As a designer, asking that simple question, ‘why?’, is very critical to my job, and one I need to ask before I start anything. Why?
Why I Ask Why And You Should Too
8 Dec 2015
Strategy Posts
Getting on board with themes
14 Oct 2015
A few weeks back I saw this article from Jared Spool in my twitter feed - and the timing was eerily perfect. We were in the midst of re-examining what it was we were doing for our client and why. The roadmap we had originally created had shifted and morphed and when all was said and done, there we were with a "map" but the idea of where we were going, our focus, got hazy. To most, it just looked like a bunch of feature changes.
Building a roadmap is challenging. You know the least amount you will know at the beginning, and that is when your team (and your client) want to know what it is you plan to do and how much will it take. Historically, we've tried different approaches to make this more efficient and realistic for us and our clients. But at the end of the day, roadmaps tend to just look like a big list of features, a bunch of "stuff" that we are going to do. In the background, it's all intentional and tied to the needs we've so far determined, but it doesn't make the picture clearer. The idea of identifying the themes to focus our discussion and solutions is one I'm willing to try. It may not be the only answer for roadmaps and project scope, but if anything - it's the place to start.
User Research Is Unnecessary and Other Such Myths
13 Jul 2015
The better we understand users, the better products and services we can create. User research is a critical, yet often overlooked step in the development process. Read on for a look at a few commonly held misconceptions about user research and learn why it's more more accessible for your project than you may think.
Badass Users Book Trailer
16 Mar 2015
Badass Users Book Trailer from Seriouspony on Vimeo.
Kathy Sierra put together her own book trailer using stock videos.
A/B Testing at Shutterstck
12 Mar 2014
Recently in the Harvard Business Review, Wyatt Jenkins of Shutterstock shares some thoughts on how their product benefits from experimentation.
Being empathetic works both ways
30 Oct 2013
Our friends over at thoughtbot share some thoughts on being empathetic towards your client (and vice versa)
Ambiguity
17 Sep 2013
Take advantage of the ambiguity in the world. Look at something and think what else it might be.
Quite often, we're approached by clients with a very specific idea in their mind. It's our responsibility to question it, tinker with it, evolve it, dismiss it, embrace it, and show them what we see it as. This process is riddled with ambiguity--until something comes to life that we can see and touch, both parties rely on trust. Trust that has been nourished throughout the course of our relationship. If our client doesn't believe that we'll act in their best interests, we'll never be able to make this journey through ambiguity together.
6 Questions to Ask a Web Agency Before You Hire Them
30 Aug 2013
Are you looking to a hire a web agency? Consider asking them these questions before you make a decision.
How do you define 'value'?
28 Aug 2013
There is a tendency to reduce the MVP to something so small it cannot it cannot be evaluated by the market you seek. Or worse, it’s misvalued.
The Wonderful World of Adwords
23 Jul 2013
I was lucky enough to be put in charge of our Adwords account earlier this year. I was a newcomer to the world of online advertising, but I was eager to learn more. I didn’t expect to find such a deep, intricate maze of data, clicks, bidding, etc. It was enough to make my head spin. I can see how there can be jobs where your only task is to manage Adwords campaigns. This is some complicated shit. Let’s take a look at what goes into an Adwords campaign.
