#89: Endings

Why they're just as important as beginnings

I’ve been thinking a lot about endings lately.

Two months ago, I flew back to London to bid farewell to Glimpse, the one-of-a-kind global collective founded in 2016 with the mission of using creativity for good.

Glimpse had had an amazing run. They’d delivered creative projects for the likes of WWF, The National Trust, Amnesty International, and Patagonia; reached number 11 in the UK singles chart with a birdsong single for RSPB; raised over £10m for Choose Love by creating the world’s first store for refugees. From the outside, it seemed absurd that they’d choose to wind down.

But after eight years and dozens of impactful projects, Glimpse’s founder and creative director James Turner sensed it was time for change. The core team agreed to stop taking on new projects and to hand over existing campaigns to other organisations.

“Without changing anything, we would have continued doing more positive, creative campaigns across many different issues. We could have kept growing, had a bigger team and built our profile too.

But over the past couple of years, I’ve started to feel that running this broad range of projects has taken us away from the core purpose of Glimpse. I’m not entirely sure how to define this, but I know that to truly realise the vision we need to go smaller and deeper.

That’s why I’ve taken the decision to hand over our current campaigns to teams who can optimise them, while I focus in on the core purpose. In lots of ways, this is less of an ending and more of an evolution, allowing these brilliant campaigns to grow and develop according to their own needs.”

— James Turner

In April, early volunteer members and friends of Glimpse were invited to a night of celebration in London’s Spitalfields City farm.

What a celebration it was.

40 people huddled together under a large, candle-lit tent. We scribbled down our favourite memories on the brown paper table cover. Then we took it out to the fire and burned it.

A beautiful ending to a beautiful organisation.

Endings matter because humans are storytellers by nature. It’s how we make sense of the world. Without an ending to the story, we remain suspended—lacking closure.

Not only did James have the courage to end Glimpse on a high, but he also had the compassion to offer a moment of collective resolution. His actions reminded me of Joe MacLeod, the British designer and writer behind ‘Endineering’, the practice of consciously designing good end experiences for products and services:

“We spend lots of time imagining what the consumer experience is going to be — what is the first-time use like, how will they experience the most common task flow? But we rarely consider what the consumer experience is like once they have left the product or service experience. […]

Engaging in endings can help businesses align with new business models, increase consumer engagement, raise customer satisfaction, protect brand equity, broaden business influence, pre-empt legislation, maximise sustainability and complete circularity.”

It’s so obvious when you think about it. But we rarely do think about it—except when trying to leave a product or service ourselves. Cancelling a phone contract, deleting a social media profile. These are painful, frustrating experiences. What if they were easy and joyful instead?

Tech or non-profit, we would all benefit from spending more time on our end-users’ endings. Taking the opportunity to show gratitude, and extend grace.

We’ll build a better world because of it.

Thanks so much for reading,

Lauren

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If you’re interested in learning more about designing good endings, Joe is kindly offering Pass It On readers a 25% discount on his ebooks and online course.

• Ends eBook - code EB55V

• Endineering eBook - code RN25W

The Endineering training course:

• Online. 4 weeks. Next cohort starts September 10.

• Group session once a week. 1-2 hours a week of study.

• Course overview here

• Discount code: 25offendscohort

Enjoy!