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Posted by: Carl Smith on Friday August 20, 2010
Most clients are good. We turn them bad with our behavior. After a challenging day I decided to make this video which focuses on Five Steps to a Better Client Relationship. In a follow-up video, I’ll be discussing how to identify that small percentage of truly bad clients. Enjoy!
5 Comment(s) Filed under: Business, Process
Posted by: Carl Smith on Saturday July 31, 2010
Thanks to .NET magazine for allowing us to post this article. You guys rock.
Usability – it’s a given in the success of any online venture. If people can’t figure out how to use something, they can’t accomplish their goals. But there’s work to be done before usability comes into play, and it’s a step that can’t be skipped. Before anyone will even try to use your site, you have to make them believe it’s going to work.
Trust is when we make ourselves vulnerable for the promise of something better. We confidently expect a good return on our investment of information or time. That’s really what your users are doing when they try to accomplish something on your site. But before they even begin to try, they have to believe that your site is going to help.
So how can you establish trust with users? Start by working to understand who they are. Talk to them to find out where they live, both online and offline. What do they surround themselves with, and why? What feels comfortable to them? Don’t just ask about the websites they visit; ask about the last movie they saw or book they read. Paint a picture of their day and the environment they’ve chosen, then make sure that what you create fits into their world.
Once users have decided to give you a chance, treat them with respect and communicate
We trust what we know, so make things as familiar as possible to users. Speak in their language and avoid anything that feels awkward or complicated. Keep asking yourself: “Will someone coming to the site know what this means?” If not, they may question whether this is the right solution for them.
While you wouldn’t know it from looking at some usability sites, aesthetics do matter. If you have a choice between a rusted-out car or a shiny new one to take you across town, you’re taking the latter without even looking under the hood. Why? Because it looks more trustworthy.
Keep in mind that everything about the website you build is a promise, from the layout to the content to the font. You’re telling users what to expect every step of the way, and that’s why consistency is so important. As human beings, we pick up on seemingly insignificant changes and then wonder what’s different. Consider how you feel when you discover a note on your windscreen. It’s unexpected, even unsettling, and it makes you pause for a moment. It’s the same online. If a message you’re not expecting pops up, it throws you out of rhythm. Even worse is when a confirmation message that you expect doesn’t appear, leaving you thinking, “I guess it worked”. Think about it: what that email confirmation we all wait on really confirms is our trust — what we expected to happen actually did.
One of the most overlooked aspects of trust on the web is that it’s transactional. If users choose to make themselves vulnerable by entering their information to try your application, they have to believe it’s going to be worth it. Many of us hesitate when we see credit card information being requested for a ‘free’ trial. As much as we knock Apple’s App Store, we trust it. Most apps are cheap and friends tell us which to get. It’s easier to trust something when the downside is minimal.
Keeping a user’s trust is no less important than earning it. Once users have decided to give you a chance, treat them with respect and communicate with them in meaningful ways. Some of the most successful websites use a conversational tone that’s almost like reading an email. Why? Because at the core of ongoing trust is a relationship. If you want a relationship to work, you have to maintain communication. Don’t just talk to talk or to announce random features; make sure there’s meaning for your user. And listen, too, because people quickly turn to Twitter or Facebook to bash companies they feel have abandoned them.
No matter how much our interactions or the ways in which we have them change, it will always be worthwhile to get to know your users, learn their language and follow through on the promises your site makes. Whether you’re creating a new site or sending a simple confirmation email, take advantage of every opportunity to make it clear to users that you’re worth their investment of time, information or attention. Make the effort to help them believe they can accomplish their goals and you’ll both get great returns.
2 Comment(s) Filed under: Interweb
Posted by: Carl Smith on Friday July 23, 2010
Thanks for all of the positive feedback and suggestions on the new proposal video blog post. This time I’m focusing on the new client survey. Once we have the new survey wrapped up, I’ll be happy to send everyone a preview.
Again, this is off the cuff, so enjoy me struggling through 15 minutes of talking to myself. All the best!
7 Comment(s) Filed under: Business, nGen News, Process
Posted by: Carl Smith on Friday July 16, 2010
Sadly there wasn’t enough interest in the bus so we’re having to scrap the idea. The code is still good for the discount though. Rock on web heads!
This September the nGeneers are heading to Atlanta for one of the best conferences of the year, Web Directions USA. We really want this to be a fun getaway, so we’ve decided to take 50 of our closest friends with us.
You can party with the nGeneers from Jacksonville to Web Directions USA by registering for the conference using the code “nGenExpress.” But hurry, only the first 50 people to use the code will get this free trip complete with refreshments of the adult variety.
Worried you can’t afford the ticket? Well the nice people at Web Directions USA are offering our nGen friends an additional $150 off the normal ticket price. That’s even better than the early bird pricing!
Don’t worry; we’ll bring ya home, too. Checkout out the awesome lineup of speakers, it’s gonna rock.
Get your ticket to ride soon, cuz this bus ain’t gonna wait!
5 Comment(s) Filed under: Interweb
Posted by: Carl Smith on Friday July 2, 2010
Greetings everyone and welcome to the first nGen video blog post.
Recently we’ve been changing a lot of our documents to be more in line with the direction we’re taking the company. Today I wanted to talk about the changes to our proposal, but nobody was around! So I thought I’d tell my video camera I got for Father’s Day.
This bad boy is about 20 minutes long, one take and no edits. You can only imagine how long it would take to write this out let alone read it. Hopefully this format can let you put it on in the background and listen, or sit back with some coffee or a beer and laugh at me.
Either way I hope you find the information on our new proposal enlightening. Please share your input and ideas!
21 Comment(s) Filed under: Business, Process
Posted by: Carl Smith on Tuesday May 25, 2010
Over the last month a lot has happened that has been redefining the choices we have as we reposition nGen Works. The biggest involves the increase in current and potential work coming into the shop, which, of course, means we have more money at our disposal to change our course. While I’ve consulted with my fellow nGeneers quite a bit, ultimately the choice falls on me to decide how we respond. It’s been tough to write before now because I’ve been a little confused. Hell, I’ve been scared. I’ve tried so hard in my life not to make decisions based on fear or greed, and this decision could easily fall prey to both.
An obvious, and traditional, business choice would be to grab as much of the new work as we can and find a way to get it done. Of course, that would mean personal sacrifices from the nGen team as we all work more. In the last month we’ve pursued this path a bit. What I’ve found is that everyone is willing to do more. I know that good people respond to a challenge. But when an ongoing challenge becomes the new normal, eventually people wonder if it’s really worth it.
One option to deal with the new demands is to hire more people. Personally, I’d like to have a slightly larger team. Not out of necessity, but so we can choose to do more. Last month Travis Gertz joined the nGen team. He was already a friend and we knew he had skills we needed. More importantly he was funny as hell and we already loved him. We knew he fit in. It was an easy decision. We didn’t hire a designer or front-end coder, we hired Travis. If we continue to grow as the potential workload increases we would eventually have to hire someone we don’t know. That feels greedy and risky to me. At that point I’m gambling the great chemistry we have to capture more dollars. Once the team’s chemistry goes, the care and concern starts to falter as some really talented and loyal friends will start to ask what happened to the way things were.
Another issue that starts to become evident if we grow for growth’s sake is that my life will change considerably. I am having trouble managing the new business flow as it is. We have more than 18 solid opportunities that are in a proposal phase. Try as I may, I can’t manage this many opportunities and still have any kind of life. Those of you who know me know I started nGen Works to be with my family more. This moves me squarely in the wrong direction. One option is to hire someone to come in and help me with the new opportunities. I have two very good friends I’ve considered to play that role, and both times I’ve gotten cold feet. Part of the reason is fear that this increase in new business is just an anomaly and we won’t be able to sustain them financially if it wanes. The other side is the fear that we’re throwing gas on a fire and it will continue to grow. If that happens, I’ll get sucked into other new issues that arise and still lose control of my time while accelerating the discomfort of the current team.
What’s funny is all of this opportunity is showing up before we reposition the company. A lot of friends and nGeneers have suggested it may be silly to change anything with such a bright future in front of us.
One of the obvious reasons you reposition a company is to become more profitable. There’s nothing wrong with making money, and nothing wrong with making more money, especially if you’re doing something you already know how to do really well. At the end of the day, money is necessary, but feeling like you’re going somewhere in your life is more important. People leave high-paying jobs all the time to pursue something that inspires them. For me, this repositioning has been about staying inspired. I didn’t realize that at first, but I do now. In order to stay inspired we have to feel like we’re doing great work for great people. Right now, I’d say it’s a mixed bag. We have some great clients, and we have some we took because we had to. Ideally, we can get to a point of profitability and cash flow where we no longer have to take any projects. Actually, I think we’re already there.
Last week, I told a fellow nGeneer that we took a project because we needed the money, and missing payroll would be more painful than doing this project. Afterwards, I heard those words playing in my head and I realized I was wrong on two counts. First, we wouldn’t miss payroll. For seven years that’s been my goal — make it through the next two weeks. nGen’s reality has changed but my mindset hasn’t. Second, it would be more painful to keep taking projects for the money than to miss a payroll. Because then it becomes a job, not a place you hang out with friends and create cool stuff.
This weekend as I was crunching numbers and evaluating who else we needed on the team, I realized I was looking at everything wrong. It’s not about evaluating us, it’s about evaluating them. Just because prospects have enough money doesn’t mean that we’re a fit for them. And just because they don’t doesn’t mean we aren’t. When I look at that list of 18 opportunities, fewer than half of them are exciting. Of the half that’s left, seven have been awesome to talk with and want to focus on the process not the price.
Maybe there is no business Utopia. But there are some amazing companies. That’s the goal of this repositioning. It’s got to be about creating a way to work that is fun and profitable for us and the prospects we choose to work with. Some people may say that sounds like a cocky pipe dream. I couldn’t agree more. That’s precisely why we’re going to haul ass down that path starting right now.
As always, we look forward to your input and feedback. And, if you hadn’t noticed, Jeff has been dribbbling a bit here and there- and here on some new ideas on how we present ourselves.
7 Comment(s) Filed under: Interweb
Posted by: Carl Smith on Wednesday April 14, 2010
Since February, I’ve spent most of my free time working on a new process for how nGen works. It’s been a lot of long hours, and a lot of fun. Mainly because there was no one to tell me I was crazy or it wouldn’t work.
Well, that’s all over now because I’m about to share some of these thoughts with you.
Personally, I’ve always been infatuated with business models. Whenever we get a new client, I always want to understand everything I can about their business. Sometimes I’ve been accused of wanting to be a business consultant, which would be awesome, I’m not gonna lie. But there’s a deeper reason for finding out as much as I can about a client. The more we know about a client, the better our chance for success.
There’s one major flaw in this approach. We’re assuming the client knows about their business. And, not to sound condescending, many of them don’t. They may know bits and pieces. Facts and processes. But not the bigger picture of why they are successful, or why they are failing. This isn’t necessarily their fault. It’s just hard to get a good vantage point when you’re in the business every day. As an industry, we often start solving problems by turning to the users of a product or service to see why it’s working or not. We have to observe them using online tools and communications to see where the disconnects are. This is a really important part of finding the solution. But I think there is a step that has to happen before that if we are really going to help our clients, and therefore ourselves, be successful in the long run.
With that in mind, we’re adding a “Getting to Know You” phase at the beginning of our process. Not a simple questionnaire asking about key players in the company, but actually spending time with those people. Not inquiring about company culture, but getting to experience it and hearing about successes and failures from the employees themselves. By spending time inside the organization, we can understand what the true promise of the company is.
Moving into our discovery phase armed with this information, we can find the disconnects between consumer perception and company reality. Then we can leverage nGen Works’ skills to help bridge that gap.
There are a lot of reasons why this won’t work, so let’s look at a few of the big ones.
Clients will say no
Most clients will say no, they don’t want anyone coming into their company and asking a lot of questions. Especially with the top brass.
Costs too much
The additional hours to do this will cost thousands on top of an already significant investment.
Takes too long
Clients need to get to design quickly to show internal audiences. This will add weeks to the process.
Clients are hiring a web firm
That’s valid — they are looking for a company to help them launch a website or application. The rest of this seems unnecessary. Or, if it is a good idea, there is a better company to handle this.
Damn it, look at what you made me do. I’ve gone and talked myself out of it. That’s it people, show’s over… just selling websites here. Move along. But then again, there was that quote from Guy Kawasaki: “When it comes to building great websites, there are only two places in the world that can do it. That’s Silicon Valley and South Dakota.”
Yep, South Dakota, home of Electric Pulp. How the hell do these guys in South Dakota have an industry pioneer like Guy Kawasaki singing their praises? The answer is in an inspirational quote from Stefan Hartwig: “It takes one. You get one outside of the area.” Stefan was talking about getting one client outside of their geographic area. Once they had a single success story, they could show other prospects and say location isn’t an issue. I think this applies to anything outside of what’s expected. So that’s my stand. It takes one — one company to give us a chance. Then we can point to that project and say here’s why it worked so well.
Assuming of course it does. 8^)
3 Comment(s) Filed under: Business, nGen News, Process
Posted by: Fred Boyle on Thursday April 8, 2010
Those of you who follow me on Twitter may have seen me use the word workation but haven’t been quite sure what I was talking about. I doubt this is a term I created, but I’ve not heard it before. So what is it? A workation is simply a working vacation.
I came up with the idea to do this late last year as a way to fulfill my desire to travel more and see more of the world. For most of us, however, taking expensive vacations and time off isn’t easy. Plus, a vacation isn’t quite the same experience as living somewhere for a while. You don’t do or see the same things on vacation as you would living there.
Taking a workation is really made possible by working somewhere such as nGen Works. Because of nGen’s “work where you’re happy” philosophy, our tight process, and the great team, I’m able to do my job from just about anywhere. We can chat via IM or video, coordinate project tasks in Basecamp or even go old school and use a phone. The only tricky part is working around time differences, but we’ve grown used to that working with Jeff Croft.
So why am I talking about all this? Well, at the end of the month I’m heading out to Seattle for my first workation! I’ll be there for about eight weeks to experience day to day life there. Why Seattle? It’s a city I got to visit while presenting at the EE Roadshow last year and enjoyed it a lot. I also have several friends there, new and not so new, that will help make my first workation easier. I’m sure I’ll meet many new people while there and make even more friends.
So what’s next? Depending on how well this first experience goes, I’m thinking of finally going to Europe and doing a workation in the London area late in the year. But one thing at a time.
3 Comment(s) Filed under: nGen News
Posted by: Carl Smith on Monday March 22, 2010
Most of March has indeed been madness. Getting ready for, attending and recovering from SxSW has turned the last three weeks into a blur.
Rather than attending sessions, I spent most of my time tracking down people I thought might hold some of the keys to business enlightenment. After speaking with five people running some of the most successful shops on the web today, I realized there is no silver bullet for success. You can see this when you look at the commonalities they share. And the differences.
Things the majority of top shops have in common:
Things they differ on:
The slippery slope of talking to these amazing people was a desire to emulate them. But that would fail — if I learned anything, it’s that you have to be true to yourself and what you believe in. Although it wasn’t a question I asked, there was one obvious similarity among everyone I spoke with: They are dedicated to their companies and employees with a passion uncontested.
SxSW was perhaps exactly what we needed at this point in our transition. If we work really hard, we could be considered among the top five in our industry. That may seem really cocky, but I believe in our team and I know we could get there. But that doesn’t answer the question that started us on this journey: How can we be the best partner for our clients and their more holistic needs for success on the web?
As always, we look forward to your insights and feedback. Before you ask, I won’t go into more specifics on information that was shared with me in confidence. I am happy, though, to tell you anything you want to know with regards to how nGen does things.
Knuckles. Blow it up.
13 Comment(s) Filed under: Business, Interweb, Process
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:
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
Where we talk about design, the Interweb, technology, business and other random office hilarity that keeps us from doing our real day job – taking over the world.
The Danger Room is the design blog/playground of nGen Works
