Overview

Mural were the original pioneers of digital whiteboarding software, but they weren’t getting the recognition they deserved. Well-funded competitors were aggressively chipping away at Mural’s market share, and video conferencing, office suites, and browsers began bundling their own usable, if rudimentary, whiteboarding solutions with their products. Mural needed something that would separate them from the pack, something that spoke to the broader culture beyond SaaS-land.

As owners of LUMA, a design-thinking and facilitation institute, Mural has always strived to be more than productivity software. They’re tools and methodologies companies can use to improve their practices and streamline workflows. So when we started brainstorming, we went deep. How do people work together now? What has changed in recent years about the office environment, about corporate culture? How do workers feel? How can Mural help?

We began discussing the educational concept of “unschooling,” and thought, what if we applied that idea to work? What if we took a close look at all the structures and rules and behaviors we’ve come to accept as ‘normal’ in corporate America and really tried to understand how much of what we do at work matters, and how much of it is just getting in our ways?

And from this discussion, #unwork was born.

Development

Internally, Mural took to the idea of unwork like moths to a flame, with teams examining their own internal practices and exploring new ways of getting things done. In the marketing team, we infused the spirit of unwork into our communications and activations with a campaign where we asked questions about the status quo of work in surprising ways and unexpected places.

In New York, we hired (happy) protestors to take our message to the streets, while blanketing construction sites with wild postings. In Seattle, we sent a team out with umbrellas to unwork the rain. And in Austin, we held a trivia night that let people question the status quo of work for big points.

And that’s just a small sampling. We also brought the spirit of unwork to our website, videos, sales materials,  social media, and much, much more. In advertising, webinars, keynotes, and presentations, we challenged  current and future customers to step outside of their routine and reimagine new ways of working that make more sense for today’s economy and work environments.

What do you do when work isn’t working? You unwork it.