A Gannet Works original
Work in Practice
Unvarnished conversations with the people building durable creative businesses—and the systems that let good work survive growth.
A Gannet Works original
Unvarnished conversations with the people building durable creative businesses—and the systems that let good work survive growth.
Meet your host
Rowan is a studio operator and former editorial director who asks founders about the moments between the milestone headlines: the hiring calls, difficult trade-offs, and routines that quietly shape a company.
Eight recent conversations from a much deeper archive of independent work.
North Harbor’s Priya Raman shares the weekly cadence that turned frantic handoffs into focused creative time.
Strategist Emil Torres explains why the best project scope starts with the decision a client needs to make.
Mara Okafor describes the signals that told her it was time to share the sales room—and the playbook that kept the voice intact.
Architect Niko Varga talks about distributed critique, regional autonomy, and the small rituals that build trust across time zones.
Finance partner Dani Cole turns margin, utilization, and runway into a short monthly conversation the whole leadership team can use.
Product founder Lena Park shares how role clarity, not headcount, revealed the moment her nine-person team needed another kind of leadership.
Second-generation owner Felix Ward discusses patient handovers, shared authority, and the paperwork that protects the relationship.
Operator Sora Bell recounts the honest reset that helped her team narrow the roadmap and recover its confidence.
Get one careful conversation from the Gannet Works archive in your inbox every other Thursday.
Join the field notes