Thijs Kraan

I help designers sell their expertise through writing content.

Before 2023, 100% of my design clients came from referrals.

→ I had zero control over when my next project arrived

Today, 88% of my clients come through LinkedIn – inbound.

Learning “how” took me 1065+ days of sharing expertise:

- Positioning & articulating the value of my expertise
- Experimenting with writing high-performing hooks
- Converting attention into inbound business leads
- Talking to 1000s of designers and design leaders
- Finetuning my profile for the highest conversion

I was a poor design student, so I self-studied:

- I consumed 1000s of posts & 100s of videos
- I read 100s of books & 100s of articles
- I wrote more than 1200+ posts

Obsessed with mastering the nitty-gritty of content.

And that meant making countless mistakes:

- I tried appealing to everyone, so I never got to stand out
- I wasted 100s of hours on meaningless content iteration
- I pivoted direction 50+ times so nothing compounded
- I got 3M+ impressions without winning a single client
- I ignored 1000s of hand-raisers right in front of me

To this day, I still learn new things every day.

Even after investing 3 years in learning:

€10k+ on courses/coaches
1000+ hours on reading
2500+ hours on writing

But now, I've turned everything into one framework to:

- Share your unique expertise more effectively
- Become the go-to expert for your audience
- Start getting inbound leads (on auto-pilot)

My LinkedIn Growth Framework. 

After 10+ iterations, I'm confident it works:

- A design founder added €100k+ in revenue (in 6 months)
- A design leader landed a new €150k+ job (in 3 weeks)
- And many designers won new 5-figure project deals

All from sharing their unique expertise (on LinkedIn)

So, if you want to learn from my biggest mistakes.

Take my free 5-day LinkedIn Growth Strategy:

growexpertise.com/linkedin-growth-strategy
(or click my LinkedIn profile buttons above)

PS. For 1:1 help, DM me or visit valuepositioner.com

Design Content Consultant

I help design leaders, founders, and freelancers do 4 things:

1. Understand & position your unique value
2. Create your design content strategy
3. Systematize content creation
4. Start creating habitually

By:

1. Analyzing your existing customers, content & data
2. Strategizing toward your ideal future positioning
3. Producing content for authority, talent & leads
4. Upgrading your content, profiles & funnels

Together, this will help you:

- Get inbound leads
- Attract new talent
- Build authority

Want to learn how? 

Send me a message.

Founder-led growth partner for design studios

Part of the bottom 99% of designers. Building Kleo. Serving teams with fractional product design.

I help product teams move faster with fewer bottlenecks.Trusted by startups who have raised over $350M.I’ve partnered directly with founders, PMs, and heads of design.Web + mobile. Fast-paced. Strategic + hands-on.U.S.-based and async-friendly.If you need part-time design that feels full-time reliable, reach out. ⤵https://tidycal.com/trevordesign/chat-with-trevor

Trevor Nielsen

My Monday morning hot take:
AI hype is louder than AI adoption.

If you only read social media, you’d think:
Designers are dead.
Developers are dead.
Entire teams replaced overnight.

That has not been my experience.

I have worked with strong product teams recently.
Modern. Talented. Moving fast.

Most of them are experimenting with AI.
Dabbling. Testing. Exploring.

They are not rebuilding their workflows around it.
They are not replacing entire departments.

Adoption is much slower than the internet suggests.

A lot of what we see online is clickbait.

“AI is taking your job.”
“If you’re not using it, you’re behind.”

Fear drives comments.
Comments drive reach.
Reach drives sponsorships.

But inside real product teams, the tone is calmer.

Here’s what I think is true.

You should try AI.
There is no reason to avoid it.

But the idea that you are “falling behind” if you are not using it constantly makes no sense to me.

If AI does what it promises, it makes your job easier.

So how are you behind for understanding how to build products without it?

If you can design well without shortcuts, you understand fundamentals.

AI should amplify skill.
Not replace it.

The bigger risk I see is homogenization.

So many products are starting to look the same.
Same layouts.
Same patterns.
Same tone.

The work that stands out now is the work where someone thought harder.
Pushed further.
Added originality.

That matters more than ever.

And think about this..

Designers have been using UI kits for years.
Design systems.
Component libraries.
Shared patterns.

We have always built on top of existing work.

AI is not some alien concept.
It is a faster remix machine.

The internet makes this feel like a revolution happening overnight.

Inside teams, it feels more like gradual experimentation.

AI is not the apocalypse.
It is not the miracle either.

It is a tool.

And tools tend to amplify whoever is holding them.

Freelance Product Designer | Helping teams build great products

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Thijs Kraan

Trevor Nielsen

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The Battle

Thijs Kraan

Trevor Nielsen

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Thijs Kraan's LinkedIn Performance

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