Hello through time and space, stranger.
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/ ABOUT /
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I’m Riley, a multi-disciplinary strategy director from Boston.

Book smarts from VA, street smarts from Shanghai, ad smarts from LA.
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Over the last decade, I’ve worked with incredible companies like Google, Netflix, Warner Brothers, Nickelodeon, Walmart, Dolby Labs, and many more that make me just as proud.
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I’m best described as a “brand strategist” or “creative strategist” — running insightful research, writing compelling briefs, designing helpful frameworks, shepherding creative development. 
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/ PHILOSOPHY /
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Strategy is service.
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We’re helping people be more effective. More intellectually stimulated, more motivated, more aligned, more informed. Sometimes individuals, often complex groups.
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I tend to do that through systems and through narratives.
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The systems piece is about unpacking problems; challenging or validating prior notions; improving context, sometimes by zooming out, sometimes by zooming in, sometimes both; always with an explanation of “why”. 
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The narrative piece is how we explain the system. It’s how we invite each other to explain it differently. It’s our basis for converging and diverging and converging again. It’s momentum, emotion, surprise. It's how ideas spread. It’s creative made for the business world.
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Systems are how I engage a problem.
Narrative is how we engage a problem. 
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/ WHAT TO EXPECT /
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The problem and the people at hand determine the specifics, but you can typically expect:
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(1) Radically open collaboration, typically through good ol’ Google Suite but also through Miro, Figma, or other digital workspaces as needed;
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(2) Highly visual communication, whether the right picture to replace a thousand words, or a visual framework to support discussion;
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(3) A healthy combination of a finely-tuned bullshit filter and a “yes, and” approach;
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(4) Severe commitment to the idea that all of the decks, docs, and assets are tools, and should be cared for, but never conflated with the end result;
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(5) Unwavering belief that we’re doing it wrong if we aren’t enjoying ourselves.


/ NEXT /

I am forever open to new possibilities.
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Thanks for reading. Have a poke around, drop me a line.
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Riley
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rileyhstrand at gmail dot com