When in Doubt, Make A List. Great advice from Scott. When I’m stuck or doubting the right way to approach something my fallback is always to write a list down in my notebook, think it over, and then add it to OmniFocus. It may feel like a step backward at first but it always gets me moving in the right direction.
Category Archives: Links
Oh my god, don’t make things for “Everyone.” Fantastic post from Dan Sinker about the pitfalls of trying to design for mass consumption. My favorite line:
Don’t ever make something for “Everyone” make it for someone. And make that person love it.
How to activate faculty to fuel your content. Great set of tips for motivating consistent blogging among faculty.
Checkboxes that kill. Great post about the dangers in complex, customizable settings. Two key takeaways: regularly audit how people are using your product and consider whether more than 2% of your users will use a setting.
Measuring without measuring:
Measurement is fabulous. Unless you’re busy measuring what’s easy to measure as opposed to what’s important.
Farm Fakes: A History of Fraudulent Food:
For all of the current regulation, the United States has a food blind spot: mislabeling products in this country can be a winning (and legal) sales strategy.
Letter To A Young Programmer Considering A Startup. A wonderful post from Alex Payne about startup jobs. The bit about startup culture being the new corporate culture was particularly interesting.
How to hire good people instead of nice people. Fantastic post about hiring and the processes Brooke Allen uses. I really liked this bit:
I won’t get between you and your dreams. If you have a dream, I need to know what it is so we can figure out if this job gets you closer.
On Thingpunk. Interesting read via Matt Pearson about what the author dubs Thingpunk. Essentially:
Thingpunk is a deep bias in design thinking that sees physical products and the built environment as the most important venues for design and innovation even as we enter a world that’s increasingly digital.
Not sure how to capture it but it was an intriguing read.
50 small things you can do to improve customer service. Solid slide deck from Greg Meyer about improving customer service.