How to Make Awesome Web

Office

Brydon

I work on 20Skaters, ThreeFortyNine, Ontario Startup Train and a few others. My vanity site is brydon.me.

The hardest part of creating awesome landing pages, websites etc has nothing to do with html5, css, or python. It’s isn’t about SEO optimization or building your site for the robots. It’s about humans and I’m going to give you the secret right here and now.

Steve Krug wrote a book titled Don’t Make Me Think. Folks in programming, UX, quality assurance generally enjoy Steve’s ideas. Rarely (never) have I met someone outside of those people designing and building the web who know of Steve’s work. That’s disappointing.

The secret I have for you? Read Steve’s book and use his techniques to get humans to tell you how to make your website awesome. Don’t relegate this work to your web developer or your QA person, this is your job! Start running simple, in person user interviews with real people.

They don’t have to be in your demographic or your ideal customer or your personas. Those are all excuses not to talk with a human today. Offer people something, a coffee or a pint, in exchange for 15 minutes of their time. Go to a coffee shop and offer to buy people’s coffee when they walk in. Sit them in front of a computer, turn on audio recording and screencasting, ask them questions and listen.

The hardest part is sitting that human down. If you can’t even do that, come to ThreeFortyNine next week. We’re hosting a public coworking day, at lunch we’re going to test each other’s applications. We have space for ten, register here.

Once you start, the key is listen, listen more, listen more, listen more….. Did I mention that you have to listen! You need to train yourself to not answer questions, correct actions, give instructions. You’re not training them, you’re learning from them! Watch Steve demonstrate it in this video.

“So when you look at this site, what do you think it’s for?”

“Why did you just click that?”

“If you wanted to know who built this, how would you do that?”

“I’m not sure, I’m curious how you would do that? Go for it!”

Shut up, listen, learn. Do that over and over and you’ll know precisely what’s broken with your site and where to focus. Heck you do that once and I guarantee you’ll learn more than days of brainstorming sessions with your team. Make some changes, or have your web dev make them, then talk to more humans.

While everyone should be doing this, this process of speaking to people and learning early and often is more important if you’re not technical. I’m always meeting non-technical folks with websites who express the feeling of helplessness because they’re not technical. Instead of speaking with humans, they rely on the technical people they hired to design their websites. While I’m sure those folks are competent, they shouldn’t be making those decisions. You can make them. You need to make them. Don’t over think it, just get out there and talk to the humans!

Underwater Notebooks

Office

Brydon

I work on 20Skaters, ThreeFortyNine, Ontario Startup Train and a few others. My vanity site is brydon.me.

FN_expeditionIf you know me, you know I have a paper and pen fetish. It’s ok, I’m ok.

Sharing that fetish with others led us to becoming a Field Notes retailer here at ThreeFortyNine. Recently Field Notes created the craziest notebook most of us have ever seen, named the Expedition Edition. Finally a use for my space pen! Wind resistent, flames, lasers, bullets, they ran this one through the ringer including sending it to the south pole.

Sure, most of us sit on our ass at a computer all day long but there’s always the chance that adventure lies just around the corner. You don’t want to get caught with plain old water soluble paper in your notebook when it comes your way. Give us a week or two for the shipment to arrive but we’ll soon be flush with Expedition Edition’s!!

Mentor Hot Seat – Michael Litt

Startupify.Me

Scott Allen

In this series of posts we’re “grilling” the mentors of the Startupify program with the hope of discovering who is best able to answer a standardized set of questions. Points for accuracy and un-originality will be assigned. Actually we’re just trying to learn more about them .. the kind of stuff that doesn’t appear in boilerplate bios.

Let’s get going and welcome our fifth contestant: Michael Littlitt

What qualifies you to be a Startupify mentor?

I’m assuming it has something to do with starting Vidyard as well as Brydon qualifying me by asking me to fill out this form.

I don’t have any formal mentor training – I like talking to startups though.

What hurdles/failures/lessons have you encountered along your professional journey that early stage entrepreneurs could learn from?

Yikes.

Make sure your founding team is onboard with your chosen operational location.

Don’t hire too soon.

Stop thinking about raising money.

What excites you most about the Startupify program?

I’d love to see some awesome companies (not startups, not ideas) form with my assistance.

What characteristics have you seen in the startups you’ve mentored in the past that you feel are indicators for success?

Bootstrappers, people focused on B2B with sales orientation and a technical background.

I’m a fan of executors over idea people.

BONUS: Which Startupify mentor are you most excited to collaborate with and why?

Brett Shellhammer. He was our first mentor and first adult believer.

I <3 Brett.

Mentor Hot Seat – Mike Kirkup

Startupify.Me

Scott Allen

In this series of posts we’re “grilling” the mentors of the Startupify program with the hope of discovering who is best able to answer a standardized set of questions. Points for accuracy and un-originality will be assigned. Actually we’re just trying to learn more about them .. the kind of stuff that doesn’t appear in boilerplate bios.

Let’s get going and welcome our fourth contestant: Mike Kirkup

What qualifies you to be a Startupify mentor?kirkup

I want to learn from you as much as you want to learn from me. I truly believe that mentors should establish peer based relationships. On top of that, I get to work with some of the best startups in Kitchener-Waterloo every day running the VeloCity program. I have over 10 years of experience in the mobile space and understand how to build a marketplace given that my job at RIM/BlackBerry was to build an effective developer ecosystem.

What hurdles/failures/lessons have you encountered along your professional journey that early stage entrepreneurs could learn from?

Your problems will come in all shapes and sizes but the hardest ones tend to be your team. Finding the right team members is hard on the best of days but ensuring that the team continues to be the best is even harder. On top of that, changing your team is difficult because it is emotional, easy to avoid the problem and difficult to pull the trigger when so many excuses are available. Yet, culture and team dynamics can kill even the best company if not managed effectively.

What excites you most about the Startupify program?

I am a big fan of Brydon. Need I say more?

What characteristics have you seen in the startups you’ve mentored in the past that you feel are indicators for success?

  • Strong technical aptitude with a desire to learn the business side. That is partially (or largely depending on your perspective) due to the types of people I hang out with every day.
  • Coachable. Do you listen when someone gives you advice? Do you get defensive and shut down? The best teams take into consideration all of the advice and make their own best decision.
  • Resourceful. Some of my favorite success stories are using multiple programs simultaneously. Every good startup story includes some life “hack” to help work around a limitation.

BONUS: Which Startupify mentor are you most excited to collaborate with and why?

Tough question. I have worked with many of the mentors already so if I had to pick a new name it would be Zak Homuth. Upverter is doing some amazing things and in our own backyard (Toronto). Zak has a great reputation and looking forward to getting to know him better.

Note: Zak is the invited speaker at DemoCampGuelph21 (Wednesday, April 10).

DemoBeerGuelph Event

DemoCampGuelph

Brydon

I work on 20Skaters, ThreeFortyNine, Ontario Startup Train and a few others. My vanity site is brydon.me.

DemoBeer_smFor those of you who enjoy beer, do we have a mashup for you. Take some DemoCampGuelph, toss in a little OX Guelph and sprinkle in a master brewer from Great Lakes Brewery and what are you left with?

DemoBeerGuelph, that’s what!

For those coming to DemoCampGuelph, we have room for forty of you to come down to OX a bit early and hang out with a master brewer. $10 to demo some beer, charcuterie, and pizza but most importantly a chance to hear some war stories from a master brewer. Space is limited for this so buy your ticket asap!

It’s a 5:30 start wrapping up at 6:30 to allow you to walk up the stairs for the start of the main event.

DemoCampGuelph and Improvised Community Making

DemoCampGuelph

Kyle Mackie

Educational Consultant. Community Builder. Technology Champion.

I reckon I’ve attended 17 out of 20 DemoCampGuelph nights. Why do I come? Community. I know, it can be a problematic term, but there is something to it that’s worth holding on to.

DemoCampGuelph is part of an important movement of improvised community-making, a new, responsive way of building networks of trust and respect, engaging in dialogue, negotiating differences, taking risks, celebrating successes and sharing responsibility.

DemoCampGuelph is a community that encourages communication through authentic storytelling, real stories of success and failure, of strengths and weaknesses, of hopes and fears. It’s a platform for learning, connecting, collaborating, and growing.

DemoCampGuelph is important and inspiring. A lot of good comes from it. I’ve never been on stage at DemoCampGuelph, but on Wednesday I will be. I’m not there to demo. I’m there to share a story, raise some awareness and (hopefully) some funds.

On Friday of Labour Day weekend, our 9-year-old daughter, Maeve was diagnosed with a brain tumour. We were rushed to MacMaster Children’s Hospital in Hamilton for surgery, returning home after 3 nights. Results of the pathology showed that the tumour was a benign astrocytoma. We’re happy to report that follow-up appointments and tests show no sign of re-growth and a full recovery. The care we received at MacMaster was incredible. The staff worked to ensure we were all very well taken care of and that we had all the information we needed.

There continues to be incredible advances in research around the causes and cures for brain tumours. Over time, this research has led to: improvements to technologies allowing doctors to view the brain, advances in surgical techniques, radiation practices and treatments; as well as improvements for paediatric patients.

On May 5, 2013, a team of friends and family members will be participating in the Spring Sprint at the Arboretum in Guelph, in support of the Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada. Find out more, join the team, and donate at teambrenkie.org.

See you on Wednesday.

Mentor Hot Seat – Alistair Croll

Startupify.Me

Scott Allen

In this series of posts we’re “grilling” the mentors of the Startupify program with the hope of discovering who is best able to answer a standardized set of questions. Points for accuracy and un-originality will be assigned. Actually we’re just trying to learn more about them .. the kind of stuff that doesn’t appear in boilerplate bios.

Let’s get going and welcome our third contestant: Alistair Croll

What qualifies you to be a Startupify mentor?Alistair Croll

An almost obsessive desire to understand and instrument the business model; a startup accelerator (Year One Labs); launching and growing Coradiant; writing books on entrepreneurship (Lean Analytics).

What hurdles/failures/lessons have you encountered along your professional journey that early stage entrepreneurs could learn from?

Taking too long to find product/market fit at Coradiant; seeing the differences between B2B and enterprise environments; realizing that those who pursue truth should often abandon reason (as Jonathan Haidt says) and that people are most interesting when we rattle their cages (as Alain de Botton says).

What excites you most about the Startupify program?

Finding real solutions to longstanding problems based on the disruption technology is sowing on the world.

What characteristics have you seen in the startups you’ve mentored in the past that you feel are indicators for success?

An idea that’s obvious in hindsight, combined with a clear plan on how to get there. I wrote more about this here: http://solveforinteresting.com/what-makes-a-great-startup/

BONUS: Which Startupify mentor are you most excited to collaborate with and why?

Rob Hyndman. Because I like the rest of the Mesh guys, and I haven’t hung out with him, and if he’s as sardonic as his Twitter persona I need to buy him drinks.

DemoCampGuelph21 Next Week

DemoCampGuelph

Brydon

I work on 20Skaters, ThreeFortyNine, Ontario Startup Train and a few others. My vanity site is brydon.me.

We’re closing in on our next DemoCampGuelph on April 10th in downtown Guelph at The EBar. You still have time to submit for a demo spot but that time is slipping away so email me your demo pitch asap! As always, it’s free to attend, you don’t have to be technical or demo something to attend. If you’re interested in meeting people in our community working in and around technology then please come out! Please make sure to register to attend so we have room for everyone.

Spread the word on twitter for us!

For those who haven’t heard, we have Zak Homuth as our invited speaker. After running his latest startup through YCombinator, Zak’s back home in Toronto reinventing how you create hardware.

You’re never going to believe who I found hiding on the outskirts of the royal city? I’m very excited to have Drew McIvor playing tunes for us after we award The Crowie.

Coworking 2.0 is here

Office

Chris Charles

I'm a software developer. I like to learn things. I run the ThreeFortyNine Beer Club, which is pretty fun. I recently built BeerTime, an Untappd client for the Pebble smartwatch.

ThreeFortyNine is excited to announce that by August 1, 2013 it will become the first fully online coworking space in North America. To commemorate this monumental event its name will be changed to ThreeFortyNineOnline.

Traditional coworking spaces are physical, but we live in the future. For years, people have been chasing the paperless office. That approach is flawed. What we really need is the “office-less office”.

Brydon Gilliss, the visionary behind ThreeFortyNineOnline, says, “Rent is expensive. Internet is cheap. Why not work from our homes with a Google Hangout running?”

 

Amiga 500

My home office

Beginning immediately, members will have the option of working from home while paying the same, affordable rates to ThreeFortyNine (for the first three months). By August 1, all members will be forcibly migrated to the new plans.

Member Chris Charles loves the new approach. “We often communicate over IRC or Yammer [instead of talking] anyway, even to people in the same room. Why should I have to leave my mom’s basement at all?”

Each paying member will be provided with an Aeropress coffee maker and a branded mini-keg to use at home while signed into the ThreeFortyNine Drink Resource Measurement (DRM) web service. Usage will be monitored.

Carrots and Sticks

Startupify.Me

Brydon

I work on 20Skaters, ThreeFortyNine, Ontario Startup Train and a few others. My vanity site is brydon.me.

As we prepare for this upcoming round of Startupify, we’re spending a lot of time discussing curriculum, teachable moments and learning in general. What’s refreshing to reflect on is the almost complete lack of evaluations. We have no tangible carrots or sticks. Ultimately our cohort are the ones taking a gamble on themselves. That’s a highly motivating position to be in compared to traditional schooling.

I was reviewing some of my notes from reading John Maeda’s The Laws of Simplicity.

“my ten years of data as a professor show that giving students a seemingly insurmountable challenge is the best motivator to learn.“

I’d be stretching to suggest Maeda inspired how we’re approaching the Startupify projects, however, I would say we’re highly aligned. While we have no grades and I doubt anyone will have an eraser thrown at them, our projects will be “seemingly insurmountable” tasks. They’ll be real challenges in real businesses which our cohort will have access to. You’ll be dropped into a cohort of fifteen folks like you and for the most part, left to your own devices to deliver.

A challenge in traditional schooling is that the very person you’re meant to be vulnerable to, and openly seek support from, is almost always the very same person evaluating your performance. That will always put you in a guarded position of trying to impress the person you should expose yourself completely to.

We have no conflict there. Our measure of success is you getting a job you love with an amazing startup or possibly starting up your own company. Our mentors play no real role in your success or evaluation on that. We can focus on pushing you, coaching you and you can be honest and open with us, we hope!