In early 2020, we launched a new Gitwit look and feel, and updated story on our website. You’re probably thinking, “So what? This is what you do for companies all the time. I bet it was easy.” 

In fact, not at all. We dig our heels in at the thought of re-branding ourselves, as it is always one of the most difficult things we do. This is despite the fact that we have built a team to be masters of narrative, video, and design. When we are the insiders, approaching the project with the eyes of an expert beginner becomes exponentially more difficult.

‍

To get past this challenge, we set up the Gitwit re-brand project as any other client project. A producer and team were assigned and used the same processes that we do with our clients  — developing personas, brand words, content outlines, narrative testing, etc. 

The valuable lesson we re-learned in the process is that the people closest to what they do are often the worst equipped to tell their own story. The more Nitwits that we involved in the process, and the more exercises we created to take ourselves out of our current company roles and embody our persona's point of view, the stronger the narrative and design became.

This is our value, to be an outside, objective voice that approaches brands and companies through the eyes of a beginner, while at the same time having deep skills in harvesting insights into content. 

The Re-brand Breakdown:

‍

As the front door to a product or service, a website should be an engaging high-level story of what something is, why it exists, and how it can help somebody, all done in a way that deepens curiosity. 

There are many temptations and traps when companies endeavor to rework their website. As with conversations, one can end up talking about oneself too much and bore or even off-put the audience. Even with an acute awareness and proven methods to diminish chances of falling into this trap, gaining the audience's perspective is still the greatest challenge in telling the story of a company. 

All of that to say, we have never had more empathy with the clients of Gitwit and we are reminded again of our important role and responsibility of challenging the stakeholder perspective. 

Here's a look at where we ended up — a "before & after" of sorts.