Posted On January 9th, 2011 Author Kyle Racki
Filed Under Business, 4
I once heard that it’s not young carpenters who accidentally chop off their own fingers, it’s the ones who have been doing it for 20 years. They’ve gotten far too comfortable wielding spinning metal blades.
One of the ways individuals and companies often try to differentiate themselves is with experience. “I’ve got 15 years experience.” “Well, I’ve got 18 years experience!” In general prospective clients and employers value experience more highly than anything else, almost always willing to pay more money to the person with the most experience. But is this really the most valuable trait you should look for?
The funny thing is, when it comes to anything web related, experience is a completely null commodity that gets confused with some sort of winning attribute. Let’s face it, everyone except children have been using the internet for the complete 15 or so years it’s been mainstream.
But more to the point, if you are a web designer, developer or in any other way a web professional - having 15 years experience is not incredibly impressive. The internet sucked back then. The internet will always suck when referred to in past tense because technology improves at a breakneck speed. So really, even websites that won prestigious awards when they launched 5 years ago are a joke by today’s standards. And wicked awesome sites that launch today will suck 5 years from now because the sites of tomorrow will be doing far more impressive things with technology.
This isn’t like music, film or even video games, which are a completely artistic endeavor and can be great no matter when they were made. Citizen Kane, The Beatles and The Legend of Zelda are all amazing in their own right, even though they were made long ago relative to their medium. Great websites, except for the rare few, are business vehicles in some way. They may deliver their functionality in an artistic or creative way, but they still are there to serve a purpose other than art.
What that means for web professionals is that if you want to be considered the best in your craft, you need to be constantly learning. You can’t put self-education on the back burner because you’re too busy working on paid client projects; The fact is you won’t be busy in the future if you aren’t learning now.
This means that we are always in a state of feeling like a dinosaur - it’s our job to. Even if your skills are on par with what’s being done today, there’s always some new technology right around the corner that others are discussing. We should always have at least one topic in our given field that we know we need to follow via a blog or book.
The problem with experience is that it gives professionals a false sense of security. The amount of years you’ve been doing something occurs naturally as the Earth moves around the Sun. You have 11 years of experience because another year passed and you haven’t changed careers. It’s like running downhill. But to stay good at something - that requires more. You can have 15 years of being a crappy web designer, or 3 years of being an amazing one. Which would you pick?
In a past job, someone remarked, “I’ve been doing this since you were in junior high school!” My reaction back then was an unspoken “Who cares”, and it still is. The question is; How long have you been doing it well, and are you still doing it well? The latter one is the only one that matters. Mark Zuckerberg was 19 when he launched Facebook, he’s 26 now. Suffice to say, experience in his case is irrelevant.
It’s easy for me to get a big head and think that because I have been working as a design professional for over 7 years that I am some sort of guru. But all it takes is a look outside at all the people in the world who are truly shaping the web with technology and practices I have no clue about, and it brings me back down to reality. Guru is a very relative term.
At the very least, I want to be sure that even 2, 5, 10 years from now, I will never look down on someone with less experience. If I don’t keep my knowledge fresh, they will be running circles around me. So If you are someone who hires web professionals, don’t be impressed with the number of years on their card. Be impressed with what they can do now and hire based on that.
Posted On December 30th, 2010 Author Amy Wheaton
Filed Under Business, 2
Anyone who knows me well knows that I’m obsessive about timelines, not just at work, but in my personal life too. I set deadlines for everything from my gym schedule to cleaning our house. Bordering on crazy? Maybe – but my work experience has taught me the value of time management, and this is the system that works best to make sure I get everything done.
One of the biggest problems that can arise working on any creative project, online or otherwise, is when people don’t recognize of the value of time. The end deadline is looming – website launch, campaign in market, or gala event scheduled - yet milestones are missed. Everybody starts getting anxious. In the case of an online project, the developer can’t start working on the website back end because the design isn’t approved. Everybody’s work is delayed. Before you know it the project is off the rails, team members are on edge, and the site launches late. The project wraps up, and everyone’s left with a bitter taste in their mouth. How can this be prevented?
It’s easy to stay on track with a little bit of effort and a few tricks. Here are some simple ways to ensure your project goes out the door on time:
Set a realistic end date.
It seems obvious, but often clients will push to have their site launched by Date X without thinking about realistic turnaround times. It’s almost always better to wait and launch later with a good product than to cut corners to meet an unrealistic deadline. Anything worth doing is worth doing well – and to do anything well takes time!
Really review your timeline.
Overestimate on everything. I once read an article that said you should add a 50% contingency to every task – for example, if you’re expecting something will take two days, expect it to take three.
Build in buffers.
Anticipate that feedback is never going to be instant. Look at your responsibilities and their assigned dates and ask yourself if you can commit to this time frame. If you have any doubts, speak up! Better to adjust the timeframe before you get started than to miss milestones and throw the project out of whack midway through. No one will fault you for building in extra time!
Communicate.
If a red flag arises speak up immediately so the problem can be addressed before it snowballs out of control. Say you’re suddenly swamped and you aren’t going to have time to pull content together until next week – as long as you communicate that to the rest of the team, everybody’s aware of the situation and not wondering where in the world your content is. They may be able to move on to another area of the project and keep things on the rails overall. And even if everything is on track, make sure the team is aware of it – regular status reports on any project are helpful and reassure your team that things are rolling out as they should and that everyone is doing a good job.
Keep track of all responsibilities, using whatever system works for you.
At Headspace we use Basecamp project management software, which is great because it makes everyone accountable to a project and keeps the entire team updated on progress. For my appointments I use a good old-fashioned day planner, and I write down meetings, conference calls, and deadlines. As antiquated as it sounds I hate electronic calendars, and I usually ignore alerts that pop up, so for me they’re completely ineffective. Figure out what works for you and use it.
Give yourself fake deadlines.
I know that creative teams hate getting ‘fake deadlines’ from account people so I never assign them. However, fake deadlines work for me! If I need to have a block of copy written by the end of the day, I’ll try to have it done by noon. That way, if something does come up that’s unavoidable, I have extra time built in to get it done.
Build in lots of time for testing.
At Headspace we have started incorporating more time on our interactive projects for quality control and testing pre-launch and it makes a big difference in our clients’ satisfaction. Again, anything worth doing is worth doing well. It’s easy to underestimate testing time but this is one of the most crucial phases of a project. There are inevitably going to be bugs and errors with any website – better for your internal team to find them than your client!
Any other ideas for ways to keep a project on track and delivered on time? Feel free to share.
Posted On November 3rd, 2010 Author Kyle Racki
Filed Under Headspace News, External Articles, Marketing, 0
Most business owners know that the internet opens up a lot of marketing potential, and that harnessing the power of the web, and specifically social media, is important to staying relevant. However, many entrepreneurs fail in a few key areas of managing their online presence — particularly when it comes to online communities.
NOTE: This article was published in the October 2010 issue of Business Voice.
It can be very tempting to want a blog or forum on your corporate website. After all, getting customers engaged with your brand is the holy grail of all forms of marketing. Some companies opt to use Facebook or Twitter for their online business communications, avoiding the upfront development fees associated with a custom blog. There’s nothing wrong with either approach, provided you keep the following points in mind:
Commit
Too many business owners begin an online community, thinking that simply getting a site built or starting a Facebook page will be all that’s needed. At the beginning they are fired up and excited about it, so they emphatically post their first couple of entries (Usually something akin to “We now have a blog” or “Welcome to our Facebook Page!”) But then life happens, and the posts slow down and eventually cease, much to the embarrassment of the website owner.
There are a few reasons this might happen:
- You may be expecting too much of yourself and your audience. Too many owners feel they need a post or article that is lengthy and detailed. The bar is set so high for themselves that they opt to not post at all.
- You feel that you don’t want posts to be too personal or transparent; that you will appear unprofessional, or even worse (gasp!) your competitors will see what you write!
- You don’t see immediate results. Users are not commenting, and your inbox is not getting flooded with requests for work and flattering reviews of your latest post.
The latter point happens because of the former; users are not engaged because the posts are not regular, or they are not interesting. But abandoning your community is not the answer. I always tell our clients when they want to start an online community that it is akin to starting a fire with wet wood - it takes time up front, and a few failed starts, but once you commit to it and keep adding fuel, it will eventually sustain itself with comparatively less work. So what to do then?
Engage
Don’t be afraid to post brief posts with a personal viewpoint. Users prefer these types of posts because it demonstrates you. No one wants to engage online with a faceless corporation, and the big brands who have successfully started an online community have shared their personal viewpoints and helpful, interesting content that has resonated with their customers. Don’t post press releases on your site. Unless they are media contacts, most users just don’t care!
Don’t make the mistake of trying to directly market or promote yourself with your blog or social community. It will seem self-serving. But if your content is good, it will market you by default because you will stay fresh in the minds of potential customers.
Your staff represents your brand, so get them involved. If they are posting their own thoughts and ideas, or even helping customers through blog comments or Twitter posts, it can only reflect well on your company.
Don’t be afraid of your competition — they are going to see what you write — get over it!
Post regularly but make sure that even if your posts aren’t lengthy and extravagant, they are quality. It’s better to have one great post every week than one boring post every day.
Keep a notepad handy and write down post ideas as they come to you, in the shower, in the car, wherever ideas happen. You can always sit down and compile several posts when the inspiration has hit you, and then stagger when you actually release them online. This will make it appear as if you’re regularly posting, but in reality you’re cheating!
Don’t be too disheartened if no one seems to be commenting. It takes time for an online community to build momentum (remember the wet fire concept?) but you can encourage people to comment by asking questions, linking to your posts in other similar online discussions, and most importantly, responding to the occasional individual who does comment.
Don’t try to control the message. If you delete negative posts on your blog, they will only appear on someone else’s. Instead respond in a positive, humble, but truthful and genuine manner. Even better, if your community is engaged with your brand, they may even come to your defense — you may not have to say anything. You couldn’t ask for better marketing than this.
Posted On October 29th, 2010 Author Amy Wheaton
Filed Under Business, 6
As I rushed to get a design proposal out the door on time recently (why are these things always a rush, no matter how much lead time we have?) I was stopped short by an intimidating list of mandatory to-dos, listed under a bolded, ominous warning that “Failing to complete the following may result in your proposal being rejected”.
Well, um, OK. I guess I better comply, since we’ve just spent 30-plus hours of otherwise billable time getting this beast together and it would be a shame to lose out on this contract because I didn’t print the RFP number ABOVE the RFP name on the cover page. Or photocopy our business registry information double-sided. Or have page three of each of the 19 identical bound booklets signed, in black ink, by someone who is qualified to sign on behalf of our company – but DON’T sign the original copy, which, by the way, needs to be unbound and calligraphied on ecru (NOT WHITE) onion-skin paper and delivered on the horn of a virginal male unicorn at precisely 4:00 P.M. on Friday, October 22, AND NOT A SECOND LATER!!
I don’t think preparing and submitting RFPs will ever be fun. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t think the process is supposed to be fun. Potential clients need to know that you’re willing to put in time, effort, and precision on responses to their RFPs to show that you’re serious about working with them. With this comes a degree of challenge – locating the most appropriate work samples, ensuring your proposal is tailored specifically to their individual requirements, proofreading it again – and again – and again. RFP does not stand for “Ridiculously Fun Project”. Really f-ing painful? That might be more accurate.
The purpose of an RFP is to evaluate an agency or a firm on its ability to work with and on behalf of your organization. Whether it’s specific to strategy, design, account management, or a full suite of services, it’s a company’s chance to check out your expertise, your references, samples of your work, and the qualifications of your employees and determine which agency is best for their needs. It’s an opportunity to see how well a firm can answer your questions and respond to your unique objectives.
Fair enough – but why the need to make agencies jump through hoops, write out the gazillion-digit RFP number again and again and again, sign here and here and here, and so on to prove they can do great work? Worse still, the RFP documents that list their mandatory requirements on different pages, causing no shortage of angst as the unlucky account person (me) riffles through a novella of background info and appendices to make sure everything has been done correctly.
There are some RFP documents we receive that are just beautiful. I may actually clap and bounce up and down when I see them. They’re clearly laid out, with the mandatory requirements all in one place, straightforward questions, and contact info prominently marked. My secret inner dork actually enjoys completing these proposals – I could even go out on a limb and says that they are, indeed, ‘ridiculously fun projects’. (Then again, making lists is one of my spare-time hobbies, so my definition of fun may not be akin to that of a “sane and well-balanced person”.)
Before you send out your request for proposals, give it a review. If your requirements are responded to correctly, will you have the information you need to review sufficient samples of an agency’s past work, their unique approach to your project, and their team’s credentials in relation to your project? Are you determining that they are indeed a legitimate and established company without requiring fingerprints, criminal checks, and blood type of all team members? If so, you’re on the right track. Would you pull your own hair out by the handfuls if you had to respond to the same document? If not, go ahead and hit send. (Send it to us, actually. I love ridiculously fun projects).
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