Sage advice from The Atlantic which, in a business context, is well worth following when you’re developing new products and services. Being before the time brings a sales battle you’re bound to lose. Capture the zeitgeist; don’t attempt to reinvent it.
Of course, that doesn’t mean don’t innovate. And it surely doesn’t mean you should trust focus groups with a revolutionary product (they’ll always prefer the status quo). Just make sure you’re tapped into an immediate need, and not going to market with something that solves a need that won’t be realized for another 2-3 years. You need to be solving problems today, not tomorrow.
Our Value Pricing deck from last week’s NXNE Interactive panel.
Last week we had the pleasure of joining Sam Ladner, Jon Lax and our moderator Simon Conlin on a NXNE panel discussion about value pricing. Abolish The Hourly was a well attended session and, from on stage, appeared to be capture the audience. I suppose any time you challenge the status quo, people take notice. But this topic is really nothing new, though it may be somewhat foreign to the creative services industry.
Kipu question: What’s the minimum amount of time you’ll spend on a task?
A one question survey on the minimum interval of time you’ll spend on any given task.
Please fill out the google survey, s’il vous plais.
We’ll be presenting at these upcoming events in April, May and June.
We’re pleased to be speaking at these upcoming events throughout April, May and June. Collectively, they offer a variety of topics, whether you’re an entrepreneur, marketer, or freelancer. Take a look!
DesignGuru Talks: Online Identity.
Friday, April 23, 2:00p at the Centre for Social Innovation, 215 Spadina Avenue, 4th Floor, Alterna Boardroom.
We’ll be discussing a variety of issues around how individuals and organizations can maintain a harmonious identity across varied platforms on the Web.
So why so quiet?
We have tons of stuff we’re looking forward to sharing with you but we’ve been so swamped lately we’ve ended up being terribly neglectful. I’ve even got a half written blog post on the sketchy iTunes 9 GUI, which will sadly not likely see the light of day (it’s too late to bother now, right?). So, if we’ve been so quiet over the summer, what have we been up to?
Introducing My Events, the best way to track your favourite Toronto Events.
I know it’s been a little quiet around here. We’ve been heads down working away on great projects. We promise to share more soon and right now we’re super excited having just pushed a great new update to the Toronto Events Calendar. This is the beginning of a new series of incremental updates that we’ll be pushing over the coming weeks. Basically, our version 1.5 of the calendar, with more refinements coming soon.
Working towards a better experience.
No matter what type of system you’re building, be it a website, web app or desktop app, user testing is a vital tool that will allow you to identify problems in your system and help you build a better experience for your users.
It’s not necessarily a costly and time consuming endeavor. In fact, a few friends and some food may be all you need to get some great insight on how to improve your system.
Here are some introductory tips to help you get started towards building a better experience for your users with the help of user testing. Note that I’m using the term ‘website’ to describe a project or system, but this process can be applied to any activity that requires user interaction.
Community Lend bringing social lending to Canada.
For years Americans have enjoyed the advantages of person to person lending and borrowing, but due to strict regulations here in Canada, loans could only be issued by accredited lenders like banks and credit card companies. Working closely with regulators, CommunityLend will soon be offering Canadian lenders and borrowers alike the opportunity to play in the once tightly-closed $100 Billion industry.
Organic Crush Eco Kid Couture.
It was with little more than a few t-shirt slogans and the dream of a cleaner planet that two mothers from Vaughan came to us. The company these two trendsetters envisioned was Organic Crush, a full line of premium infant clothing made with organic fabrics and eco-friendly processes. With a well grounded business idea, close to our interests in being both socially and environmentally responsible, we took on the project with the task of positioning Organic Crush as organic clothing with designer flare.
