Introducing Hear Me Out
Introducing Hear Me Out
We rebranded to focus on what we do best: using detailed, nuanced employee feedback to make work more rewarding for everyone.
For the Win has a new name: Hear Me Out. We revamped our logo, messaging, and website to focus on helping growing teams build more sustainable cultures.
It all launched today, alongside an interview with Charlie Warzel, who just brought his newsletter to The Atlantic. (If you’d rather not sign up, just click “Read it first”.)
If you’re blitzing through your inbox, just check out the new site. For everyone else: here’s what’s going on, and what to expect from this newsletter in the future.
Why now?
A lot has changed over the past four years, for us, and for our customers. Most notably:
Remote work has gone from being a curiosity to being the norm.
In every industry, employees are calling for more say in how they work.
At the same time, we’ve learned a lot about what makes people management so challenging for high-growth companies. Taking a step back, it was clear the brand needed a new foundation, one better suited to the post-pandemic workplace. So in April, we took a break to think deeply about who we serve, what they need, and how we talk about our work.
Why Hear Me Out?
For one, the name ties into what’s unique about our service: it hinges on detailed feedback gathered through confidential, in-person interviews.
But there’s something deeper.
Disagreements at work are rarely as clear-cut as they seem. When we argue over hiring policies, employee stipends, or flexible hours, we’re mostly arguing over values. Show me a company with more than a handful of employees, and I’ll show you a workplace with a range of answers to the question “How does the world work?”
In talking to employees, HR leaders, and executives, we’ve learned how often unconscious bias gets in the way of listening. Executives are tempted to dismiss anonymous feedback as coming from “squeaky wheels” or try to identify the source. HR leaders, who often bear the brunt of critical feedback, are primed to take comments personally. And for employees, who often lack the full context behind big decisions, it’s easy to assume the bosses are just out to exploit them.
We’ve seen how gathering nuanced employee feedback in one-on-one interviews helps leaders deepen their understanding of employees’ needs. We’re excited to help our clients use that insight to make work more rewarding for everyone.
What about that cube? What’s the deal with that?
Hear Me Out is about creating space at work for a range of perspectives. (Note: this is not about unrestricted free speech. But that’s a topic for another post.)
The logo is based on the Necker Cube, a classic optical illusion that tricks the eye into seeing it from two angles at once.
Who worked on this?
We did the brand design, illustration, and development in-house, with support from:
Denisse Ariana Pérez, a Caribbean-born, Barcelona-based copywriter and photographer, who worked on naming, voice and tone, and brand strategy.
Linda Eliasen, a brand advisor with priors at Webflow, Help Scout, Dropbox, and MailChimp, who helped us make sure everything was tight and cohesive.
Franzi Paetzold, a freelance illustrator in Berlin, whose delightful hand-drawn assets were used across all of the illustrations on the site.
Nick Disabato, a designer and writer from Chicago with clients like The Wirecutter and ConvertKit, who helped us optimize the new site.
What does the rebrand mean for this newsletter?
Consider this a new beginning. We have ambitious plans, including long-form interviews and more original reporting. Now that our rebrand is out, you can expect to hear from this newsletter more often.
I’m incredibly grateful to our collaborators, and I can’t wait to share what’s in store.