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Last week, we set statuses to ‘out of office’ and met in the terracotta-topped city of Lisbon for our annual team retreat. It’s not often we all get together—and since we’ve recently welcomed a tonne of new faces to the team, this year was all about eating, drinking and just hanging out IRL.

One by one, we made ourselves at home at Lisbon’s Mama Shelter—a super sassy urban hangout that we love for its foosball tables and family-style feasting. For some of us, it was a case of a quick coach ride to the capital. But for others (sorry, Cyprus crew), it was a late-night arrival after various layovers and lost luggage drama. Plus, there was a last-minute detour for Jasmine, who, after feeling very smug with her early arrival at Gatwick, ended up making a mad dash to Heathrow (the airport she was actually meant to be flying from…)

Despite the bleary eyes, the next day started strong with the first of our activities: a pastel de nata masterclass. Working under the watchful eye of the pros at Nat'elier, we hand-crafted and baked our very own versions of the Portuguese classic. Why yes, we did make our own pastry.

That evening, the voyage of gastronomy continued as we took to the streets of the city for a tuk-tuk food tour. We sampled everything from local cheeses and vino verde to the city’s famous pork bifanas. We even sat down to the traditional salted cod dish, bacalhau à brás, with a side of Fado guitar. All of this was rounded off with a freshly baked pastel de nata chaser—yes, more pastries.

For our final night, we tore around the city armed with tablets as we took part in an outdoor escape hunt. Turns out nothing makes us more competitive than a Time Cops-themed backstory, cryptic clues, and a 90-minute countdown clock. But after crowning the winners, it was onwards to Sumaya for our final meal together: Lebanese mezze followed by a birthday cake for a 

 surprised Soraia, who turned 28 while we were away.

The theme of this year’s retreat was all about getting together—so we made plenty of time to do just that. We explored museums, wandered around botanic gardens, and scaled those deceptively steep streets of the old town. We drank port and tonic in Alfama, did karaoke in Bairro Alto, and each night, claimed the hotel terrace as ours for beers and cocktails.

We reconnected with people we hadn’t seen in real life for a while—and, for the first time this year, almost all of us were together in person (shout out to Andreas, Alex and Simon who were with us in spirit). But best of all, we came away with a tonne of new memories and Slack memes, feeling hyped about what the future has in store for the S8 fam.

 love to Fran and Mario for treating us to three incredible days out of the office. It’s safe to say we loved every second.

S8 Team trip 2024: Lisbon

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Whether you love them or hate them, it’s safe to say that most consumers still can’t resist them. So with some of the biggest sales events of the calendar year just around the corner, how can you make sure you’re doing everything you can to get in on the action?

Here’s our 9-step Black Friday prep plan for e-commerce brands.

1. Decide on your offer. And make it a good one.

Your customers won’t settle for the kinds of discounts you get for simply signing up to a mailing list. They’ll be holding out for big things when it comes to Black Friday. They may even have their favourites list and basket filled up already. So make sure it’s an enticing enough offer that will cut through the noise and convince them to part with their cash in the first few hours.

A lot of time is spent focusing on the front end of your site—but it pays to give a bit of love to the checkout, too. How seamless is the cart journey on mobile? Are there features you could be utilising to increase the average cart value, like upsell or cross-selling tools? Is it worth adding buy now, pay later options or shortcuts like Shop Pay? If it makes the purchase journey easier, then it’s worth considering (and testing) ahead of time.

3. Prep your store for an influx of traffic.

If you’re using a managed platform like Shopify then relax—everything’s handled for you. But if your website is on a self-hosted tool such as WordPress or Craft, then it’s a good idea to know how to monitor your server resources. If you need to scale up your hosting to deal with additional demand, there are caching and CDN tools like Cloudflare and Fastly. But, if you’re expecting a huge surge in traffic, you could always look into implementing a virtual waiting room using Cloudflare, Akamai or AWS to prevent any overloading.

By that, we mean go back to basics and make sure your tactics align with every consumer you might encounter throughout the sales period.

Broad, top-level targeting that intros your brand to new audiences with messaging around deals and promos.

Middle of the funnel: the consideration phase

If users have shown an interest, retarget them with content such as reviews, testimonials and limited-time offers.

Bottom of the funnel: the conversion phase

Now’s the time to drive urgency with countdown timers, reminders and exclusive discounts for last-minute shoppers.

Over the next 3-7 days, encourage repeat purchases with personalised follow-up orders and upsells.

Figure all of this out ahead of time and trust us, your strategy will be foolproof.

If you’re continuously capturing leads via a newsletter sign-up, then ramp things up in the run-up to Black Friday. Creating a landing page that captures email and phone numbers in exchange for early access to the sale is an easy win. Or, you could supercharge your subscriber sign-ups by throwing additional things like discounts, free gifts or mystery sign-up offers into the mix.

6. Be ready with your email campaigns and flows.

Of course, you’re going to need a fully-fledged email plan that targets your subscribers with your Black Friday offer. But think about revamping all your existing flows, too. Feature Black Friday messaging in your welcome flows during the Black Friday period, and optimise any automated flows like your abandoned cart journey, too. It’s simple tactics like this that can be done well in advance but are super effective.

7. Create ad campaigns that stand out from the crowd.

Catchy creative is one thing, but delivering the right message to the right people at the right time is where you’ll really see results. Make sure you’re considering Meta ads for targeting and retargeting specific audiences, utilising assets such as customer testimonials to build trust. Plus, be sure to roll out broad audience targeting with personalised dynamic ads, too.

8. Have a plan in place for community management.

Managing your social media community is important throughout the year, but during peak sales periods like Black Friday, the stakes are even higher due to the massive influx of engagement. As more users will be interacting with your ad content, it’s vital you have a plan in place for monitoring comments and inboxes. As a minimum, make sure you:

Prepare a set of pre-written responses for common queries to save time and make sure your voice is consistent.

Prioritise comments that are most visible or influential, like those on popular posts or those that get engagement, fast.

Automatically filter and hide comments with offensive words, phrases, or spam.

Have a plan for how to quickly escalate more complex issues, like a dedicated Slack channel with your customer support team.

Keep interactions authentic to ensure genuine connections with customers.

9. Get prepped with your post-purchase activity, too.

Black Friday is just the beginning. With the right kind of post-purchase activity, you could have a new wave of brand-lovers on your hands. So get ready with those post-purchase email flows and campaigns so you can start engaging with your new buyers right away.

Our 9-step Black Friday prep plan for e-commerce brands

We recently launched our brand-new creative studio in Portugal (woohoo!) Creating winning e-commerce experiences has always been our bag, so having a dedicated space where we can do everything from art direction to photoshoots just made sense.

But we were still pretty surprised when someone recently said to us “A photography studio? Aren’t you just using AI for everything?” Not everything, friends. Here’s why we believe real-life photography still beats AI-generated imagery in the world of e-commerce.

Don’t get us wrong, we’re big believers in using AI for mood-boarding and mock-ups, or helping us fast-track touch-ups in the editing room. But when it comes to art direction and actually capturing content, that’s something AI can’t replicate. Take our new Art Director, Rita. She’s crafted visual identities for tonnes of brands in her time, so she knows what works and what resonates. Her ideas come from true inspiration, not what’s already on the web—and she’ll tell you herself how important creative freedom is for shooting quality content. We’re creating content for humans, so don’t underestimate the power of the human experience, people.

It doesn’t matter what you’re selling, we can all agree there’s no excuse for a sloppy shopping experience. We eat with our eyes, right? So nothing fills a cart faster than a super polished product, packaging or lifestyle shot. And it’s not just about avoiding the cringeworthy, superimposed look you get from clunky AI mock-ups. Photos and videos captured in a studio have a scale that’s 10 times greater than an AI-generated image, so you can use them for super-detailed close-ups, big branded billboards, print, packaging and anything else you can think of. And believe us when we say there’s nothing a marketing team loves nothing more than having a whole library of high-quality assets to play with.

They’re your assets. So make them yours.

The clue’s in the name—if you’re using artificial intelligence to create your product shots, can you ever really call them original? If real people and places are a big part of your brand identity, then real photography is the only way to capture this—right down to the tiny details such as lighting, texture and colour. By keeping it real, you’re not only steering well clear of any issues like misuse or misrepresentation, but you’re building trust, too. We’re hardwired to be suspicious of anything that looks artificial—but give us an accurate picture of what we’re buying into and we’ll be way more likely to part with our cash.

You can’t shoot content without a solid strategy. But the good news is, this kind of groundwork pays for itself. Art direction just so happens to be one of the best investments you can make in your brand. Whether you’re just starting out or simply want to refresh your assets, art direction (and the bank of beautifully shot photography that comes out of it) will help you maintain that consistent look and feel online, offline—and anywhere else you show up in the future.

Why real e-commerce photography still beats AI-generated imagery

Earlier this year, our sister agency and sidekick, Parallel 9, merged with team S8 to create Series Eight 2.0. Our expertise in branding, content creation, web design and development, and Parallel 9’s skills in growth marketing––now all under one roof.

Here’s why we decided to combine all things S8 and P9 under the original Series Eight brand and what this new era has in store for us all.

S8 has always been in the business of building brands and websites, and we spend a tonne of time getting to understand every business we work with. From target audience to long-term vision, we come away with the kind of insider insights you only get from being part of a project. So, why not take that knowledge and use it to help those same businesses grow faster and go further?

Whether you’re a start-up entering the world of e-commerce or a brand that’s been in the business for decades, you now gain access to an entire suite of services from a team that really knows you and your business. Makes total sense if you ask us.

We all know how important it is for agencies to act as an extension of a brand’s in-house team. And if you’re working with the same team for brand, design, build and growth, then things are bound to run even more smoothly.

Shared comms channels, better visibility, a bigger skillset––and not to mention an easier handover once your site goes live and you’re ready to start marketing to the masses. With just one point of contact, there’s no onboarding separate agencies or bringing brand-new teams up to speed. Because we may be spread across timezones, but you can rest assured we’re always across all of the important stuff.

Faster, more flexible, and more future-focused

Paid ad landing pages, post sign-up offers, even bespoke banners and pop-ups––if we’re working across everything from web design to growth, then any marketing tools can be factored into your site build. And that means fewer hold-ups later down the line and a laser-focused strategy from the get-go.

You also get access to a team that’s super-skilled in every area of growth marketing. Our team is made up of email marketing strategists, SEO and Meta ad specialists, copywriters, designers, and video editors. And if you’re looking to work with influencers, we can find the right people to represent your brand, too.

We’ve put our web design and marketing heads together and added a load more services. We’re talking specialist SEO knowledge, community management for paid social media, plus––our all-new Series Eight studio, where we’ll be doing art direction, product photography, and more.

You also get the freedom to pick and choose based on your business goals and budget. Because one size never fits all––especially if (like us) you’re all about standing out rather than trying to fit in.

When two become one...

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There’s lots to love about remote life. But the biggest perk of all is being able to work practically anywhere in the world. Every year, when summer rolls around, it’s never long before the backdrops start to look a little different and ad-hoc days off become the norm.

But—there’s an art to working from anywhere. Especially if it’s not something you’re used to. So here are 5 tips for working while travelling, from the people who do it best.

Know when and where you’re working—not just for your own sanity, but for your coworkers’, too. We’re used to working across timezones, but your fellow teammates need to know they can get hold of you if they need to—and that means a solid WiFi connection in an environment where you can still get stuff done. Put it this way, the more productive you are, the more time you’ll have for activities once you’ve clocked off for the day.

No monitor, no problem. Pick up one of those laptop-to-HDMI adaptor cables, and you can make any TV your second screen. This one is great for when you’re staying in Airbnbs, hotel rooms, or just paying a visit to your friendly neighbourhood coworking space. Because let’s be honest, when you’re designing or developing—or even just tabbing between apps and windows—it’s never long before single-screen life starts to wear thin.

You’ll find WiFi most places nowadays: coffee shops, beach bars, trains, hotels, boats—you name it. But that doesn’t mean it’s good WiFi. And since hot-spotting is usually a no-no, it’s good to do a recce beforehand if you’re planning on working somewhere new. As soon as you arrive (so before getting too comfortable) do an internet speed test on your phone—or, ask the host to do one and share the results. It means you can confidently get set up and crack on, rather than awkwardly having to find an alternative an hour or so later. For bonus points, stop by in advance to suss things out even further ahead of time.

Remember, you’re in that very place for a reason—so enjoy it. A change of scenery can do wonders for our wellbeing, so embrace the fact that once the laptop closes, you can be in full-on holiday mode. Whether you want to max out on time with family and friends before heading home, switch things up and live like a local, or (if you’re based in the UK) just need some sun—who says travel has to be confined to vacation days? WFA is the way to go.

How to work from anywhere

Summer is (kinda?) here. And if you’re as nerdy as us, then you’ll have been eagerly awaiting the latest seasonal feature drop from our friends at Shopify.

For the Summer '24 release, it’s been all about "Unification"—new features, functionality and upgrades that are designed to streamline, simplify and level up your e-commerce capabilities across the entire platform.

So with that in mind, here’s our pick of the top upgrades to drop this July.

Having a thriving business usually means you’ll have to consider different contexts and address each of them with the right tools.

The mighty Shopify admin already offers a separate section for handling your offerings in international markets if you are selling across borders. Plus, you can also easily manage your wholesale business if you are also selling to other companies, along with managing aspects of your retail business if you have a physical store.

But now, Shopify has a new section that will unify all these different contexts into a single command centre. This new section will be called "Markets" and it allows you to have a bird's-eye view of all your different markets and manage them from a single, centralised location.

Your new mission control centre doesn’t begin and end with “Markets”. The team at Shopify has also worked on consolidating existing functionalities in the "Analytics" section.

The existing “Analytics” section has had a makeover and now offers a unified view of all your data, with the ability to dive deep into the details and gain all the insights you need to make better business decisions in an instant.

The new and improved “Analytics” section is set to be the ultimate powerhouse. Why? It has an integrated editor to query your data, which will be streamed in real time for the first time.

AI assistance where it helps you the most

But we’re also seeing more unification across the Shopify platform. This time, in terms of AI-powered features and functionality.

The AI capabilities that Shopify revealed in recent releases are now being integrated into new areas, empowering merchants on all fronts. For example, the image generation tool will now be available in all media editors across the platform. Plus, you’ll even find it on the Shopify app, allowing you to edit images on the go.

We all know how replying to customer enquiries is crucial but time-consuming. That's why a new AI-powered tool is in the works to suggest draft replies to customer queries, allowing you to respond quickly and get back to business.

Shopify updates might seem to roll round pretty quickly—but in reality, a tonne of work goes into integrating new features and updating the functionality across the platform.

The Summer '24 release contains more than 150 new features and improvements, so there’s lots more to explore as part of the latest upgrade. Shout out to Spotify for making the platform more polished than ever—and giving us (and merchants) plenty more to play with until the next feature drop.

Our hot take on Shopify’s Summer '24 release 

Brands are raging against the AI machine by going bigger, bolder and more original than ever. And we’re here for it.

But how do you take those rich, beautiful brand guidelines in all their glory and translate them into something that sells? Here are our top tips for creating high-performing e-commerce sites that still pack a punch on the personality front.

With your product and collection pages, it’s all about being clever with creativity. Be smart with SEO—covering off keywords in your H1s, intros, product titles and FAQs—then see where your imagination takes you. But remember, you’re creating a seamless, e-commerce story, not a whacky, fully-gamified experience. It doesn’t matter how fun and quirky you are, users don’t forgive frustrating web experiences. They’re there to shop—so help them do just that.

The biggest fans are always the most willing reviewers. They’ll do anything to prove they’re part of the club—especially for brands that are wittier, wilder and more out there than most—and that means going hard on things like jokes, wordplay, or anything else that aligns with your brand voice. All of this is gold dust on the UGC front, so be sure to put reviews front and centre on product pages, and pepper the best ones throughout collections and the homepage.

Pop-ups are the perfect place to go wild with copy and design. We spend our lives clicking “X” on cookie pop-ups, so give your users something they’ll actually want to engage with. Think cheeky one-liners, interactive elements or surprise discounts. Injecting a little fun into areas like this is a great way to give your users a taste of what’s to come. But—and it’s a big but—be conscious of winding up users. Some of us are still traumatised from the Windows spammy pop-up days, so it’s better to only display pop-ups based on user interaction, for example, if someone clicks ‘Sign up to our newsletter’.

Create a descriptive PDP (minus the descriptions)

Well, not the main product description—that one’s still a biggie. But think about incorporating more visual elements like rating scales, comparison charts, ‘smells like’ snippets, and rotating badges—basically, anything that helps describe your product without words. They’ll draw the eye, break up the text, and add a little comic relief while still giving the user all those useful insights.

Movement will naturally add more life to the site, which is great if you’re a brand with bags of character. Bouncing product renders, animated gifs, rotating banners, pulsing actions on hover—all of these can help draw attention to things like offers or shopping carts, or simply encourage your users to explore new areas of the site. But let’s not go overboard—no one likes motion sickness. Especially while online shopping.

Again, with no SEO restrictions to hold you back, this is another place where you can go wild with design and copy. The interaction element is naturally great for engagement. Plus, it’s a great way to push certain products or exclusive discounts—or even capture user information if you’re all about building that database.

Ahhh, the original Easter eggs of the web world. The 404 page is a place that hopefully doesn’t get seen, but is something you want to surprise and delight when it does. For you, it’s a place for your most avid fans to seek out and fall in love with your brand even more. And for web designers like us, it’s a chance to really let loose as a project comes to a close.

Selling silliness: how to bring joyful brands to life in e-commerce

Earlier this month, some of the team headed to sunny Leeds to check out what’s new in the world of the web at 

As big fans of the conference, this wasn’t our first rodeo. And as usual, we came away with a tonne of useful insights. Here’s a round-up of our top talks of the day.

Sophie Koonin - So you’ve decided to do a technical migration

Sophie’s talk was all about technical migrations and, more specifically, how Monzo migrated their codebase from Flow to Typescript.

Basically, we’ve all migrated projects from one platform to another. Users change apps, designers migrate their projects to different designing software—and we’ve seen a huge transition from Adobe XD to Figma over the past half-decade. Developers also have a wide array of CMSs, JS libraries, CLI’s and apps to mix and match on a whim. We’ve also got the migrations that happen because it’s the latest trend—something that’s not necessarily safe for a lot of projects.

During the 45 minutes, Sophie delved into the challenges her team faced while migrating over to Typescript, explaining that what initially seemed to be a manageable process quickly exploded into a mammoth task. One example was having to account for different obstacles when the timeline increased due to the complexity of the migration. It was interesting to hear how the team replaced large libraries with a lot of dependencies; taking on the top-level ones first, and then trickling down the code changes into the smaller ones until eventually the entire stack could be replaced.

And when it comes to migrations, it definitely got us thinking about what’s considered “boring” and “safe”.

Ana Rodrigues - Unlocking fun experiments: exploring the Web Speech API

Ana’s talk was up there with the most interactive. She started by explaining her love for the Finnish rock band, the Rasmus, and how it’s her go-to karaoke choice. She then explained how she leverages the Web Speech Javascript API to create a karaoke machine in her browser and adds additional functionality to identify mispronounced or skipped words.

How it came together was really interesting to see, and gave some insight into the more whimsical nature of the web—something that can be near impossible to get into a real-world project. Using this technology had sparse browser support, but she showed that experimenting on the bleeding edge, with functionalities that aren’t supported, can be a welcome addition to a skillset.

Ana also gave a live demo of the karaoke machine being used. And turns out she’d included an easter egg: her talk featured certain words that were in fact song titles—so she used the API to look up and provide more information on those songs at the end.

And that—is the kind of nerdiness we’re here for.

Heldiney Pereira & Giorgio Baglioni - The snakes and ladders of creating safe, fast and delightful payments

In this talk, the Monzo team explained the intricate realities of innovating within the fintech space. They took us through the highs, the lows and the unforeseen moments of both dread and joy—as well as their internal product strategy and development approach.

We saw how all of this came together to create Monzo’s payment experience—one that seamlessly blends accessibility, safety, intelligence, and fun. But more importantly, we learned how to:

—because innovating in a high-regulated fintech environment means dealing with the challenges that come along with it.

—and by that, we mean how to keep our cool when facing the twists and turns of product strategy and development.

—in other words, how to stay anchored to the broader vision, even when dealing with distractions or setbacks.

—crafting solutions that prioritise accessibility, security, intelligence, and enjoyment.

—our favourite one of all: how to simply embrace the innovation process and challenges we encounter along the way.

The biggest things we learned at Hey! All Day 2024

From AI idea generators to the ever-faithful English dictionary, there are plenty of online copywriting tools that can help with content creation. But here are the most useful ones that take pride of place in our bookmarks. Down the rabbit hole you go…

The obvious choice. A go-to for those times when you need another word for something, or simply just need to check that random word that popped into your head means what you thought it did. They’re also great if you’re British but writing for a US audience, and vice versa. Plus, if you’re doing a play on specific words or phrases, it always helps to see your example in a sentence.

 If you want to see everything in one place, try 

. You can browse definitions, synonyms, mentions and more––all in one place. But brace yourself for a tonne of search results––some helpful, some not so much. If you’re the type that tends to head off on tangents (guilty) or just don’t like sifting through too much info at once, then stick to one tool at a time.

 is one I use all the time for coming up with new ideas. It’s super useful for things like campaign headlines, product names, or just good old-fashioned wordplay. Throw in any word and it will present you with a list of common phrases. We’re talking everything from 70s song titles to cockney rhyming slang.

You’ll get a list of phrases containing your word as well as phrases related to your word. Sometimes you’ll instantly strike gold, other times not. But you’ll almost always, at the very least, give yourself a few new directions to explore.

. Enter a word and you’ll receive a list of results that rhyme, all categorised by number of syllables (handy, huh?). You can also search for similar-sounding words, words with similar spellings, and more. Probably not one you’ll use on the daily––not unless you’re creating assets like this for 

: I used Rhyme Zone recently while creating pun-heavy product content for a bathroom brand. Cue the endless opportunities for toilet humour…

Derriere self-care (can we get a hell yeah?)

All-natural toilet sprays, reporting for doody

These flushable wipes are a U-bend’s best friend

If you’re in search of inspiration around product copy, go straight to the source. The biggest fans are usually the most willing reviewers, so check out the product pages of the brand you’re writing for (as well as their competitors) and see how users put their experiences into words. You’ll learn first-hand what the biggest benefits are, how the product makes them feel, and how it fits into their world.

 If you’re writing for a brand with a big personality, then bonus points to be had here. Loyal fans will go the extra mile to connect with brands they love––and the reviews section is the perfect place to prove they’re part of the club. Check out this review of a product called Clutch from the punk and playful sex toy site, 

––the all-American bidet brand that goes hard on humour:

 was recently recommended to me by naming pro, Caitlin Barrett. If you want to know the kinds of words people associate with a certain subject––let’s say you were creating copy about a new line of woollen jumpers for a sustainable clothing brand, then poetry about sheep, farming and the wilderness is the perfect place for inspiration. Poems are emotive, they lean heavily on imagery, and they can help us think outside the box when it comes to generating ideas. So it makes sense, right?

Poetry can also be great if you’re writing about topics you know little to nothing about (which, as copywriters, we all know can happen a lot). You can research something over and over on the web, but finding out how something makes a person feel? Hit up the Poetry Foundation, people.

One of the newer (and actually helpful) AI tools on the block is 

. Enter any word and it will present you with loads of suggestions across different categories, from ready-built acronyms to descriptions from various points of view. This one’s a go-to if you’ve really drawn a blank or can’t get the same train of thought out of your head. But brace yourself, things could get weird pretty quickly.

Crank up the temperature control by the search box to see how crazy things can really get.

Our top online tools for copywriters

Pre-pandemic, there weren’t many businesses that were fully remote. Fast forward to today, and it’s safe to say a lot of us wouldn’t accept a role that wasn’t (at least) hybrid.

We’ve been WFH from the very beginning. It’s part of who we are. It makes us more diverse and more flexible – and it’s definitely the reason behind some of our best work. But the remote life isn’t for everyone. In fact, WFH is something we have to work pretty hard at. Here’s how we’ve become better at working remotely.

Work-home, same-same – unless you spend most of your time at co-working spaces (which, by the way, we have a whole lot of love for). When your home doubles up as your workplace, you need to find a way to separate the two. We’re strict, we set boundaries, and we lean into the things that actually make us productive – like dedicated desk space and a cupboard full of those coffee beans we like. But we switch off when we have to. Because when you work from home, the last thing you want to do is take work home with you. So delete that Slack app from your phone and shut that laptop lid until tomorrow. You’ll thank us later.

Switching off at the end of the day is one thing, but making sure you show up that day is another. Yes, the freedom of working at home is amazing. But we don’t let that flexibility get in the way of our working day. Like all agencies, logging our hours helps us keep track of the time we’ve spent on-task. And if we know there are things that will lead us into temptation, then we shut them out until the working day’s done. It’s a great way to double the feel-good factor.

If someone needs something urgent from you, they can’t just walk over to your desk or collar you on the way to the kitchen. There’s a level of trust that comes with WFH, and that has to be respected. If you’re out for a few hours, then fine. Need to take a long lunch? Go for it – and mute your notifications while you’re at it. As a general rule, we always set our Slack statuses to say when we’ll be back. That way, our teammates know when to expect a response – and we get to actually enjoy our lunchtimes. But the number one thing we never do is just log off and leave teammates in the lurch. Seriously, not cool.

We become more conscious communicators and collaborators

The WFH life can be a lonely one – especially for smaller teams. For those who are familiar with the world of freelance, it’s a dream. But if you don’t have a lot in the diary, you could go hours without seeing someone. That’s why we make a conscious effort to check in, only cancel facetime when we have to, and basically – just chat. What we’re having for dinner, the shows we’ve been binging, places we’re planning on going – it all gets a mention on S8 Slack.

When you work in an office, there’s usually a buzz about the place. Home life, well it can get a little samey sometimes – especially during the winter months when it feels like you start and finish work in the dark. That’s why we make an effort to try new hobbies, mix up those afternoon walks, and even get creative in the kitchen come lunchtime. The kind of things that force us to physically step away from the desk and take a break. Who cares if that lunch hour is a little longer than an hour? WFH enables you to do these things, so just embrace it.

How we make WFH work for us

Here at S8, if we’re creating, then we’re collaborating. We’re big fans of workshops – especially when it comes to the discovery phase. Here are just a few reasons why we think they work so well.

We can do all the research we like, but nothing comes close to hearing about your product or services directly from you. You know your brand, you know your audience, and you know what you want from the project – and talking it through in person means nothing gets lost in translation. It also gives us the chance to collect qualitative data vs. just quantitative – something that makes all the difference during UX/UI discovery.

You get to know the people behind the project

It goes both ways. You get to know us, and we get to know you. Your likes and dislikes, the way you communicate, and what the project means to you personally. The kind of information you get from real conversations, not written briefs. And the kind of rapport you can’t build via Slack or email alone.

Planning and prioritising become a lot simpler

The very nature of discovery means you put the work in at the start to get the best results at the end. Workshops just take that planning phase to the next level. They give you a platform to talk about challenges and chat through priorities – and they help us highlight any areas where we need that little bit more clarity. Doing all of this early doors means no last-minute curveballs and fewer hold-ups later down the line.

The best creative ideas come from collaboration

Workshops are great for idea generation, but this is especially true for busy, siloed teams. It means a dedicated time slot in everyone’s diary when they can down tools and just bounce ideas off one another. No idea is a bad one – and by creating a super-relaxed setting where you can come up with concepts and refine them in real time, there’s a good chance you’ll strike gold.

Workshops give everyone the chance to have their say. You can map out scenarios, explore various ideas and concepts, and get different opinions from multiple stakeholders there and then. When it comes to design, everything is subjective. But workshopping a solution that works for everyone means we can all move forward way more effectively.

And we don’t mean the first-day-of-a-new-job-icebreaker kind of fun. We’re talking super-interactive FigJam formats complete with stamps, hold music, countdown timers, and avatars. Because it’s not just about trusting the process, it’s about having fun with it. And we’re all about mixing up work and play (in a good way).

Why workshops work

L&D is a big deal round here. Every other week, each S8 teamie gets a full day to focus on personal growth. Here’s why we think dedicated L&D days are the way to go.

It’s easy to talk the talk when we say we’re creating a culture of continuous learning. But L&D days really do help us do just that. Personal development isn’t put on the back burner or forgotten about until annual reviews roll around – it’s front of mind for all of us. We’re building better habits when it comes to learning new things, challenging ourselves and expanding our skill sets. And that can only be a great thing, right?

Because L&D shouldn’t be an afterthought

L&D shouldn’t be left for ad-hoc downtime. By putting two full days in the diary every month, we give ourselves a realistic amount of time needed to study, practice and learn. But most of all – we make our L&D more purposeful. Having that dedicated time makes setting (and smashing) SMART objectives way easier than if we were picking up the odd hour here and there. And seeing progress only spurs us on.

Back in the day, we’d spend the last four hours of the week on L&D (RIP 50/50 Fridays). But nowadays, each of us gets a whole day set aside in our schedule instead. We switch our Slack statuses to ‘Do not disturb’ for the day, say no to things that aren’t urgent, and generally just get our heads down. Try it – you’ll be amazed at what you can get done with a whole day of focus time.

L&D isn’t just reserved for junior teamies, or those who have the luxury of a little more time on their hands. Project managers, designers, copywriters, developers – we should all be allowed to learn new stuff. No matter how busy you are or whatever your personal goals may be, we all get the time we need to develop in our way. And the more we can learn from each other in the long run, the better our work will be.

Take it from our people people

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Take it from our people people

S8 Team trip 2024: Lisbon

Our 9-step Black Friday prep plan for e-commerce brands

Why real e-commerce photography still beats AI-generated imagery

When two become one...

How to work from anywhere

Our hot take on Shopify’s Summer '24 release

Selling silliness: how to bring joyful brands to life in e-commerce

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Our top online tools for copywriters

How we make WFH work for us

Why workshops work

Why we dedicate two days a month to L&D

Let us take you further than you’ve ever been SCHEDULE A CALL

Let us take you further than you’ve ever been