🎥 Workshopping to Freelance Success [Miro board included]


Dear Reader,

Today's advice letter comes from Géro Sauerwein, a freelance product designer in Berlin and alumni of the Fountain Institute's workshop course.

Two years ago, Géro set a goal to make as much money freelancing as she did at her old agency job.

Well, she hit her goal! And in this month's meetup, she shares her secret weapon: ✨The Collaboration Kickoff Workshop✨

Last night, she gave a talk for our monthly meetup on how to communicate with clients right from the beginning of projects.

The talk was clear and highly actionable for anyone that wants to freelance or lead projects.

Géro covers:

  • How to set expectations with clients
  • How to run a kickoff workshop
  • Lessons learned from doing it the wrong way

​Check out Géro’s Collaboration Kickoff Workshop board in Miro here.​

​

Until next week!

Jeff Humble
​
Designer & Co-Founder
​
The Fountain Institute

​

P.S. We just launched Experiment Cards 2.0! Download the cards and get the instructions in this blog post. Start testing your team's assumptions!

And if you want to get serious about testing and UX metrics, sign up for the FREE 5-day short course on designing product experiments.

The Fountain Institute

The Fountain Institute is an independent online school that teaches advanced UX & product skills.

Read more from The Fountain Institute

Stop Being the ‘Nice’ Designer. Start Running the Room. By Hannah Baker Dear Reader, Product design isn’t just about creating great experiences. It’s about getting sh*t done in a world where no one agrees on anything. You’ve been there. Stakeholder meetings where opinions fly, decisions stall, and somehow, you’re tasked with making it all make sense. What is Facilitative Leadership? Facilitative leadership is about leading without authority. It’s not about being the loudest voice in the room...

Designing an AI-Powered Automation System by Jeff Humble Dear Reader, This week, I want to share something I use behind the scenes. I want to share something very nerdy that I've been working on 🤓 It's an automation system that I'm using to experiment with AI. If you've ever used a tool like Zapier, then you might like this sort of thing. I built it with Discord and Activepieces, and it's completely free. It looks like this: Here are some of the use cases: Work Automation - a productivity...

Women Kicking over a ladder

Leadership Isn’t a Ladder—It’s a Leap By Hannah Baker Dear Reader, Most people think of leadership as a ladder: start as an individual contributor (IC), climb step by step, and eventually land at the top. My journey was far from that. I never had a traditional design job or a managerial title handed to me. Instead, I jumped straight into founding and leading a business—without a roadmap, a role model, or even a clear sense of what leadership was supposed to look like. It wasn’t always smooth....