A day at the desk with Team ViW

Today we spent some hours with the team behind our latest product, ViW. From creative direction, to marketing and storytelling, this small but diverse little team is creating a bit of magic, spreading communication superpowers out into the world. Get to know ViW and the hearts beating behind it.

Claes Lundin, CEO/Creative Director

Hey Claes, so what were you doing before you came to work at Frankly?
I studied Product Development and Design at the university in Halmstad. After that I realized I wasn’t really ready to grow up yet, so I spent three and a half years traveling the world kiteboarding with my friends. Then one day my Mom said, it’s probably time to grow up, so I got a real job at Nokia in Copenhagen, making mobile phones. That’s where I met most of the founding team of Frankly and I learned a lot form that experience!

What is your job title here and what does your position entail?
I am the CEO, which is more of the boring but very serious part of the job, there’s a lot of financial stuff involved. However, there’s the more inspiring part of it, which is building a long term vision and strategy of what we do with the team and what we do business-wise and service-wise. How we grow the team. Which is what I’m most inspired by. Building the group dynamic and diversity that we have. I am also the creative director, which is very much about going into projects, especially in early phases, or in workshops and making sure we find creative concepts for the overall product and user experience, as well as technical details. For the actual project execution we have an amazing engineering team who have more expertise than me on more or less everything…so I try to stay away from disturbing them in their process…haha!

What do you do in the ViW team?
In ViW my role is the creative director and I’ve been a part of defining both the product concept, specification, design, web and business case. Of course with great talents by my side. I must admit my dear friend Casper from HOWL, who is no doubt the greatest designer I know, had a big influence on the final design of ViW, as in most of the things I create. But the go-to-market team for ViW runs very independently, so I just try to supply the tools needed to bring ViW to the market and be a part of the creative sessions. I don’t have a very big role in the team, I am more hanging on the sidelines. I act as the support which is needed when things don’t go in the exact direction we want it to. But overall, I always believe in the freedom of allowing an area to start up and grow on it’s own.

What do you find to be the biggest difference in your daily experience now and before you worked at Frankly?
A lot, but there’s a few core things. The people are number one. We have a much, much, more personal mindset and culture than any other company I’ve worked with. And of course the speed we grow and the huge variety of clients make it really exciting and challenging but super fun.

My work involves a lot of traveling, which is very different from many in the team. I travel a lot for sales; selling Frankly, but not just products it’s about the concept. The bigger picture, sharing who Frankly is with people who are interested and with potential clients. I love traveling so it’s a good mix! Before I traveled with kiteboarding and now I travel with work and I sneak in some surfing here and there. It’s the best of both worlds really.

What do you find to be an important factor in your work environment?
An awesome studio filled with great people. We almost spend more waking hours at work than our free time, so it’s super important to me to have a place where it’s fun to hang out and you feel good being at. Also having fun stuff to do, good projects and a diversity of products and clients and people to be surrounded by.

What’s something you can’t live without on your desk every day that contributes to your work?
I haven’t had a desk for the last 6 months since we’ve been lacking desks. So my laptop is really the only thing I ever need and I can take it anywhere.

What do you enjoy doing in your free time?
I do a lot of traveling surfing, hanging with friends. I have a new found passion for motorbikes and cafe racers. So now I spend a lot of time trying out different bikes and looking at bikes and sick gear.

What inspires you about working in the ViW team?
I think one of the big things is not exactly where we are heading as much as where we came form. We began with this idea of creating a product that brings people closer to their loved ones and it’s evolved into something really special. Also compared to most other teams at Frankly this one is not solely focused on engineering. What it’s all about is storytelling. Frankly is the engineering backbone and supply chain support and that’s great because we have those bases covered, but now we get the chance to focus on the storytelling which is super nice. Normally clients do that on their own or with our support. It’s super interesting and non-engineering and allows the project some flexibility we don’t usually have as well. It started out of passion and we can run it a bit differently than other projects.

Chuva Featherstone, Marketing/PR Coordinator

Hey Chuva, so what were you doing before you came to work at Frankly?
Before Frankly I lived in Los Angeles I worked in marketing and product development for an awesome toy and clothing company called I Heart Guts, where I learned more there than all 5 years at university. No joke. Then I started my own company called Res Infinitus where I worked as a brand consultant and creative director. During that time. I developed a program that helped underprivileged and gang-affiliated kids from the ages of 8–18 learn how to design and build their own skateboards after school in public schools in LA. When I closed my company and moved to Sweden I worked as a freelance illustrator and bartender and played records around Malmö.

What is your job title here and what does your position entail?
I am the PR and marketing coordinator here. I also share the responsibility of running our go-to-market team. So I manage PR and marketing for Frankly the entity, as well as all the products that we create here. So SwimEars…Intuitive Aerial….too many to list…ViW is especially my little baby! My days involve me curating content for social media. Handling Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, our blog, our website. I do some illustration on various projects as well, where it is needed. Building websites for products we create, basically all visual content for PR material and making sure the face of Frankly is always shown accurately and authentically. Telling our story the way it was meant to be told. There’s a lot of creativity and research that goes into it, you need to understand how people perceive media and content and really craft the way you want your story to be understood.

What do you find to be the biggest difference in your daily experience now and before you worked at Frankly?
Oh man…. it’s crazy. I mean before I worked alone or in much smaller groups. I didn’t have as much structure. I still have an insane amount of freedom here which I love and appreciate, but before I was really in my own zone which can be good and bad. It’s so nice working with so many great people here and having fun every day. I think working here has pushed me to become a better communicator.

What do you find to be an important factor in your work environment?
Great people and a really inspiring space, which we absolutely have here!

What’s something you can’t live without on your desk every day that contributes to your work?
Hmm…I am absolutely a pen snob. I have to have the right pens and pencils or else I just feel off. I can’t just mess around with just any pens…the Artline 220, superfine 0.2 and a Graphgear 500 0.3 pencil and a sketchbook. Headphones for sure.

What do you enjoy doing in your free time?
I really love being outside. I love biking, maybe it sounds silly, but coming from LA we don’t really commute by bike. So it’s something that I really appreciate every single day. Being able to move my body instead of sitting in a car every day, all day. I also love illustration and I am often drawing in my free time even if it’s mindless sketching.

What inspires you about working in the ViW team?
What inspires me is that it really feels like we are doing something new and special for the consumer market in the the sense that this product is so relatable. This is such a huge problem that everyone just accepts and deals with and we’ve created a solution that is super beautiful and functional. The need to stay connected and communicate effortlessly is so key right now and with so many video calling apps, I think we take for granted that the capabilities can be pushed even further. Why not keep striving for better? So that feels exciting.

Also I think it’s inspiring that we are doing something new here, in Frankly. This small, close-knit team that is working on this passion project. It is kind of like delivering a baby. We are putting all our love and insight and hopes and dreams into this little beatuiful thing and it’s not just about the technical aspect. It’s about feelings and helping people feel the pulse in this product. So I’m stoked about that AND I just love working with you guys!

Georg Åhrström, Intern/Project Manager

Hey Georg, so what were you doing before you came to work at Frankly?
Before Frankly I was studying product design at Malmö University and as well as freelance design work. Most of it being my own work and venture cup competitions and now I’ve just completed my bachelor studies.

What is your job title here and what does your position entail?
I am a product designer and I work as an intern, with the the role of project manager for the ViW team. So I design and manage this project, working with various tasks from rapid prototyping, sketching, also learning a lot about visual communication…a lot of different things in all shapes and forms.

What do you find to be the biggest difference in your daily experience now and before you worked at Frankly?
This is kind of like my first job. I can’t even compare. School cannot really prepare you for the real working environment. I get to work with great people and awesome projects and what we do here is actually going out into the world to meet the user. That’s so exciting! It’s different here as well having more responsibility and needing to get the job done in a certain timeframe.

What do you find to be an important factor in your work environment?
Great people, which is easy to find around here because it’s such a great environment. Also copious amounts of coffee. And music. I love music being a part of the work environment here. That’s everything to me.

What’s something you can’t live without on your desk every day that contributes to your work?
A part from coffee I would say headphones. Being able to focus and get into my zone and the tasks at hand…headphones really help me do that. Otherwise I would definitely say the sketchbook. If I’m not sketching work stuff I’m always sketching something just to keep my mind busy.

What do you enjoy doing in your free time?
I love playing squash, rock climbing, hanging with friends and my girlfriend. I also really like going to Copenhagen. I just discovered it’s greatness and it’s like a new world for me, it’s awesome!

Other than that…I am such a restless spirit that I am constantly working on different projects on my own. My own products, lamps, inventions, my own t-shirt brand and other things that come off the top of my head. So I am constantly creating different ideas and projects, which is what I love. Product design really inspires me.

What inspires you about working in the ViW team?
I am super excited about the personal connection with our product. Everyone can relate to this problem. It’s about family, it’s about love, it’s about friendship and keeping in touch. Moving from Stockholm to Malmö I really understand that now, needing to stay connected to my family and friends. Being able to simplify people’s lives and help them stay connected, that feels really special. As far as our team, it’s a great learning experience and we have a small team with great colleagues and good connection and communication. We are kind of a small family in a way. Solving problems with the product and even within the team if and when they arise.