds of projects, from the innovation stages to final marketing executions. Let our curiously nerdy team work together to take your brand to the next level. Shoot us a message today!