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10 Tips to Better Google Wave Conversations
Jonathan Penn and I have had a number of enlightening conversations about Google Wave which have had a significant impact on the way we converse through Wave. After reading an entry on his blog, Hardware Limits of the Human Mind and conversing with him some more, I’ve invited him to share some tips we have come up with.
Goals for 2009
2009 is going to be an exciting year for D-I, and will largely build on the successes of 2008.
Last year we started our transition from a consulting company into a product company, culminating in the release of our flagship product Simpli5 in September. We also launched a free web service for generating barcodes called Barcodes4.me. Our development framework Sandstone continued to evolve and grow stronger. We moved completely to GIT.
2009 brings a new product, an online university where you can signup as a teacher and get paid when students take your class. Most importantly, 2009 will focus on getting more eyes looking at us and more hands on our products.
Why We Are Not Hiring
Designing Interactive has grown up a lot over the last 6 years. It has grown from a small freelancing company into a web application development house. We have done a good job of keeping ourselves busy with paid work throughout the years, but this past year was particularly successful.
However, our profitability has started to plateau this year and we need to make some changes to continue growth.
Developing Embroidery-Academy.com
Over the past 2.5 years we have become active in a niche market that I never dreamed we would become a part of… Machine Embroidery. I am not by any means a “macho” guy. I always thought these sewing projects were done by conservative grandmothers in-between servings of prunes. I was naive and judgemental, but captivated by the charm and sincerity of these people. In fact, it’s been one of the most rewarding experiences of my career.
Our most recent project in the industry, Embroidery-Academy.com has perfectly proven the values of iterative development.
And a Good Time Was Had…
There comes a time in a small entrepreneurs life where it becomes beneficial to partner up with a larger organization. For us, this time came about 6 months ago when we partnered with Cox Communications. As a small business, we gained a tremendous reputation boost by affiliating ourself with one of the most trusted brand names in the industry, and Cox gained the networking power of a small business who talks to literally thousands of new business owners each year.
I boast about Cox for 3 reasons.
Is your company accessible?
When Josh and Dave asked me to take over the sales department at Designing Interactive, we sat down and talked about the direction we wanted to take with regard to marketing. After looking at the web solutions other companies had been offering to the small to mid-sized business market, we felt we could offer some significant improvements to that demographic.
Based on that conclusion, we developed several product offerings specifically tailored to the needs of small businesses. I set out to market these, and quickly developed a respectable pipeline of prospects and working business.
ServerBeach “Geek of the Week”
ServerBeach selected us as their “Geek of the Week” this week. They are the datacenter that powers our hosted applications including the previous beta release of Barracuda Suite (now Simpli5).
How To Win New Clients
As a reputable development firm, we regularly receive development requests and new project inquiries. The biggest key to our success is staying profitable with the limited time we have.
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Latest Comments
- Nate Klaiber → “ The design industry is plagued with the misconception that product manuals are evil. These designers believe that your product should be intuitive enough to use without a manual. While there is a certain truth to this, there are many viable reasons for product manuals to be used. There needs to be a certain…”
- Joe Fiorini → “ The design industry is plagued with the misconception that product manuals are evil. These designers believe that your product should be intuitive enough to use without a manual. While there is a certain truth to this, there are many viable reasons for product manuals to be used. There needs to be a certain…”
- Roger F Carver → “ The Google Charts API is an excellent way to add high quality charting to your web application. We first started working with the API as part of the Simpli5 dashboard development, and were quite impressed with its functionality and ease of use. Wrapper classes were developed and added to our Sandstone Application Framework to make…”
- Nate Klaiber → “ The “I agree” checkbox has become an interface standard on registration forms. “I agree to the terms and conditions.” While it’s purpose is generally understood by the consumer, it is a key source of frustration for people registering for accounts. eBay's Registration, as an example Why it’s overlooked: Checkboxes are small, particularly ones which aren’t grouped…”
- Josh Walsh → “ Most of the value you gain from a usability testing session comes from the analysis after the session is complete. I have been involved in a few sessions recently where no formal analysis has been conducted. I believe this is a mistake. Traditionally, the analysis portion of a usability session takes quite a long…”