Posted by: Carl Smith on Friday March 5, 2010
In our post last week I said that succeeding on the web wasn’t magic — it was hard work and talent. nGen Friend Martin Ringlein felt differently. He said:
Something amazing happens when you have the right people working together … I like calling that something “magic.”
Damn it, Martin, really? Calling us out on our own blog? Well, you’re right. This week we thought a lot about magic, except we call it ideas. To us, that’s the tangible part of talent and teamwork. And while we were saying that there’s no magic in SEO or social, we’ll take that back, too. Ideas are everywhere, in everything we do.
In many ways, our job is to both create and protect ideas through the entire process. We become their champions, and we have to hit potential clients in the head with that before they hire us. No surprises. They are hiring a team that will tell the CEO “no” and would rather be fired than be ineffective. This doesn’t mean we’re confrontational; we’re as nice as they come. But if we have a good case for doing something new and someone says “no,” then we have to ask ourselves why we’re there.
So what kills ideas? Who is the enemy that lurks in the shadows of every project?
In my experience, these are the bad guys:
- Fear
- Budget
- Time
- Unknown ROI
- Ego
- Committee
- No champion
- Poor communication
- Laziness
- A lack of or inappropriate research
So rather than build a new process around how we can work effectively and get the answers we need to create an amazingly effective solution, we started building a process around creating and protecting ideas so that they can survive long enough to live or die in the wild. The funny realization is that this process also revolves around working effectively and getting answers we need.
The outline for the new process is nearly done, but as with everything, it’s in flux. In fact, the new process encourages ideas throughout the process so we anticipate delays as better thoughts rise to the top. Once we’re close, we’ll give you a peek.
As we’re working on process we’re also working on how we communicate our philosophy. In my humble opinion, we stumbled on something powerful this week.
We’re moving the conversation from interruption to contribution.
It’s time to let clients know that nobody cares about their products or services; they care about what they can do for them. We realize we now have to aim that focus at ourselves.
As always, let us know what’s going on in your world and any thoughts you have for us on the transition.
4 Comment(s) Filed under: Interweb
Posted by: Carl Smith on Friday February 26, 2010
I’m sure this happens anytime a company tries to change themselves. You have moments of clarity, you outline your plan of attack and… the phone rings with a great opportunity. Or worse, the pain in the ass that you thought was dead and buried rises up from the ashes. This week definitely had its share of those situations, as well as the usual things you have to do to keep a business running. There’s no way around doing our day jobs as we’re positioning ourselves for the future. But we’re not letting that slow us down; in fact, we’re implementing some of our new thoughts and approaches in the work we’re doing right now.
In addition to the usual, it also was a week of great conversations and insights.
Video game psychology and the web industry
Something struck me as I was reading Trust Agents this week, mainly because they said it. What’s going on in the web industry today is a lot like video game psychology. I promise this won’t hurt.
We play a game
As most of us start playing a game, we fail a lot and learn what works and what doesn’t. It’s fun, but there comes a time when we get stuck and quit playing. A few finish the game without getting hung up on something they can’t solve.
We cheat
Okay, it’s not really cheating. The cheat codes are built into the games and every video game site has them listed. Or maybe we use a walk through that helps us get around a particularly sticky situation. Either way, we went outside of the original game and kept going. Eventually this gets boring because it’s too easy.
We create our own game
The rare few use the built-in tools that games now offer to create their own levels or they actually learn to program and create their own games. They make the rules and they decide what works and what doesn’t.
In so many ways, this pattern defines what’s going on with the web industry as we see it right now. There are a lot of people playing by the rules as they know them. They create websites for clients and that’s pretty much it. They do okay if they’re talented and some do really well. But others cheat and convince companies that they can get them easy money by getting them to the top of the search engines and attracting a big following without much work at all. They go from industry to industry, changing the terms but continuing to do things that take advantage of the web and don’t really help their “clients” at all. Then you have the companies who create a new game. That’s absolutely where we’re trying to get to at nGen Works. A new game where we can help clients succeed over the long haul.
There is no magic
The more we’ve read and researched, the more obvious it becomes that everything about succeeding on the web involves talent and hard work, not tricks. If you’re a web designer and you’re worried about SEO, don’t be. Just help your client write good content that hits on important phrases to their audience. Use the free tools and a few accepted and even encouraged techniques to help the search engines. Code the site following best practices. Encourage your client to search the web for people talking about their product or service and to gently join those conversations in a helpful way. It’s the same with social media. Find the groups to which you have something to contribute. Hang out and join in on conversations. Offer something of value. Encourage the people you reach to come back and share the good experience they had. Yes, there is more to it than I just laid out, but it’s not magic. It’s being smart, dedicated, honest and, most importantly, real.
Worry about the end users’ ROI, not your own
So many people are so worried about their own investment that they ignore their customers’ need to understand what’s in it for them. Why should someone by a product from you? What makes you interesting or different? What promise can you make and keep? What would make them tell others about what you are offering? Think about JetBlue offering unlimited flights for $599. Did they make money? Did they get a return on their investment? If I still remember it now and think they’re awesome, then I would say yes. That offer spread like wildfire over the Internet. I bet they got $100 million dollars’ worth of coverage as everyone started talking about the trips they were going to take and how great JetBlue was. That’s what the new world of marketing is about: Creating amazing value that’s honest and watching people thank you.
So what about nGen’s transition?
Right now we’re looking out a wide-open door at an overwhelming number of choices. To trim them down, we’re working on positioning statements. Words we can believe in that guide us in all the decisions we have to make. Sounds simple enough, right? Well, we’re still working on it. At the same time, we’re working on our own plan to find out what we should be doing and who we think would see value in it. And yes, we are starting to think about how we present ourselves. Personally, I’m feeling deep turquoise plays big into our future.
Again, we thank you for hanging out and seeing what’s going on. We plan to finalize our new positioning statement next week and once we do, we’ll definitely let you know.
8 Comment(s) Filed under: Interweb
Posted by: Carl Smith on Saturday February 20, 2010
Before talking about the progress and decisions we’ve made over the past week, I wanted to say thanks for all of the feedback, well wishes and words of wisdom. It’s amazing to find out we have such a great group of friends.
Your input has helped me realize I need to be able to explain what we’re doing and why in a simple manner. So here goes…
Why are we making this transition?
So we can be a better partner to our clients. The online world is full of opportunities that we need to help them identify and leverage. If they continue to market themselves like they always have, they may not be much better off than they were, even with a professionally built site.
How will we change?
We’re figuring that out now, but the simple answer is that we will start projects with a full strategy that identifies how our audience interacts with technology, finds appropriate ways to communicate with them, defines the most effective web presence and recommends key metrics for success. We’ll also look at a more iterative approach to modifying our tactics as we start helping clients leverage what user behavior teaches us. Okay, maybe that wasn’t a simple answer. 8^)
Will you start doing print, social, SEO, mobile, dancing in the street with your client’s name on a board?
If it makes sense for our client based on the research and goals of the project then we’ll recommend it. Tactics that we have the skills to provide, we will; for those we don’t have, we’ll turn to experienced partners.
Hopefully that helps clear up some of the questions I’ve been getting asked. Please keep asking — you’re keeping me on my toes.
Now back to today’s blog post.
Who do we think we are?
The nGen team spent a week individually putting together their thoughts on who we should be. We then came together last Friday to share these ideas with each other. To clarify, this is very much ideas on who we want to be; there’s a lot of work to be done.
Highlights of our first brainstorming session
- Establishing sustainable trust with our clients’ audiences is a goal of every project.
- We have to become a company that continuously learns and teaches instead of just producing things.
- It’s about delivering, not deliverables.
- We need to conduct research, brainstorm and plan to determine the best approach for each project.
- No one process is going to work for every project.
- We need to learn how our audiences use technology and not just create websites.
- Everything we do should be very engaging and fun for us and our clients
- If we improve the experience of our client, we’ll improve their business.
- Beer and video games are not optional but mandatory!
- It’s truly a collaborative effort or we fail.
- Web science isn’t rocket science, but it’s still science.
- We need to guide the conversation, not just be a part of it.
- We need to focus on how things are used, not how they are built.
- We have our clients’ backs.
- Irreverent can be good.
- Rationales for decisions are mandatory.
- nGen Friday is important.
Descriptive Terms
- Trust
- Imaginative
- Reliable
- Clear
- Honest
- Nice
- Resourceful
- Smart
- Irreverent
- Adaptable
- Curious
- Evolving
- Experienced
- Audience
- Passionate
- Creative
- Science
- Learn
- Educate
- Team
- Fun
- Improve
- Seek. Think. Solve.
Companies for Inspiration
So now what?
Our next steps include: detailing our new approach, writing narratives about the experience of working with the new nGen Works and outlining how we’ll communicate about ourselves to prospects and current clients. All of this comes with the ongoing education we’re putting ourselves through, from reading books and case studies to blog posts and presentations. If you’d like to keep up, here’s a list of what we’re reading and watching.
That’s it for now. Thanks for following along and please keep sending us your feedback and thoughts.
9 Comment(s) Filed under: Interweb
Posted by: Carl Smith on Thursday February 11, 2010
A couple of months ago things weren’t feeling right in my little world, specifically with nGen Works. Our new team was going strong and had a lot of passion and dedication. As a business, we were kicking butt and could easily grow if we wanted to. All the projections showed we could stay on this path and be successful for years to come. But something else was going on that I didn’t want to look at.
Most of us hate it when an “expert” shows up and starts talking to our clients about SEO, social marketing or whatever the newest gold rush may be. For me, a client’s online presence was always the core concern and everything else was to be dealt with later. I locked myself into this belief partly because it reinforced what we were doing and partly because I was busy as hell. But if we don’t take the time to understand the core benefit of each channel and tactic, we have no right to criticize someone else who shows up and says they have the answer. What’s the client supposed to do? If there’s something that is supposed to help their business they need to try it.
Last Friday I told the nGen team that I’m ready to expand what we offer. More research, full strategy, promotion, execution, monitoring and tracking.
Three of us come from a full-service agency background so this is already in our blood. We handled national campaigns, web needs and promotions for companies like AT&T, Marriott and Energizer. Today, it’s still about connecting with people and engaging them. A big advantage is the friends we’ve made over the last seven years who are leaders in many aspects of the web. We won’t try to do everything; we’ll assemble great teams of specialists that give our clients what they need to be successful.
A big realization is we have to rise above our focus on the tactics and methods we use in creating our work. Instead, we need to make the goal continuously finding and engaging the right audience(s) for our clients. We also agreed that except for the name “nGen Works,” everything is fair game. If it doesn’t belong in the new vision of the company then it’s gone.
Stay in touch to find out about the decisions, changes, successes and failures that come with a transition like this. If you decide to keep up with what we’re doing, we hope you’ll add your insights and suggestions along the way. Thanks!
Coming up next – The Transitional Strategy Part 1 – Who Do We Think We Are?
12 Comment(s) Filed under: Business, Interweb, nGen News
Posted by: Carl Smith on Thursday January 21, 2010
Update
This was originally posted on August 16th, 2006. Recently we were talking about the great resource Useit.com is and I thought I’d check to see if anything had changed. Nope. Read on.
Just so everyone knows, I am a fan of Jakob Nielsen. I’ve recently been studying different viewpoints on when and how to best implement an effective search feature into your website. Obviously Jakob was part of this research and after reading something in his new book I wanted to see if he had followup info on his site.
When I got there I was pretty shocked to find out his site consistently violated one of the rules he harped on in his new book.
According to Jakob, here are the top three things users expect from search:
- A box where they can type words
- A button labeled search that they click on to run the search
- A list of top results that’s linear, prioritized, and appears on a new page
OK, the search box is the focus of what got me puzzled. On the next page of the book Jakob says, “The (search) box should definitely be on the homepage, but ideally it will be on every page of the site.” The alternative to the search box would be a link that just takes you to a search box. I agree with him, that’s pretty pointless.
He then goes on to say, “when Search is not a box, users tend to overlook it.” Yep, that makes sense too. Any idea what happens next?
You got it, on Jakob’s own site he doesn’t pay attention to this rule. The search feature on his site (located in the upper right) switches from a box to a link on a whim. It even switches within sections. It’s not based on a date, because some articles from 2002 have the box, and then some from 2003 don’t.
A lot of people have had fun picking on useit.com. And obviously there are a lot of things that could be improved. But why wouldn’t he follow his own rules?
I’ll still follow the research he’s done because I really believe in it. I just wish he would too.
2 Comment(s) Filed under: Interweb
Posted by: Fred Boyle on Thursday January 14, 2010
Developing software to be consumed by the general public is always a tricky situation. So many things have to come into play that you might not have worried about if the software was for internal use only. All these factors end up creating an interesting situation when it comes to supporting the software.
With paid commercial software, support is an expected service and should be professional and prompt. With free software, however, this same expectation can’t be met. Without revenue from sales it limits how much time can be spent on support and new feature development. So how do I do it and still maintain a good relationship with our users? Balance and setting the proper expectation.
Let’s start with balance; what does this mean? It simply means taking the time without derailing other work. I work on developing our free software, such as the ExpressionEngine add-on nGen File, as I have time while working on our paid client work. Some weeks this means I get to spend a chunk of time, others none at all. Once in a while I’ll even put in a bit of time after hours. On occasion I’ll also schedule time to work on our software, sometimes a serious bug shows up or we have an internal need for a change. Keeping things in balance and properly prioritized.
What about expectations? This is where many free software developers fall a bit short. Expectations help establish the perception your user will have of you. If you constantly set unrealistic expectations and fall short, users will lose faith in you. However, if you set the proper expectations and meet or exceed them, it’s a big win in the eyes of your users.
So how do I avoid over-committing myself on support issues? I set time aside during the week to look at support issues, making an effort to at least respond and either get more information or offer a possible solution. These are usually quick and don’t take much time, although once in a while there’s a tough one that requires more time. In such situations, I will try to gather as much information as possible so that I can investigate later when time permits. Armed with this, I can also set a realistic expectation that I will look into the issue when time permits, which could be the same day or later in the week. Thus far, I’ve had no complaints and nothing but praise for the assistance.
By supporting our free products this way we’ve been able to continue offering great software and a positive relationship with our users. This is important — since we want users of our software to be happy, it helps us contribute positively to the ExpressionEngine community and even learn of ways our products are being used that we hadn’t even thought of.
One unexpected thing with free software and its support, however, are the tools available to offer a good support experience. Currently we use e-mail and Twitter as a means of contact. We also use the ExpressionEngine forums to a certain degree, but this has become inefficient and cumbersome. So what are we to do? There are several services available such as Tender and Get Satisfaction, but these aren’t free and without revenue from software sales to help offset the cost, it isn’t easy to justify. Our software has grown in popularity, our nGen File add-on was runner-up for devot:ee’s 2009 Extension of the Year, and is the third most favorite add-on as well. We’re trying to find the best support method to make things easier for everyone.
Do you have any suggestions or personal experiences you’d like to share? Post a comment and let us know.
7 Comment(s) Filed under: Interweb, Process
Posted by: Carl Smith on Friday January 8, 2010
Over the winter break I took a strategic look at all of the tools we had used to run the business side of nGen Works in 2009. My major realization was that I often pick tools based on what they can do, not how I work. Those tools always fail through no fault of their own. So as you read below about the changes I’m making in 2010 realize that what I’m doing may not work for you. You have to be honest about how you work and if you’ll keep using a new tool when you get slammed. This is the year of simplicity for me personally, so with that in mind let’s look at my toolbox.
Organizational (GTD) Tools
Things
Most of 2009 I was a Things junkie. It’s a great application and allows you to organize your to-dos based on the GTD approach. Look at your lists a bunch of different ways, whether it’s where you are, how much time you have, by project, etc. It really is an amazing tool. It also synced well with the iPhone early on although that got buggy later. Towards the end of the year I had really slowed down on using Things, mainly because of the homepage. While I could always select to just show items for today, it still showed every project or category. Basically it felt like there was a ton to do and that weighed on me. As a result I played around with TeuxDeux for awhile. It is sexy but it wasn’t easy enough for me. Especially moving tasks into the future.
Gootodo
Looking over all the to-do list systems I had used since starting nGen Works, I realized Gootodo was the one I worked best with. All of the others were solid, but Gootodo was based on turning emails into to-dos. I pretty much live in email so it works for me. The main benefit is it only shows what’s going on today. My brain can let everything else go knowing it’s captured for review in the future. It’s not sitting there looking at me. And it encourages you to procrastinate without losing the task. So if it’s the end of the day and I don’t want to reply to that email I just send it to next week. BAM! Yes, all to-do lists allow you to shift tasks around. But for me Gootodo feels easy.
Financial Tools
Pulse
Most of you who have met me have heard me rant about the importance of understanding your company’s cash flow. I didn’t for a long time and it made my life terrifying. I really couldn’t make financial decisions without a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. Then I found Pulse. Pulse walks me through entering the info and allows a simple or complete view of what’s going on. It’s easy to set up repeating costs or payments. It’s easy to shift expenses and receivables into the future or zero them out. Basically it’s easy and that keeps it up-to-date and lets me sleep peacefully.
Excel
When we hired our accounting firm my only request was that I never have to look at Quickbooks ever again. They asked if I would be willing to keep a simple ledger using Excel. All they wanted was who, what, when, how much and the balance. Using the ledger with Pulse I have a great feeling for what’s going on today and what to expect tomorrow.
Harvest
Harvest helps us manage all of our invoicing as well as tracking incurred time versus estimates. It’s the cornerstone of watching projects for profitability. I also have to say that the team at Iridesco listens and acts on the input from their community. If we have issues I’m confident that they’re working on a solution. If we have an idea we know they’ll consider it. Good job fellas.
Co-op
Also from Iridesco, Co-op is Twitter for time tracking and team collaboration. It allows us to know what’s going on that day and syncs that information into Harvest. We know exactly where we are in a project financially real time. If a client calls and asks I don’t have to say let me call you back, I say hold on a sec. That’s pretty bad ass. Being that on top of where we are also allows us to identify issues early and correct them.
New Business Management
Pipeline Deals
I became aware of Pipeline Deals in the middle of 2009, after spending time with Highrise. I felt Highrise was too simple and didn’t give me enough. So I switched to Pipeline Deals which gave me the ability to create process flow templates and see status data in a graphical format. In the end though I didn’t use either system because keeping them up-to-date was a pain for me. This may rub traditional salespeople the wrong way, but the best system for me is keeping new biz to-dos in Gootodo with all the other things in my work life. We are still using Pipeline Deals to manage our client/prospect database but that may change before too long.
Project Management Tools
Basecamp
If you’re reading this you probably already know about Basecamp so I won’t go into detail. It works great as a central place for managing all project communications, tasks and files with both the internal and client teams.
Signup Bot
Signup Bot has been a big help for us in scheduling user interviews and remote user testing. Rather than spending time chasing users and trying to find appropriate times to get together, they just log in and pick a time. It’s extremely simple and is shaving hours off of projects.
I’d love to hear about the tools that are making it easier for you to run your small business, as well as any questions or suggestions you may have for us.
8 Comment(s) Filed under: Business, Resources
Posted by: Carl Smith on Friday January 1, 2010
Normally I write an end of the year post, but that wasn’t in the cards for 2009. Not that I didn’t have time, or didn’t try. It just didn’t feel right.
This first morning of the new decade however, feels like the perfect time to talk. As many of you know, 2009 was a year of transition for nGen Works. We watched some good friends move on to great new opportunities, and we welcomed new nGeneers who have kept us moving forward.
While this transition was a little scary, it gave us an opportunity to reinvent ourselves. We bonded as a team. We focused more on users and our clients. We started paying attention to the messages we were creating as well as the presentation and technology behind them. We had fun!
Remarkably, the business side of things got easier. We posted some of our most profitable months without feeling like we worked any harder. New projects were lining up as prospects could sense things something different in our team – something special.
So as you approach whatever is in front of you in 2010, look at every challenge as an opportunity. Let go of old notions of how things have to be. Forget rules you may have established, or goals that may have you so focused you miss the obvious. In every situation trust in yourself and the people you’ve surrounded yourself with to do the right thing. Embrace change rather than fear it. And no matter what happens, laugh and have fun!
1 Comment(s) Filed under: nGen News
Posted by: Fred Boyle on Tuesday November 17, 2009
Recently I had the need to turn a DIV into a clickable link. This sounded like a fairly easy task until I got into it and ran into a few issues with Internet Explorer (IE). One of the challenges also was that I wanted to avoid using Javascript… I felt this needed to function without the need for Javascript. I’ve included a jQuery solution from Jeff Croft at the end of this post for reference.
Here’s the code I came up with to make things function:
<div class="project">
<a href="/link/to/project" class="block-link"> </a>
<a href="/link/to/project"><img src="/img/project-thumb.jpg" alt="Thumb for project X" /></a>
<h3><a href="/link/to/project">Project name</a></h3>
<p>This project let use flex our design and code muscles to create a truly cool site.</p>
</div>
.project { position: relative; }
.project .block-link {
display: block;
text-indent: -9999px;
position: absolute;
top: 0;
left: 0;
width: 100%;
height: 100%;
}
This gave me a nice DIV to hold my content while making the whole thing clickable. Things worked great in Safari and Firefox, however when I went to check in IE6 and IE7 life wasn’t so good. What ended up happening in IE was that my clickable overlay was underneath the image and text. Doing some searching on Google yielded various fixes to the problematic way IE handles z-index. No amount of z-index value changing or other variety of documented fixes were working in my situation.
So I started doing some trial and error research to see what might trigger a resolution. Because my clickable overlay was empty I thought content may help resolve the issue. I tested this theory and found that having a background color made things work as expected and as they behaved in the other browsers. Finally I was getting somewhere, so I ended up adding a transparent PNG background to the clickable overlay and all was good. So it seems IE doesn’t like DIVs lacking content to be above other elements, so faking content with a transparent background resolved the issue I encountered.
With this I can now nicely create an overlay for repeatable div elements that can occur on a listing page. I hope this helps some of you out there!
// Allow elements with the class “clickable” to be, well, clickable.
// This basically emulates HTML 5 functionality that isn’t very well-supported yet.
$(”.clickable”).click(function(event) {
event.preventDefault(); window.location = $(this).attr(“href”);
});
5 Comment(s) Filed under: Code, Interweb, Technology
Posted by: nGen Works on Thursday November 12, 2009
At nGen Works we’re working on a new project and we want to hear about the problems you’re having with companies, websites or applications. So do us a favor if you don’t mind.
Email us your bitchiest gripes to . Tell us what happened, what you thought should have happened and anything you’ve done to try and correct the problem. Also, feel free to add the hashtag #breakingtrust to tweets about things that just aren’t right. We’ll follow-up if it looks like a good fit.
We’ll be launching the new project in 2010 and will give you credit if your content is used. Hell, we’re even gonna try to help you solve the problem or at least warn others about the issue you had.
Together we can make the interwebs a force for good!
1 Comment(s) Filed under: Interweb
View Blog Archive
Top
