Team collaboration and cross-departmental discussion is key to Pattern’s idea generation process. Team members with different specialties, whether that be in content, visual design, or user experience, are invited to contribute to brainstorming sessions. Erica explains, “We like to come into brainstorm sessions with ideas from each bucket and work together to combine them into something seamless.” And of course, the team shares sites and projects they’ve seen externally with each other for further inspiration.

“I’m actually super interested in the class of AI applications that will help creative people minimize the busywork and streamline low-value tasks so that more time is spent doing the actual work of critical thinking and design,” he says. “I have a pretty long list of plugins, tools, and products I’m starting to experiment with to really see what’s possible and how it could positively impact our workflows and process.”

With less of their time given up to busywork, the team at Pattern can focus on taking creative risks. Michael has turned reaching that place of creative freedom on the horizon into the guiding light for his team. He often reminds them, “If it seems boring to us, it’s probably going to be boring to other people too.” When working in a results-driven medium, Michael explains, “it can be really easy to keep repeating things that generally work” and end up growing stale creatively. Michael encourages the team towards greater creative risks by asking them to “do something we call ‘pushing past the obvious.’ In other words, less boring. This seems really simplistic but it’s actually a really cool north star for us and keeps us pushing toward new creative unlocks over time.”