Thijs Kraan

Value Positioner

We turn your work and expertise into founder-led content that attracts a steady flow of high-value projects from the right clients. A partnership for design agencies that want growth without the heavy lifting.

Send me a message if you want to learn more.

Founder

Hatch Conference

Growth Partner

Soldep

Designed websites, brands, content strategies, and funnels for SMBs to turn more visitors into customers.

Designer

UMC Utrecht

UMC Utrecht is an academic hospital. Designed a mobile app for nurses to streamline internal communication, documentation, and automation, so they had more time to take care of patients. Estimated workload decrease of 2 to 10%.

Product Designer

Essense

My graduation internship at Essense focused on understanding service design, customer experience, journey mapping, and customer research. I worked on a project (which I acquired myself) for UMC Utrecht.

Ahold Delhaize

Worked for Albert Heijn, the largest Dutch supermarket chain. Designed 2 products, including all marketing materials that led to a launch with 35k+ users in one week. Both MVPs were scaled into the larger product eco-system and now saves around 4.5M kilograms in annual food waste

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.

I met the design founder behind Polarsteps, a travel app with 18M+ users. 
 
From day one, Job Harmsen was the Head of Design:
 
He didn’t invent a new category, he made it beautiful
He bet on great experiences over growth hacks
He built for 11+ years alognside 3 co-founders
 
A design founder at heart. 
 
Short-film coming soon.
 
Made by Luc, Lars, and me. 
 
PS. Job is hiring a Senior Product Designer. If you're interested, reach out to him!

Back from a week in Paris:

- Visited nearly all the historic places
- Took the crown jewels from Louvre
- Drank a bunch of coffees in cafés
- Endulged in the French cuisine
- Quality time with my partner
- Loved the city's architecture
- Enjoyed some great wines

My favorite city trip so far.

It's what I love about having my own business.

I have full control over how I spent my time.

Not always easy, but definitely rewarding.

Now, it's time to get back to work:

- Kicked off a new big project
- Starting a 30-person cohort
- Finishing a few projects

A few busy last months.

All ready for 2026.

Let's go!

I’m a slow starter.

I didn’t start hitting the gym 5x a week
I started hitting the gym once a week

I didn’t start publishing 7x a week
I started publishing once a week

I didn't start reading 7x a week
I started reading once a week

Every habit had a few failed attempts.

But I know they're habits for life.

Don’t always be in a rush.

Start slow, finish faster.

I got my 1st client with luck.

I got my 2nd client with luck.

I got my 3rd client with luck.

All local businesses.

Over 7+ years, we did 10+ projects.

I was lucky to *accidentally* start a business:

- Learned to manage my clients and projects
- Learned to charge for outcomes, not hours
- Learned the basics of business by doing

But my 4th client came from intentional effort.

I published consistently for more than a year.

And then, I shared my 1st post with an offer:

→ That resulted in 20+ leads and 2 clients

That’s when growth finally felt in control.

By sharing my expertise on LinkedIn:

I built an invaluable network from scratch
I attracted many inbound opportunities
I won 88% of my current client base

All while I was a design student.

That’s the power of LinkedIn.

Take control of your luck.

You don’t need the perfect strategy.

You don’t need the perfect website.

You don’t need the perfect brand.

You don’t need the perfect plan.

You don’t need the perfect idea.

Perfection doesn't exist. 

Waiting for it is a trap.

All you need is:

- A specific customer
- A painful problem
- A good solution
- An action bias

We overcomplicate everything. 

Just do “simple” things well. 

Start small and iterate.

We're lucky. 
 
Being alive means we already won the lottery.
 
That's blind luck. Luck we didn't work for. 
 
Other types of luck come from:
 
1. Hustling
2. Preparation
3. Authenticity
 
When you share what you know, luck compounds: 
 
- You learn about what interests you
- You get inbound project requests
- You meet like-minded designers
- You open doors you didn't see
- You find experts to mentor you
- You gain free audience insight
- You can test & validate ideas
- You build a referral network
- You develop your character
- You iterate upon your ideas
 
That's why you should: 
 
Share consistently.
Prepare deeply.
Be authentic.
 
It's how we create our “luck.”

I made a mistake 4 years ago.

Not sticking with what worked:

→ Building websites

I sold websites for €5k to €17.5k/each and I built each one in 30 to ~90 hours.

That's when I faced a few wrong beliefs:

- Web design is a race to the bottom
- Tools will replace website-building
- Websites are often not important
- Building websites isn't leveraged
- Too many people build websites

So, I decided to do a hard pivot, and I tried finding a new:

- Audience = ICs → leaders → founders → businesses
- Market = design industry (only worked with designers)
- Offering = program → growth sprint → growth retainer

Took 2-3 years to find what worked, and I still iterate every day. 

Sure, I make more than I need, but if I wouldn't have pivoted:

→ I would've made at least 5x to 10x more, easily

How do I know? A few friends sell websites for €20k - 80k+

And I'm confident I delivered similar quality 4 years ago.

But I wasn't willing to double down on “boring” work:

- Prioritize one market and audience
- Build a predictable growth engine
- Systematize for higher efficiency
- Learn to hire → delegate → scale
- Do more work and do it better

So, if you're thinking about pivoting. Please think twice. 

When something works → Don't pivot, just do more. 

The grass is always greener on the other side.

Johnson & Johnson

I focus on end-to-end processes for products/services of varying complexities. I am dedicated to understanding the problem (product discovery) and developing digital solutions with a strong focus on customer centricity.

Senior User Experience Designer

I am an Experience Designer focusing on creating compelling end-user solutions across different business groups within the company: Corporate Business, Innovative Medicine, and Supply Chain Technology.

Experience Design Analyst - Technology Leadership Development Program

Binghamton University

I worked in the Human Cognitive and Visual Behavior lab where I conducted research and led studies around human cognitive and visual behavior analysis. I assisted in leading a published pilot study around the Emotional Reaction and Mental Workload in Virtual and Non-virtual Environment. DOI:10.1007/978-3-031-35989-7_42

Graduate Research Associate

Moment Studio

Assisted multiple business in crafting solutions to their unique needs.

- Ideated thoughtful solutions to complex problems that consider accessibility and technical constraints
- Conducted user interviews to understand user needs when interacting with digital products and drive design decisions
- Conducted qualitative usability testing to obtain and use feedback to create iterations for improvement
- Design cohesive and responsive desktop-mobile wireframes, low-fidelity and hi-fidelity mockups, and rapid prototypes for development and implementation
- Collaborated with cross-functional team members to ensure product development process will proceed smoothly

UX Designer

Avocademy (YC W22)

I learned the fundamentals of UX/UI research and design. Through this program, I created one case study and designed my own portfolio.

UX/UI Bootcamp

Management Leadership for Tomorrow

MLT Career Prep Fellow

Accenture

Software Engineer / UI Design

Morgan State University

Research Assistant

AT&T

Software Engineer

I have spent a lot of time dedicated to understanding others and helping them feel comfortable and confident, this experience also translates directly into my designs. I love that I have the opportunity to help people by creating and improving products. This is my passion and I’m so fortunate to do exactly that every day.

When I’m not stuck at my desk, you can find me collecting vinyl records, working out, or shooting film photography.

taplio

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Thijs Kraan

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Zipporah Bright

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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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