The best way to understand the experience you provide your clients and customers is to be your own client. We all know this is difficult to find time to do, hence the expression “the cobbler’s children have no shoes.” But when you set your mind to it, the payoff can be huge.

A few months ago we set our sights on redesigning our website. Understanding the monumental task ahead of us, we went through our methodology which included a brand audit. Finding time to do this was often difficult, but we knew the end result would help us define our purpose, and provide us with the answers that we wanted to know or confirm—including answers about our internal perceptions of ourselves as well as external perceptions. It was a lot like going to a therapist; we uncovered everything and set our sights on why we’re Bark.

Being in business for almost two decades offered a wealth of information about why, how, and what we do, and provided plenty of material and experience to sift through. Our process offered more than we had expected. It helped us hone in on our messaging and our work, as well as an opportunity to reflect on where we’ve come and where we want to grow.

We talked to clients and asked them for testimonials. Of course we were hoping for glowing words of kindness, but what we received was more aligned with our definition of ourselves than we had anticipated. That’s when a bell went off: our own process is effectively providing us what we need.

Now with a complete understanding of ourselves, we have designed a website that reflects Bark today and our vision for tomorrow. Being our own client has benefitted us in ways that we hadn’t expected. We’re more excited than ever about the future of our company and those who make coming to work fun—our clients.

We truly hope you enjoy the site and highly recommend taking a strategic look inward every now and then. We’d love to help you down this path.