We had come up with an amazing new feature, and we knew that customers were hungry for this solution. We designed it, reviewed it, and specc’ed it all out, and it was ready for development. Our team had given an estimate of about a month to complete the work, if all things were fine with our live-site, and we weren’t distracted by other, more pressing, issues.

Weeks rolled by, and there was great progress made on the project, but after the original estimated deadline had passed, we quickly realized that the project turned out to be a much bigger deal than we had originally anticipated. We needed to migrate tons of data in our database, and redesign the whole schema for how this feature would work under our new design. As more time passed by, we ran into issues deploying these changes, which caused delayed product releases (impacting other parts of our product), and had a few key team members go on vacation or go out with colds. We also hit the slight productivity lull known as “Christmas”. All this added up to a project taking twice as long as we had originally estimated – it wasn’t pretty.

This project seemed like a runaway train, and eventually the time came when we had to look ourselves in the eye and decide if this project would continue or not. On one hand, we had already invested tons of research and development time. We were so close to finishing the project, and shipping this much-needed feature to our customers. On the other hand, we really didn’t know how far we were from shipping (the finish line felt like it kept moving on us), and there were no guarantees that this project wouldn’t extend another 2 months, taking up valuable development and testing resources.

As I hope you will in the future, we made the call to button-up the code as it stood, and deploy it silently without finishing the last piece (the user interface). It was heartbreaking for the team to cancel the project, especially so close to the finish line, but it was the right thing to do. Projects which drag-on can be morale killers for the team, and when they take too long, they outlive their own usefulness. The trick is to ask yourself not about how much time you’ve already invested and if it’s worth it (these costs are sunk), but rather to ask if you could do it all over again knowing it would take this much time and effort, would it be worth it?

If the answer is no, its time to let your sunk development costs sink to the bottom of Lake Lesson’s Learned, before it takes the rest of your product and team down with it.

SIDE NOTE: FreshBooks (www.freshbooks.com) is the Leader in Online Invoicing, and wants you to be its next Senior Product Manager at its offices in Toronto, Canada. If you want to seize an exciting opportunity in a start-up environment and are passionate about SaaS, Product Mangement, and very small businesses, take a look at the job posting here: http://www.freshbooks.com/careers/product-manager.php

Upon leaving Microsoft I put away my PCs, bought an iPhone an, iMac, and a Macbook Air (obessive, yes), and joined a SaaS start-up called FreshBooks, as their Director of Product & Design.  What I didn’t realize right away was that I’d have to also re-buy all of the software I had previously installed on my PC.  I decided then and there that I would try to get by without buying an “thick client” software whatsoever, and do everything with free software and web apps going forward.

I recently found myself shelling out dough for some online services that charge a monthly rate – which was previously crazy-talk in my life.  I had previously refused to pay for any software, yet here I was pulling out the credit card to subscribe to software!  What has changed now that makes me actually want to pay for something?  Let’s look at the factors, and what online services I’m paying for, and then what they have in common:

Here’s the services I’m paying for (or will be paying for in the near future):  Netflix, Dropbox, Rdio, Evernote, Skype.

They all do something that it would take me tons of extra effort to do manually or myself.

Netflix gives me movies, so I dont have to download them off some torrent site, rip them using Handbrake, import into iTunes, and store on an external hard-drive.  We mostly use this for kids shows, since they don’t have new releases, but its a mega-time-saver for us.  Dropbox saves me from having to attach ugly USB drives to backup my stuff, or to email myself documents between files.  Skype saves me a ton on long distance when I travel, and saves me the hassle of managing a calling card.  Rdio bring me new (and old) music and saves me from having to ever go to the record store, or pay exorbitant fees on iTunes for individual songs.

They are differentiated from their (free) competition

None of these things have ads, or limited feature-sets.  They give me everything I want, and ask me to pay for it, so I do.  They all offer great service (although I’ve only ever had to call Netflix once), and a very reliable technology with lots of updates.

Rich native clients on every platform I use

They ALL have iPhone apps, Mac native apps, web browser accessible apps, and Netflix has a Apple TV app.  They are literally available everywhere I go, and offer a consistent, synced experience across all of my access points.  I don’t pay for services that are only available in one place, but I’m not sure if that’s just a coincidence, or a by-product of today’s consumer-facing SaaS apps.

They are all less than $10/month

As a consumer, I’m super-stingy with the cash I spend on virtual memberships, so anyone who comes in with a monthly that’s less than $10, I’m usually game.  If you creep up to $15/month I’m going to start comparing you to the value I get out of other comparable software, and probably decide not to shell out the extra fiver.

So there you have it…

If you can take away some of my pain, create something differentiated enough that can’t easily be replicated by your free competitors, be available on all of my platforms, and charge me less than 10 bucks a month, you’ve got an idea that I’d pay you for.

1. Choosing the book

Sounds like a no-brainer, but lots of people have opinions on which books to read, I recommend you decide yourself what book is going to be read by the group, and simply invite them to join. By taking away the “what book should we read” question, you remove any barriers to hurt egos or feelings.

2. Set a specific time and day of the week and stick to it

I recommend you setup a 30-45 minute meeting twice weekly. Typically, the afternoons around 3pm worked great for my workplace, as it can sometimes be a lull-time for meetings and energy. If someone cannot make that time, run the meeting anyways. There is NEVER A PERFECT TIME for everyone to attend the meetings, so just run it with whoever can show up. I’ve tried re-scheduling them, and it doesn’t work. You lose momentum in the club, and people start falling out.

3. Sending the Invite

Send out an invitation to your company or department telling people about the book, the time, and how many people you will accept. I recommend limiting the club to 10 people, but a few more doens’t hurt. After the first week, you will have 2-3 people drop out anyways (for various reasons), but don’t feel disheartened… its a natural occurrence in big groups.

4. Setting up the reading schedule.

In the meeting invitation you send, include a list of the dates the meeting will occur, as well as what chapters & pages people are expected to read. I like to do at least 2 chapters per week to keep the momentum moving quickly. Anything less, and you might not have enough to talk about in the book club meetings. It can also take too long if you’re reading the book slowly, resulting in a higher drop-out rate of participants.

5. Running the meeting

I’ve tried this a few different ways, and I’ll talk several ways you could do it. The first time I ran it, with a small group, I asked the same question every week: What did you find the most surprising or interesting about the chapter? The second time I ran it I added assignments each week, for people to try something from what they learned in the current week’s readings. The final style I’ve landed on, is one whereby I ask each person to choose one passage from that week’s chapter(s) and to read it aloud to the group. With all of these approaches, the idea is to remind people of the contents of the chapter and to discuss its merits/drawbacks. I find this really helps with retention, and helps to spur conversation.

6. Moderation Etiquette

Now that people know what they should be doing at the meeting, you as the moderator are in charge of making sure the Book Club meeting goes smoothly. The best way I have found to do this is to have everyone sit in a circle and simply ask “Who wants to go first?” and then proceed around the circle in a logical order until everyone in the circle has had their chance to speak. Its your job to make sure the conversation is flowing around the circle, and that people are not talking over each other.

I hope you give the Book Club format a try, as I’ve found it to be an incredibly fulfilling at-work experience. Let me know if you have any specific questions – I’d be happy to advise.  Gotta run… to a Book Club meeting no-less!

The very last section of a resume is actually where you learn the most about the person you are considering hiring.  Its in that bottom section that a glimmer of the person’s true personality emerges, and they show their true selves.   At the bottom of the resume is where people tell us they love cooking, or windsurfing, or volunteering as a karate instructor.  Working in a company where culture fit is as important (if not more) as skills fit, its the bottom where a person’s true cultural orientation comes through.  Its where you learn what they are most passionate about, what they would be doing if they didn’t have to work.   It tells you of they are the adventurous type, an intellectual, a weekend hacker, or an amateur electrician.  Its here that I begin to understand this person’s outlook on life, and how they seek to constantly improve themselves.

From there, I read upwards, typically passing through their education, which tells me more about their path.  Then I read through their early jobs, and start to see the complete narrative of a person’s career trajectory.  Finally, I get to the top where I read about what they are currently working on, and what they are looking to do next.  This part is also interesting, but having all of the context about who the person is, and where they’ve been, completes the picture for me.

Next time you read a resume, or view someone’s LinkedIn profile, skip the flouncy wording at the top, and head straight for the bottom.  Its at the bottom of it all, where the real story begins.

The note book I’ve been using to take notes in my “Business and Design Thinking” class is an old sketchbook I started working on in 2005.  I didn’t think much of it when I pulled that old book out, flipped to the first un-used page, and started taking my class-notes and drawing mind-maps about what we’re learning.  Now that its time to write a little diddy about how the class has been going, to my surprise I opened the sketchbook from the first page, and just started flipping through it.  Its contents not only surprise me, they made me smile.  Page one starts sometime during my Typography Foundations class at the Seattle School of Visual Concepts, where I’m learning about some of the “better” fonts to use, including Gill Sans, Frutiger, Helvetica, and Futura.  There’s also some notes in there about how to properly design your own font.  Almost five years later, and I’m still using those “better” fonts, and I still haven’t designed my own font.  Before getting to my present day’s notes, I pass through a bunch of work that has really shaped who I am as a designer including:

• Exercises on drawing in perspective
• Charcoal exercises in tonal gradation
• “Interesting” life drawing exercises
• Notes from my last few colour theory classes

Its hard to believe that its 5 years later and I’m still going headlong into this thing they call design.  One thing I’ve learned for sure… the design seas are vast, and never ending.  I could spend my entire life learning about design and I still would only have scratched the surface.  The good news is that not only have I been learning about design for these past several years, but I’ve also had the chance to practice it.  I’ll save that conversation for another post, and now focus on the first three classes of my Business & Design Thinking course at OCAD.

My first class was the first place I learned about something called the “Triple Bottom Line”.  Its People, Planet, Profit.  This is something that really stuck with me and is something that keeps coming up.  I’d actually say there’s a fourth bottom line which is Purpose, but I’m starting to think that perhaps Purpose comes out of the harmony of people, the planet, and profits.  To topic of purpose is something that comes up a lot where I work,  and its definitely something I’ll be watching for intently as part of this course.   Another topic that really grabbed me was the concept of the Basadur Applied Creativity profile, and the creative-types they have defined.   I actually ordered surveys for my entire team at work to see where everyone lined up, and it was incredibly interesting (and oddly predictable) to not only see the results of the surveys, but also how different people talked about the surveys and engaged in a discussion around its validity and outcomes.  It definitely provoked good thought about my team’s make-up, and who we were looking to hire to join the team.  I even went as far as to send the survey to a potential candidate to get a better understanding of who they were.  Very helpful, and immediately useful in my practice.

Another very interesting topic we touched on in-class was the question of what human-centered design really meant.  Almost all of my previous study had been around user-centered design, which is actually quite different.  User-centered design focuses primarily on the “user”, while its “human-centered” counterpart instead focuses on all stakeholders involved in a system.  Also this class really got me excited because it quickly started talking more about the physical aspects of human-centered design, and even referenced one of my favorite designers, Henry Dreyfuss, and his methods around measuring the “average” human, and designing for ergonomics.  I’m fascinated by all things industrial design (despite having never practiced it myself), so I really hope the class goes into greater detail in that area.

The last thing I will touch on, is the topic of visual thinking, which was referenced in our third class.  Dan Roam wrote a great book “Back of the Napkin“, which I’ve read, had the chance to see him speak while at a Microsoft conference in Las Vegas once.  This was something I was also really happy to see get addressed as part of the course, because I firmly believe in the highly visual nature of all design, and want to further hone my visual thinking, visual literacy, and hands-on visual practice.  I would love to see more of my classes have a focus on sketching and drawing as a means to think, and be expressive amongst other classmates.

Lastly, I feel like the content of the class is up-to-date and covers very recent books, discussions, and emerging trends, and doesn’t get overly caught up in semantics… which is exactly what I was hoping for out of my first Master’s course.

Me, Karim, and his wife.

Karim Rashid is one of my idols.  If you don’t know who the hell I’m talking about, he’s a world-renowned Industrial Designer, a fellow Canuck, and also a fellow graduate from Carleton University.  His design projects span the entire rainbow from furniture, to electronics, to quirky-lookin’ water bottles.  He coined the term “blobject” and owns the space entirely.  You get the picture…

It was a brisk autumn day, I was watching college football as I do most Saturday afternoons, when I got a text message from my BFF Sean.  It said “Karim Rashid thing starts at 9. Wanna go over any earlier?”… I had completely forgotten about the event being hosted at The Spoke Club that night, but was stoked (and honoured) that Sean would invite me (members-only event + permitted 1 guest).  So after dinner, I had one of those 90 second shower/shaves that gets you fresh as a daisy, and ready to rock.  I put on my classiest jacket – a Dior blazer I bought in Vegas a few years ago – that still looks awesome every time I wear it.   Slicked my hair, and headed to Sean’s on-foot.

Walking down the street, some perhaps-drunken dudes almost bumped into me, and when one looked up said “That dude looks like a vampire!” . Indeed, I had some intent with my walk, was wearing some pointy black shoes, and had my hair slicked like good ol Count Chocula.  That comment set me up with the confidence I’d need later in the evening.  I mean, who doesn’t want to look like a vampire?  Cmon.

The mingling got started right away

We arrived at the Spoke, not knowing at all what to expect.  We heard Karim Rashid might be speaking about something, but really had no context for the event.  As it turns out, he was there promoting his new line of digitally-produced, data-driven artwork.  The art looked cool for sure, with an even cooler price-tag of $15,000 per print.  Not exactly in my price range, so we decided to look around.  Low and behold, Karim himself was standing next to me!  Wearing a white suit, with what appeared to be snake-skin-like pixels all over it, the man stands at an imposing 6’2″ at least!

You get the idea!

After watching the crowd mingle, and seeing him talk to a few people, I had nothing to lose – I was going to talk to him.  Sean was skeptical that I should just approach him, out of fear that he might reject me harshly, and I’d lose the idolatry I had for the guy… but I didn’t see that happening at all.  So, with my vampire-comment-inspired courage, I mustered up the guts to approach him, and he looked at me intently.  “I wanted to complement you on your water bobble project” I said, to which he responded “oh yeah!  we love those things!  We have a few of them by our bed! Let me introduce you to my wife…” and we were off.  We talked about some of the new projects he was working on related to the Water Bobble project, of which I was incredibly interested to hear, including things like bigger bottles, and in-fridge models.  He even let me in on a secret (which I promised not to reveal) about how his new model is infinitely better than current water filters the likes of Brita. The amazing thing about this whole exchange between Karim and I was that he was incredibly nice, and spoke to me like a friend.  I have to admit, my impression from watching some online video interviews of him, I didn’t know what to expect, but I’m here to tell you the guy is a class-act.

One funny thing he asked Sean and I “Are you guys designers?” as if he was keenly interested in our response… to which I replied “Yes.”.  Now I’m not one for putting the word “designer” on my resume, and I don’t know if I ever will, bug the fact that I’m currently taking a Master’s of Design degree at OCAD at least puts me in the “designer in training” category .

Finally, at the end of our chat, I asked him for a photo, which he obliged, and make a funny joke about putting me between he and his wife.  “We’re not bringing you back to the hotel with us though!” he said, as the picture went “Snap”.  “No”, I said, “I’m too short for you guys.”  And that was it.

The big difference between these guys and the average marketing/advertising schlep, is that they actually MAKE SHIT.  They create things with their bare hands, using very little budget.  I met Brian Richer and Kei Ng at the Shift Disturbers conference, and it was like nobody but me understood that these guys were amazing, and the real stars of the show.  Call them misunderstood artists, I call them soon-to-be-rich (if they aren’t already).  According to Brian, they are already selling their sculptures at the Bay.  He told me, in his nonchalant, no-bullshit way, “They sell these things at the Hudson Bay Company.”.  No attitude, just a guy who makes great things, and puts them out there for the world to respond to.

He also told me about their recently opened restaurant, and when I asked if it was kid-friendly, he said “We have the best brunch in the city!”.  So I checked it out with Sean one night a few weeks ago, and it was the most amazing Sea Bass I ever had in my life.  How fucking amazing is that?  These guys have the midas touch, I’m convinced.  Anyways, keep an eye out for Brian and Kei… they will soon take over for Brian Gluckstein (ugh – can’t believe that guy is still milking it), or whatsername on HGTV.  I practically guarantee these guys will have their own TV show within 2 years.  Out.

Read More about Castor

Featured In Toronto Life Magazine

Their Restaurant, Reviewed in the Toronto Star

Finally wrapped-up reading the seminal book on online conversion, Call to Action by Bryan Eisenberg and Jeffrey Eisenberg (yes, they are ‘bros’).  Now stay with me if you want to learn something, otherwise just take my recommendation that you should go out and buy this book and read it if you’re at all concerned with website creation or its impact on your business.

The book talks about creating a “persuasion architecture”, which turns your website from brochure-ware, into a lean-mean-sham-wow-selling machine.  You know the sham-wow guy, and how you can’t look away when he’s on TV?  His famous line “you’ll love my nuts”?  This entire commercial is a carefully orchestrated example of how your website should behave by operating on so many levels other than just informational.  Stick with me folks, I’ll outline the basics here…

Here’s What I Learned

WIFM – What’s In it for Me?

Every page on your website should not talk about how great you are, or how many features you have, but rather to reflect specifically what value you deliver to the customer, and why they specifically have found what they went looking for.  Ensure that you’re constantly and directly answering the question – what’s in it for me?  and by ‘me’, I mean your customer.  This includes such commonsense things as “sell benefits, not features”, and “determine the value that your product gives to your customers”, and then write it down for your customers to plainly scan and skim.

2.  AIDAS  (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action, Satisfaction)

This is some old school marketing techniques, that still apply to today’s online situations.  Understand what these things mean on your own, because its covered only tersely in the book.  Know them, love them.

Here’s one example where I’ve outlined how “Attention” applies to the web…

Attention: Get your visitors attention.  They’ve just arrived from the wasteland that is a sea of search results, and they want to know if they’re in the right place.  BLAMMO!  Hit them in the face with some assurance that this is indeed what you’ve been looking for.  Its akin to having a great window display for your bricks-and-mortar store.   Show off the key points of what you’ve got inside, and let people know they are in the right place.

3.  Buying & Selling Process

If you believe the psychology of the buying process, there’s a fairly standard step-by-step that everyone goes through before they make a purchase whether they know it or not.  Identify, Search, Evaluate, Decide, Purchase, Re-Evaluate.  Ensure you’ve got something for everyone who’s at the different stages of the buying process.  Put your persuasive copy and points-of-action in exactly the right place at the right time, to persuade these folks.

4. Buyer Personalities

There are 4 major personality types when it comes to buying behavior.  The first is the spontaneous, who seek acceptance.  They are looking for an experience that is non-threatening and friendly.   They are interested in the “who” of your offer, and want to know more about your company, how friendly and easy to deal with it is.  The second is humanistic, who seeks applause.  They want to know who has used your product to solve their problems before.  They are interested in the “where” of your product, as in “where has this been applied effectively before?”.  The third is the methodical, who seeks accuracy. They want all of the nitty gritty details of what you offer, and if anything is lacking in detail, they’ll spot it from a mile away.  They are interested in the “how” of your offer.  The last is the competitive, who wants accomplishment.  They just want to know exactly what your product will do for them, and if it will solve their challenge of the moment.

5. Be Clear on your Unique Value Proposition

This one is simple.  Tell your visitors why you provide the best option out of all of the alternatives available to them.  What makes your offer unique to them, so they know what they would be missing if they chose someone else?

6. Copywriting

Before you write a single line of copy, you need to understand these three things:  What action needs to be taken?  Who needs to take that action?  and How do we persuade them to take said action?

Once you can clearly answer those three things, the copy should start to flow rather nicely… assuming you also read their follow-up book on Copywriting, which I’m starting to read tomorrow morning myself!

7. Assurances

Make it clear at every point along the buying process they they should have confidence buying from you, and what types of safeguards you provide.  This includes things like a hassle-free money-back guarantee, and available support should they need it.  People love being able to call somewhere on the phone and actually get a human being… be that kind of company, the kind that picks up the goddamn phone when someone calls.  I fucking dare you, dude.

Casey

So we started on a path, not knowing exactly where we might end-up by comparing the results from usability tests conducted in-person here in Toronto (on-site with our target customers, using a laptop), vs. remote usability testing using screen-sharing and Skype.  Here’s the results of how things compared…

Recruitment of Participants

Finding people to do a remote usability test was INCREDIBLY EASY.  We made a post online in a few strategic places, and within minutes we had people responding to our posting who actually matched our screener.  Finding the right sites to post your request for usability testers may take some thinking, but if you find the right one, it can be free, and fast!

Meeting the Participants

For this test, we split our participants 50/50 between in-person and online meetings.  By far, the most reliable participants were the ones we met with online.  It was convenient for them, and was very low-risk because they were participating in our tests from a place comfortable to them.  It actually makes so much more sense to test these people from where they actually do their work, because you’re capturing more of the context that’s such an important factor in understanding your users.  We met people from Russia, from Argentina, and everywhere in-between.  All spoke great English, and were forthcoming with their feedback.  Not once (knock on wood) did someone try to sneak into the test without being someone who could give us valuable feedback on our product – awesome!

Reviewing the Results

Like I said, we did it 50/50 remote vs. in-person, and the results were alarmingly similar.  There was no discernable performance impact of the test for people who were online vs. those we visited in-person.  We had consistent success rates, and consistent timings regardless of where the participant was located.

In Conclusion…

Next time, we’ll switch to 100% remote and see what happens.  I think with all of the time we save with recruitment, and our great experience this time with remote participants, its worthwhile to continue down the remote track until we at least reach its limitations.  Now, I’ll admit it was perfectly suited for our current needs, a baseline/benchmark test, and may not suit everyone’s needs, especially if you’re looking for qualitative feedback, and for eliminating external factors that would be isolated in a lab environment.

Give it a shot, it worked for us, and may make your life a metric ton easier as well…

“I am wondering if you have any tips on how to politely get the point across to an over-reaching project manger or engineer that they are not a designer.

I often find non-designers will make wireframes or mock ups in power point that look atrocious, are lacking in basic UI and usability fundamentals and do not conform at all to a project’s established design conventions.

Regardless of these shortcomings, these “designers” expect their precious .ppt to be transcribed faithfully into photoshop or html. Any deviation from the .ppt is met with frustration and scorn from the offended “designer”.

I would love to get some ideas on how to gracefully remind such people that their focus should be on providing requirements that a designer can work from to create a final design not on making the design themselves.

Please Help!”

Hi Ned,

In my experience, when a non-designer feels they need to get directly involved in designing, its a sign that they are engaged actively in wanting to contribute to the design solution.  This is a good thing!

At this point, when someone rolls in with a MSPaint hackjob, the best thing to ask them first is “What problem is this solving?”.  This is the real value in having them come to you with a solution is for them to articulate how they perceive the problem to be.  Having them better define the problem is extremely helpful for you, and your goal at this moment should be to gain a shared understanding of the problem space.  This will then allow you both to objectively measure any design solution against the stated and agreed-upon problem.

Once you’ve agreed upon the problem, the next step would be to critically evaluate their solution against the agreed-upon problem.  Its at this point, the tables are turned!  Now they are in the vulnerable position of having their design critiqued by a professional.  This is a great opportunity to educate your project manager or developer, about the nuances of what makes a great interaction design.  Education + Collaboration = Goodness.   I’m not saying to murder their design idea in front of them, but rather to develop a co-operative learning relationship so that you can work better together in the future.

The second way to help these situation is to first ensure that a project has well-defined design and interaction guidelines.  These guidelines can serve as a bar for which to measure your co-workers design, and once again removes the subjectivity or gut-feel from the discussion.  Once they better understand how high the bar is for creating an interactive experience that complies with the project’s guidelines, they’ll typically leave it up to you to come up with future concepts, and they’ll stick to what they do best.

Finally, remember that its not about who came up with a great idea (because there could be gold in them thar designs), but that the best idea is uncovered and implemented.  So don’t automatically assume that when a “photoshop disaster” hits your inbox, that its automatically shit.  Give your cohort the benefit of the doubt and use this as an opportunity to educate, and collaborate with them.