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Welcome to
Atlantic BT
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Growth
Patterns:
Building a foundation
for expansion
Driving, or being driven, to grow in order to meet demand.
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2011
We Now Have 50 Employees
Open hiring positions for another 5 (10%)
We Have 2 New Dedicated Teams
Copywriting
Quality Assurance
Expanded Our Management Team to Accommodate
Production Manager
Sales Director
HR/Recruiting Manager
Software Dev Manager
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pattern: The Bottleneck
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pattern: S&M / Ying & yang
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pattern: Chicken & the egg
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pattern: feed the beast
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It’s a numbers game
Itʼs risky... You have to consider the numbers.
How will you meter the pace of your growth?
Growth has impact across an organization
Ripple Effect
Growth can be contained:
Rate Changes
Firing Clients
Turning Down New Business
Growth should be deterministic
Is it taking you where you want to go?
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Design that
scales
Methods and best practices to grow gracefully.
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I am Eileen Allen
Super Mom, Photographer, Designer
& Creative Director @ AtlanticBT
@eileenallen
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Drink the kool aid
Process... Weʼre talking about process?! (Allen Iversonʼs voice)
You have to buy into your process, but donʼt let it handcuff you.
BRIEF research ideas solution production product
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the setup
The days of starting your project on a blank Photoshop canvas are
done. It requires too much wasted time and energy.
BRIEF research ideas
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Our creative arsenal
Whether you are a team of one, a small shop looking to expand, or a
massive force, you can benefit from thorough planning.
Client Brief / Worksheet
Creative Brief
Idea Brief
Co-Design
Styleboard
This collection of “setup” methods is meant to help us do one thing...
Think Before We Do.
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Client Brief
This is usually the first interaction a client has with our design team.
It allows clients to share their hopes and dreams.
The worksheet is meant to help clients self-evaluate, organize
their thoughts, and share their preferences.
  
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Example Question
How involved do you want to be in the design process of your site?
I trust your expertise and leave the design decisions up to you.
I would like to have a say in the design of my site.
I know exactly what I want and would like you to follow my
instructions.
Visit Atlantic BTʼs Actual Worksheet http://www.atlanticbt.com/client-worksheet.php
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creative brief
This is NOT your grandmaʼs brief. Instead, we ask a series of five
questions during the client kick off meeting.
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creative brief
Define purpose. Why do you feel like you need a site?
Define sales process. How do you communicate who you are to
clients?
Define the users. Who is the site for?
Define the end user goal (for each class if more than one). What
is the desired action?
Define the look and feel. Confirmation of client brief (theme,
colourway, risk factor)
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idea brief
“An idea brief is a sentence, or
two, that sums up the project and
frames it as a problem statement.
A question that needs an answer.”
- Mark Boulton
Source http://www.alistapart.com/articles/savingthespark/
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idea brief
Actual examples of our previous brief briefs include:
This client needs to distinguish themselves from the competition
by making a complex process easy for customers to understand.
This client needs the site to reflect the innovation in their
technology, communicate how they are ahead of the curve in their
industry, and highlight their credibility.
This client needs a site design that better reflects their reputation
and attract high-end clientele.
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co-design
Co-Design is a brainstorming session where the project team
collaborates and share their perspective on the common goals.
Use the idea brief to springboard into the co-design workshop.
Co-Design can happen:
You and a client
You and another designer
You and UX
You and UX and marketing and PM
You and all of the above
The concept was adopted from Leah Buley, formerly of Adaptive Path.
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co-design
The benefits of co-design sessions
include:
No one comes in empty
handed.
Helps to prioritize elements
and features.
We identify/solve the layout
through ideation.
Everyone has a voice, because
all ideas are good ideas.
Bada-bing: Wireframe!
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style board
Itʼs like if a style guide and a mood board had a baby!
Have you ever had a client:
Be surprised by your design choices?
Ever point out that you used the wrong kind of camo for the
background of their military equipment catalog site?
To prevent these surprises and potentially embarrassing mistakes,
we start with style boards to help the client visualize our direction
before we begin designing.
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style board
The key benefits of a style board include:
Eliminates surprises.
Designers are better prepared.
Avoids designing in a vacuum.
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sharing is caring
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Development
Fundamentals
Adventures in abnormal growth.
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I am daryl hemeon
Pipe Smoking Systems Astronaut &
Manager of Programmers at
AtlanticBT
Developer for 12+ Years
Mostly .Net
Previously a Systems Consultant
at Unum
Favorite Droid App =
RadioParadise
@darylhemeon
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BOOM!
Our development team has almost doubled in size
within the last two years.
More Employees
More Clients
More Code
More Bugs
More Site Launches
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you can look back
In order to sustain growth, you must
excel at the fundamentals.
The Joel Test
Fail Fast & Furious
The Light is Green (Unit Testing)
Low-Spark High Heeled
Impersonation
Diagnose like House MD
Don't Listen to the Astronauts
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The Joel Test
Do you use source control? Yes.
Can you make a build in one step? Not Completely.
Do you make daily builds? Working on it.
Do you have a bug database? Yes.
Do you fix bugs before you write new code? No.
Do you have an up to date schedule? Yes.
Do you have a spec? Sort of.
Do programmers/designers have quiet working conditions? Yes, sometimes.
Do you have the best tools money can buy? Yes.
Do you have testers? Yes.
Do new candidates write code during their interview? Yes.
Do you do hallway usability testing? Yes.
Source http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/
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Fail Fast Part Uno
public static void ValidateObjectParameterNotNull(object parameter,
string parameterName)
{
throw new ArguementNullException(string.Format("{0} cannot be null.",
parameterName));
}
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Fail Fast Part deux
"Failing fast doesn’t just save us money. The cold reality is that
people don’t like working on failing projects. When a project is failing,
people generally can smell it in the air. Employee engagement goes
down, turnover goes up, and things just generally get worse.
The best thing to do — for your people, for your company — is to
learn to fail, and create a culture that learns from failure."
- Aaron Erickson
Source http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1748768
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Test Driven Development Unit tests
"Test is a verb meaning 'to evaluate'. No software engineers release
even the tiniest change without testing, except the very confident and
the very sloppy...
Although you may test your changes, testing changes is not the
same has having tests."
- Kent Beck
Read This Book Test Driven Development by Example http://books.google.com/books/about/Test_driven_development.html?
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Low-Fi Spark of High Heeled Impersonation
Admin functionality on your site...
Keep it Simple.
Search for a User
If (AppUser.IsInRole("Admin),
Then Set a Cookie
If Cookie Exists, Load User
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Diagnose like house
Build a Diagnostics Page that
is accessible by IT support so
that they can help troubleshoot
production issues.
Dump your data as XML.
Use built-in tracing features of
Frameworks.
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Don’t Listen to the astronauts
What's Microsoft Live Mesh?
Hmm, let's see...
"Imagine all your devices—PCs, and soon Macs and mobile phones
—working together to give you anywhere access to the information
you care about."
Wait a minute. Something smells fishy here. Isn't that exactly what
Hailstorm was supposed to be?
I smell an architecture astronaut.
Source http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2008/05/01.html
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Deep
gh ts
"
!
by
Daryl Hemeon
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in closing...
Growth makes you look back at the fundamentals.
Fail Fast
Unit Testing
User Impersonation
Production Diagnostics
Don't Listen to Astronauts
Leaders Bring People Together
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THank You
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photo credits
http://images2.fanpop.com/image/photos/8900000/Ying-yang-firefox-8967278-1600-1200.jpg
http://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/b/bottleneck.asp
http://jamieansweringtheunanswerable.blogspot.com/2010/08/first-question.html
http://icanhascheezburger.com/?s=chipmunk
http://designingfortheweb.co.uk/
http://manpacks.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/underwear_icon-200x150.png
http://tinawatkins.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/care-bears.jpg
http://www.moviegoods.com/movie_poster/dont_look_back_1967.htm
http://lh5.ggpht.com/-4v21NrOytmQ/TGuOHqzzNaI/AAAAAAAAICM/3KH2Cpb2pcE/vin-diesel_fastfurious.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Traffic_-_The_Low_Spark_of_High_Heeled_Boys.png
http://funver.com/images/stories/people/celebrities/dr.house/dr.house11.jpg
http://www.e-beautywallpaper.com/files/landscape24.jpg
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