People often ask me what the best part was about moving from a network agency to a start-up like Nomads. For me, it wasn’t just the creative freedom or a new environment, but the opportunity to help shape the very culture of the agency from the ground up.
When I joined the Nomads Dubai team in late 2015, we were just a group of four. At that time, culture was being built informally—through daily interactions and shared experiences. But as our office grew to over 30 people, I realized we needed something more tangible to ground our way of working, beyond the manifesto I had written and painted on the walls in my early days. We needed a set of guiding principles that everyone could embrace.
I began to jot down the values and principles that had personally guided me. But then something struck me: what if the cultural guidelines didn’t come solely from me? What if they were derived from the experiences and behaviors of everyone at Nomads? This would ensure they weren’t just aspirational, but rooted in reality.
So, I did exactly that. I reached out to my colleagues—representing over 20 different nationalities—and asked them to reflect on their experience of working at Nomads. From their responses, I distilled eight core values: Collaborative, Driven, Caring, Curious, Brave, Inventive, Open-minded, Kind, and Fun. These weren’t just words on a page; they reflected a lifestyle, the essence of what it meant to be a Nomad.
These values became the cornerstone of the Nomads Culture Book, a guide for how we work and live together. It became more than just a resource for new joiners—it was our collective compass, offering insight into the behaviors and principles that made us a strong, unified team.
Although I am no longer part of Nomads, every page of that Culture Book remains with me, a reminder of the incredible journey we shared. It was written by every single Nomad in Dubai, and their contributions added up to everything I hoped our agency culture would become when I joined in September 2015. It wasn’t just a set of guidelines—it was a collective expression of who we were as a team. I’d like to thank all my colleagues at Nomads Dubai for shaping this culture, and a special thanks to Ben Ali Mohamed Souheil for designing its beautiful pages.
