Charles Haggas

How to Conduct a Proper Design Review

Charles Haggas — Thu, 14 Sep 2017 01:45:05 +0000

This may sound familiar:

You’re gathered around a computer with the project manager and two developers, evaluating and critiquing the current design work. However, everybody seems to have a different idea about what the outcome should be. The developers have some unrealistic vision about how the design should look while the project manager can’t stop comparing it to other products. After more than two hours of ideas ping ponging back and forth, you feel exhausted. Not only that, but you haven’t made any real progress.

The design review process, where a team gets together and discusses the design or product prototype against the project requirements can be challenging. If team members don’t understand the goals of the project or the context, the design review can be tiring, inefficient, and a waste of everybody’s time. Worst of all, it can affect your productivity.

Here’s the hard truth: simply meeting with your team and have everyone share their thoughts about the design with no clear goals in mind won’t help you advance the project. You need to create a lucrative environment where the team understands the intention of the project and can evaluate and test the design features based on that.

Simply put, you need a proper design review process in place.

Here’s how to develop one..

Set Up the Design Review Process

If you want a productive design review process, then you need to start preparing it before the actual meeting takes place. Select the participants and set the guidelines for the session. These should include:

The project and business goals;
The project timeline;
Constraints (what cannot be changed, such as the content or the navigation);
The goals you hope to achieve during the review process;
The devices team members need to bring;

Email the participants you’ve selected for the review session and let them know when and where the review will take place. Make sure to tell them ahead of any constraints and guidelines.

Before the meeting, ensure that any prototype that you plan to present is functional. For example, the team should be able to take the same steps a user would take when navigating the website or app.

The Review Session

One of the most common mistakes designers make during the review process is that they use this time to pitch their ideas instead of focusing on evaluating the current work.

Make sure to restate the project goals so that everybody is on the same page. You could even write them on a whiteboard so that the team can keep them in mind. That way, you can rest assured that the feedback you’re getting is informed, not just a gut reaction.

Don’t forget to write down the meeting goals as well. It may sound like an exaggeration, but it’s an excellent way to ensure that the discussion doesn’t derail.

Present the prototype and give the team about 25 minutes to explore it on their own and gather their impression. Tell the participants that they can note both the negative and the positive, but they should stay away from feedback that doesn’t bring any value (example: the design is ugly.)

Remind them that they should keep the project goals in mind and ask themselves questions like:

What would happen if we removed one step/task/page?
Can we make this step/task simpler than it already is?
Are the steps/instructions clear enough?

Capture and Discuss the Feedback

Now that everyone had a chance to test and evaluate the design, it’s time to take detailed notes on various talking points. As mentioned already, try to avoid feedback that is emotional, subjective, and doesn’t add any real value to the discussion. Focus, instead, on the reviews that contain measurable data and can take the discussion forward (example: it took the page five full seconds to load, and that could affect user experience.)

Don’t let one person take over the meeting or drag the discussion. Give everyone a chance to share their opinion, but move along quickly if their feedback lacks substance. If participants can’t seem to agree with one of the talking points, write it down and discuss it at length at the end of the session.

Keep in mind that the purpose of a design review isn’t to receive compliments for your outstanding work. You want to collect constructive criticism and find flaws before you launch the product. You may not always agree with the reviewers’ comments, and some of the criticism can be hurtful. Put you feeling aside and focus on what’s really important: creating a product that will awe users. So, write down the things that are already working well, but especially take note of the problems that you need to address.

Leave the Review Session with a Task List

We’ll be the first to admit: design reviews can be challenging. Not only that you need to ensure that the discussion doesn’t derail and you collect constructive feedback, but some of the comments can be hurtful. After all, you’ve put blood, sweat, and tears into your work and it can be hard to hear others tear it down.

But, now comes the fun part: analyze the feedback you’ve received and think of possible solutions. Try to address the issues and develop a functional prototype before the next design review milestone.

A design review is an excellent opportunity to gather ideas and ensure you are on the right track. Follow the process above to make the most of it.

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Launching New Features without Pissing People Off

Charles Haggas — Fri, 25 Aug 2017 12:55:16 +0000

Your alarm goes off. 8AM. Your coffee maker is already brewing, and you head to the kitchen to grab a cup. You’re bleary-eyed, but ready to start your day the way you always do—by checking Twitter to see what’s going on in your world. However, when you open the app on your phone, it looks completely different. They’ve added a new section to the menu bar and moved the “Tweet” button. Instantly, you feel hurt and betrayed. Why would the company designers do this? Millions of users were already comfortable with the previous layout. You send an angry tweet about it and see dozens of others doing the same thing. This dramatic scene has occurred thousands, perhaps millions, of times. Software companies are always adding new features to their products. That’s natural; the alternative to change is stagnation. But, these features don’t always get a positive reception, even if they end up improving the experience of an app, program, or piece of software. Why is this? Why is the initial gut-reaction of consumers to reject change? In this article, we’ll discuss the basics behind change aversion and talk about how you can avoid it, mitigate its effects, and launch new software features—without pissing off existing customers.

What Is Change Aversion?

Change aversion is a short-term negative reaction that users have, to changes in a product or service. When something you use every day changes without warning, it’s natural to have a negative reaction. Change aversion occurs throughout many parts of life, but it’s especially common in the world of software. A simple software change, update, or feature upgrade can cause serious discord among users of your program, especially if they’ve gotten used to the way things were before. Of course, there are different types of changes. Infrastructure changes are made in the backend, improving speed and performance. Functional changes add new features or modify existing features. Finally, interface changes modify the actual UI and information architecture of an app or program. Of these three types of changes, interface changes usually have the biggest negative reaction, though some functional changes can draw similar feedback. So, why do otherwise rational software users fear change? It’s simple.

The Problem: Change Is Disruptive

Here’s a thought experiment. You come home one night to your apartment, and you find that your entire apartment has been rearranged. You don’t know where to find your remote control. Your bed is facing the opposite direction. In the kitchen, someone swapped your pans with your dishes. Are you going to be happy about this new arrangement? Probably not. If it’s not changed again, you’ll get used to it. However, for the short-term, you’ll have trouble performing normal, everyday tasks that previously required no thought at all. This is why change aversion occurs. Major UI and functionality changes disrupt the way your users interact with your product. Tasks that previously required almost no thought must be re-learned. Even if the end result is a more efficient workflow, the short-term effect will be a negative reaction to your new product features or design. So, what’s the solution to this problem? Minimize and mitigate disruption. The Solutions: 6 Ways to Mitigate Disruption (and Keep Your Customers Happy) People fear disruption, not change. If you can add features and improve functionality while still keeping the same general workflow, you can dramatically improve customer satisfaction and alleviate change aversion.

Here are some simple ways to do this:

Tell Users About Upcoming Changes: This is one of the most straightforward ways you can minimize negative reactions to software changes. A simple announcement—“We’re launching a redesigned website! Follow us on Twitter for updates!”—can remove the element of surprise from an upcoming change.
Communicate the Benefits of Software Changes: Don’t be vague when making changes. You need to communicate the benefits behind every change you implement. Will a feature removal streamline the workflow for a product? Are your UI changes intended to make the product run smoother?   Tell your customers why you’re changing the software. If they can see long-term benefits, they’ll be less likely to get angry about short-term changes.
Keep the Old Version for a Little While: After making serious overhauls to your software’s UI, you should consider allowing users to use legacy software or switch between the two. This lets users utilize their old workflow when they need to, while also getting familiar with the new features of your product.
Ask for User Feedback: Nobody likes feeling ignored. If users have a way to provide feedback—both positive and negative—to your software company, they’ll feel like they have a voice. This can help ease negative feelings caused by changes you’ve made.
Provide Instructions for the Transition: Incorporating FAQs, online tutorials, and introductions to new features is a good idea. You should even consider employing a support staff to help users learn new product features and address their concerns.
Inform Users About How You’re Addressing Key Software Issues: When releasing information about upcoming features, talk about how you’re addressing problems that users have previously raised about your products.  For example, if your company has received complaints about an unintuitive UI design, make it clear that you’re trying to address that specific issue based on feedback from your own users. This makes it clear that you’re making changes for the customer, not just because you want to or feel like you have to.

If you can follow these tips, your software updates are sure to be met with a more positive, forward-thinking attitude, minimizing both change aversion and disruption.

Understand Change Aversion and Keep Your Customers Happy

There are always going to be people who fear or reject any kind of change, especially in the software world. But, these people are the minority. Most users who have a negative reaction to change are simply afraid that they won’t be able to use your software as effectively or that their routines will be disrupted. So, follow this guide to understand change aversion. If you can minimize disruption to user activities, you’re sure to have a much easier time releasing new versions, features, and redesigns of your software.

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The Basics to Building a Better Website: Planning for Success

Charles Haggas — Sat, 12 Aug 2017 13:52:53 +0000

You’ve decided that you need a website for your business. Maybe you are building one ‘from scratch’ or maybe you are updating an existing one. It’s easy to get excited about the beautiful photos, the great layout and the fancy features of your new site. This stuff is great to fun to think about. But to build a great website, you have to start by identifying its purpose, the site’s goals and who the target audience is. All too often, these planning steps are skipped and you end up with a great looking website that doesn’t actually help your business or the people who visit.

Ask yourself why…

Why are you building this website? What does success look like? Remember that a website is a marketing tool. For many businesses, it is the heart of their marketing efforts. The first step is to set some specific, measurable goals for the site. Are you trying to raise awareness of your business or educate people about a problem? Then maybe your goals should be monthly or weekly traffic targets. How many visitors do you want? How will the site generate this volume of traffic? Maybe your site is primarily about lead generation. In that case, you will want to think about site traffic, but focus on the number of leads generated. Will you drive people to your contact form or a more specific lead generation form? How many leads do you want to get over what period of time? The point is to set measurable goals and be clear about them. These goals will help you make good, strategic decisions as you design, build and launch your website. These goals are your map, helping you navigate to a successful launch.

Who is the audience?

A website is a communication tool. You have information you want to communicate to people who visit the site. So who are these people? The principle is user centered design. If we are building house, we need to understand who is going to live it and what their needs are. The same is true with a website. Who are these visitors and what do they want? User personas are a tool used to guide this research. A user persona is a brief, fictional biography of a typical user. It should cover their demographic details, their age, gender, occupation and income. It should describe what information they are looking for and how they go about finding it. Most importantly, it should describe their relationship to technology. How comfortable are they with their computer or phone? What other sites do they visit? If you go his route, you will create multiple personas, one for each key group you want to reach. Even if you don’t create user personas, you need to do enough research about your visitors to be able to answer those questions. The point of user research is to understand the audience, their relationship to technology and what they want to achieve. Figuring out what other websites they use and like is key. This allows you present concepts in familiar ways. People say a website is easy to use when most of their guesses about how it works turn out to be right. This starts with understanding them and what they expect. We talk about people browsing or surfing the web, but this is the wrong metaphor. Instead, think of your users as searching for something. They have a goal and are methodically trying to accomplish it.

The sales funnel

By this point you should understand who your site visitors are and what they want. They have a problem of some kind and are looking for a solution. Where are they at in this journey? Are they just starting out, or have they done a lot of research and are getting ready to act? A good way to think about this process is the sales funnel, which describes the process people go though when researching and buying. There are four main stages to the funnel: awareness, interest, decision and action. Each stage has progressively fewer people in it, giving it the shape of a funnel. Even if you aren’t selling anything on your site, the funnel describes the process visitors go through to make a decision. And if you have created personas, you should consider where each one is in the funnel.

Awareness: At this stage people know they have problem and may be aware of existing solutions to it. Users in this stage are researching, often on Google, looking learn more about their problem. Interest: A person in this stage has gained knowledge about their problem and has an active interest in solving it. They have formed the intent to solve the problem and are looking for solutions.
Decision: At this stage in the funnel, the person is making a decision to take advantage of your solution. They have likely evaluated other solutions, and are looking to take advantage of an offer on your site.
Action: The person is ready to act. If you are selling something, the customer is ready to buy. They are ready to act on an offer. This is high level description of the sales funnel. Depending on the product or service you are marketing, the funnel may have fewer or more steps.

The point is to understand the frame of mind at each stage. To use language that appeals to people at different stages. Your visitors have an overarching goal, but they also have specific goals at each stage.

Build Your Site Architecture Based on Your Sales Funnel

Often, different pages or parts of the site will appeal to people in different stages. Build out as many landing pages as needed that target what different users may be searching for at different stages in the sales funnel. For the final two stages, you want to understand what makes an offer attractive and what an effective call to action (CTA) looks like. Build strong benefits and straight forward actions users can take to make a purchase or share their information with your sales team.

Develop the content

At this point you should begin developing the content of your site, keeping your goals, your visitor’s goals and the sales funnel in mind. Figure out how many pages or sections the site needs, and write the content for those pages. Figure out what photos, illustrations, icons and other kinds of artwork you need. Determine the tone and the image you want to project and how to communicate this to visitors. After you have written content, then you can decide how to present it. This approach is called content first design, and it’s pretty much the inversion of the standard approach to website design. Instead of picking a template and then creating content to fill it, you create the content first. This allows the design to arise out of the content. Working this way, the design will serve the content, instead being applied to it. The metaphor here is wrapping a gift. First you buy the gift, then you pick a box for it and then choose wrapping paper and bows. Focusing on the design first is like buying a box, then searching for a gift that will fit inside.

Wrapping up

Start by identifying your goals. Then research your audience, who they are and what they expect. Think about the process people go through investigating a problem and taking action on that knowledge. Write content and choose images that support this decision making process. Present your content with a design that communicates the image you want to project and incites people to take advantage of what you offer.

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6 Key Ways To Help Startups Be More Productive

Charles Haggas — Tue, 01 Aug 2017 03:42:38 +0000

One of the biggest challenges when running a startup is being productive while charging through the mountain of tasks ahead. Though it may seem overwhelming at first, establishing a set of routines and building some discipline is the best way to stay productive through it all. Rather than burning out halfway through your to-do list before tiring out, these steps will help ensure that you and your team remain on task, and keep momentum going while being productive.

1) Bots are your friends, not foes

via GIPHY Automation is one of the best ways to ensure that you are being productive while still getting work done – especially since it helps free up time to help everyone focus on other important tasks. Zapier and IFTT are good examples of simple software that will really help in this process. For example, Zapier is a great way to automatically move info between web apps seamlessly. You can pick a trigger that will start a motion (i.e. receiving an email) and set Zapier to perform certain actions automatically. This enables you to go to your workflow right away, without needing to do mundane tasks. Another great tool is IFTT, a free web-based service that allows users to create chains of commands titled applets. The latter is triggered by changes occurring in other web services, such as email and social media. Some of their popular ones include automatically logging calls to spreadsheets, or automatically saving iOS contacts to Google contacts, but there is a great deal of customization available for other automated setups. Pro Tip: Have your bots send info to your team messaging tool like Slack or Mattermost to keep everyone informed at all times.

2) Invest in bookkeeping

via GIPHY Keeping up with the financial health of a startup is often one of the most time-consuming, and exhausting processes – and likely leads to a lot of investment in time and resources when trying to sort that process out. One of the best ways to increase productivity in this part of your startup is to invest in the right bookkeeping sources. Tools such as Quickbooks Online, and services such as Bench.co will help you save time with everyday tasks, and provide a greater deal of accuracy in how financial transactions are being recorded. Moreover, using these resources will allow both you and your team to divert efforts in other parts of the business, and focus on the big picture and what the future holds for your startup.

3) Set weekly standups

via GIPHY A sense of routine and discipline is often needed for maximum productivity, and the best way to accomplish this is to install a bit of structure in day-to-day functions. One weekly sprint standup meeting, and one quick roadblock meeting a few days prior to the next sprint meeting is one method to stay productive. This will ensure that all tasks are well on their way to be completed, while allowing you and your team to iron out any kinks as they may arise rather than waiting till the last minute. Additionally, this is also useful in keeping team members accountable for their tasks throughout the process since it will provider greater context for what needs to be done. Pro Tip: Use a free project management tool like Trello to keep track of to-dos. Make sure you set deadlines and assign members to tasks. Only set tasks in progress that can be accomplished within your weekly sprint.

4) Embrace cloud-based apps

via GIPHY Cloud-based apps are one of the strongest ways to encourage productivity, and its inherent nature is in collaboration, so it allows everyone to work together easily. The Google Apps Suite is a great place to start, since it has pretty much everything needed for team members to work together. Having all your files in the cloud will not only aid in sharing and collaboration, but also ensures that no one user has sole access to everything and is generally a much more secure option. Pro Tip: Get your folder structure and file naming rules in place early or you’ll accumulate some unnecessary technological debt.

5) Keep track of passwords

via GIPHY As teams grow, so will the amount of apps and services being used – that much is inevitable. However, keeping track of different passwords becomes a chore, and having to constantly reset important passwords will end up taking more time than it really should. Use a password vault such as LastPass to store all of these important passwords, and make life easier. It makes logging on to different apps far easier for team members, and reduces the need for everyone to keep track of a multitude of passwords that might not always work. Pro Tip: Make sure you use a tool that can be used for teams so nobody ends up being a gatekeeper for mission critical accounts. God forbid Bob is hit by car. Oh yeah, Bob’s the system admin and now nobody can access the server. Bob will be fine but the websites down and you just got featured on TechCrunch.

6) Log all your processes in a wiki

via GIPHY Though it may seem like a pain right now, it is extremely important to start logging all of your processes in a wiki. Getting in to the habit early will make it far easier when the team and startup grows, and there is a greater need for a log. Doing so now will definitely pay dividends as your team grows, and will help you keep track of what is really important. It will also become useful when trying to understand where the gaps are, and where improvement is needed. A good option for this is Google Sites, since it is easy to use and easily integrated into other Google products. What are some other tips to help startups stay productive?

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Launch Announcement: Pints and Pixels Meetup With Top Product Experts

Charles Haggas — Tue, 01 Aug 2017 02:50:15 +0000

Are you someone who has a lot of unique product ideas ready to market, but have few ways to network to discuss trends? It’s often discouraging to link up with people in the industry without having to spend a fortune attending a large product development conference. While these are still beneficial, it’s a lot more challenging to link up with influential individuals there who can advance your career. It’s often better to network with people in your local community for quality time discussing the latest trends in product development. Plus, it’s beneficial to meet more than once so you keep the networking going. Those of you in the Austin, Texas area can find such a group through Pints and Pixels. Here’s a look at this meetup I founded earlier this year for people like you.

Who Can Benefit From Joining Pints and Pixels?

I designed this networking group for technology execs, product experts, developers, designers, marketers, and strategists to create good conversation without selling. The intention is to meet Fridays at the Moontower within their beautiful outdoor space for a cool drink and discussions about the products industry. With a no-sales policy, this means starting conversations about industry trends, plus sharing ideas among people in the same business categories. It’s like a convention in a much more relaxed environment, and without fees. Since Austin is already a major hub for technology, it’s a chance for you to connect with real influential people without intimidation. So how do you sign up for Pints and Pixels? You’ll find a lot to like once you become a member. Visit our site to learn more.

Joining Our Group

You can sign up for Pints and Pixels for free through our “Join Us” button. You’ll be able to do this directly through Facebook so you can better connect with our community. It’s possible to sign up through Google as well to make sign-ins easier. Since I founded this meetup back in February, we’ve managed 71 members to date with two past meetups. For those first two meetings back in March, we encouraged attendees to wear name tags so everyone could identify one another. These were successes and integrated many in the local Austin community who work hard to create new products that could potentially change the world. We’re planning more weekly meetups soon with singular speakers, plus product expert panels. Each session goes on tape and publishes on YouTube for attendees to share online.

Participating in Online Discussions

We’ve also set up a discussion board on the Pints and Pixels site. Our dedicated Slack group, is a separate channel that allows product designers to further collaborate on ideas and discuss trends. You’ll be able to enjoy a more tight-knit group here for serious brainstorming. You can sign up for the Slack channel through this link, and we’re always on the lookout for public opinion on how to continue to grow.

Future Categories On Pints and Pixels

Recently, I added some other categories on the main site, including a place to post polls to gauge opinion about individual product ideas. Other future categories include bringing sponsors in to help support our group, even though we haven’t gone there yet. We had a file upload section for a while. Now we recommend any files you upload go through our Photos section, or directly through Google Drive and Dropbox.

Supporting Your Local Meetup

To the left of the Pints and Pixels main page, we have a “Chip In” button you can select if you wish to donate to our cause. As we continue to grow, financial support means a lot, even if not required. Once you see how valuable this type of networking is, you’ll see it’s worth every penny that you can offer. At the same time, we want you to invite others to join so we continually prove the strength of Austin in product innovation.

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Building a Winner: The Anatomy of a Successful Product Team

Charles Haggas — Tue, 01 Aug 2017 02:23:59 +0000

There is a saying that has made rounds in many different arenas and many different industries. It generally goes something like, You are only as good as your last…, and you can fill in the blank.

“You’re only as good as your last pass.” – Brett Favre “You’re only as good as your last picture.” – Marie Dressler “You’re only as good as your last story.” – Helen Thomas

Okay, you see where this is going. This saying has been applied to virtually everything under the sun, from business to haircuts (seriously, accredited to Fran Lebowitz). That subtle truth may be nowhere more evident than in the world of product development – and it may not be so subtle. Ever notice how there are seemingly new and improved startups daily In the world of technology? That means in order to keep up, stay ahead and succeed, the work never stops. To be done at a high-level requires a top-notch team of product experts. Each role is vital, all the working parts are intertwined and having the best talent for each step of the process is essential. Here is a quick look at what each role looks like and why the right talent will result producing those amazing products customers demand.

The Designer Role

Here is the team’s architect, this is the person who will design the visual elements the customers will interact with in your product. What it will look like, the functional structure and other aspects will be designed by this role. The responsibility of implementing the designs and the operational constructs is then given to the product manager and developers. It is important for designers to be able to see the big-picture but also be laser focused on the details. They will continually focus on product usability and engagement throughout their design process. After they have shown the team what is being built and what it is supposed to do, the next step begins.

The Front-end Developer Role

This group is largely responsible for the UX aspects of the product. These folks are the ones who will implement those user features and user experience considerations. Customer-focused and attention to detail are great traits for front-end developers for those aforementioned reasons. They are also versatile and familiar with such tools like Javascript, HTML and CSS to name a few. They have the task of tying the back-end to the design. Speaking of back-end…

The Back-end Developer Role

Using languages like Cloud configuration, S3, MySQL and API are just part of the job description for back-end developers who act somewhat like gatekeepers in this role. These languages used to connect the frontend the database will directly translate into the level of product performance and data performance. Having experience in application scalability and elasticity, and foresight is useful for back-end developers as they must always be mindful of future product development.

The Product Manager (Visionary) Role

Managing the feature set(s) and development of the product, that is the simple definition of the product manager. The reality is, there is nothing simple about this position. Not only will product managers be involved on some level in every step of development, they must also understand the business, technology and the user. Some of those responsibilities will look like the following:

Writing copy
User Research
Product Roadmapping
Pricing strategy
Team cohesion

Product managers need to be good diplomats, every department feels a certain ownership and investment in the product. They should be able to talk (and understand) technology and know customers. Time management and delegation skills in this role are not optional. The role of product visionary is often assumed to belong to the product manager but arguably the role of designer or founder can also fill this job. Almost by default, the product manager is a visionary as they handle the big picture for the product, so delegating some of that extra lifting elsewhere isn’t uncommon.

“The best way to predict the future is to create it.” – Peter Drucker

Predicting the future requires vision. Creating the future demands putting together a kick-ass product team – success is dependent upon it. What are some other vital product team roles? Did I forget anything?

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10 Comprehensive Tips for Building a Successful Agency

Charles Haggas — Thu, 27 Jul 2017 14:41:20 +0000

Starting and running your own agency is a wonderful endeavor, but it’s by no means an automatic success. Even if you have all the right start-up resources, a great office location, and a strong initial team, profits and growth are not guaranteed. In fact, only a small percentage of young businesses make it passed the start-up phase no matter how good their launch may or may not have been. In order to truly succeed, you need excellent management, marketing, service, and customer satisfaction. Growth requires profits, referrals, and a stellar reputation. So how do you build a successful agency in the face of these challenges? We have ten expert tips that will set you on the right path.

1) Hire Talented People

Your employees are the heart of your company. This is especially true with agencies. Your clients projects will only be as successful as your team can make it. Therefore, the quality of people you hire is directly correlated with your client’s success. Selecting each new hire is one of the most important decisions any business can make. Hone your hiring process to ensure you get the most talented, eager, and compatible people available to join your team.

2) Embrace Being the Face of the Brand

As the leader of your company, you should also be the face of the brand. Let’s face it, your clients are hiring the executive team first and since you can’t stop social media from permanently associating you with your company, why not embrace it? When you enthusiastically represent your company and act as a positive figurehead for your brand it inspires trust in your customers.

3) Be Focused

Always remember what your central purpose is. Whatever your service or product is, don’t get distracted on side projects or new proposals. While you will eventually have the time and resources to branch out, your first and foremost priority should be perfecting your current business plan. Streamline your process, reduce overhead, and stay focused on your primary goals.

4) Create Killer Content

Inbound marketing is an amazing way to get the word out about your work by appealing to people on topics they care about. When you understand your clients and write absolutely killer content to interest and engage them, you create the opportunity to introduce responsive leads to your service with a strong call to action.

5) Produce Game Changing Work

When it comes to your company, never settle for ‘average’ quality. Strive to be the best in the in the business and then exceed that. When you’ve reached the top possibilities of quality, find a new way to improve and don’t be afraid to completely transform your industry in the process.

6) Over-Share Your Work

Update the public on your work constantly, on every form of media you can find. From social media to industry forums, share your work every time you do something impressive or at least once a week, which ever is more frequent. Once you’ve shared, keep on sharing because the more people hear about you, the better.

7) Build Partnerships

Your business goals can work in excellent symbiosis with other businesses, especially vendors, distributors, or service providers that you work with. If for instance, you design awesome apps, an agency that markets apps needs the best brands possible to be successful. Their most likely having design conversations with their clients and a partnership can be mutually beneficial in revenue growth and the success of your projects.

8) Sell, Sell, Sell!

Never stop selling. The sole purpose of your business is to sell your product, which means this need to be at the forefront of your mind with every action your business takes. Whatever is going on inside the company, selling more of whatever you produce is the absolute best way create profits that can be used for improvements and expansion

9) Get Your Rates Right

Your rates will have a huge influence on your final results and bottom line. When they are too low for your demand, you lose money on every transaction. However, if you charge too much customers will go find another service rather than pay inflated fees. The key is to charge rates that cover your overhead, make a profit, and satisfy your customer’s need for both quality and value.

10) Always Over-Deliver

Whenever you get the chance, give your customers more than they asked for. The quality of your goods or services should surpass expectations every time. Always be improving your techniques, adding more value to your services, and do your best to impress your clients with absolutely every action you take. Following these ten steps will help you lead your agency to success and boost yourself to the top of your industry. When you eat, sleep, and breathe dedication to the quality of your product and the happiness of your clients, your employees will be inspired to follow suit and the entire company will prosper.

Conclusion

I ran Space Chimp for roughly 6 years and generated over $100 Million for my clients and generated over $10 million in revenue for the company. We did a lot of things right and learned from our share of mistakes. Either way, we always have more to learn. What are some other key tips you would suggest when running a successful agency?

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19 Attributes of a Total Badass Creative Director

Charles Haggas — Wed, 21 Sep 2016 03:57:57 +0000

Many designers aspire to be a creative director at some point in their career. At some point, you’ll come into contact with some great creative directors, some bad creative directors, and some atrocious creative directors. The truth is, it’s genuinely hard to make that transition from designer to creative director. Heck, what if you don’t have any design experience, can you still be a great creative director. Probably not, but, the following points can help you ascertain that truly lofty goal. I’ve gathered some attributes I liked about creative directors I’ve worked with and from my personal experience to hopefully build out a comprehensive checklist of the traits of a great creative director.

Nourish and Develop Your Creative Side

As a creative director, it’s easy to get buried in managing expectations, fighting for ideas and overseeing projects. Unfortunately, if you’re not a point of inspiration, you won’t be able to push your fast moving team to meet their potential. I don’t mean, learning all the newest and coolest tools – although that should be a part of it. You should be more concerned with being able to identify trends. What people currently find appealing and how to use this knowledge to produce award-winning work.

Be a Step Ahead

As a creative director, you always need to be improving and evolving material, ad campaigns, and branding. Great creative directors know how to build visual collateral that inspires the world. To do this, you need to evolve your current assets as well as new ones.

Hold Strong on Standards

Being the creative director means holding people to the standards you’ve set in your brand book and style guide. It’s easy to design things that look nice. It’s hard to design things that consistently match your brand and speak to your audience.

Pay Attention to Details

The difference between good and great is in the smallest of details. Often these details can only be seen by truly great visionaries and thus can’t be learned quickly. None the less, you need to ensure that every drop shadow, border, and color tone is perfect.

Get the Most out of Your Team

If I had to pick one attribute that has helped me excel in various creative directors roles I’ve held, it would be this single attribute. My strive for excellence pushes me to never settle for mediocrity, and I expect the same from my team. Let’s be clear, I don’t think my fellow team members mean to design something mediocre. It can often be forced upon us by deadlines and temporary lack of focus – that’s why It’s important that you never lose focus.

Understand Your Team Members

To get the most out of your team members, it’s important to understand their potential. You should be able to break down their portfolio, see their strengths and weaknesses and understand their personality. From these insights, you will be able to know when your team is meeting their potential or underperforming and how to push them to not only meet this potential but exceed it.

Be a Mentor

To be an effective leader, in general, you need to be able to inspire. Your team members need an example of someone they strive to look up to in some way. You can kind of look at the relationship as a parent and child relationship. You need to bring up the junior designers to be senior level designers and you need to push the senior level designers until their ready to leave the nest.

Be a Leader

A leader comes in all shapes and sizes. There are all types of leadership styles you may follow to be successful. In the end, the most important attribute as a creative director is that your team respects you, feels like you got their back, and is eager to follow your leadership style no matter what it is. The easiest way to earn your design teams respect is to ensure that they are able to produce amazing work that they can be proud of every day – this is easier said than done. Trust me!

Listen

It’s easy to tell people what you don’t like about their work. It’s harder to listen to others feedback and utilize it to get better. Stop talking and listen every once in a while. You may learn something.

Don’t Be Afraid to Say No

A creative directors job is to ensure the brand’s visual needs are being met and inspiring your customers. To do this, you are going to have to simply say “No” sometimes. Don’t let Jan in Customer Support where you down on that one-page sales sheet because she won’t let go of adding more cats. You know what I’m saying! It may not be often, but you will need to say it to ensure what you do continues to be great and you are able to keep your teams respect as discussed above.

Give Constructive, Thoughtful Feedback

Your designers work hard every day to produce at a high level. You owe them the same courtesy to put an equal amount of effort into the feedback you give. Make sure you provide feedback that is actionable. Rather than simply saying that you don’t like something or providing feedback that is hard to decipher, provide well thought out details on how a design could be even better. If you don’t put effort into your feedback, why should they put effort into the revisions? Lead by example.

Hire the Right People

Hiring the right team is essential. Heck, why do you think the Patriots win every year. They have a better team. It’s pretty straight forward stuff. However, putting together a good team is hard. You should look to hire complementary talents. If you have five UI/UX designer and no Illustration expert, you should probably look into filling a deficit like that. Also, don’t rush to hire someone simply because you’re understaffed. Use a freelancer until you find someone that you know is an absolute home run. On a side note, don’t hold on to a talent that is under performing. The loss of efficiency of redoing work over and over again will sink your team quicker than you could imagine.

Understand what it Takes to be Great

Do you know what it takes to be a great designer today? Look at the top 50 Dribbble artist. Can you push your team to be as good as these artists? What sets them apart? If you don’t have a clue, you’re in trouble. You can’t be great without knowing what it takes to be great. Study these designers and see what there doing. Are there some similarities amongst them? Are there particular skills they excel at that others are having a hard time to match? Push your team also to hone these skills as there most likely the difference maker in taking your team to the next level.

Be Adaptable

There’s no typical day as a creative director. Thus, to be successful, you must be able to bring order to chaos. Make friends with productivity tools like Todoist, Evernote, Calendly, etc. You will be challenged to be focused every day.

Overshare Your Work and Ideas

To build respect and influence as a creative director you have to share with the design community. Your sharing activities can be through many channels such as Youtube videos, conference speeches, Dribbble, Behance, Blogging, you name it. Don’t be afraid to share your knowledge. Building a brand around yourself will encourage your other team members to follow, and before you know it, you’ll be changing the world.

Culture over rules

Culture is important to team building. Identify what you want your team culture to be and make it a habit to live your culture every day. More importantly, put your team in the right environment and structure to eat, sleep and breathe your culture. See Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion and Purpose

Stop Bad Things from Happening to Great Ideas

Probably the quickest way to building a great creative team is ensuring that the work you create stays great. Are there too many cooks in the kitchen? Do you have practical brand guidelines? Find out if there are issues with the process of getting assets out the door that is destroying your work along the way. Once you identify these pain points, get rid of them immediately.

Thrive in Controlled Chaos

I’m a big believer that creativity grows from controlled chaos. Learn how to build an environment that is fun yet structured and holds those accountable. Controlled chaos will enable more free thought in meetings and a level of comfort that will breed a creative culture that’s geared toward something great.

Save Some Projects for Yourself

Let’s face it, if you don’t show your team every so often that you can bring it, they’ll just see you as another outsider trying to tell them how to design. Of course, you need to pass the fun projects around but save a couple for yourself and heck show them how you can turn something boring into the best piece your team has designed all year.

To Sum it All Up

Being a great creative director that inspires the world is truly a challenge. You must be both a teacher and a student. Innovative and creative while being detailed oriented and focused. You must be a master of two worlds. You must be able to hold your own in strategic business meetings, yet talk shop with creativity-centric designers. Do you have what it takes? What are some other attributes of a great Creative Director?

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The Definitive List: Books Every Tech Entrepreneur Should Read

Charles Haggas — Wed, 20 Apr 2016 03:29:00 +0000

Do you find yourself constantly wanting to learn more about business? How to grow them? How to build them? How to make them thrive without you? Get capital to fund your next big idea? As an entrepreneur, you have to be a business generalist in many ways. Not knowing a certain aspect of your business can be its peril in the early stages. Sure, you’ve got a fancy MBA and have been around the block a couple times. Unfortunately, few people truly know how to build a sales team that can drive $100 million in sales, or how to build a corporate culture that your employees can thrive in. Trust me I’ve worked with plenty of entrepreneurs who are great visionaries but just don’t know squat about how to build a business. This is for all those entrepreneurs that have all the potential to be a great success but just need a little help to get to the next level. So here you go my fellow entrepreneur, I’ve compiled a comprehensive list of books that I think touches on every aspect of building a technology business and the challenges they pose.

REWORK

From the guys who built 37Signals, the parent company of Basecamp and Highrise. This is a great book that helps you understand how successful technology products are built and shipped.

LEAN STARTUP

This book is quite similar to Rework. It’s focused on product development and launch. Most product developers use much of the lingo developed in this book so if you want to walk the walk and talk the talk this is a must read.

FROM GOOD TO GREAT

Good to great establishes a coherent outline that illustrates what makes a truly great company. In a very disciplined manner it provides examples of good companies and great companies across various industries and pulls out common elements that these companies have built that make them all great. A very high-level strategy book.

BUZZ MARKETING

The book that coined the ever popular term Buzz Marketing. We all want to build buzz around our companies right? This book provides the fundamental concepts on how to come up with buzz marketing strategies for any business.

GUERILLA MARKETING

Another book that created a whole new segment of marketing. Guerilla marketing attempts to teach it’s readers how to out-smart their competitors instead of out-spending them – an obvious beneficial skill to have as a cash-strapped startup.

E-MYTH REVISITED

Anyone yahoo can start a business but few people can start a business that can run itself. E-myth revisited focuses on building processes and the importance of injecting processes into your business development strategy.

DELIVERING HAPPINESS

There are tons of books by Tech CEO’s. I really like this book by Tony Hsieh because it just feels different. Zappos is such a quirky business and it’s interesting to see how they got that way and there philosophy and strategy to build a business like Zappos. The fact that you get some great tips on building an E-commerce business (which there aren’t many books about) is a nice little bonus.

THE ART OF SEO

I’m not truly committed to this particular book or any SEO book really. But, you do need to understand the fundamentals of SEO when you’re building a startup. There are some basic concepts in SEO that take 2 minutes to implement and could mean the difference of it taking 5 days or 5 months to getting your first 5 customers. The art of SEO does a great job at touching on all the fundamentals of optimizing your business for search.

22 IMMUTABLE LAWS OF BRANDING

The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding is basically a branding 101 book. My favorite takeaway from this book is the line “people don’t buy products they buy brands”. If you’ve ever launched and built a successful product you understand just how important this concept is. The great thing about this book is that it provides direct example of each strategic concept it outlines; providing direct evidence of its findings.

THE FOUNDERS DILEMMA

The Founder’s Dilemma is the only book that examines the very important decisions of how to kick start your startup. Should you bring on co-founders, investors, and new hires or go it alone. Screwing up the very fundamentals of how your startup is born can be your ultimate demise. This book makes sure you get it right.

SLICING PIE: FUNDING YOUR COMPANY WITHOUT FUNDS

Slicing Pie is a great complimentary book to The Founders Dilemma. Slicing Pie strictly focuses on how to split equity. How many companies do you know that simply do even splits to co-founders and then subsequently certain founders feel they are treated unfarily because they are doing twice as much work as another co-founder. Slicing Pie is not only a great book about how to fairly split equity but they do a great job at providing amazing resrources like legal docs and platforms to track sweat equity.

BE SMARTER THAN YOUR LAWYER AND VENTURE CAPITALIST

Getting investors is such an insane hustle, the last thing you want to do is blow it once you get your investors lined up. This book is truly the ultimate guide to securing friendly Venture Deals for your startup. This is not a casual read at all. You’re going to get in the weeds with this one so I suggest getting the physical copy so you can go back and reference certain nuggets and important topics.

CRUSH IT

Not only is this a very useful read about building your personal brand. Gary V. narration and writing is engaging enough to take make this a nice little gem in this list. The book straddles the essence of a motivational book and how to. The essence of this book is to provide you with a “how to” and reasoning behind why building your personal brand is the most important thing you can do as a business professional

Predictable Revenue

OK, so you built your product and it’s amazing. Your positive everyone will love. That’s great and all but you still need to sell it. This book, by the sales director of Salesforce outlines in great detail how to build a sales machine that can close deals and drive revenue for your business. This book focuses 70% on the high-level strategy and theory behind building your sales team and 30% on the details. A must read for brands that need a salesforce to succeed.

THE SALES ACCELERATION FORMULA

While Predictable Revenue focuses on the level strategy, The Sales Acceleration Formula does a bit better job at honng in on the details. I think both books should be read in tandem and I guarantee you that after reading both of these books you’re going to know more then many sales managers in the marketplace today.

TRIBAL LEADERSHIP – LEVERAGING NATURAL GROUPS TO BUILD THRIVING ORGANIZATIONS

Is your corporate culture nonexistent? Is your office so depressing that your employees can’t wait to leave at the end of the day? Are your employees just not performing like they should? Tribale Leadership is your answer. This book is the fundamental building blocks for some of the top tech companies in the world today that do billions in revenue. This book has inspired famous corporate cultures like Zappos and many others.

Summing It Up

So there you go. You have every topic I can think of covered. After reading these books, you should be able to create a sales team that can drive $100 Million in sales, navigate the investor hustle, and build a business your employees love to be a part of. Are there any books I missed that you think are must-reads for tech entrepreneurs. Let me know.

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The Secret Sauce Behind Building A Comprehensive Brand Strategy

Charles Haggas — Wed, 20 Jan 2016 21:00:37 +0000

Do you consistently have a hard time building a framework for your customer’s brand strategy? A brand strategy can take many forms depending on the stage of the company and its challenges. For example, a brand strategy for a startup may include information about the brand identity and go-to-market strategy. Whereas, a mature company’s strategy may be a bit more straight forward with a deeper dive into differentiation and brand positioning. Whether you’re a mature company looking to hone in on your brand or a startup looking to identify who they are for the first time, there should be some common goals, objectives, and themes to any brand strategy you produce.

What You Should Accomplish

Develop a powerful brand that wins the hearts and minds of its most coveted users and stimulates irrational loyalty

Define Client’s core brand DNA
Who Client is FOR? And what does it say about them that they are irrationally loyal to Client?
What benefits does Client provide to its users?
How does Client make itself indispensable to its users?
What is Client’s unique role and relevance in the marketplace, and how do we make that sustainable?
How does Client build emotional bonds with audiences?
What societal, cultural and personal values does Client address for audiences?
What kind of “ah-hah’s” can we find that will create differentiated and sustainable presence for Client as it launches

Why do I even need a brand strategy?

To put it bluntly – People don’t buy products they buy brands. Thus, it only makes sense that you put as much effort into building your brand and understanding every facet of what differentiates your company then you do your product or service. More importantly, you will have a unifying document or series of documents that can be used across teams to ensure everyone on your team is executing on the same brand vision.

Brand Blueprint

The brand blueprint provides a strategic analysis of your brand and how you differentiate yourself from your competitors.

Brand vision	The long-term strategic position that the brand will take in the market as well as in the consumer mind-space. Brand vision offers a strategic intent which will act as a long-term goal for the brand.
Frame of reference	The role you play in the customer’s mind – what you are to them.
Brand position	Statement that articulates your product or service’s unique value to your customers in relation to your chief competition.
Value proposition	The functional and emotional benefits your brand provides to your most important customers. What you enable them to do or feel that they couldn’t otherwise do or feel without you.
Audience definition	Demographic, psychographic description of your target audience. Often in the form of personas.
Brand promise	The primary, valued promise made by the larger institution.
Brand personality	Human attributes associated with the brand essence.
Brand experience	What it feels like to interact with the brand at any level.
Core values	A principle that guides and organization’s internal conduct as well as its relationship with the external world.

Messaging Architecture

The messaging architecture is meant to illuminate the work done in the brand blueprint by breaking down the insights derived from your research into usable messages for marketing and brand positioning.

Positioning Statement	Positioning is the conceptual “space” an organization occupies in the mind of the customer. It is rooted in competitive advantage and how that advantage is expressed to the customer. Positions must resonate with broad audiences, yet motivate and influence individuals on their own terms.
Key Messages	Key messages are the concise expression and articulation of an organization’s desired and/or real positioning to a target audience. Typically limited to three or four, key messages should express leadership and points of differentiation.
Value Proposition	Derived from the concept represented by the positioning, the value proposition specifically defines the ultimate benefit “promised” to the customer. As a promise, value propositions are based on both rational and emotional variables.
Proof Points	Proof points represent the important and essential elements that reinforce and validate a company’s messages and position. Proof points are tangible examples of how a company has, or will establish its position.
Sound Bites/Copy Points	Sound bites illustrate how key audiences might “play back” a company’s position and key messages. These are creative expressions of the brand messages and can be used to inform in-market tactics.

Example Deliverables

Summing it All Up

The topics outlined here should be the core building blocks to any brand strategy. Excluding any element will be doing your customers a disservice. Do you have a process that you use to build a comprehensive brand strategy?

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