CREATIVE DIRECTION

Collaborative Editing:
Where "deep work" meets teamwork

As Evernote expanded its vision from personal note-taking to professional productivity, we launched new features like task management and calendar integration to support that vision. But the feature most often requested by customers was real-time, collaborative content editing. 

Rolling this out would be a key step in keeping Evernote competitive in a crowded productivity marketplace, and promised to transform the usefulness of our “Teams” product. Recognizing that a big step forward called for a big story, we reframed Evernote as a collaboration hub, with all our new features sharing the spotlight.

Make the most of your team's brainpower

Our storytelling concept stemmed from the insight that Evernote had long been associated with "deep work"—solitary focus on capturing and refining one's own thoughts. But great work is rarely solitary. We need other people's expertise to make things happen. We reimagined Evernote as a platform where people could move seamlessly between those two modes—working things out on your own and collaborating with a team.

To bring this to life, we re-introduced the Evernote Teams SKU with a new emphasis on collaboration. Then, as features became available to new team accounts, existing teams, and personal accounts, we planned an awareness campaign plus comms tailored to each group.

Illustrations introduced the concept, while abstracted UI showed off specific features and use cases. We used animation to convey the velocity of people working together in real-time. Our copy focused on the value of real-time collaboration in business, but the ideas applied to personal use, too: better brainstorming, smoother communication, and getting stuff done.

Teams SKU Page

Collaboration

Business Use Case

Team

Creative Direction
Forrest Bryant, Kent Ward, Anthony Bartlett

Design
Qianqian Wang

Copywriting
Anthony Bartlett, David Perez, Stephanie Trovato

Video & Animation
Joshua Kidwell

Project Management
Lisa Van Tassel

Voice Talent
Forrest Bryant