The Pixel Paddock Blog

Apple iWatch - 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn Rogers) — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 15:17:00 +0000

Back in 2010 I wrote a blog post predicting Apple may be developing an iWatch. I was wrong. It ended up being the touch-screen Nano. But the rumors have persisted since. And now in 2013 it appears there may be some fact amongst rumor, with Business Insider claiming Apple is developing a curved glass iWatch.

The timing feels a little better for such a release than back in 2010.

In 2013 we're starting to see more hints of the growing trend from 'carrying' to 'wearing' tech.

The Pebble, while rough around the edges, shows promise and that there's a market, albeit for early adopters, for a smartphone wristwatch. Jawbone Up (which I now own), Fitbit and Nike Fuelband are leading the way for first-generation wearable health tech. Google Glass is opening itself up to third party development.

So for kicks, here's the original comp I did back in 2010. I expect Apple will take advantage of the curved glass opportunities and be able to produce a thiner form factor overall. Siri can also now provide a key input.

From iPhone to Nokia Lumia 920

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn Rogers) — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 04:54:00 +0000

"Woah. This is heavy" - Marty McFly

This week I upgraded from Apple iPhone 4 to Nokia Lumia 920. Nokia was my first mobile back in 1999. I've been using the iPhone since '08. It was time to go back to the future. And here's the highlights:

Fresh. That's my immediate feeling. Everything about the Windows 8 interface just feels fresh. Responsive. Animations are quick. The live tiles transition through various states, enough to feel 'alive' but not so much that it's distracting. It all makes sense. Live weather on your weather tile, upcoming meetings on the calendar tile, artist image on the music tile. No longer are you inundated with push notifications + alerts.

Bigger, badder. The phone is big, really big. Holding the phone takes some getting used to. Button position, with power on to the middle right, is smart. Some options are a stretch or, more commonly, a contortion of the thumb, when attempting to hit the back button in the lower left (I miss the Apple back swipe here). These thumb-aerobics are made all the worth while with a stunning screen and an interface that makes good use of those pixels.

Social at the core. Spend 10 minutes adding your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Gmail accounts, then see it seamlessly integrate into your experience. The People section pulls in the latest status updates, relationships, birthdays and addresses linked to maps. You can create sub-sets of friends as 'groups' and pin these to your homescreen. Select your Facebook cover photo as your lock screen image. It feels ingrained, not tacked on.

Mixed bag o'apps. I only need a few apps. And with Windows 8 you don't get a lot of choice.. but all the right apps are there for me - sans Spotify. Twitter, Zite, Chase, all benefit from smart use of the horizontal scrolling that Windows 8 does so well. They all look sharp.. literally. Hard to find a bevel or rounded corner round here. But quality is inconsistent, and without the depth of choice in apps, you're left with a few bad eggs - like the ad-supported and installed Weather Channel, or Stock Pickers that use pixelated images. They stick out badly. AT&T have included a suite of subscription-based apps. They stand up on their own, particularly the navigation, but with so many, I wish there were a folder to file them away for later.

Camera. They've talked up this camera a lot. And understandably so. Pictures look.. amazing. I have no need for a compact camera with this. Here's a photo I took today from Time Square:

Different strokes. Many times I've experience a minor 'wha?' moment as I navigate through the interface. It's not easy to distinguish whether it's a getting-used-to-a-new-interface moment vs something that is genuinely annoying. Time will tell. But I sense the interaction principles just aren't as consistent as they are on iOS. There are load times when you don't expect load times. Popup notifications aren't always clear. There are also times I feel they made compromises. The decision to include XBox Music with Nokia Music is one of those times. Neither team surrendered (I wish Nokia did). And for a such a progressive package - my wireless charging pad is on its way - it's odd to still see a panel in the Music app encouraging you to 'plug into your computer to add stuff'. Those days are gone.

But I love it. It's interface inspires me. With my social networks so well integrated it just feels more cohesive, one unit. The idea of piling on countless apps just seems less important. It's fast. It gets things done. And I don't have any feelings of regret in giving up the iPhone. I thought I would. How times have changed. Welcome back Nokia.

Training for a marathon you won't run.

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn Rogers) — Sun, 04 Nov 2012 19:02:00 +0000

"Few things in life match the thrill of a marathon." - Fred Lebow

As I type this I would have been jogging north on 1st Ave, choking down my third Expresso Love energy gel and high fiving my way to the Bronx at around mile 18 of my first marathon.

But a lot can happen in a week, and here in New York that is some understatement. The rightful decision was made to cancel the NY Marathon, and we can continue to focus efforts on rebuilding some pretty torn up parts of NY and NJ.

Training for the marathon has been one of the toughest challenges I've been through. You soon realize that there's no shortcuts, and that the only road to 26.2 miles is slow, disciplined and a lot of things working together - building core body strength, eating well, honing technique (landing on the front of the foot changed everything) and stretching.. lots of stretching. And when you hit mile 20 you know it's just as much mental as physical.

So I wanted to give credit to those things that helped these past 5 months. And maybe help those considering joining me to do it all again in 2013:

Foam Roller: When I did my IT band this cylindrical wonder saved me. Best $20 you'll spend on training.
Born to Run: My good mate Tim Mills put me on to this book. Fascinating, inspiring and educational tale on the Tarahumara Indians and one hell of a foot race.
Nike +: My training partner and data center. Inspring words from Jeremy Lin at the end of a long run can't be underrated.
Songza iPhone app: Their awesome music concierge provided the soundtrack to many early mornings around McCarren Park.
This Week In Startups Podcast: @jason produces enough quality interviews to fill almost every hour I ran. Amazing consistency. Highlight included 2+ hours with Chris Sacca.
SPIbelt: Read up a lot about which belts would be useful and not too clunky for carrying gels, iPhone & a metcard. This one was perfect, barely noticed you were carrying it.
Gu Energy Gel - Expresso Love: In my first 20 mile run I think I almost overdosed on these things. They take a bit of getting used to. But now I take one 15 minutes before, then every 45 mins of running and gives me a well-needed energy boost.
Genr8 Vitargo Natural Grape 25 Servings: A glass of this with water straight after a long run helped recover well-worn muscles.
YouBar - Training 33: Tim Ferris' custom nutritional bars pack a lot of goodness. One of these at the start of every day.

Great friends provided much needed support, tips and advise along the way. Christina, my trainer, worked wonders from someone who could barely do a set of pushups on day 1. And my amazing fiance Jen was always there, cooking breakfasts when I returned in the morning and putting up with a sober-October and early mornings.

So that's it for my 2012 marathon tilt. No matter how you prepare for things, some outcomes, like the events of this week across NY & NJ, are just plain awful. And you can't control them. But the process of training for a marathon reminded me that achieving tough personal goals requires a whole lot of discipline, hard work, dedication and support from the people around you.

Why I read business books.

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn Rogers) — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 23:44:00 +0000

"There’s no better way to inform and expand your mind on a regular basis than to get into the habit of reading good literature."

- Stephen R. Covey

I love reading a good business book.

I consume books at odd times - on the rooftop, couch, bed, plane. On the subway, with my iPad, all inconspicuously conspicuous. Almost always in short bursts rather than long hauls.

This disjointed pattern of passive consumption throughout the day provides a valuable balance to active participation - work. And works like career guardrails, that page by page, edge me back to being more focused, motivated and challenging the inertia of the everyday.

Seth Godin said that when he writes a book he spends 95% of his time persuading people to take action and just 5% of the time on the recipes. The 95% is why I buy the book.

One of my favorite things to do after reading a great book is to give it to someone. Alas, the Kindle is slowly eroding this gift, replaced by a loan feature and limited to a small percentage of titles. Sarah Lacey's 'Brilliant, Crazy, Cocky' and 'Founders at Work' are two titles in the above list that are available for Kindle loan. If you're interested email me at glenn@pixelpaddock.com.

Logos with odd-sized stripes

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn Rogers) — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 20:38:00 +0000

Here are the logos for Brewster, Koding, The Mill and our own Float. Like buying a car and then noticing that car everywhere on the roads, I've been struck by the number of logos that feature these odd-shaped stripes. One of our users, Avneesh, also keenly pointed out the Mac Mountain Lion Notification Center looks like the Float logo backwards.

Perhaps The Mill get the credit for starting this all. Or maybe it's the word processors, and Microsoft were the true innovators when they designed the left & right align icon for Office.

8 things I've learnt as a Digital Project Manager.

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn Rogers) — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 18:17:00 +0000

This week I stopped being an Interactive Producer. After more than nine years with the title, one that has alternated between producer and project manager, digital and interactive, from Associate to Senior, it was time to move onto a new role and another set of challenges. So as I throw another box of business cards in the bin, I thought it was time to reflect on some of the things I learnt along the way :

It’s not about delivering on time, on budget. It’s about delivering more value than the investment.

If it was about delivering on time, on budget, I would have been out of a job 8 years ago. Most projects I’ve produced were more expensive than when they started. Most projects I’ve produced didn’t go live on the date we estimated.

But that didn’t correlate to whether the project was considered a success or a failure.

The consistent theme for a successful project was when all stakeholders – from client to planning, design and development – were aligned on what success is, transparent on their roles within the team, empowered with the tools to deliver, and with the voice to say when you can’t. Unsuccessful projects fail in at least one of these areas.

Now when people define digital ‘success’ it’s often documented in metrics – visits, frequency, engagement, likes, products sold. But this isn’t what I talk about, when I talk about success.

These numbers are important – they drive business decisions, job titles, awards. But in the digital world, determining numbers is difficult – is 10,000 good? Is 100,000? And often as an agency you have control over only a small sub-set of all metrics (if you don’t control the media spend, how can you determine the visits?). And what you realize is, individuals rarely correlate a number to success – it’s value. Based on how much I invest – of my time, my money, my expertise – do I end up in a better place than when I started? Did I build better relationships, better process, knowledge, improve my perception amongst my boss and my co-workers? These things are important to people, and are often achieved in the process of getting to a result, not in the result itself. As a producer you have a lot of influence over this journey, very rarely the result. It cuts to the core of why the role of a producer is important.

You can’t ‘motivate people’. But you need to understand what motivates people.

Motivating people isn’t walking into a meeting with a plate of cupcakes. We’re all motivated by different things – empowerment, recognition, learning new things – spend time with your team understanding what it is each want, and try your best to support these.

Producing is not about following any one methodology. It’s about adaptability.

No one project is the same, and no one methodology can be applied to all. A great producer understands there are various methodologies, and knows how to apply them in a given situation. Most of my projects draw from Waterfall and Agile. I’ve given Agile a bad rap, but only because so many producers preach ‘Agile or bust’ – and in an agency environment, dealing with multiple teams, clients, projects and budgets, Agile is not always the answer - what’s more is its founding principles are 10 years old now. Technology and our ways of working have evolved. If you work in an ad agency, on a variety of clients, know the various methodologies, take the most relevant parts and apply them to your project.

Minimum Viable Documentation*

Some of the weakest Interactive Producers I’ve worked with were the ones that surrounded themselves with printouts of project plans, spreadsheets and Gantt charts. These printouts work like a protective cloak to reassure them they are busy. And they spend their whole time updating them.

Produce the minimal amount of documentation to communicate what is needed. Figure out how people like to communicated to. Alerting people to milestones can be achieved via a calendar, hotsheet, PowerPoint deck or Outlook alert. Gantt charts work for me and no-one else on my team. You’ll find most people err to a visual display of milestones relevant to them, but what’s right for one person, may not work for another.

Avoid duplication where possible. MS Project’s Timeline view means I can be deep in a Gant chart, but outputting a Powerpoint slide with only the right level of information for my client. Updated once. Less documenting means you can spend more time on meaningful things.

*This is my spin on Eric Ries’ Lean Startup Minimum Viable Product.

Meaningful meetings.

Meetings are wasteful. Next time you’re in a meeting, multiply your agency rates by everyone in the room for the duration. You’ll rarely find that the value of the outcome is worth that amount.

So treat each with purpose, don’t let them become a ritual and don’t let the duration be determined by Outlook defaults. Set an agenda, communicate it upfront and stick to it. Know that while they can be effective at broadcasting information to a team, the real value is in instant feedback, people’s reactions, contributions and interactions between one another. If the meeting invitees can’t offer this in return then you may as well send an email.

Everyone wants to be involved earlier, but not everyone should be invited to a meeting. Edit your invite list, there should be no passengers.

I know a status meeting is becoming wasteful when people are addressing their status to me, not the team. Producers often create status meetings to reflect process. The results are rarely meaningful for those involved, sometimes you need to figure out a better way – change up the frequency, the duration, the time of day, team members involved. Perhaps determine that a meeting isn’t best. Tools such as Campfire can be just as effective for regular updates on how people are tracking.

The medium is the message.

Since Marshall McLuhan coined this phrase back in ‘64, the forms in which we can communicate have continued to splinter. On any given work day I can reach my designer via Phone, SMS, IM, email, DM, Gchat, Skype. Heck, if I’m feeling adventurous I can even walk over there. But treat all these channels like a Swiss Army knife, know your tools and which one to use when. I’ve wasted far too much time on a heated email when I should have picked up the phone. Voice tone and delivery speaks volumes (no pun intended). Don’t spend ten minutes crafting an email that a short walk and conversation will solve. Don’t bury 5 questions within 5 paragraphs of meeting notes. People respond differently to different channels, know that determining the right channel for the message can be as powerful as the content itself.

Estimation: Back to the future.

I don’t pretend I’ve determined how to accurately estimate any given project. And if you’re working in an agency, and consistently accurate in your estimates, I’d say you probably not doing all that innovative work. But I will say that I’ve improved in my ability to estimate, and it’s because of two things:

1. What happened in the past is your best guide to what might happen in the future.

2. Parkinson knew what he was on about back in ’55 when he said “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion”.

Study work patterns from past projects. I’ve learnt the hard way, that when people take holidays during a project, you need to add contingency beyond the holiday duration – getting them back up to speed, rescheduling meetings around availabilities, sourcing alternate staff.. it’s costly.

You also need to set shorter milestones, milestones that matter to people. A status meeting usually doesn’t illicit a burst in productivity, but asking someone to present to a client their work, and they’ll be prepared, or they’ll be vocal in telling you if they’re not.

Producers inherit inefficient systems – don’t let that be an excuse.

Every agency I’ve worked at I’ve inherited inefficient tools to do the job. While I’ve spent years producing products with the best possible user experience for our client’s customers, very rarely do we critique the user experience of the products we use in our own job. From time tracking, to resource scheduling and project management – inefficient systems take up an irrational amount of time. But these days there need be no excuse. SaaS and cloud based services are changing the game. From Basecamp, to Google Apps, Dropbox, Pivotal Tracker, Done Done and Trello, there are tools launching every day that are helping us get things done. My to-do list has gone from sticky notes, to Outlook reminders, to Action Method and now Wunderlist. You shouldn’t settle for what you’ve inherited, stay informed on what tools are out there, discover what works for you and your team, and find a way to integrate them into your agency.

What’s next..

Which leads me to where I’m now spending a lot of my focus – Float. Float is a service we built for scheduling your team’s time to client’s projects. It was born out of a lot of frustration working with other producers, buried in Excel spreadsheets trying to allocate people's hours across all our client’s projects. We wanted to build a solution to make this simple. Float is now available at www.floatschedule.com

The lost art of the edit - An ode to the Send button

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn Rogers) — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 23:50:00 +0000

The way we communicate in the written form is evolving at a rapid rate – becoming more frequent, more bite sized, channels to communicate becoming more ubiquitous. We have more things to say and more ways to say it. And the way we say it is changing.

Mobile Instant Messaging is a big part of this growth - on track to triple in use in five years. Traditional SMS, while some say is declining, is still achieving 8.7% growth in the second half of 2010. BlackBerry’s popular messaging service – BBM now has competition with a wave of new alternatives for other devices, WhatsApp, and soon to be launched iMessage for Apple. WSJ also hint Google are in the works to introduce their flavor in mobile messaging.

Social services, now so integrated into our daily digital dosage, are also altering behavior. In only five years, Twitter has taught us, all that is important can be summed up in 140 characters. Google Wave, while perhaps ahead of its time and poorly positioned, wanted us to ‘communicate and collaborate in realtime’. Facebook updated their messaging service, declaring ‘we want to make this more like a conversation’, removing subject lines and enabling users to remove the Send button all together.

And yet amongst all this, Email still remains the dominant form of communication in business.

In a study into the ways we work, Email reigns supreme, with 78% increase in communication usage since 2005, outstripping IM (64%), Social Media (61%) and Texting (58%).

It’s the first thing I check when I wake, the last thing I check before I sleep. It’s how we share information within groups, present results, check in with colleagues – in and out of the office – approve work with our clients. It’s integral to our daily job. But as the world around us changes, ‘how’ we email is evolving. And with it, the lost art of the edit.

Which brings me to the Send button.

With it, we are granted the same luxury an author is afforded before publishing a book. The same opportunity a Copywriter is provided in the forming of an advertising message. The ability to edit. Refine. Focus. Time to define what needs to be communicated, and time to craft the most effective way to communicate it. In a business of negotiation, salesmanship, conviction – these words can carry a lot of weight, a lot of opportunity to change. But it’s an opportunity that’s gradually being wasted, as workers inherent their ‘instant messaging’ ways – one-take, unedited streams of thought. Sentences and paragraphs that lack structure. Lack purpose and conviction.

Scott Berkun filmed this wonderful timelapse piece on ‘how to write 1000 words’. It demonstrates the number of edits, rewrites and rearrangements involved in reaching that finished piece. Each time, improving on and refining the message being communicated. We don’t get this opportunity when we speak. We shouldn’t waste it when we write.

It was David Ogilvy, the father of advertising himself famously said “make every word count”. It’s how we should approach the written form, and make it count before we hit Send.

Read: Making Things Happen

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn Rogers) — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 00:20:00 +0000

A reader of Pixel Paddock looking to enter the world of interactive producing recently emailed me to ask, what book should I read to get started? I'm often asked this question, and the answer always starts with one book.. Making Things Happen - Mastering Project Management, by Scott Berkun.

Scott spent 10 years at Microsoft, leading teams responsible for IE, Windows and MSN. But it's not just his pedigree that makes this book worthwhile, it's about the focus. As Scott puts it "projects result in good things when the right combination of people, skills, attitudes and tactics are applied". And this is the core of the books content. It's not simply how good process = project success. There's a real human element to this: relationship building, respect, influence, good leadership, getting the best out of people.. key areas for any good Interactive Producer. And the small but important details: Effective meeting structure, writing good emails.. why people get annoyed.

Combined with well worn process and learned lessons from years of producing in the digital world, you get relevant scenarios and real-world solutions. Clocking in at 360 pages, it's not a read for any one sitting, but you'll return to it again and again.

And it's not just the name and title, that share similarities with Scott Belsky's "Make Ideas Happen". Both are well-respected bloggers and public speakers. Check out Scott Berkon's blog, and while you won't get as many PM tips these days, his topics on public speaking and innovation are well worth it.

Buy from Amazon for just under $30, or $17 for Kindle.

5 Alternatives to Basecamp

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn Rogers) — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 02:10:00 +0000

There are more than 5 million people turning to Basecamp for their Project Management needs. It takes existing project management functions we’re familiar with - Messages, To-dos, Milestones – and centralizes the conversation. It's this simplicity, combined with a good dose of usability, that has won the world over. I have three accounts, use it daily, and regular run presentations on Basecamp 101.(Hit me up at stuff@pixelpaddock.com if you or your team need some training). But they're not the only solution. And recently there has been a slew of new offerings looking for a slice of the PM pie. Here’s a list of the cream of the crop worthy of a look:

Flow
www.getflow.com/

Another agency building a tool to solve an internal problem, Flow is less about project management than it is about task management. Sharing similarities with Action Method and OmniFocus, you can create, delegate and organize tasks (to-dos) amongst your team. Commenting within tasks allows you to collaborate with team members in realtime. Neat. While it won’t suit your more complex project planning needs, every good PM needs a system like Flow to help keep organized. It's clear this stone has been cut by Metalab. They know design and it shows.

Why is it awesome?

First up, it looks stunning. The signup process is slick, you'll be up and running in seconds (really). It's cheap at under $10 p/month p/account (although their pricing plan isn’t all that clear).

Access – almost- anywhere. Already they have an app for iPhone, a beta app for Mac desktop and you can also email in your tasks without having to login to the browser.

Why me worry?

While Metalab have a history of developing apps, in their own words “we make interfaces”, not apps. They’re just out of alpha, and yet to proven in this space.

Pixel Paddock Stars: ****

Copper Project Management
www.copperproject.com

Copper could legimately be your one stop shop for your project management needs. From CRM to resource management, time & cost tracking and even invoicing, Copper offers up a lot for the price. But does it do it well?

Well, sort of. Copper requires a lot of commitment. You'll spend a lot of time in the settings. If you’re planning on generating invoices from it, you want to make sure it’s accurate, and while there’s a plethora of options to customize for your needs, it also requires more effort to manage, with some tricky cost settings to wrap your head around.

Customer service is one of their strong points. Ben Pendergast, Copper CEO, originates from my hometown in Melbourne, Australia, and you’ll find him on-the-ground actively involved in the business, replying to your emails and issues quickly. (They also have a San Francisco office, for those in the northern half of the world).

Why is it awesome?

Drag & Drop timeline: One of the reasons I first was attracted to Copper was this feature. Once you’ve created tasks and assigned people, the Timeline allows you to shift these around a gantt-style calendar with click-and-drag ease.

Commentary: A commenting section within tasks that allows you to track both time, and progress, and allow workers to keep project owners updated.

Basecamp import: If you’re already a Basecamp user, you can utilize their import feature to bring in the People and Project data to your Copper account.

Why me worry?

User Interface: The app ‘feels’ heavy. Functions are hidden in drawers that slide a little too slowly, functions such as allocating resources to tasks are just plain funky and require Olympic-level mouse precision. While there’s plenty of customization options to make it your own, there’s no option to remove those ugly icons across the top.

Pixel Paddock Stars: ***

AtTask
www.attask.com/

“One of the problems that enterprise software has right now, is that it’s not inviting to people. People are in there because they’ve been told to be in there” – Scott Johnson, CEO, AtTask

AtTask have been in the PM Software as a Service game for 10 years now and have been the ones to watch in the PM space over the past few years. Thanks to a 7 mill funding boost in 2007, they have been aggressively pursuing product development and it shows. In May of last year, they launched ‘Stream’ to empower not only project managers, but those tasked with doing the work, to actively participate in the management and priority of their tasks. Their website has also undergone a touch of paint, retiring the tired stock imagery with a more modern appeal.

At the opposite end of the PM scale to Basecamp, AtTask's sweet spot is large corporations, tailoring bespoke solutions and integrating with existing services such as Salesforce and Oracle. All with the support of a full sales and PMP trained service team.

AtTask’s features cover the full breadth of agency and brand management needs, from time tracking and capacity planning, to file sharing and help desk. While Basecamp focuses on project management, AtTask, as with Copper, is about ‘work management’ across the organization.

Why is it awesome?

There is little competition in the AtTask space for large organizations. For those struggling with MS Project Enterprise this may be the best alternate out there.

Why me worry?

AtTask requires organizational commitment from top-down. And with all your eggs in the AtTask basket, you want to forgo the reviews and feature lists, and actually trial it in action to ensure it’s right for you and the people you work with. If you’re managing projects fine in Basecamp, then AtTask probably isn’t for you.

Pixel Paddock Stars: ****

Apollo
www.apollohq.com/

Apollo is the latest player in the Project Management Software-as-a-Service space. Coming out in Beta in July, as of Monday, Applicom commenced paid plans. What’s it like? Take 2 tablespoons of Flow, and 1 cup of Basecamp, sprinkle in a Highrise CRM, and you have yourself Apollo. It’s a well-selected combination of PM tools for small business that need to manage personal tasks, manage projects and manage their contacts.

While not quite at the level of Flow, the design is refreshing for those that have been living in Basecamp for many years (Why the use of such as large Apollo logo though, taking up key real estate, I’m not quite sure). As Tony Mobily goes to great pains to detail, they made a conscious choice to perfect the product prior to launch, and a lot of work has gone into performance. And to their credit, it rockets (excuse the pun).

Why is it awesome?

For a similar price to Basecamp, you get more features, in a package that doesn’t feel more complicated. Include time tracking, file storage and a fairly comprehensive calendar function, and you’ve got yourself a project management toolkit that will serve most small to medium sized agencies.

Why me worry?

At this early stage, Apollo is still unproven. There’s currently no mobile version. Some copy and UI elements feel like they need some ironing out, with menus flying down, popping up and not always expected. At times, it just feels like Apollo have ripped Basecamp off almost to the pixel (See Pricing Plans page and Account Settings for proof). But as a package, it’s a very impressive launch, and well worthy of consideration.

Pixel Paddock Stars: *****

Huddle
www.huddle.com/

Born by two Englishman in 2006, Huddle promotes itself as collaboration tool, and bares all the features you know and love from Basecamp. With some impressive brands and agencies already using Huddle including AKQA and HTC, they’re a proven competitor. And with a cash injection of 10mill in May of last year, they’re also now setup in San Francisco and looking to carve out some market share in the US.

What’s the difference? Well, in most areas it’s business as usual. Where Basecamp have Writeboards, Huddle have Whiteboards. But where Huddle excels is in additional collaboration features.

Why is it awesome?

Huddle feels like a complete collaboration package. Web conferencing, and integration with Office, LinkedIn and Facebook. Adding to that apps are available for iPhone, iPad and Blackberry. They also offer comprehensive support, a 1-2-1 demo and a well-thought-out marketing site.

Why me worry?

At $150 p/month for 1-10 users, it is a lot more expensive than Basecamp, although admittedly this does buy you a wider feature-set.

Pixel Paddock Stars: ****

Edit: Since posting this, Apollo have been in contact, sharing a preview of their Mobile version currently in Beta. On first use, it's lean and mean, the ability to add tasks, and read only access to the other features. Another feather in the cap for those considering Apollo.

Read: Managing Projects More Efficiently

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn Rogers) — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 00:33:00 +0000

If you're an Interactive Producer take the time to download the latest Flash & Flex Developer Magazine (Free on supply of your email). No, I'm not asking you to brush up on your ActionScript skills, because in this PDF is a useful nugget of an article called "Managing Projects More Efficiently".

It's a refreshing take on how Interactive Project Management is really happening these days. Not for the websites of '98, but for digital channels of today: the microsites, games and social platforms we now interact with. And Troy highlights some of the tools that are now available to help do your job, including a comprehensive Basecamp step-through.

Here's a couple of takeaways:

"Typically about 80% of projects do not meet their deadlines and that cuts into profit."

While it's usually considered around 70% of projects don't deliver on time, on budget, I've never seen 80% published before. Remember this one. And feel comfortable you're not the only one.

All the project management tools Troy lists are available, in the cloud, for a monthly fee. There should be no barrier to you trialling services such as Basecamp, Beanstalk, Dropbox and Done.Done and seeing what works for you.

Approval process: No room for grey.

Read the section on Change Orders, then read it again. Troy's process nails what is a common mistake with inexperienced PM's. Not signposting when something is approved allows a client free reign to keep adjusting to their hearts delight.. at the expense of your time and budget. Make sure there is no room for misinterpretation here, use Troy's note to "please post back the words APPROVED, APPROVED with changes (post the changes) or NOT APPROVED (post information)". ALL CAPS, even better.

Note, interestingly he calls Contractor Agreements what I've always known as Master Services Agreements, but they achieve the same. He's also set on fixed 2 week period Sprints, which I've found often require more flexibility in duration depending on what stage you're at in the game and the objectives of the Sprint.

Project Management Process: The Subway Way

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn Rogers) — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 02:39:00 +0000

There are now more Subway stores than McDonalds in the US. More than 34,000 Subway stores in 95 countries worldwide. They can open almost anywhere, with 900 Subways in Wal-Mart stores and 200 in military bases. From Ireland to Australia, you know what you get what you walk into a Subway store. They've perfected the franchise. A profitable business model, duplicated easily.

Today I was speaking to my account team on the direction of project management going forward. The need to define and refine project planning process, guidelines, tools and templates. From the project planning sheets, Basecamp templates, project folders, Scope of Work documents, to the communication tools. Get them right for the account, get them consistent. Efficient. Perfect them. Then duplicate them.

Like any great franchise, take what works, package it up and duplicate it across the account. That way any producer can pick it up. Any project size can adapt to it. And every client will know what to expect when they work with your team. Build project management process like you're the Subway of franchises.

Interactive Producer Jobs: So hot right now

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn Rogers) — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 19:33:00 +0000

The market for Interactive Producers is hot. And if you're willing to travel a little, the opportunity to work for the best brands in the business has never been better. Not convinced? Here's a selection of killer jobs for killer brands:

The Mill

Interactive Producer | New York

These guys are the hottest visual effects studio. Work with the best in the business producing Gaming, TV, Film and VFX. Their reel says it all:

Google Creative Labs

Creative Producer | New York office

The work from the Google Creative Labs team is impressing me more and more. As is their strategy to partner with some of the best studios for UX and Design to produce their work. I'm also biased, as my previous Program Director at Razorfish, Angela, has now joined them as an Executive Producer. Learn from one of the best.

Martin Agency

Digital Producer

If you're willing to make it to Richmond, VA, the opportunity to work for the Adweek top agency for 2010 awaits. As the ad says.. Big brand experience.

And that's not all..

Last but not least, there's the opportunity to work with me as a Producer on one of the world's biggest brands, here at the Razorfish NYC office. Get to it.

Add R/GA, fast-moving Huge (who have hired some of the best in design & dev recently) and on the client side, gaming giant EA, and you have a buffet of the best.

If you're an Interactive Producer with the chops to get things done, there's no reason not to be happy in your role, producing great work for great brands.

News: 37signals release Basecamp Mobile

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn Rogers) — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 18:58:00 +0000

Today 37 signals launch Basecamp Mobile. A mobile-optimized version of their project management tool for viewing in and webkit-enabled browser. This covers your iPhones (iOS4+) to your Androids (2.1+) and the latest Blackberry's (6+). As usual user experience wins for the mobile optimized views, and they've managed to maintain a familiarity with their desktop UIs, which the 3rd party paid apps often struggle to do. A long overdue win for Basecamp users.

And in one fell swoop they've killed the business model for the eleven Mobile App Developers on their Extras page that relied on the previously poor mobile browser user experience to sell their apps. Quiet day around the Summit office.

The Digital Agency Project Management Process: Fail

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn Rogers) — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0000

The Agile Manifesto is 10 years old this year. And yet I've never managed a single project using a strict Scrum methodology. And it's my bet, that as long as I continue to work in a digital agency, the odds are, I never will.

And it's not through a lack of understanding of the process.. it's a lack of need. Unless you're one of the minority that work with clients on large scale platforms, retainers and dedicated teams, you're one of the majority that still work with clients that require a clearly defined end product, at a fixed date, for a fixed cost. I pay you this, you give me this. A scenario that is not supported by strict Scrum project management.

And a reason why Digital Agencies continue to use the standard 'Waterfall' method for software development to this day. As a reminder, Waterfall originated in the '70's, as a method for manufacturing and construction. Inherently flawed for software development in 2011. And a processes that guarantees more failures than successes when it comes to delivering projects, on time, on budget. Yes, to reiterate, we work with a process that has a higher probability of failure than success.

Jim Highsmith, coauthor of the Agile Manifesto, provides further insight to why this is in a recent article:

"Engineering, whatever the product, is inherently iterative— think a little, try an experiment, observe the results, revise. Sometimes the iterations are long, sometimes short, but engineers have never really operated on a linear, waterfall model—unless forced to by an organization process."

So with this in mind, as Interactive Producers in Agencies, what's the best method for us? Well.. to get to this it needs to come from one thing we know how to do:

Fail.

We need to learn from project failures. Each time improve. And know you're not the only one failing. Share failures. Allow others to avoid the same pitfalls. It's time the project management community starts talking and addressing a real problem in our industry. Build learnings and define processes that work within our agency limitations.

I'm going to make an effort to share more of these failures, from myself and others in our industry, on this blog. And from this, develop methods, actions and learnings relevant to digital agency production to increase the percentage of successful projects delivered.

HSBC: The worst brand on the internet

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn Rogers) — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 19:26:00 +0000

Regular readers, let me diverge for a moment. For the past 2 years HSBC have been my personal bank. And for the same amount of time, I've come to experience the worst example of customer service in the digital space. Which would be ok.. But when you are the eighth largest company in the world - and the most profitable bank, it's beyond inexcusable. The bar is set so low in the online banking arena, no one is even trying. And yet startups such as Mint.com prove you can be in finance, and still provide a functional and elegant user experience.

Here's 7 reasons why I believe HSBC are the worst brand on the internet:

1. 128 million customers. 868 Twitter followers. 8 tweets.

Don't go following @hsbc_com expecting the latest insights from this global powerhouse. 8 Tweets in total since Aug 09 including the zingers "New Archive 2009" and the unforgettable debut tweet "hsbc.com". I question why there are 868 followers.

2. Browser Support Policies circa 2002

HSBC still support IE6 (4.6 percent) and Firefox 2.x (less than 1 percent), but does not support Chrome which represents 22 percent of the population.

3. They manage to make consumer emails look like real SPAM

Below is an email from HSBC Security and Fraud Risk team. All the classic tell-tail signs of a SPAM email: unfamiliar sender address, inconsistent text formatting, multiple fonts, poor punctuation. Which would all be amusing.. if it wasn't actually from HSBC. I had to call the number to be sure.

4. They forgot to hire a User Experience Department

Basic user experience principles went out the door when they designed the HSBC Personal Banking site. Here is their patented 5 step login process, complete with inconsistent labeling, a univeral nav that is not universal, buttons on the same page that do the same thing, redundant steps and a ridiculously over-complicated mouse-controlled security keyboard.

5. Credit Card one site, Checking Account another site.

It's clear two completely different teams were tasked with building these sites.. and they didn't get along. Completely different login requirements, different terminology, different user experience.

6. Search Algorithm circa AltaVista

Want to search for information about HSBC Credit Cards? Sure, type "Credit Card" into the search box and wallah! The top result is an article about their plan to "create JV for Chinese Credit Card operation" The remaining 513 are almost as useful.

7. They serve popup ads in the middle of your online banking

They've found one more way to destroy any morsel of productivity by loading a Med Rec ad over the top of your screen while you try to actually complete a task. Brilliant.

Enough is enough.

How many sides do you influence?

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn Rogers) — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 00:42:00 +0000

It's a Producers job to ensure project Cost + Requirements matches Time + Resources upfront. A Producer can not be held accountable to deliver a project on time, on budget if they can not influence the sides necessary to ensure they are proportional.

Too many Producers are handed a project with disproportional sides.. the math doesn't add up. If you're one of those Producers, either question the expectations for success, or start balancing up those sides.

To-Do Task Managers: And then there was One Note

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn Rogers) — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 16:19:00 +0000

To-do lists are invaluable to coralle the many little actions and requests that invade your day. For years 3M benefitted from my obsession with filling my monitor borders with their sticky reminders. These days however my attention has shifted to the virtual variety. And more specifically to-do lists you can access and sync to any device, any time, on the bus, or in a meeting. Being device agnostic is the key here, you can't rely on being in front of your laptop when you need to add to your list.

This week Microsoft officially became an option to consider for iPhone users out there, offering their OneNote application free temporarily in the App Store. In this post I round up some of the best virtual To-Do task managers out there:

Microsoft OneNote

You probably already have OneNote hiding in your Office Suite and blissfully ignore it (I only just discovered a use for InfoPath). Well it's a surprisingly unheralded win for Microsoft, offering the ability to record to-dos in addition to collecting notes, clippings and images, in a central destination that can be synced to the cloud. It shares a lot of similarities to the popular Evernote (without the cool image-to-text features).

Pros:

Desktop User Experience: add notes on the fly, tabbing to add more, in a scrapbook-style paradigm with some useful grouping and selection tools hidden in there.
Access on the move: Access from Windows 7, iPhone and via a web browser. No love for the Android users though.
Got Office? You're ready to go.

Cons:

iPhone App: The first release is buggy, already a 2.5 star rating, with many experiencing login issues. There is talk of a patch coming soon.
iPhone App Limited Functionality: They've taken away some key features from the iPhone that I'd consider must-haves such as being able to color your to-do categories.
Features: Microsoft still apply what is a far too feature-bloated 2010 desktop toolbar 'ribbon' for OneNote. Far too many features to filter through to make this app workflow quick.
Too Slow: Note taking needs to be fast and simple. The load and sync times on the iPhone app are too long to make it useful.

Remember the Milk

Remember the Milk started as an Australian (!) startup back in 2004, and has since grown a loyal following for task management. Lifehacker awarded it the best to-do list manager back in '07, does it still have the chops today? Represented by a cow logo, but with a monkey as a mascot, you get that these guys take a somewhat more animated view to this category than most. And yet still manage to produce the most accessible and flexible to-do lists in the market.

Pros:

Submit to-do's from almost anywhere: Covering iPhone and Android devices, you can submit your to-do's from almost anywhere with comprehensive 3rd party integration including Twitter, Gmail and IM.. even SMS. Neat.
Simple. The UI is stripped back to the bare necessities, creating a to-do is super quick and they also offer keyboard shortcuts.
Cheap: At only $25 for a pro account for a full year how can you resist?

Cons:

Design. This app is due for an overhaul to bring it into 2011. Having a clipart cow on your desktop all day starts to grind up against the beauty of some of the newer players such as Wipee.
Free version. You won't get half the Pro's without the paid account, do yourself a favor and spend the 25 clams.

Behance Action Method

Action Method follows the productivity methods outlined on their blog The 99 Percent, and the book I've recommended here, Make Ideas Happen by Scott Belsky. Targeted toward the creative community, it rethinks the traditional to-do list approach, grouping to-do's into Action Steps, references or backburner items, with some neat filter options such as 'Focus' to bubble up those must-do items.

Pros:

Design: Simple, minimal but well designed, it's a joy to use as you would expect from the Behance crew.
Access anywhere: While not as comprehensive in the device support, you can access your list from the web app, desktop app or iPhone app, with efficient syncing between them all.
Involve the team: Features are available to delegate tasks to different team members, a powerful option if you can convince the team to take part. And yes, even a tool to 'nag' if those tasks are being ignored.

Cons:

Expensive: While there is a free version up to 50 tasks, you'll need to shell out $12 a month or $99 a year for the full version, which may be a little too expensive for those just entering the to-do list world.
Screen real estate: Some may love the big bold boxes that each to-do creates, similar to that of my old 3M post-it's, but others may find this takes up far too much room than a traditional list view on their monitor.
Backburner: This area feels underdeveloped, a dumping ground for ideas that don't fit the Action Steps, ideas seem to get lost all together in the long vertical grey list.

What else?

Well, to-do's aren't difficult to develop, so there are many options out there if you need a simple to-do for your desktop. Here's a few that are above the ordinary:

Google Tasks and ToDo for iGoogle Homepage

Ta-da : Free from the crew at 37signals

Jott : If you prefer to voice your to-do's this service offers a dial in number, that notates and integrates with service such as Remember the Milk.

And don't write off the traditional pen and paper, post-it's or a plain text file in Notepad, if it's what it takes to help you get things done! Outlook To-Do (and the desktop To-Do for Entourage on Mac) served me well for years. Good luck!

Job: Interactive Producer at Razorfish NYC

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn Rogers) — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 19:55:00 +0000

Got the Producer chops? Then I'd like to hear from you. We at Razorfish NYC are hiring and I'm on the lookout for a rockstar (yep, I said it) to work with me on one of the world's leading brands for 18-24 yr olds. You'll get the opportunity to work on everything from mobile, to social, to video, to banners that guys want to engage in. An opportunity to shape an account, and a real opportunity to grow and learn the full gamut.

Read more about the job here and the requirements below, and if you're interested send me an email at stuff@pixelpaddock.com with your resume and cover letter explaining why you want the role.

Required Skills/Knowledge/Experience:

Solid understanding of project management methodology including the ability to identify and resolve issues, manage risk, develop detailed project plans and specifications, perform resource allocations and run internal team meetings
Recent experience successfully managing projects end-to-end (budgets, scheduling, etc.)
Strong interpersonal, leadership, analytical, problem solving, and organizational skills
Excellent verbal and written communication skills
Experience with IAB standards and high volume publisher specifications
Ability to work on multiple projects simultaneously
Experience with rich media publishing tools, e.g. Eyeblaster, PointRoll, Atlas Rich Media
Solid knowledge of interactive advertising space, including direct response and brand campaigns, banners, rich media, and micro-sites, and the delivery of non-page-based solutions with heavy creative/user experience components
Strong grasp of the ad banner production process (e.g. banner resizing, QA, and tagging)
Strong Microsoft Project skills
Facility with common interactive tools and techniques (Flash, AJAX, Silverlight, HTML/CSS, .NET or PHP, database design/development, etc.); some facility with Photoshop, Illustrator or InDesign is a plus
Bachelor’s degree required
At least 2-4 years related work experience
At least 2 years of project management experience, preferably in a consulting or agency environment, and with an advertising focus

Estimating iOS and Android App projects: The devil in the design

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn Rogers) — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 01:05:00 +0000

If you're planning your first iPhone or Android app project, pay close attention to the Design phase. At current count you'll need to generate 6 versions of your design to cover both operating systems safely.

Here's a quick rundown:

iOS: 3 Versions:

Due to the iPhone 4's superb Retina Display, your designers will now be generate two sets of designs. One at the higher resolution (iPhone 4), and one at half the resolution (iPhone 3GS and previous). There's no shortcut here, the device won't automatically scale down the high resolution to the lower resolution (although the iPhone 4 does manage to scale up lower resolution, hence still displays the older v3 applications).

If you add iPad to the equation, this is another set. Depending on the complexity of the app, make sure you consider both portrait and landscape modes, which may require some further customization.

One tip is to have your designers work in vector shapes, allowing them to export in any resolution they like. But this doesn't help when your agency sends you those fab product JPGs. So if that's not possible, have your designers start with the high resolution version, and on signoff, generate a second set from there. There's a few handy tips and Photoshop actions available on Smashing Magazine to help make this more efficient.

Android: 3 Versions:

Google do not dictate the resolution of their devices like Apple do, so get set for a dizzying array of combinations for Android. The good news is, if you generate three resolution types (two of which are very close), you'll cover approx. 97% of devices. These resolutions are:

320 x 480 px,
480 x 800 px
480 x 854 px

Keep up to date on the resolution numbers as they evolve at the Android Developer site. And a useful slide deck on design UI for Android here on Slideshare.

Differences between Android and iOS:

Make it your job to know both operating systems well and understand their differences. If you're an iPhone user, borrow a workers Android device. Use an app, such as Facebook, to see how they approach the different widgets and design standards. Here's a few:

Image from the article by Suzanne Ginsberg. Best of luck.

Tip: Taking effective meeting notes

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn Rogers) — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 16:24:00 +0000

Every meeting you attend should have three outputs: Notes, Actions and Backburner items. Nothing more.

Notes are important records to capture for future reference, Action imply there is a resulting action to take place following (each should have an action verb, e.g 'signoff', 'complete', 'send' and be accountable to one person). Backburner items are Actions that are important to the project, but don't need to be immediately actioned.

One addition to the Productivity arsenal this year has been the Behance Action Sheets. A pad of pre-printed sheets I take to every meeting. They break up your page into these three buckets, and include additional space for preparation and sketching.

Sure, you can build your own version of these Action Sheets, but I'm a sucker for great design, and these pads look the business.

Check them out here, they come in plenty of sizes and flavors to suit your style -

http://www.creativesoutfitter.com/Products/Action-Sheets/15

Tip: You can print a PDF version to see if this works for you by selecting 'Print Tester PDF'. If it does, do consider purchasing and supporting Behance.

Tip: Printing multiple calendar months in Google

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn Rogers) — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 22:36:00 +0000

Amazingly Google Calendar doesn't offer an option to print multiple months. This is especially painful if you want to share a calendar with a client, or internal stakeholder as a PDF or printout.

However, there is a workaround thanks to Jekssa in the Google Calendar Forums:

Open Calendar in Firefox.
Select Print on the first month you want to print.
Select Save As..
In the Downloads popup, right click on the PDF file generated and select "Copy Download Link".
Past the link into a new browser tab.
Where it says dates=20090726%2F20090905 (or whatever single month you printed) go ahead and change the second set of numbers to whichever you want your last date to be using the yearmonthday format (ex:20100101%2F20101231 for January-December, 2010)

Tada. If you've done this correctly it will create a new PDF with the month range selected.

Gold Award January 2011: Box.net

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn Rogers) — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 04:36:00 +0000

Each month I'm offering the illustrious, sacred, Pixel Paddock Gold Award to services, people and stuff that rise above the pack and provide outstanding service to the Interactive Producer world.

Without further ado, the January Gold Award goes to.. drumroll.. Box.net.

What is Box.net?

At it's heart Box.net is a file sharing service. Set up a Box.net account, and from the account you can upload any file (think: PDF's, PSD's, Movie Files) up to 2GB in size (read: huge files). You can then decide to share it (or a folder of files) in several ways, including providing a preview link, a direct link, or password protected links. Add to this custom branded pages and beefed up security, and you have yourself a replacement for all those bad experiences you've had coding HTML extranets, diving into FTP's or dealing with amateur hour over at YouSendIt.

Why is it worthy of a Pixel Paddock Gold Award?

Your clients will love you for it. They can preview a Powerpoint deck in browser, without the need for Powerpoint. They can download past presentations, files and source code from a single project folder. It's fast, reliable and secure, you can upload that presentation as your just about to walk in the clients door. And you can make it your own, brand the URL, and with a call to their sales staff, customize the look and feel (minor gripe: they really should make this free).

Props to Walton Isaacson who first showed me Box.net.

You can try a free Personal account at:

https://www.box.net/signup/personal

For business use you'll be paying $45 p/month (Minimum of 3 users at $15 p/month).

What is wrong with Project Management

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn Rogers) — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 01:46:00 +0000

James Leal is worthy of a spot on the Shopping Channel with his website 'Project Management Templates'. Offering 100+ templates 'you can be proud of' for not $297.. not $149.. but $99..! Buy now and get an additional 38 templates.. Money back guaranteed!

This is what's wrong with Project Management. Too many people start with a set of cookie cutter documents, lay these over the top of a project, and call it a process. It makes a PM come across as process-driven and organized. It also keeps them busy. But it adds very little to a project.

More time needs to be spent by PM's and Producers on first understanding the project, the stakeholders, the requirements and then creating the right documents for the audiences they serve. And only the minimum level of documentation. So less time is spent managing documents, and more time managing projects.

Read: Make Ideas Happen

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn Rogers) — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 19:38:00 +0000

Heading south of the border to San Pancho, Mexico, I've had the opportunity to catch up on some much needed reading. This recent release from Scott Belsky follows the Seth Godin-esque mantra of shipping ideas. The value of the 99% perspiration vs the 1% inspiration. Process and lessons learned from creative leaders on how to convert ideas into product.. As Kobe would say.. execute. What sets this book a part from some of the older productivity reads is it's focus on real modern-day issues, and useful nuggets from guys like Chris Anderson (Wired), Ji Lee (Google) and John Maeda.

Great learnings for producers leading teams, and supported by a useful product and an app helping you in the day to day of separating the noise of notes, from action items and those ideas that need to sit on the backburner.

By from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Making-Ideas-Happen-Overcoming-Obstacles/dp/159184312X

Tip: Only $12.99 on Apple iBook or Kindle Edition:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/making-ideas-happen/id365247821?mt=11

Tip: Email Campaign Results

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn Rogers) — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 21:07:00 +0000

Ever have a client asking you how their email campaign will perform ahead of time? MailChimp's Research Centre can help:

http://www.mailchimp.com/resources/charts/

They aggregate results from more than 570 million emails delivered by their system, split by industry and company size. This is particularly useful to know if your client is in the Home and Garden industry (28% average open rate) vs Travel (14% average open rate).

If you're looking at dusting up your email campaign knowledge, also check out their comprehensive guides section - http://resources.mailchimp.com/guides/