Exposure (the FA blog)

Scaling Up To Simple

Wed, 02 Jun 2010 16:06:00 -0400

Scaling an organization is relatively easy. Once you get some traction in the marketplace, things can heat up at a significant pace. Scaling an organization while maintaining quality, and adhering to brand values- can be a challenge.

As the FA network expands, and the volume of new business opportunities increase, we’re working to map out a growth approach for our firm.

1. To Grow, Or not to Grow…

“Why grow? Small is not just a stepping stone, small is a desitination in itself.” -Jason Fried, Rework

First things first, should we grow? Should we contract? If we grow, how much is too much? What pace, method, and manner is in line with the FA brand vision and value framework?

At FA, we’ve always maintained a small, tight knit organization- we pride ourselves on extremely low turnover, a shared work philosophy, and a commitment to building a company that is both sustainable and awesome. We leverage attributes like agility, flexibility, and efficiency as we position in the marketplace.

Our perspective: scaling up is fine- pending this growth is paced- and is defined by a healthy mix of organic circumstance and strategic planning. Further, growth is ok, but not at the expense of the (consistent) delivery of premium quality UX, in a manner that that is civil for our internal team.

2. Team Structure

As designers, we ♥ to take our design process and apply it to things outside of web and brand architecture. Internally, we prototype a good number of work models, collaboration methods, productivity applications, and the like. In place of just piling on work and throwing people at projects, we require a designed, more thoughtful solution to managing an expanded project volume.

When FA was 7 strong, we enjoyed total flexibility across the organization. We had 2 Project Directors, 2 Senior Designers, 1 Creative Director, and 2 Developers. Directors could poach resources across the board to shift and adapt to ever changing requirements and timetables.

Currently, the FA team clocks in at 13, and we have implemented a “soft” team structure. Influenced by the HBS Publication on our neighbors Big Spaceship, our 3 Project Directors now lead 3 small teams, each with a dedicated design lead. Maintaining 3 separate small teams enables us to manage a larger number of active projects, without overloading the (very precious) focus and bandwidth of our core team members.

Each Project Director has a small arsenal of specialists to tackle the spectrum of challenges that arise in any given project cycle. Unlike FA 2009, poaching someone from, for example, Team B to support Team A’s needs- is now much less common, since each team maintains it’s own schedule and runs at a balanced capacity.

A few specialists float between the teams, to support them for targeted project requirements.

3. Keep it boutique.

We always joke that we’re the green tea of digital agencies. We have a collective passion for efficiency, health, awesome design, and zen proverbs. Don’t get me wrong, we have our share of fires to put out, shit storms, and weekend work. At times it is indeed, like trying to drink water out of a fire hose. But we have a desire to maintain a balance across our organization, across disciplines, and our personal lives. As such, we have designed a model that is boutique, flexible, and easy to manage.

Throughout the summer we will prototype a fourth team for smaller engagements. This fourth team will utilize our simple, modular project management tools (basecamp, merlin, gDocs spreadsheets, and the like) to staff, manage and execute bite size support projects as needed.

Thus, scaling up a bit further is the cards, and something that we, as an organization, are open to. That said, we hope to channel all growth to achieve the healthy balance as described above. And even as we bump up the team size, we’ll continue to position as a boutique provider of quality and meaningful digital services, be it UX, Visual Design, Animation, Engineering, and the like.

So that’s it, a paced, modular design solution to the scaling issue for our boutique digital agency. We’ll keep on rockin, and keep you posted!

FreeAssociation Welcomes: Matthew Piliero

Wed, 26 May 2010 11:24:00 -0400

What were you doing before working at FreeAssociation?

Before FA I worked for Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), a global real estate finance firm. I worked for their Public Institutions group in DC on a government contract. I was a Portfolio Advisor to three Air Force housing projects - working with a team around the country to oversee the finances, development, and asset management on behalf of the government.

Are you excited about your recent move to NYC?

Absolutely. Ever since I was a kid I always wanted to live and work in “the city”. I grew up and went to school only 4 hours hours away in Ithaca, NY, but have lived in DC, Boston, Florence, and Miami. It’s surprising how long it took to end up here.

So, why the move to digital?

The digital industry is exploding and I wanted to get in. Since technology, design, film, and style are all passions of mine, it made sense to make the move. In 2010, companies in every industry are rapidly adopting digital on a holistic basis… it’s a very interesting time.

What’s your favorite website? (and why)

I would have to say Facebook. I joined back in college - six years later I log in multiple times every day- to keep up with friends and use the amazing social features they keep cooking up. Another favorite is Tablet Hotels. As a “hotelie” (what the alums of the Cornell Hotel School call ourselves), I love to geek on global travel and hospitality. I think Tablet offers quality information and solid UX. Oh, and speaking of quality websites, I’m currently authoring two Tumblogs - Uncommon Landscape (trends- usually sustainable, always awesome) and Hautemeal (personal food experiences).

So what are you working on at FreeAssociation?

Here at FA I’m working as a Junior Project Director, so I’m supporting the Senior Project Directors on management, and collaborating with the rest of the FA staff. I’m currently managing a handful of projects that include strategy, visual design, information architecture, and web engineering. Overall it’s busy, but very much exciting, and I’m glad to be on board!

100% Social

Thu, 29 Apr 2010 12:48:00 -0400

We recently launched The Last Degree, a collaboration with GE and digital strategy firm Undercurrent. We delivered identity, design, and a handful of web applications to support an online social ecosystem for the program.

The Last Degree is the story of a young man on a mission:

On April 2nd, 15 year-old Parker Liataud set out on an epic journey to ski to the geographic north pole. With nothing but a guide, a GPS device, and a backpack full of arctic gear, Parker’s journey is a global call to action on critical environmental issues.

Sandcastle: Not Needed

In the past few years there has been a lot of debate about the impending “death of the microsite”, so it was interesting for us to participate in a program that lived exclusively on social networks. Instead of a microsite, we created engagements that lived primarily in Facebook, but also integrated Twitter, Youtube, Flickr, Daily Mile, Foursquare, and Google Earth.

This fractured, socially driven experience was a great solution to engage youth around Parker’s mission- streamlined, cost effective, and embedded in the networks that young people spend their time. Earned media was handled by Edelman. In addition, Foursquare created a North Pole Badge - which gained the attention of blogs like Mashable.

What to make of this? Well as I always say to the team: “Brush up those FB Page Admin Skills!”

Joking? Yes, Sort of. It’s clear that the industry is rapidly trending away from big, beautiful, microsites - those very expensive (and uh, very processor intensive) “one to many” type experiences. Good news is there’s plenty of work for visual designers and web technologists in a post “mega microsite” world- visualizing application states, mapping ecosystems, geeking on APIs, hacking away at FBML (grrrr), and working to deliver awesome UX across a spectrum of web, social and mobile platforms.

Don’t get me wrong though - robust brand websites are here to stay, and we love to create them. But on the campaign side of digital, it’s certain we’ll see a lot more of these fractured web, social and mobile experiences in the near future.

Prototyping Productivity

Tue, 23 Mar 2010 16:07:00 -0400

At FA, we’re very much passionate about testing new methods of working, be it resource mobility, modified processes, team structures, or management applications. We’re constantly tinkering with things, seeking a more perfect blend of efficiency, quality, and team wellbeing.

In the past, we’ve tried out a few models where our team goes “offline” at various periods in the day- to minimize interriptions and maximize focus.

In practice, however, this model can be VERY difficult to maintain. For one, the range of communication tools we use today is unending, and two, the speed and real (or false sense of) urgency that requests come in at is significant.

In SXSWi I listened to Jason Fried read from his new book Rework a chapter about the toxicity of interruptions. He talks about the confusion between collaboration and interruption, and the value of longer periods of focused work. It comes down to quantity (long hours) vs. quality (less, but better). Based on that (and reading the book, which I strongly recommend), we were inspired to give the interruption-free approach another whirl.

Here is a basic breakdown of what we’re doing now:

We have a flexible start time on our day, people usually roll in between 9:30 and 10:30. From there, portions of the day are cut up into “Flex Time” and “Focus Zones”. There are two Focus Zones, one in the AM, one in the PM - each with a duration of 3 hours. During those periods of focus, no interruptions are allowed. People close their Mail apps, go invisible on iChat, - whatever helps them focus. In addition, some people use Concentrate, an application (mac) that allows you to define a task with a timer.

Sure, if you need some inspiration or a break, you can check in with your friends or surf the web. But from a business interruption perspective, that time is focused.

For internal project communication we have abandoned email- all todos, messages, and documentation is authored and maintained in Basecamp. For non-project discussions, link sharing, lunch ideas - we use co-op, a passive chat application by Harvest.

How is working? So far, so good. We’ll keep you updated as new insights, practices, and obstacles arise.

SXSWi 2010 Roundup

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 20:45:00 -0400

FA Attendees: David Landa (Partner, EP), Michael Piliero (Partner, CD), Christoffer Rodemeyer (Senior Designer)

This past weekend, Michael, David and Chris hit the streets of downtown Austin to imbibe the cutting edge of digital (along with brews and warm Texan sun). Maybe it’s just that we keep up with the blogs, but the overwhelming reaction from our team (and many other attendees we spoke with) was that the sessions didn’t deliver much new or exciting information.

Despite the lackluster session experiences, the conference was a great opportunity to socialize and celebrate with clients and collaborators (from near and far). That said, there were a few highlights that we felt we should share:

1. Stickybits

Wow, how awesome is this new service! The concept is simple - tag real world objects with a barcode, then use the stickybits app on your mobile device to tag it with links, video, images and text - any kind of digital content. A sort of virtual graffiti- rolled up in a fun (sometimes devious), social wrapper.

2. Valery Casey & The Designers Accord

Valery Casey delivered the Sunday keynote. Casey is sharp - a guru on design, branding and sustainability. Her organization was founded with the goal of “changing the way the creative community does business.” The accord specifies a “particular ethos and behavior around sustainable design… to catalyze innovative and sustainable problem solving throughout the creative community.” In addition, she addressed the SXSW interactive community and stated that we, more than any other creative discipline, have the power to drive change through our expertise in systems and networks.

3. The Futurists (The Great “Beyond”)

To be honest, most of this was *way* over our heads - but we sat in on a panel of futurists rambling about “heuristic ensembles” and “bio-cognitive experiences”. Heady indeed, but provocative none the less. Panelist participants included Julian Bleecker, Jake Dunagan, Sascha Pohflepp, Stuart Candy, Jennifer Leonard, and Bruce Sterling. It’s nice to know that someone is at least thinking about the world 10k years out!

4. Barbecue Heaven

We hit Barbecue Heaven daily; my tweet says it all: “I am both at, and in, Barbecue Heaven… #sxsw” For a couple bucks you can snag a sandwich with brisket or chicken and boi oh boi it’s good.

View our SXSWi 2010 set on Flickr

Eliminate Distractions

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 19:15:00 -0500

All of us use the internet on a daily basis, if not hours a day. Here are a couple things that will make probably your internet life easier to use:

ClickToFlash (plugin for Safari). Replaces all Flash movies on a page each with a simple box labeled Flash. Simply click it to activate that Flash movie. You may be surprised how great this is for one simple reason: no more Flash ads! (Don’t worry, you can whitelist your favorite Flash sites.)

QuietTube: Takes any YouTube video and places it inside a nice black page. Nice and simple.

Readability: This is my favorite out of the list. It’s a simple Javascript bookmarklet that will take any article on a page, and re-display it in a much easier to read format with just the article’s content and nothing else. If you read articles as much as we do, you’ll love this thing.

Embracing Participatory Design

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 08:40:00 -0500

We’re big fans of Tim Brown (IDEO). In his 2009 TED talk, he encourages designers to think big and to transition from design to design thinking. One of the core ingredients of design thinking is the enabling of participation by end users. Not just in feedback but in the entire innovation arc. This is, of course, is the inversion of more common approaches to design, especially in digital brand communications.

Luckily, (all the rage these days) social media (feedback, voting, crowd sourcing) is challenging that approach, as more and more brands and agencies are learning to open up process to the end users. Further adoption and transition is required; more human-centeric products & services will be the result.

Why not add a feedback tab to more things than just a site beta? A project brief, your management style, your brand’s raison d’être?

Flash Competition.

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:31:00 -0500

There has been a lot of debate recently on the issue of the state of Flash partly, if not mostly, because Apple’s stance on not supporting Flash on the iPad (like its cousin the iPhone). One of the biggest issues discussed is video via Flash versus the upcoming HTML5 spec. We can debate all day about that, but I wanted to just bring another example of what standard web technologies can provide that many thought we only capable in Flash.

A great example is SketchPad. Not only does this web app demonstrate that there are alternatives to Flash but also alternatives to desktop apps themselves. SketchPad could easily fill the gap for a light-weight drawing tool instead of feature-bloated Photoshop for novice users. Something the iPad seems to be catered towards. I’m curious how this could also translate interface wise on the iPad. Interesting to say the least and this is only the beginning…

Evolutionary.

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 15:35:00 -0500

“In many ways, this defines our vision, our sense of what’s next.”

– Jonathan Ive