Three Years Without a Deck

Idris Calloway: This is The RightUp, and I'm Idris Calloway. For three years, one studio hasn't opened a computer in a client presentation. Not once. And they keep winning work. Hana Ruiz is a founding partner there. Hana, welcome.

Hana Ruiz: Thanks, Idris. Three years and two months, if we're being precise.

Idris Calloway: So what's in the room instead?

Hana Ruiz: Physical models, hand-drawn diagrams, and paper. Lots of paper. We pin the thinking to the wall before the client arrives.

Idris Calloway: And no laptops at all?

Hana Ruiz: None. Not ours, and we politely ask the client team as well. It started as an experiment. Now clients come in expecting it.

Idris Calloway: Doesn't that make it harder to show detail?

Hana Ruiz: It makes us choose. If an idea needs forty screens to explain, it usually isn't ready. A model on the table gets touched, turned around, argued over. A slide gets nodded at.

Idris Calloway: What was the hardest part of the switch?

Hana Ruiz: The first month. A model takes three days to build, and a slide takes twenty minutes. We had to learn to decide earlier.

Idris Calloway: Has a client ever asked for a presentation file afterwards?

Hana Ruiz: Often. We photograph the wall and send that. It's the most honest record of the meeting we have.

Idris Calloway: Hana Ruiz, thank you. That's Three Years Without a Deck, on The RightUp.