Literally anything.

We have deep expertise in innovation, branding, and experiential projects. The outputs of those can look like written strategic, product/service concepts, or real world items, environments, performances, sessions.

But with the talent network we have—there may be no limit to what we could create. If we feel your challenge pushes us out of our comfort zone, we'll let you know!

You can try!

That's a joke. Yes, of course you can set a deadline.

We do our best to work within the parameters you set, but sometimes we know better than you what it takes to get to a desired outcome. If we feel your deadline is unrealistic, we will let you know at the proposal stage and offer an alternative for discussion.

In short: nothing about this is typical.

We desire a diverse and dynamic group of clients. We intend to stay open: so that we can solve problems with varying levels of client resourcing. Running an “agency” with zero full time staff allows us that flexibility and encourages us to find surprising ways to the desired result.

Oooh! This is our favorite part.

All HIDI proposals and projects are structured by founder, Mary Greene. (That’s not the exciting part.)

Based on client needs, Mary reaches out to her network of brilliant mentors, collaborators, idols, and friends to find the right creator to help. (<-THIS. This group of fabulous creatives. THAT is the good part!)

Mary and her apprentices act as talent brokers and project engineers: proposing the right team and the right process to design a right-sized solution. You’ll get a short bio and URLs for each recommended team member as part of your proposal.

Ouch. Our ego is hurt at the mere suggestion!

…. Okay, after a few deep breaths, we’ve recovered.

We review the information provided in the proposal request form in great detail in an effort to connect and deeply understand your needs. We also go to great lengths to explain why and how we arrived at the paths laid out in our proposals.

If you feel that our proposal does not answer your brief—meaning we’ve missed some of your direction or stepped outside of the parameters you’ve set—we’re happy to revise the proposal free of charge.We do not offer refunds for proposals.

Be aware that if a client neglects to provide an assumption or parameter in the proposal request form, it is impossible for HIDI to know what is desired. Free revisions will not be provided based on subjective criteria (e.g., “I don’t know - it just doesn’t feel right,” or “I just don’t like it,” or “I didn’t expect you to take it that direction”)

A few things we do differently than traditional “agencies”:

• We cite all of our research + inspiration sources

• We attribute each deliverable to the persons who worked on it, linking to their website/social media as appropriate

• We advocate for our creators to have ongoing rights to their own work in perpetuity

• We showcase not only the outcome but also the process

Because we work with different collaborators on every assignment, every project is negotiated with its own terms. 

HIDI favors use agreements wherein the creator and the client both have rights to use outputs for their own promotion, although we understand that there may be timing constraints, etc needed for purposes of market stealth.

We recommend adding 3-4 weeks to your project timeline if you foresee negotiating assignment of IP (for instance: large brands).

How do you ever know if something is true? 

You decide which sources you personally trust, and you check in with them.

Essentially, we ask that you share with us which sources you trust, and we make every effort to check in with them throughout our process. 

A few examples below: 

• HIDI is diligent about citing our sources and explaining our logic. If you havespecific, trusted sources of data or insightthat you’d like us to use (e.g., access to syndicated data, results from previous user studies, specific entities you’d like us to observe and audit), we welcome them! Please share or reference them in your proposal request form. Understanding the nature, volume, and depth of those sources is key for us, so that we can quote accurately for analysis.

• If you desire additional validation or evaluation in the form of custom user studies (e.g., ethnographies, focus groups, surveys), we are happy to include this type of insights work as part of our proposal. Please indicate as much in your proposal request form.

• If you’ve access to important stakeholders or subject matter experts, whose opinions you trust or ideas you’d like us to be inspired by, we have myriad ways to incorporate their insight into projects as well (e.g., workshops, interviews, surveys). Please indicate who you’d like us to include and why in your proposal request form.

Of course!

For proposals, we invite you to send your feedback in response to the proposal or to request a feedback call to discuss. We will provide a quote for the changes after that feedback is received, depending on how extensive the changes are. 

Yes! We would love that. 

Check out the scenarios below and see what works for you:

• Just want a few Q’s answered about HIDI?
  Feel free to book 15 mins for a Q&A with Mary here.

• Seeking to discuss a proposal?
  You can either request a meeting using the space in the proposal request form and/or respond via email to request a meeting after you’ve had a moment to review the proposal.

• Seeking to include meetings as part of your project / solution development?
  Indicate this in the proposal request form, and we’ll bake them in! We assume work will happen mostly asynchronously unless otherwise requested so that our work is accessible to all sorts of clients.

• Seeking a meeting or interview with Mary outside of a specific project or proposal process? 
  Mary does offer ad hoc interviews or consults at a base rate of $200/hr (this assumes a Zoom engagement with no travel or prep). For speaking engagements or workshops, please submit a special request via our contact page.

We take accountability for our mistakes and will do what’s needed to make it right.

However, it is often impossible for us to “give back” funds that have already been used in the creation of an output. Much like time: the resource has already been spent. Beyond that, we proudly keep our margins low and our cash flowing, so HIDI has no intention of hoarding a large “rainy day” fund. For these reasons, we do not offer refunds on paid invoices.

However, if we’ve made an error, we will put in the effort and invest our own resources to correct it. Similar to our stance on proposal revisions, this investment will not be provided based on subjective criteria (e.g., “I don’t know - it just doesn’t feel right,” or “I just don’t like it,” or “I didn’t expect you to take it that direction”)

We ask clients to be as descriptive and thorough as possible when providing feedback, to ensure mutual understanding and reduce opportunities for error based on misunderstanding.

Can we be honest?

(*sheepishly*) …We aren’t sure. 

Most days it truly feels like the sky's the limit for our incredible network of creators. 

We encourage you to dream big in your brief to us. If we feel uncertain in our ability to deliver, we will let you know, will not provide a proposal, and will do our best to point you in the direction of the right expertise. 

Proposal fees will be refunded for any challenge we feel is outside our wheelhouse.