Heya!

We need to apologise, we’re 3 4 days late – I’m sure you had sleepless nights already, eagerly waiting for our August newsletter to arrive! But after all this time, here it is! And you better enjoy every word, since it’s going to be a (relatively) short one, as August was a (relatively) uneventful month for Ponder with vacations on both our and our clients’ side.

But still, here are a few quick nuggets from the last weeks:

Some things we did ✨

Remember our collaboration with Project Together for their 10.000 Tage programme? As a part of that, we are currently coaching individuals and teams from the awarded initiatives. We focus on the area of project beginnings and team collaboration to make sure these newly formed teams can make the most out of their funding. Just last week we ran a session with kiron, an edtech non-profit dedicated to providing refugees and underserved communities free access to high-quality education. We’re looking forward to many more of these sessions!

Speaking of project beginnings: With (I guess?) hundreds of workshops under our belt, we just shared our 4 biggest learnings on how to make every voice heard during a workshop. If you want to learn how we make sure that it’s not only the extroverted or higher-up participants who contribute, and how you get the full picture of opinions in the room, go check out that post and feel free to share!

What else did we work on?

• We are consulting and coaching the design department of a German publishing house in establishing a set of design principles as well as an overarching design system in the organisation
• With the same publishing house we continue working on their paid content strategy which we worked on for several months and that is currently being rolled out over several touchpoints

Something to watch 🍿 (DE)

Technologiestiftung Berlin published a playlist of great talks from this year's CityLAB Sommerkonferenz, covering topics like “prototyping in urban planning”, “AI in Climate”, or the “Digital administration” – very much worth a watch!

Something to be proud of ☺️

Remember the immense joy you felt when you found this newsletter in your inbox? Apparently it gets even better when you work with us – at least that’s what our long time partner Peter Schwierz, co-founder of German Zero and electrive, has to say:

It does feel quite awkward to share such praise, but then again – why keep it a secret? We’re happy that our work seems to help people, even more so if it contributes to a bigger cause like, in this case, ending fossil fueled mobility.

So — be like Peter and work with us! :)

Something launching soon 🚀

I know, I know, we keep saying that, but this time it’s getting real close: Our work for Grüne Fraktion im Bundestag is launching soooon. We are excited to see the updated design language out in the wild, starting with their social media templates and motion graphics!

Also, keep an eye on The League – another launch might be just around the corner!

Something for the Nerds 👩🏻‍💻

Our dedicated nerd Moritz went to BUM to attend the (already!) 15th Demo Day of The Prototype Fund — one of the longest running programmes in Germany supporting public interest tech. This year’s line-up was impressive: From applications improving diversity and inclusion to supporting maritime rescue operations (see it all here).

And with this, it’s time to wrap up the August edition! With everyone being back from various summer breaks, we’re happy to dive back into work in September!

And as always: If you feel like someone (including you!) might benefit from talking to us, just reach out!

All the best ☀️ Peter

PS: If you read this far, can I ask you for a favour?

Would you hit reply, and send me a 1 word email why you read our newsletter? What’s the interesting bits for you? I’d appreciate your feedback ✌️