Simon and I are both firm believers in hiring people who are smarter / more talented than us. That’s how you build a kickass business.
We didn’t quite grow the team as planned this year (see more below), but that’s okay. The important thing is we have the right people in the right roles, and everyone gets energy from their work, most of the time. If we can nail that, we’re happy.
Team makeup
“One of my favourite things about working at Harvey is how the team encourages each other to keep growing and learning. It's not just about being great at a specialised field, we are also encouraged to dive into other areas that we're interested in, and our monthly development chats with our mentor help keep us accountable” - Celine Tan, Designer at Harvey
Our goal this year was to moderately grow our team and capability areas, expanding our content and designer capability. Unfortunately, we didn’t quite get there. We had two superb content team members come and go, plus a legend of a designer who joined and moved on.
Why did this happen? We don’t see it as an excuse, but three of those people had significant career shifts: running a global content project in the UK and US; moving into support work and mental health; and one not knowing what they wanted to do (but it definitely wasn’t marketing). We took their feedback on board, adjusting how we manage workload, create autonomy vs. safety, engage clients, and the kind of work we’re doing.
Finally, Rachel moved client-side after 4 years as a core team member, which was really sad, but we’re thrilled for her nonetheless.
We didn’t immediately replace these roles. Instead, at each juncture, we reflected on our work pipeline, our clients’ changing needs, and what we cared about. In the end (after July) we added one Developer, and the next Designer isn’t far off.
Meet the team
The core team has remained the same in FY 23/24 - Becky, Simon, Sarah, and Rachel. We welcomed Hannah as content producer, and Celine joined us as our first full-time designer! Ashe, Cora and Susanna had short but sweet stints at Harvey, however life took them in different directions. We love you all, and we’re excited to lean into more brand and website work with designers on board the Harvey train 🚂
Core team as of today.
Extended team / Contractors
Special shout out to the legends who are an extension of our team. Looking at you, Simon Hoye (developer), admin assistants from Inbox Done Well (Gareth, Kailey & Megan), and our bookkeeper (and sister), Julia Chua.
If you’re keen to join the Harvey crew, check out our careers page for current openings.
Building an open, understanding and empowering culture
When it comes to how we operate as a team, we try to be as egalitarian as possible by openly setting our work priorities and impact areas. Being too collaborative about this has proven, at times, to be confusing or has left the team feeling like we’re spinning our wheels. We’ve acknowledged this, and from now on we’re choosing when to open things up vs. when to set directives and move forward.
We’ve switched up our operating hours a bit, so our core team is still 80% full-time, with a few people on 3 days per week. We’re also co-working Mondays, working out of Hub in Southern Cross, which has been great for collaboration and meeting like-minded businesses. The benefit of in-person is so real, we all love it, but the practical trade-off of commuting is something we’re evaluating.
Weekly wraps and reflection sessions
In which we share what we're grateful for, a personal achievement, acknowledge someone and give snaps, and other highlights.
Daily virtual stand-ups on Slack
Where we check in on one another, and go through our challenges, priorities and focuses for the week.
We’re always looking for ways to make work easier.
We’re regularly trialling new tools, trying to keep up with their constant updates (Hi, Figma & Webflow we love you), and figuring out what works for our clients. These were in frequent use through FY 23/24.
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Investing in Emotional Health as leaders
“I used to think the top environmental problems were biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse and climate change. I thought that with 30 years of good science we could address those problems. But I was wrong. The top environmental problems are selfishness, greed and apathy…and to deal with those we need a spiritual and cultural transformation and we, (Lawyers) and scientists, don't know how to do that.” - Gus Septh (a senior adviser to former US presidents)
In the past, we focused a lot on formal training and developing our technical skills. But after learning about the Global Leadership Foundation, we realised there’s more to leadership than just that. It’s about understanding yourself and the impact you have on others. Sometimes, showing up as a leader means working on ourselves before we try to fix the world.
That’s why we’ve invested in a leadership program with the Global Leadership Foundation, using the Enneagram framework to get a better sense of who we are. It’s helping us tap into our ‘body,’ ‘head,’ and ‘heart’ so we can make more mindful, respectful choices in every situation.
By doing this, we’re learning to adapt our leadership style, connect better with others, and really see the difference we can make in our own lives. Not just for the people around us, but for the planet, too. The key word in that is ‘learning’ – we acknowledge it’s an ongoing discovery process.
