Behind the Project

How to ask for support

2011-02-04T09:44:00.001-08:00

Have you had to engage people around you to support your hobby projects? GOOD has just released a nice interview with Chimero, who is a designer/writer that is using kickstarter to fund his book. He is actually about to double his goal of $27,000 and getting some great press. Here's a nice quote:

"That's the thing about Kickstarter: if you do it right, it's less about asking people to give you money for your idea, and more about saying 'I'm about to go on this journey. Do you want to come with me?'"

Here's the full article: http://www.good.is/post/how-to-kick-ass-on-kickstarter-a-q-a-with-frank-chimero/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+good%2Flbvp+%28GOOD+Main+RSS+Feed%29

- from my mobile life -

Where to incubate?

2011-01-31T08:59:00.001-08:00

Here's an awesome article that outlines the differences about incubator styles. I still find them all too formal and cold. It's like joining an elite club - and really everyone should be getting help and motivation. Let gravy work on disrupting this!

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/27/business/smallbusiness/27sbiz.html?_r=4&src=dayp

- from my mobile life -

gravy logo design contest on LogoMyWay.com

2010-11-06T13:07:00.000-07:00

Check it out! Trying to design something better? Trying to get your passions out of the garage?

Gravy will help! Check the logo contest here:

gravy Logo Design Contest LogoMyWay.com ™

Post-its!

2010-07-18T17:42:00.001-07:00

Last week I received a very interesting email by one of my CCA fellows: What are the right methods to use post-its?

All I could think in the moment was... Just kinda do it? And well, in reality there is no right or wrong way, any IDEOer can tell you that there's plenty of styles. Some color-code, others would rather keep it more disorganized to let the clusters happen naturally, and some people actually just hate post-its and ban them from their creative process.

I am a big fan. It's my way to set all of the options out there, see them in one place and then organize them, judge them, sequence them, kill them, you name it.

So if you want to start using post-its for design thinking, here's some basic recommendations:

1. Start with a wide open wall or foam core boards. It's going to look messy but have it close to you. It's the best reference for your thoughts!
2. The more the merrier, have a stack of post-its in front of you at all times, give some to all of your team and post them in the same place. This will allow for everyone to see the collective conscious.
3. One idea or thought per post-it will let you move them around easily. You can write, draw ideas, make symbols, annotate, create categories, get feedback, etc. You get the idea.
4. Don't worry about being wrong. Just put it up there! You can always tear it down later. Use the lo-fidelity of post-its to your advantage. It's ok to re-do a post-it 30 times, every wrong will get you closer to what you want to say. Keep it rough & flexible!
5. Cluster & re-cluster! Try moving them around as many times as needed until your thoughts make sense. If you feel like it's perfect the. Take a picture and keep playing around with the clustering.

Anyway, here's my wall this afternoon and it will change pretty soon.

How do you use post-its? What are your methods?

Oh Facebook, how can I use thee?

2010-06-25T15:09:00.000-07:00

So I tried and failed. So who cares! The idea was to use facebook communities to create conversations that would inspire my research for this project. But all I got was lame comments and nonsense. Are people just not in the mood when they're in facebook? are they more in a spectator mode? Do they just not want to think that deep?

I still believe there is hope to use online communities for research but how can we make it more relevant and compelling? Is it about

a) using more relevant types of communities? (eg. LinkedIn, Twitter, or another)
b) giving people something tangible to react to?
c) using humor to get people to participate?
d) what else!?!?!

Help me!!!!!

Keep the vision, evolve the rest: La Victoria

2010-06-07T22:17:00.001-07:00

This is the story of a second generation business in transition and maybe we could all learn from them. Jaime Maldonado is the owner of La Victoria Bakery, a 60-year-old panaderia on 24th Street that is reinventing itself. Authentic mexican bread is their core vision but their resilient nature has made them change to serve the new type of residents in their neighborhood.

"We can't stop being an authentic panaderia and a kitchen, we've been doing this since the 1960's. It's just going to morph into what people want. The families that used to be here would come in and buy 50 dollars a week on tamales and basic bread. Those families are not here anymore, the people who live here spend five dollars each sporadic visit. so we need to have a paradigm shift to serve what is going to be the new type of neighborhood."

I love it! Reminding ourselves why we are here in the first place is so basic and important. Remember the legacy that anchors you to your business and then feel free to move everything and anything that you need in order to keep that legacy alive and well.

I wonder what made Jaime Maldonado want to pursue the change. I wonder what he was observing that made a click. I wonder how we can replicate that observation power to let other business owners figure out when it's time to change.

Do needs of men and women leaders differ?

2010-06-04T18:22:00.000-07:00

What do you all think? Is it the same? Well, Sharon Hardary, Former Executive Director and Founder of the Center for Women's Business Research is very sure that this is true.

"I am convinced that the problem is twofold. First, you have women's own self-limiting views of themselves, their businesses and the opportunities available to them. But equally problematic are the stereotypes, perceptions and expectations of business and government leaders."

In her article from the wall street journal, she discusses how women are holding back as business owners. Clearly, women can have vision and everything it takes to run a successful business.

"Research also shows that the differences between women and men entrepreneurs begin with their own reasons for starting a business. Men tend to start businesses to be the "boss," and their aim is for their businesses to grow as big as possible. Women start businesses to be personally challenged and to integrate work and family, and they want to stay at a size where they personally can oversee all aspects of the business."

What needs to be done is a my personal favorite part of the article. It take the thoughts it to an actionable plan which could be an inspirational part for creating tools and structures created to help them be better business leaders. Change your mindset. Learn from other women. Use banks in your favor. Get advisors. Measure it all. Think even bigger.

Here are some possible futures: What if we created an online advisory network for them? Or what if we created metrics that were more relevant so they could use to validate their efforts? How could we help them to broaden their ability to think bigger?

This especially makes me want to go deeper into talking and observing women business owners because it seems like they have even more tensions present. Do you know of any women who would be inspiring to talk to? Let me know!

Thank you again Elizabeth Glenewinkel for this in-depth, thought provoking article. It's priceless!

Young, Fun Picbox!

2010-06-02T21:00:00.000-07:00

Two days ago I had the pleasure to interview the co-business owner of picbox, a company that rents hi-tech photo booths to social and corporate events in Mexico. Their twist, however, is that all the photos are linked into social networks like facebook, emails and so forth. "What we want is for our clients and the users to keep the event alive via personal memories and comments that bring people together even when the event is long past."
They are in the midst of success and all their free time goes into their new baby corporation. They consider this their very young side-business as they just started three months ago while still keeping real full-time jobs to attend to. "After work, we go to our offices and we are extremely engaged and inspired. It's obviously extra time committed, this is our priority as we're just starting this project." In reality, they see this as their chance to learn, to create new offerings. And this is their first one out in their hopefully big future portfolio. "We are creating everything from scratch, it's not like there's a recipe for this type of business but when we get it working it feels like... wow! And we think we're onto something with our new version of picbox."
Right now they have the luxury of just being two people running the show. However, they are hopeful to bring in ten part-time helpers which they are cleverly calling pic-chicks and pic-dudes. With this growth they might lose their close experiences directly in their events and might start to lose direct feedback which has been their core insightful moments to help them improve their product. They think there is hope, "what we want is a fun twist in our culture, we want everyone to be open and part of the feedback process."

Asset Management rather than the S word

2010-05-30T08:10:00.000-07:00

While watching a cool video called “The Business Guide to Sustainability”, starring Bob Willard, he talks about people wanting to shove sustainability down business-people's throat. And of course the S word becomes a sore instead of a competitive advantage. Rather, he says, we should change the way in which we present this and start to call it asset management which is more fundamental and hits straight into economics - which is basically the same as sustainability.

My big question, however, is how can we help companies visualize and better manage all of their assets to not only help them make their assets more efficient but also more resilient to future change? How can we make this a tool to help leaders visualize their future?

Have you heard of any tools like this one? Let me know!

Using facebook prompts as research

2010-05-29T20:56:00.000-07:00

So to experiment.

I've decided to prompt my facebook community throughout a couple of weeks with pushy questions that could hopefully uncover patterns and create conversations. I'm still trying to figure out what the best way would be and would love your feedback. When is the best time to prompt? What type of questions should I post? To which answers should we listen to? How can we make people participate more? How can we create a bigger pool of participants?

As a first pass, I'm planning on stuff like this:
- Are you on facebook while you're at work? Why are you bored? What's missing?
- Is the owner of your business happy? Why do you think so?
- What is the most efficient part of your job?

The list isn't long yet. What could be other questions and prompts that could uncover insights for this project? Help me out and comment!

NYT blog: How I saved my company

2010-05-29T18:57:00.000-07:00

There is a new section launching in the New York Times Business section called "How I Saved My Company". It will feature interviews with small business owners describing near-death business experiences and how they survived. The first video is up now and you can find the column at: http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/26/how-i-saved-my-company/

So what saved the guy in the first video? I got the sense that he knew he had been successful before and realized that if the economy would come back he would be fine so he analyzed his costs and decided to kill his biggest one: office rent. He moved his company into his apartment with employees and all.

I guess even a small business like his can benefit from being more nimble.

Thanks to Elizabeth Glenewinkel for showing me such cool stuff!

Why I care.

2010-05-25T17:16:00.001-07:00

To get my head around what this project really means, I've jotted down the quick main theory here:

THE BIG PROBLEM:
Only half of new businesses survive more than five years.
Most young businesses have leaders who pour their life into it.
Growth often leads to compromise the values that lead them to success.

CORE DESIGN CHALLENGE:
We need to drive toward solutions that improve the ability to own, manage, and engage in maturing organizations to help their leaders focus on sustaining and polishing their purpose.

________________________________________________________________

Acknowledging that this is a very complex problem and that this project is secondary to my work life, I want to push the boundaries by experimenting with new networks and tools which might help me gather insights, ideas and feedback. Let’s see what happens.

Please take a look at the doc and let me know of any people you'd think would be cool for me to talk to. And of course if you'd like to join we can create a project plan that suits our collective needs.

This is a fun challenge and a cool learning opportunity to push the boundaries of design thinking. Let´s work together, let’s create a partnership and build a system that will impact the most passionate people in today’s and tomorrow’s workforce.

How might you help out?

Your Organization's Mindful Maturing

2010-05-25T17:15:00.000-07:00

The name is set! The project is now called: YOUR ORGANIZATION'S MINDFUL MATURING.

Other thoughts were something to do with puberty or growing pains or even corporate acne but I went with something less visually disturbing and hopefully something that feels much more purposeful. What do you think? Should I go back to funky names? Or should I be able to say it in public without chuckling?

First Brain Dump

2010-05-25T09:54:00.000-07:00

As I prepare an 'elevator pitch' for this project, the wall in my dining room has become the post-it jungle and I'm starting to get into this! Already I'm hoping to push methods complimentary and extra of what I would normally use at IDEO to push myself.

The post-it's explore names for the project, stories to inspire, why I believe this is a big deal, what's already out there, what if questions to start exploring the potential, and people to start observing. More details on that to come so stay tuned!

Well, hello there!

2010-05-24T17:52:00.000-07:00

And so this project about your organization's maturing starts.

I'll be journaling all of the happenings of my CCA Leading By Design fellowship program here. It'll mostlty be just like a huricane: fast and dirty. Hopefully though, it will have some cool insights and visuals to share with y'all - whoever wants to see the process of design thinking live in action trying to figure out a hairy system-level need.

Please comment on anything!!! I'd love to hear about your methods and your ways of the world, and especially if you hate something! I love hate mail.