A look back at 2010

I always like the reflection that comes with a new year, along of
course with the anticipation of what the year ahead will bring. A lot
happened with Ideal Project Group in 2010; most of it good, some of it
bad, and all of it worthwhile and educational. I learned a ton,
worked with some new people, checked out some new tools, and launched
some new services and new products. Here's a random assortment of the
things I've been looking back on.

New Skill of the Year

I learned a bit of Ruby on Rails this year. It was by far the best
thing I've done in a long time - in terms of being able to add more
value to the projects I'm working on. As a result of picking up Ruby
on Rails, I ended up learning how to use .git (code source control for
the non-technical folks), learned a whole bunch more HTML & CSS, and a
lot of technical things related to deploying and maintaining
applications. I released thirtydayproject.org after taking part in
the little first follower dance party inspired by Derek Sivers and
Andrew Dubber, which gave me the confidence to make even more
applications. That led to the launch of Notifire, the product I created, and the easiest way to
add live chat support to a website.

New Service of the year

I started making websites for individuals and small businesses this
year. I started by using WordPress themes, then some pre-built HTML
and CSS templates from Themeforest, and now code some of them from
scratch. Just under 10% of my net profit this year will have come
from this new service and I plan to aggressively expand it in 2011.

At just under 10% of my net income, and even less in top line revenue,
Why do I look at this service as so successful? In large part because
of what the naysayers said. Here are a few of my favorites:

• "You'll never get people to pay you to make a website using WordPress."
• "Have you ever even had anyone pay you to make a website for them?"
• "Why would someone pay you to do something they could learn to do themselves?" (Because no one pays to have their oil changed, their hair cut, their nails painted, or any other service that people often pay for.)
• "I thought you were just a project manager".

Success of the year

I started out the year with a new business model - one where I charged
a flat monthly fee for being engaged on a project instead of charging
hourly. It was bumpy at first, but ultimately led to some great
projects, working with great people, and making great things. I
remain convinced that developers, designers, project managers, and
pretty much any type of freelancer can do more for themselves and
their clients by charging a flat rate instead of hourly.

Failure of the year

One of my biggest successes was launching Notifire. I love this
little product because I needed it, I use it, and it's the second true
product I've ever released into the marketplace. And, over 100 people
have signed up for the service as well - with a steady clip of new
users being added each week. I had one huge failure with it though -
and in November the service was down for about two weeks. Which of course is an
eternity in the internet world. It's like a store being closed in the
physical world for two years. This was a terrible failure on many
levels and it will not happen again.

Developer of the year

I've probably worked with over 100 developers since I've been running
software development projects, and one of the best people I've ever
worked with is a guy named Tawheed Kader. He's the founder of a
company called Braintrust and Co., a product design and development
company based in New York City. He's launched a couple of his own
products, and he provides freelance/consulting development services
for a few select companies. I'm thrilled I was able to work with him
this year and hope to keep working with him for many years to come.

Tool of the year

I started using a little content management system called Perch this
year after Ryan Singer from 37signals recommended it on Twitter. If
you make websites for people you should definitely check out Perch.
It's easy to use, easy to install, and easy for clients to pick up.

Events of the year

In the summer I helped host a little REWORK (the new business book by

Jason Fried and David Heinemier Hansson) meetup, and in the fall

helped Seth Godin and Ishita Gupta organize the Chicago Road Trip
visit. In addition to being able to meet Seth Godin, Jason Fried, and
Ishita Gupta, each of these events introduced me to some really great
and inspiring people - all of whom I hope to have the chance to work
with again sometime soon.

Lesson of the year #1

My project management work has consisted much more of freelancing gigs
than being an entrepreneurial business. I need to think long and hard
about whether I'm building out Ideal Project Group as a BUSINESS THAT
ULTIMATELY RUNS ITSELF, or if it's the business through which I do
freelance project management. It can also be both because I may build
out the custom app development and product business through Ideal
Project group, while also doing some freelance project management.
Either way, the answer will have a dramatic impact on the decisions I
make in 2011, the people I hire, and the direction my company heads

Lesson of the year #2

Constant travel sucks. One of the projects I've been working on this
year has been a great project, but it required me to travel about once
a week for the past six months. The problem with this kind of travel
is that it causes a ton of collateral damage to the rest of your life.
When you have recurring, once a week travel scheduled, it takes first
priority and as a result has a huge impact on your family, friends,
creativity, productivity, and general happiness. Here's a small
example of what can happen when you have travel once a week built into
your schedule. This was my calendar for a couple weeks in November:

Monday morning - fly to Detroit
Tuesday night - fly home to Chicago
Friday morning - visit friends in Vegas
Sunday afternoon - fly home to Chicago
Tuesday morning - fly to Detroit
Wednesday night - fly home to Chicago
Saturday morning - fly to California with family to visit my in-laws

Now, looking at this schedule, is there any way someone could be
expected to maintain high levels of creativity or productivity? Of
course not. And, how good of a father did I feel like I was being
when I didn't see my kids for about half the time? And how good of a
husband did I feel like I was being when I left Maile with two
toddlers for half the time?

And yet, all I did (not related to my project) was have a weekend
where I visited some friends I haven't seen in 8 or 9 months, and then
go see my in-laws for Thanksgiving. Two completely and totally normal
life things to do. And so what happens is you become travel weary,
these kinds of trips get cancelled, you become less close to your
friends, and suddenly you find yourself tired, crabby and spent. I'm
not saying that I'll never travel like this again - but if I do I'll
go into it eyes wide open with a true understanding of what the cost
is - and make sure things are lined up accordingly with the project
and my life.

Looking ahead

It's fun to look back at a year gone by, but not anywhere near as fun
as looking ahead to the new possibilities that a new year can bring.
New products created, new services introduced, and the endless
possibilities - only some of which we can choose to explore. I'll let
you know which ones I'm planning to explore in 2011 in my next post.

Happy new year everyone!

Who needs to be managed?

Seth godin teaches us in Linchpin that the factory is dying. Or at least, that the rewards for building and working in a factory are dying. That successful people and companies now are rewarded for creating art; not for racing to the bottom and selling the cheapest thing that was created as efficiently as possible.

And as I've written about before, Daniel Pink teaches us in Drive that what we've been taught in school, and at work, about what motivates people - is almost completely wrong.

This has me thinking about management, and specifically, which people need to be managed and which direction managers need to be focusing their attention.

In the factory, managers manage down. They receive an order from their boss, pass it on to their employees, and then make sure it happens the way the boss wanted.

But what if the boss is wrong?

In the factory, it didn't matter. If you did what the boss wanted you were rewarded, you got promoted, and made more money. Because you were a good manager.

But in the new economy, the one where people buy stories, and relationships, and things that are remarkable; if the boss is wrong and everyone manages down, the company dies, literally.

You can almost be guaranteed that Enron, Citibank, Bank of America, and AIG all have managers that managed down really well.

But what they didn't have was managers that were able to manage up. People who were able to successfully stand toe to toe with their executive superiors and tell them, "no, actually, I won't commit fraud to help our bottom line. And I won't have my team do it either."

Yet that's exactly what those companies needed most.

And this is the reality for most companies today. What organizations need most are not managers who are able to create lists of tasks for the workers and then make sure that those tasks are completed successfully.

No, what managers need to be doing today is giving their people the creative freedom to thrive, while managing upwards so that their teams can be successful.

So, if you're a manager and you're not quite happy with how your team is performing, you should spend a little time thinking about whether you really need to be managing them - or if you need to be more effective at managing your boss.

In App iAD design analysis

There's a pretty cool video promoting the new washington post iPad application that's been getting mentioned a lot over the past couple days, and it prompted me to head on over to the app store and check it out.

Upon opening the app though, something seemed really off to me. I couldn't explain it at first, but the screen was literally hurting my eyes. More specifically, my eyes felt like they were really distracted - as if they didn't know where on the screen they should be focusing.

Then I realized it was the placement of the iAd at the bottom of the page that was causing most of the trouble.

The Washington Post app already has kind of a lot going on with it, but it seemed clear to me that it was the placement of the iAd that was causing most of the trouble. So I decided to spend some time analyzing exactly what was the issue was, and then compared it to a couple other applications.

Here's a screenshot of the Washington Post's iPad application in portrait mode.

The first thing that's wrong here is the black padding on the left and right sides of the Ad. It makes the Ad look like it was just sort of tossed in there as an afterthought and, quite literally, does not fit properly.

More critically though, it throws off the balance of the entire application. When reading an article, you're eyes are almost constantly pulled down to that section of the page. I know the point of ads is to get people to look at them, but this is done so forcefully because of the heavy contrast that it's actually painful on the eyes.

The ad looks a little bit better when the iPad is in portraitmode (screenshot below) because at least the size is right, but it still looks weird.

The reason is because the ad is underneath the bottom controls of the application. This gives the ad the feel of being OUTSIDE of the application - and treats it as if it's some sort of separate entity.

But it's not.

If you're going to put ads in your application, then they are a part of your application, and they require as much design attention and focus as any other part of the app.

Compare the above screenshots with those of the New York Times application below.

The Ad at the bottom is treated as an element within the application. It appears INSIDE the app. The controls appear under the ad, the ad shares the same background as the page (and articles), and there's a nice little double border above it. These design decisions clearly separate the ad from the rest of the CONTENT, yet still incorporate it into the overall look and feel of the application.

If I were in charge of the development of the Washington Post app, the first thing I would do is simply work on the design and placement of the ads. Until that's done, making other more application specific design enhancements will be a challenge.

Now, having thought this through, I feel like I'm seeing this problem in ads all over the place. From websites, to Ads in android apps to ads in iOS devices, the theme is the same throughout: Ads that are incorporated into the application and included as part of the design look acceptable.

Ads that appear outside the context of the application seem out of place and distracting, ultimately harming the overall experience of the user. Something to think about if you've got an app out in the world with ads in it.

Accept where you are

One of the countless things I love about my wife Maile is that she tends to say really meaningful things without even intending to. She's sort of zen-like like that. We were talking about a few things the other day and she said "well, it's like they say in yoga, first you just have to accept where you are."

Whoa. What?

Apparently in her yoga class, one of the things they teach is that in order to get better at something, the first thing you need to do is accept where you're at. If people can't do a certain pose, bend, stretch, or whatever, the idea certainly isn't to get all frustrated and mad at yourself. Instead, stretch to the point you can get to, and then accept it. There's no good, bad, right or wrong.

That's where you are.

The thing that's cool about this is that it can apply to so many aspects of our lives, whether it be our businesses, jobs, families, or anything else. While maybe obvious for some, this was kind of an epiphany for me and I've really been thinking about it a lot.

Say there's a skill you're working on and you'd like to get better at it. If you're anything like me, you spend a LOT more time looking at how far away you are from where you want to be than you do appreciating where you're at. I don't think this mindset is always bad, because I think it can be really healthy to have goals for ourselves and to want to get better and to improve.

The problem though is that all too often we don't accept where we are at all. We're NEVER satisfied.

And while that mindset may in some ways be the fuel that drives our progress, we should probably be aware that it can blow up in our face if we're not careful.

So something I'm working on right now is accepting where I am.

And interestingly, when I have been able to do this consciously, I'm able to see that I'm actually pretty close to being exactly where I want to be.

Does a PMP certification do more harm than good?

I read once that the average website visitor makes their decision on whether to stay on that website in 4 seconds. That's right FOUR SECONDS.

This has me wondering if putting PMP after ones name is such a good idea anymore - particularly in the world of software development. For those of you that may not know, PMP stands for Project Management Professional, and is a certification provided by the Project Management Institute.

Now, I'm sure most people that have a PMP certification, and certainly the PMI, probably think this is a crazy question. But I think it's something a good project manager should really be wondering about right now.

If a website has four seconds to make an impression - and people are MAKING DECISIONS on whether to buy what you're selling in this four seconds - it seems like we should be paying attention to how that PMP acronym is affecting the decisions of potential buyers as well.

Certainly, there are companies that explicitly state they want project managers with a PMP certification. But I think there are just as many that explicitly don't want someone with this designation - again, especially in the world of software development.

True or not, the perception of someone with the PMP credential is that they like formal processes, don't like to iterate, look at change as something undesirable, and love corporate politics. I'm not saying this is the reality about the PMI - I'm saying there's a very real perception about this.

I no longer put PMP in my signature line, not because I wish I didn't have the designation, but because it's not the first impression I want to make on someone. I'd much rather have someone check out my website, this blog, or really, now that I'm thinking about it, pretty much anything else I've made before I would want them to see a PMP designation.

I haven't decided, but I may even let it expire when it comes up for renewal. I'm not sure.

The one thing I can say for certain is that as the economy continues to shift, as people are going to have to bring more value to a project, and as the role of the project manager continues to evolve, a certification of any kind is not going to be nearly as important as being able to show real things that someone has created.

I don't know if the certification does more harm than good, but the fact that the question needs to be asked is telling.