The Crazy Ones...

The People Who Are Crazy Enough... 

During the last retreat I showed a picture and quote by Heraclitus - an Ancient Greek Philosopher. "A man (or woman) can never step in the same river twice" - which often gets simplified to make the point that "There is nothing permanent but change". The focus is on the changing times around the person in the river.

Just like that person, SiteCrafting exists in a turbulent world of change. If we think about the technology in 2003 compared to the possibilities of today, it's comical. Our worries, concerns and challenges were different than they are today and they will be different tomorrow. What endures however, are values. What do we stand for? Who do we say we are?

 As a reminder, here's our values as articulated in our Brand Book:  Communication, Learning, Dependability, Transparency 

At SiteCrafting, we are: Reliable, Creative, Confident and Authentic

We are not: Boring, Unresponsive or Satisfied with "good enough" 

The river may change, but the person/company must remain true.

In 1997, Steve Jobs returned to Apple Computer. Apple was in a state of disarray. The clip below is Steve Jobs introducing the Think Different campaign to a group. His explanation and ultimately the rolling of the clip is the beginning of the Apple we know today. I would encourage you to watch it and learn from the Crazy Ones.

Mobile Wine Tour Released

We have been working on this project for almost a year and we're finally launching it this week at Taste Washington. It's called Mobile Wine Tour and you can learn all about it here. Essentially it's a wayfinding application that allows you to leverage the power of a smartphone and GPS to easily route you to winery tasting room information for wineries nationwide. You can search/sort by what's closest, what's open, wines produced, and more. We have a lot planned for the app, so we'd really welcome your initial feedback. 

To view the App in the Apple App Store click here.

I'll add Android link tomorrow when it is available.

Photo of the Day 3/9/2012 - The King of Pop

Not long after this incident, a very creative person near our Tacoma office (at the time) - created this "tribute". It was the talk of the town for awhile and eventually The King retreated to his room.

This raises several questions, including a simple one, Why?

Only in T-Town.

Going Back to Cali, Cali, Cali

Just like that, I'll be on a plane back to the OC next Wednesday. Seems the power of word of mouth and referrals has me leading the jet-set life back down South. It will just be a short trip, a day trip, if you will - but it's worth it if we can add another satisfied customer.

It is our intention to make and keep big promises - if we do that we can be a fish - big or small - in any pond.

South Sound Technology Conference

If you're in Tacoma, I'll be speaking at this Friday's South Sound Technology Conference on Mobile. Word on the street is that registration is filling up fast, or has already filled up, so visit the event page to register and reserve your space.

We'll be discussing Mobile Wine Tour, MultiCare Urgent Care Wait Times, as well as how to execute on a mobile strategy.

Hint: An "App" is not a strategy.

Custom vs. Off the Shelf

My company is a custom web application shop and one of the great things about custom software application development is that you can build pretty much anything you can dream up. This is also one of the biggest drawbacks for some people. Many customers don't know what they want, or they think they know what they want, but have a hard time articulating it. We have a design process where we listen to our customers, and then work to wireframe out a solution. A difficult jump for some is the fact that the wireframe is the blueprint and that is what the project as quoted includes. Aligning those expectations early (before code is written) is the key to keeping projects on budget and on time. These "limits" require the project team to prioritize new requests and table other requests for future development. Each release really begins to become more of a product once the wireframes are approved. (This is what is does and all that it does right now - not saying it can't do more, it just has to happen later.)

Other companies focus on creating products. These products can only do what they can do. If you dream up something different, you either need to find a different product or hope that your feature is included in future releases. This can be a very lucrative path for software companies, because once they have a product they can easily support the single version and only make revisions as they find they need to. This is not such a great solution for customers that don't fit nicely into compartments.

I believe there is a place for both types of development and in the coming weeks you will hear more from SiteCrafting as we expand our offerings in both areas.

How Long is a Piece of String?

So, here's what happens.

I get contacted and I have a 3 minute conversation which usually includes phrases like:

"You've done this a lot so you should know...", "It's really not that hard to do", or "Give me a ballpark, I won't hold you to it..."

Actually all of these are lies. Anyone in our industry knows this to be so.

This post is not meant to be a rant, but it may end up sounding like one.

I actually think that those that are making the statements are not doing it to take advantage, they are more just in a position of either not knowing, or not appreciating what it takes to do what we do. So I hope this post will help educate - if nothing else.

For the record, I am done giving pricing without full specs. I am done with ballpark numbers, I am done with brainstorming after those numbers have been revealed. I am done with Ad agencies dictating design without ANY idea what matters and what actually works for the web, especially after pricing has been discussed.

Imagine that you are building a house, you tell the architect you want a house with walls and a roof. How much is that? He'd be crazy to answer, yet I am expected to give an answer without hesitation.

Go into Home Depot, ask them - "How much is a piece of string?"

Answer: IT DEPENDS

Depends on length, type, features, materials, craftsmanship, etc. etc.

The same is true for our "product". IT DEPENDS.

"By events calendar do you mean, I can see when events are happening ONLY - or I can register, create a custom t-shirt, invite friends, tweet, add it to my calendar, send myself reminders, blah blah blah?"

So I am done.

This IS a rant, more at myself for letting it happen then at others for asking.

We are not laying pipe in a 100' trench - we are dealing with emotion, marketing, expectations and the only way to make those expectations clear is to fully define them.

So, it ends, at least in as much as it's been done before.

Here's what I want...

I want you happy, not let down. Conversely, you should want me happy, because it is in your best interest for me to be here and not go bankrupt eating features and costs because you wanted a price up front.

How will you know and what will you do?

I had coffee this morning with a good friend and like anyone who has experienced 2008 and 2009 there have been struggles. I've heard tons of talking heads discussing the economy and how bad economies weed out those who have been falsely propped up by good economies. This Darwinian approach may be the reality, but it is never easy to hear about, or discuss another's struggles.

Bottom line: all industries are struggling to a point, some have been more fortunate than others and there is no easy money unless you are a league leading left handed hitting catcher in the Big Leagues.

We have been very fortunate, we are growing, hiring, expanding, but that may not always be the case.

I kept asking myself in my mind as we were talking - how will I know that my plan is no longer working and more importantly will I recognize it without delusion, and what will I do?

I just hope I approach it differently than the horse and buggy guys, the record labels, the newspaper guys, the travel agents, etc. etc.

I have heard it said it is better to fail quickly than to die by a thousand paper cuts - I agree!

The answer I believe is in the way I hope I see the world. I see the world as a place of changing attention and priorities. Within that change I approach my response to that change focusing on unchanging principals (justing, integrity, love, shared benefit, etc) I accept that my way is not always going to win and if I want to win I need to pay attention and move to embrace the change, and not fight it.

Alter Ego

There's a lot to say inside my head and sometimes I struggle to figure out what is personal (thus for this blog) vs. what is SitecCrafting which is this blog. I put so much of myself and who I am into the personality of SiteCrafting it seems that everything over there is personal to me.

I will continue to try and figure out where it goes, and for the most part all hobby stuff (beer brewing, fishing) will live here, the rest over there.

Fastest Growing and More to Come

So tomorrow night we (SiteCrafting) is up for one of the South Sound's Fastest Growing Companies. Last year we finished 6th - this year we will be at least 5th as there are only 5 finalists this year as opposed to last year's ten. Maybe there weren't that many businesses growing this year, maybe folks are worried about jinxing whatever growth they have had to this point. Regardless, we are in to win.

Last year my acceptance speech was sub-par. I was thrown by cue cards that were too small and by a photo of myself projected behind me that was way too big. This year I plan to improve, though that won't be hard to do.

In preparation I've been thinking about growing our business and why in some ways it's been easy and why in some cases it's been hard.

I often think about how our customers are only ready for a website when they are ready - I know that seems like common sense, but you can't really sell someone a website that will be a success for them until they are ready to take the plunge. The same is true with business. I'm finding that I really can't grow this thing effectively (that is without losing my mind) until I am ready to let go of key tasks and focus on my strengths. I am doing that now and I believe we will grow even more in the coming year.

There are certainly challenges - competition, reluctant banks holding tight to credit, slow paying customers, employees. Our plan has to always been to try and take care of ourselves. By that I mean to control those things which we can control and respond effectively to those we can't.

In many cases, we've elected to create our own experience. We've expanded when others may have held tight (opening Spokane this past July), we've invested in infrastructure (multiple data centers to provide tier one connectivity), and we've invested in people (increased our health care benefits, long/short term disability, 401k).

There is more to do, but I think we must focus on those things we can control, and for those we can't we must be creative. We must look for partnerships where there were formerly none, we must reach out to our partners, friends, and competitors, and we must invest in growth.

So what lies ahead? Who knows. We do know how to respond no matter what.

A few nuggets though:

• New Sales team
• Seattle location
• CFO
• Possible restructuring of the company to provide ownership to employees who have demonstrated loyalty and excellence
• New designers
• Programmers