Introducing DEV: An Agency Redefining Development.

Published in

DEV.

5 min readSep 3, 2017

DEV is a student-run agency that is redefining development.

When it comes down to it, that’s what we are — a development agency. Services that identify the same way will say that this means that they develop apps, websites, and things like that.

However, what we’re doing isn’t about software or apps, or wireframes or websites. When it comes down to it, this agency and the work that we do is about people and their stories, the problems they face and the solutions we offer.

Hence, we’re not here to just help build things for you. We’re here to develop with you, to be a catalyst for whatever next stage of growth lies in just beyond reach.

Our Five Principles

As an agency, we’ve defined five pillars that define everything that we do and how we do it: quality, value, adaptability, personability, and scrappiness.

Quality

Harvard Student Agencies has always held quality of work as a central, guiding value within all of its agencies, and this holds true with DEV as well.

For DEV, this dedication to quality manifests itself in the form of a promise: to stay driven in pursuit of all set goals, and to consistently deliver top-notch work to our clients, regardless of the project. For us, it’s about delivering value in whatever form that is for the client; if they have a need, we promise to meet it and create tangible benefits for their company, organization, etc. through our work.

We’re effectively enhancing the promise of quality that the Harvard name bestows through the ethos built on centuries of education and groundbreaking research.

Value

When it comes down to it, we create value for our clients, by honing in on their needs and making them a central part of our process.

The quality products that we build are focused on delivering value. We’ll work with you to identify what your key needs are, and from there, we’ll work tirelessly to make sure those needs are met.

Adaptability

Behind every agency is a team of people, each with their unique backgrounds, ideals, and missions, though united by the desire to develop.

We are constantly learning. By nature of being an agency based in a university, that principle will never leave us, and we use it to empower us to do more each and every day that the agency continues to exist. Our skills improve. We learn new technologies, new stacks, new methods of communicating as time goes on,

And the best part? All of this comes back to our central user: the client.

This mindset of constantly learning to grow enables us to take on jobs others would be wary of; rather than backing away from a challenge, we adapt to the task at hand, and in adapting, we grow. Our dynamic approach to problem solving takes into account everything we learn, be it a method learned from a previous job or a lesson from a classroom. We’re evolving every day to become a smarter, faster, slicker, and all-around more effective agency.

Again, this is about developing with you. As your problem changes, we’re going to be learning with you, right by your side. It’s a process that we hope encourages effective growth for all stakeholders.

Person[X]

This breaks down to three levels: personality, personablity, and personalizablity.

PERSONALITY

We have it.

We’re not your standard cut and dry, opaque agency. We’re not trying to come off as anything we aren’t. We’re an agency made up of students of many backgrounds, and we’re proud to show that off in how we work

We want to show you that professionalism doesn’t come at the price of personality.

PERSONABILITY

In line with being a very down-to-earth agency, we want to make sure that you see us eye-to-eye. We’re an agency composed of good, honest people, with good, honest values. We’ll always prefer to meet in person if possible and communicate in the most genuine way.

Our relationships with our clients are paramount; we believe strongly in that. By keeping that sacred, we hope to empathize with you and your mission as strongly as we can, so that whatever product comes out is truly, undoubtedly yours.

Let us engage you. Talk to you. Laugh with you. Struggle with you. And most of all, let us grow with you in the healthiest way possible.

In short, be real with us, and we’ll be real with you.

PERSONALIZABILITY

This ends up being the product of the previous two, so we can summarize it this way:

In our human-centered process, we promise that not only the best solutions will rise to the surface, but solutions custom-fit to you and your needs — something that could only exist because of the relationship that we nurture in the process.

That just about does it.

Scrappiness

This pretty much directly follows from everything else; we’re going to hit our goals no matter what it takes. It’s a stubborn mentality, but one that delivers thorough results above all else.

In that, we’re always going to be willing to try new, crazy ideas and potential solutions that aren’t exactly standard.

Our scrappiness also involves a healthy dose of competition — we want to be the best we possibly can in our domain.

At the end of the day, we’re here to change the way things are normally done. We want to be an example of how development and design are made exponentially better through an emphasis people first and foremost. It’s an attitude that starts from our life-inspired branding and continues on through our internal operations, our client relationships, and the products we develop. And just like any other form of life, we’ll continue to evolve, refining our people, skills, and just about every component of our agency.

It’s going to be a wild ride. If you believe in what we stand for, then come on— develop with us.