Organizational Culture at Fingerpaint Reflection

Overall, I think Fingerpaint is a very organized company. There were three main teams in the New Jersey office. The three teams were Account, Creative and Strategy. Within those teams, there were smaller teams. I was on the strategy team this summer. The strategy team is broken down into four sections: Brand Strategy, Medical Strategy, Engagement Strategy and Patient Strategy. I worked on the Patient Strategy team under Laura Wilson. Having separate teams within the Strategy team enabled efficient collaboration. We had a Strategy team meeting every Thursday in which each team member gave updates on pitches or projects they were working on, had the opportunity to ask the Strategy Team Leader any questions they had about the company and brainstorm solutions for various problems. Additionally, we had weekly informal NJ office meetings where people on the three teams all came together. One aspect of Fingerpaint’s organizational culture that I really liked was that for almost every project or pitch, there were multiple people from every team who were working together. This was my first experience in agency life and one of my main takeaways is how important it is to listen to other people’s opinions, ideas and perspectives. Every person who was assigned to a specific project had a role to fulfill that was necessary for it to be a success. 

One of my favorite things about Fingerpaint is how everyone communicated with each other. Everyone treated one another with respect and admiration. As an advertising agency, brainstorming is a critical step in many of the projects. I was able to attend countless brainstorming and ideation meetings with Laura in which it was emphasized that no idea was a dumb idea. Furthermore, despite being virtual, I was able to feel what an encouraging environment Fingerpaint is. People from various teams were constantly giving other people the recognition they deserved. Lastly, at the NJ All Staff Meetings, a portion of the time was devoted to exchange kind words to someone who deserved it. The communication between everyone at Fingerpaint was direct and serious when it needed to be, but was also light-hearted and friendly. Even though I only met a few of the people at Fingerpaint in person when I interviewed in December, I felt like people genuinely wanted to get to know me. Laura set up Slack calls with the people from each of the various Strategy teams during my first week of the internship which allowed me to develop relationships with my co-workers almost immediately. I felt like people were truly interested in learning about me and ways in which they could help make my internship experience the best it could possibly be. I believe the culture at Fingerpaint is special.