He who Dares...

Well it's my second day at Dare. Yesterday was something of an information overload; I can see I'm not going to be bored. I'm not going to have time to be bored (and nor am I thinking this is a bad thing)! Today I'm in London meeting and greeting Dare people who I'll be working closely with in the future. So far I have managed one out of three meetings - not because I was lost but rather because they've been re-arranged... like I said, Dare is a busy place. After time I'm sure they'll realise I am so wonderful and they will prioritise meeting me over rediculous client meetings.

I have to say (and not just because I'm on 3 months probation and conscious I'm writing in a public forum) that I'm rather excited about this new role. A fresh challenge - a chance to dust off old skills, learn new ones and generally challenge myself. Sink or swim I have an exciting and exhausting few months ahead. Wish me luck!

The thought has crossed my mind that I will sink like a BP oil rig before the month is up and be hated by all... but then I have thought this before and ended up becoming an agency rock-star and loving the people I work with. No doubt the same will happen at Dare. Once they figure out my love of Lolcats, my inappropriate sense of humour and ruthless determination to be awesome in all I do I'm sure that things will be fine. As Pam Ann says "We only make the same mistake three times... ....maybe four." Fortunately I'm not Pam Ann! Phew!

Now... just to decide where to put my "I love my cat" picture frame.

My only gripes about Dare so far are no company laptop (I'm using one of those big boxes, you know, like they used to have in olden times) and no company iPhone. The former I can live without (for now - until I find a justifiable business reason to insist on getting a shiny new one on order)... the latter... well I feel like I've had an arm cut off. For instance I went out for lunch earlier and had to rely on a PAPER map (like some sort of animal!). When did I make the switch from seeing the iPhone as a shiny gizmo to an extra limb? Until you go without the basics such as food, water, sanitation or iPhones you don't realise how important they are. I can't wait until the iPhone5 comes out and my current contract ends... I'm naked without it.

I just hope this one can make phone calls. 

So what's my point? Well to sum up - Hugh is working at Dare, Hugh is happy and hopes he will more than do the job with utmost awesomeness and he wants an iPhone.

Random project management techniques / tips / tools

Managing change requests
From time to time clients will change their mind i.e. every project you ever do – clients change their minds. I believe it’s important to be flexible to accommodate change; within reason. It is the within reason part which needs considering. You should make it clear that a project has a change request process. A few tweaks here and there can normally be absorbed without major impact to budget. But what if they change their whole strategy at the eleventh hour? You need to have set expectations that if they do this there is a cost attached. If templates are built already and they change the whole structure you should always go back to earlier phases, you’ll need to re-do the UX, re-do design – otherwise the changes they’ve asked for may be introduced without forward-thinking and you could end up delivering something that doesn’t work. Not to mention contractors build to an agreed scope; if the client changes their mind and you ask the developer to rebuild something from scratch they are within their rights to charge you for the same work. You can either absorb this from your profit or pass the cost onto the client.

File structure
Using the same file structure anyone can pick up your project easily. My preferred structure is below:

 

Versioning
As a rule I always version sequentially, not by date – simply because windows/mac will sort the files so that the latest version appears last (it is easy to pick the wrong file when sorted by date).
Versioning can be quite rigid: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_versioning
But generally I simply go

• Version 0_1 – first draft
• Version 0_2 – second – and so on
• Version 1_0 – first release to client

A minor update goes up by .1, a moderate update by .5, and a large update by a whole 1.0, e.g. if a document is rewritten from 4.0 then the next will be 5.0. If I change a bit 4.5, and if all I do is change a few typos 4.1. Simples.

Launching a site
I would always say it is never  a good idea to launch a site on a Friday or after 15:00 any day. If you put something live you want to have time to respond to any bugs that may have been missed or rise from the upload process. Particularly on Fridays where a bug could remain over the whole weekend.
Always make sure you give the site a final test when it is launched. 

Ensure you haven’t missed anything basic and yet easily forgotten, have you set up a favicon, analytics, etc, have you checked accessibility – e.g. all alt-tags set up on images, metadata, etc?

Testing a site
The site should pass a minimum testing standard of YUI A-Grade browser support -

Sometimes it makes sense to write a test plan depending on the scale of the project. If you've an efficient mind just using common sense on smaller projects can work too.

Many issues that might come up in testing can be avoided with at the requirements gathering stage e.g. don’t propose using Flash if you want it to work on a mobile, build the site accessibly and it will work across most browsers. 

To keep abreast of the latest trends (e.g. should I test in IE6, what screen resolution should I use, etc) take a look at: http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/

Fonts
Want to use a corporate font that isn’t web-safe? You can using image replacement techniques such as Cufon or Sifr. You don’t need to know much about this, just that it’s doable. This means a font, such as the National Trust font, can be used and generated on the fly on a website for titles and headers – e.g. the menu. Don’t use it for body font, sorry – it has to be websafe fonts in this instance – Cufon is great used sparingly but if you use it to replace body-copy it will make huge server demands.

What not to use
Flash – is never suitable for a menu system. It doesn’t work on mobiles. Some users don’t even have Flash. It’s suitable for games and banner adverts – and in the case of the latter ALWAYS have a non-flash alternative. Instead of Flash look for alternatives e.g. explore using JavaScript, CSS3 and HTML5. 

Bespoke video players – You can charge the client money to build a video player (which is costly to get it working properly) and then an ongoing hosting fee as streaming video puts demand on the server and bandwidth. Alternatively, spend the money elsewhere and host it with embedded Vimeo or YouTube.

Bug Tracking

Bug tracking software, when properly embraced, is one of the most useful tools you’ll use on a project.

It allows you to:

• Create a ticket and assign it to a developer.
• Prioritise the order – showstoppers to nice to haves.
• The developer can do the work and assign back to you with a notification.
• Statuses help you track what needs to be done, e.g. “New bug, needs testing, closed, reopened, with client for review”
• Will keep a single audit trail of the lifecycle of a bug – this helps you keep everything ordered so that bug, the one the client spotted, the one that is really frustrating them, never gets lost in your inbox.

Risk Management
When you start a project, and on an ongoing basis, it is worth identifying risks. You can’t predict them all but risk management is an essential part of project management. If you think about risks at the start you can help prevent or plan for them. Here are some commong ones:

• Going over budget - which is why we plan our projects and agree a scope up front.
• Choice of technology – are you using or trying something never tried before. If so your time estimates may be massively out – plan contingency.
• Too many stakeholders – If you have too many stakeholders internally or externally you can end up in the situation of too many chefs spoiling the brew. Identify who really needs to be involved and make sure only they are involved in sign off.
• Holidays – clients, contractors, yourself – again project planning.
• Forgetting the basics – build a checklist, have I set up hosting, analytics, thought about accessibility, etc – even better build the checklist into your project plan.
• Bugs and amends – always plan for things to go wrong, plan for at least one iteration of every deliverable, use bug tracking, prioritise the work to avoid going out of budget. Also, clear briefs mean more will be right first time. 

 

Do these approaches work for websites only?
No – they will work for all digital projects, everything from a basic HTML email or mobile app to an extensive piece of software development.

Project Management and Waterfall

This article outlines the "Waterfall" approach I have generally used in project management and offers techniques and tips to use to help make life easier and to solve some common problems – the end goal is always efficient, profitable, project management that delivers great products we can be proud of. 

Waterfall approach to Project Management 

 

“In a strict Waterfall model, after each phase is finished, it proceeds to the next one. Reviews may occur before moving to the next phase which allows for the possibility of changes (which may involve a formal change control process). Reviews may also be employed to ensure that the phase is indeed complete; the phase completion criteria are often referred to as a "gate" that the project must pass through to move to the next phase. Waterfall discourages revisiting and revising any prior phase once it's complete. This "inflexibility" in a pure Waterfall model has been a source of criticism by supporters of other more "flexible" models.” - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_development_process#Waterfall_model.

As a project management approach Waterfall is a very natural process to follow. It’s the process we normally use – even if we don’t realise we are using it because it makes sense – you look at the project and break it up into distinct phases. Each phase is critical to the next; each phase must be reviewed and signed off before starting the next. Saying that, there is always scope for some flexibility – however too much flexibility and you risk the project.

The phases in Waterfall are (see diagram above) detailed below:

Concept

Early on you will want to define the concept; particularly for a campaign. This can inform the site requirements, the architecture, and the design.

Requirements Specification

A project should start with a clear specification of what you aim to achieve. A project scope will define what you are going to do and relate this to your budget. It will identify questions you might have – it maybe that you need to build in contingency to plan for unknowns. If you specify what you are going to do at the start then the clients expectations are set and managed from the offset; if they try to change the scope further down the line (eroding margin) you can refer to this original agreement.

At this stage you should define the objectives of the project from the user and clients point of view. The client may want to achieve X conversions or other goals but are their expectations realistic? Always make sure objectives are realistic and measureable.

The requirements specification phase can include standard copy about your project management approach – this helps tell the client how things will be run. Outline the phased approach above and highlight that each phase should follow the same structure – define your brief, carry out the work, test it internally (if it’s not up to scratch send it back), then allow the client to review – if they aren’t happy they will send it back, when they are happy they MUST sign off before going to the next phase. It is sensible to cap the number of times work can be sent back (iterations) from the outset. Otherwise you risk engaging a never ending cycle of review and amends. If the client understands their amends are limited they will provide all their feedback, and review things properly, first time around.

Don’t forget to set up hosting and Google Analytics and purchase URL’s early on. You will also want to agree the cost arrangement and possibly an ongoing maintenance agreement for post-launch.

At this stage you should define technical standards – e.g. The site will meet AA accessibility standards and be tested to Grade-A browser support.

Always build a project plan at the start of a project, share it with the client in a format they will understand most easily. Make it clear when you expect their involvement and what you expect from them.

Don’t forget to identify your stakeholders – your primary contact may project manage their side, but who is responsible for sign off. Your project plan should allow realistic times for everyone client side to do their bit.
Always provide context to any deliverable you hand over – make sure they understand the rationale behind everything you give them.

What if the client just can’t decide what they want?

Sometimes a client will want more things in their project than their budget will allow. There is a solution – sit down with them and create a requirements list. List out every feature in excel and put resource times and costs against it (but keep in mind sometimes you’ll get an economy of scale by doing some work together). Then get the client to prioritise it using the MoSCoW method:

• M - MUST have this.
• S - SHOULD have this if at all possible.
• C - COULD have this if it does not affect anything else.
• W - WON'T have this time but WOULD like in the future. Alternatively WANT.

Help guide them to work out what is really important and what they don’t really do based on their objectives and user requirements. If everything is a MUST have then they will realise they need more budget – but generally they’ll realise that some things just aren’t that important this time around.

A requirements list is also a good talking shop to workshop simpler solutions e.g. instead of a fully interactive video case study perhaps a written one will do, freeing budget for the ATS system they really need.

System and Architecture Development

Before you start to design the look you should consider the structure of your site from the USERS PERSPECTIVE. Produce a sitemap to tell you what pages you will need and produce wireframes to define the structure of each page.

 It is far more efficient to define reusable templates that are flexible for multiple pages, e.g. Homepage, Content Page, Landing Page, Case Study Page, etc. Try and think of the page layout in columns with modules that plug in – this will make your template more dynamic. One template can have hundreds of variations if you have blocks of content that can be turned on/off and reordered.

Always approach from the user’s perspective (not the clients) – who is using the site? How would they interact with the site? What journey (user journeys) will they take to achieve the objective you want them to achieve?

Sometimes it helps to write a user persona – essentially a bio of your typical user e.g. “I’m Geoff, I’m 35 and work in IT. I’m married with two children and live in Berkshire. I’m generally happy with my job but like to keep up to date with new vacancies just in case something interesting comes along. Normally I allow recruiters to find me rather than actively searching for roles” and “I’m David, I’m 25 and work in IT. I live in Reading in a shared house. I currently have a role in IT but I’m looking for my next big move.”
For an IT company based in Berkshire these two personas, typical of your users (do your research into what’s typical; and use intuition), require different solutions to engage them. Geoff has a family; he’s unlikely to relocate, but he already lives in Berkshire. He’s not actively looking but would consider a good job if it came along. A tailored newsletter would help Geoff – you’d have to get him to sign up, but if the newsletter alerted him to jobs relevant and near him Geoff would be happy and may just apply. David is actively searching; good SEO will help him find the IT company in Berkshire. He’s young and not too far, he may relocate – when he hits the site he needs to know that it’s relevant to him and nearby. This will influence your homepage design. Writing personas helps you think about the user and in turn the user experience; they can also help your client who will often think about what THEY want not what their users want until they see a persona – so get the client to sign off on the personas.

Always consider navigation – a horizontal navigation is great for a campaign site with few pages and fixed content, but a content heavy site nearly always needs a vertical navigation or a jumbo drop down. Accessibility is also important when considering your navigation – remember some users will want to increase their text size. Also, if your site might be translated keep in mind that your navigation may need to accommodate long words (e.g. German or Welsh). Your UX should accommodate this – don’t squeeze things in that will break when designed / built.

You will need to think about accessibility at this point. Don’t produce anything that cannot be built by a developer. If unsure get your site developer involved with defining the information architecture of your site.
Often all the above is produced from experience and intuition. If unsure you can try a few methods such as user testing and card sorts to help inform your UX with solid stats. The bigger the project, or the more important that you get it right, the more important it becomes to build your project on researched foundations over intuition. Concepts can be tested cheaply – investigate http://verifyapp.com/ (I’ve not used this service before – but it sounds interesting!)

Produce a content map that describes what goes on each page (what template, which modules - such as twitter feed, case study driver, driver, social media links, etc and include required content. You might want to say “This page serves to tell the user about the company. It will include copy about the companies history, values and culture. It will contain case study drivers that support the main content). Also produce a copy deck which identifies from the outset – what copy needs to be written. Don’t forget drivers, buttons, error messages, help boxes – they all need to be thought about.

If the requirements are not clear you may also want to define a Technical Specification. This will tell the developer how the site should be put together and include sitemaps, content maps, wireframes and later designs. This document will be the bible the site developer builds the site too. It will be what a contractor quotes against, and the stick you slap them with if they don’t deliver (equally, if you don’t put something in the document then they may charge extra as it was out of their scope).

Remember some golden rules in UX

• The homepage is not guaranteed to be the first page a user sees.
• People will NOT have fun “discovering” content – if things are hidden people won’t find them. Clear navigation – always!
• Avoid dead ends – use related links, drivers, on every page.
• Include social media elements to share content easily.
• The shortest pathway to the content you want is the best pathway.
• Don’t get crazy; there is a good reason why many sites are essentially the same. People scan the top left first – it’s fact; your most important content should be here. Your search should be in the top right, the logo top left – break the mould and you may find you confuse people. Breadcrumbs go at the top, not the bottom.
• Ignore me – do your own research; trends change, new research comes out – be cutting edge!

Design
If a concept has not yet been defined it should be. You may want to use moodboards to set a tone for the site. 

Are there brand guidelines that must be accounted for?

A good web designer can work with wireframes and understands that what they are creating doesn’t need to fit on an A4 page. Websites are dynamic, so too should be the person designing it. They need to consider both why the architect has defined things the way they have and also what the developer will do with it next. They need to consider accessibility – it’s no good to design a box that would be impossible to build properly in HTML, e.g. because it uses texturing that cannot wrap. This really requires understanding of how websites are built. 

Ideally you should provide the client with two design routes to pick from. These should be presented in person; never sent by e-mail “What do you think?” but instead in person or over the phone so you can say “This is why we have approached this the way we have…” Also, present it as “Do you think this meets your users expectations”. If you give them a choice of two they will be inclined to choose one; they may ask to choose a little bit from one and a little bit from another. This is normally a bad idea, if they don’t share common elements it’s because they don’t work together. Ideally try to manage it so they pick a design and have only a few tweaks. The more involved they feel the easier the sign off process will be – saying that, don’t be afraid to defend your corner as the digital expert. 


Designs should be optimised for a minimum of 1024 wide. Nobody uses 800x600 anymore. Keep in mind that browsers have scroll bars, so while the screen is 1024 wide, the web design should be no more than 974 - 984 wide. We should all be using grids in layouts, 960 is a great number as it’s slightly smaller than full width, and it’s divisible by 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 15, and 16 (imagine the grid possibilities).  

Do not be afraid of scrolling. Remember the fold is not a line, it is a region. Do not be obsessed with everything being above the fold – just design in a way where the most important content is above it, and the user knows they can scroll.

Before going to client the designer should have checked the design for accessibility including insuring the colours validate. As a project manager you’ll want to make sure this has happened or check this yourself.

Make sure web-safe fonts have been used or you have the technical scope to use image replacement like Cufon on non-websafe fonts.

A developer should always review a design before it goes to the client – there is no point in exciting the client with something that cannot be delivered.

[NB: Involving the developer in design almost seems contrary to hardcore waterfall approaches. While phases are distinct they should also be a team effort. The UX leads UX, the designer leads design – but other disciplines should be involved to educate and inform the deliverable. Do not think of each phase gateway as a wall – the design should not be flung over the wall for the developer to pick up!]

Programming
The site developers will include the front end developer (working in HTML and CSS) and the back-end developer (working in e.g. PHP, but they could be .NET, ASP). They will deliver the site to the documentation defined at the start (A WTS if one was written).

The front end developer shouldn’t need to alter interface designs to make them work. This should have been thought of at the design stage by the designer.

The back-end developer should understand fully how the site works from designs, wireframes, sitemap, content map – ideally all explained clearly in a single Technical Solutions document.

System Integration
When the programming is done the finished templates need to be brought together with the back-end system and any third party software.

This is also the time that final content should ideally be ready to be added before testing.

System Test
Before the client sees the site internal testing should be carried out. The site should meet the accessibility standard specified at the requirements stage (normally AA) and be cross-browser compatible (meet A-Grade browser support, which now includes mobile)

Acceptance
At the end of every phase the client should review and sign off on content before moving to the next phase.

The acceptance phase is the clients chance to review that the project has been delivered to:

• The agreed specification
• The architecture they signed off on
• The designs they were shown
• Includes the content they have signed off on
• The technical standard they expect (the expectation you set for them)

Normally I suggest a user acceptance testing period (UAT) where the client reviews the site on a demo environment and checks that it is up to scratch. If not they provide a prioritized list of bugs and changes. Prioritised because during scoping you will have defined the amount of budget proportioned to amends. If you only have 2 days and they’ve asked for 10 days worth of amends you are giving them 8 days of time for free. The project manager may want re-organise the priorities, which should be discussed with the client. They might have prioritised something trivial over a bug fix that is a true show-stopper.  

When you and the client are satisfied the project has been delivered to spec it can go live (a final test) and then you can pat yourselves on the back!

Maintenance
It is a fact that in software development you will have bugs – a good client should be able to understand this. I am not saying a site should launch with show stopping errors; but if you dig deep enough you’ll find niggles. Even if on delivery the website seems perfect, browsers and operating systems will change, tweaks are made to the site and/or something was missed. 

When the client has completed the acceptance phase they have accepted the agreed project is done. There is a balance between good account management where you fix some post-launch bugs for free and good project management where you avoid spending the next year giving them freebies. 

For a large project an ongoing paid for Service Level Agreement (SLA) will allow for regular maintenance, bug fixing and updates. Smaller projects may need less frequent updating and warrant charged bespoke maintenance only. 

New functionality should ALWAYS be dealt with as a mini-project, not a bolt-on to the SLA – this means that the new functionality is properly thought out. If it’s just bolted on and added improperly it can and often does cause problems in the site elsewhere and may cost you more than you bargained for.
Don’t forget to keep track of agreed hosting and stats monitoring agreements.
 

Brand new shiny website for Claire's

Blood, sweat, tears, glitter and sequins! It's been a busy fair few months, but after writing a painstakingly organised 29 page "Website and Technical Solution" document (it was mostly wireframes and designs with explanatory text), producing some very refined and carefully constructed Visio wireframes, many iterations of  interface design, a 50 page copy deck, several meetings and a thorough build and QA cycle the reward is here - a brand new careers website for Claire's - see www.clairescareers.co.uk. (Which they love!)

The old site (see below) was off brand and clunky. While a great piece of work when it was launched it had dated.  The biggest challenge I saw were bring a fashion brand like Claire's to life online while at the same time providing a clean and quick user experience for what is essentially a very content heavy site. The solution, jumbo-drop down.

The new site features at the top level large seasonally updated background imagery to position Claire's Careers not just as a recruitment site but to highlight it's a recruitment site for a fashion brand! As you drill deeper into the content the images become banner headers, randomly selected on page load, so that it is the copy and not the image that dominates. Still, Claire's products and seasonal photography dominate every element of the site from the backgrounds, page heading to the drivers that help guide users to related content on the right hand side of every page.

The jumbo nav lets users drill down to the content most relevant to them in one click rather than a convoluted search through landing pages and various navigation elements.

We wanted to introduce a social element to the site so every page features the latest tweets from the Claire's Career's twitter account. Every page, including job postings, contain share this links to Twitter and Facebook and "Add this" which covers most of the other major social networks.

 

To encourage engagement with the Claire's Careers channels every page also gives the user the ability to quickly join their Twitter, YouTube or Facebook channels. 

The site has been built to be as accessible as possible. While it is not mobile optimised, the way it has been developed means it will work on most smartphones to a degree. Every element of the site has been built with a layer of graceful degradation in mind. If you don't have JavaScript, no problem - you can still use the nav, you can still view video, and any flash components are not core to the journey and are politely hidden from sight. The navigation will need some tweaking to get it fully working on an iPhone, but not much.

To offer a level of interactivity, and to make a break from the tedium of reading through reams of copy, we've introduced video profiles to give an insight into what some Claire's employee's do. To avoid hosting costs, and because it just works, we decided to use YouTube instead of building a bespoke player. By default you will see the video played in full, for example see Glenn Pollards video profile, but you can skip to individual questions from a menu below (our MD's idea, a source of much grumpiness from me, but worth it). Each segment is supported by a transcript for those who are hard of hearing or just sneaking a look while at work.

All drivers are content managed from a central library and all the random seasonal images pull from a set folder. When we want to add the next seasons imagery it will take 5 minutes rather than running through everypage changing individual images.

The homepage features a carousel of drivers, easily content managed, to promote urgent roles and key content in the site. To make it flexible there are different driver types - big image with a link, big image with text and a link (two layouts), or a flash box (with an image fallback). Watch that space for some creative promotions in the future.

Online application - of course one of the biggest parts of the old and this site is the ability to apply entirely online using ThirtyThree's very powerful, and all ours, Applicant Tracking System. And if you don't find what you want today you can sign up for job alerts - forgotten your password, that's a new feature too (surprisingly!).

What else? A global search, links to the many European sister sites (Claire's a transnational company btw), site help, application help and a plan to roll this site out across Europe.

Perhaps the most exciting part of this project is Phase 2. I can't tell you much, it's a big secret at the moment! What I can say is we'll be trying something that, to my knowledge, has never been tried in the recruitment comms industry before. Fingers crossed it'll be a rip-roaring success and we'll be seeing some big accolades for Claire's Careers and ThirtyThree.

Pecha-Kucha

Last night I went to an event called Pecha-Kucha. It's an event started by two Japanese architects in which people come to talk about... well anything really. The format is simple, 20 slides, 20 seconds per slide. The slides roll on automatically.

It's an interesting way of presenting; the speaker isn't in control - they have to practice... or not. What's very interesting is the slides people choose (images? Text?), do they ad-lib, do they rehearse, do they wing it, do they read from cue cards, do they just read a script.

I think the most engaging talks last night were ones where they had obviously thought about what they wanted to say but it was mostly ad-libbed, no cues, just talking.


The talks are great, check some out: www.pecha-kucha.org/night/bristol/ 

It made me think a lot about how I present. Generally I like big images, a bit of my personality / humour, and a bit of winging it. Reading from a script looses the passion, and cue cards just fluster me.

What's your style? Do you rely on script and words on the pages? If you do then try building a presentation without any words next time;  just pictures. You'll find you deliver a much better pres! And of course, like all good stand-ups, audience participation is always a winner! Engage your audience!

I definately think I'm going to give the Pecha-Kucha style of presenting something a go at work one day. I'm wondering if it would be a good format for presenting to clients... definately different!

Can you pronounce Pecha Kucha? It means conversation or "chit chat" in Japanese. I thought it was a kind of Pokemon.

960 Grids

Designing for a website isn't the same as designing for a brochure. Life is easier when you design in grids. This website shows you how simple it can be.

Thank you tutorial9. A great resource for photoshop, photography, blogging and UX.

Shirt and tie

Last night I stood with my housemates watching "Britain's next top model" ironing my shirt and trousers which I carefully hung on a hanger ready for the morning. In the morning I put these on carefully, did my hair, put on some polished shoes, found the least distressed coat and rode into work carefully avoiding puddles.

Of course I find out the meeting itself is cancelled. PANTS!

At the end of the day, why o why do we have to bother at all? What is it about someone wearing a smart shirt (ideally not off the rack) and an expensive suit (tailor made of course) that makes them so more impressive than some gimp in a tracksuit? Your average village idiot can still dress themselves so why is it important? That chap wearing a scruffy tee, battered Nike trainers and jeans with holes in could easily be the Creative Director of a top London agency... he (or she) could be the one who came up with "that" campaign you are always hearing about.

Now I could look up a whole bunch of studies about wearing a uniform and how the wearer takes on a persona but I'm not going to. You know these. Incidentally, that was exactly what happened in "Britain's next top model" - they had to do a horror shot and dressed up in Zombie make up found it easier to throw themselves into "character" than wearing a Bikini (last week's exciting episode). And do we really want people to be drones, to put on a uniform and conform to a stereotype. I don't, I want to be me, I want to be creative, I want to express myself through my shitty clothes.

I think I might get naked now and leave you with this: 

Six Career Tips To Help You Grow

This has really helped me think:

Six Career Tips To Help You Grow________________________________________
Learn something new every day
When I was a lowly intern right out of college doing grunt work IT application clean up and light UI design, I asked harassed, my dear colleagues to teach me something every single day. They thought I was bright-eyed, cute, and naive and I ended up learning a little about each of the web developers, system integrators, project managers, web managers, web architects, computer support teams. Bit by bit, I soaked in each little morsal about web in the enterprise and it fueled me to learn more. Leo Cheng, Jason Martorano, Oliver Cheng, Dave Giffen, John Perera, Kunal Malik, Jeff Cavano, Aileen Cheng, Robert Cartelli were so good to me, thanks guys.

Often, the fastest way Up is Out
Often, the fastest way up, for those who enjoy working in companies, is out. In most cases, incremental raises are often single digit changes (keeping you above the inflation waterline), and the occasional promotion will be low double digits. For those that I’ve met and move to new job positions, outside of their company they can often expect a 20%-40% increase in salary as they join a new company. It’s interesting to see that firms may value outside talent as more important than inside experience talent, in some cases, a fresh skillset or experience may be what’s needed.

Reverse engineer the job you want
Another useful tip is to reverse engineer the position that you desire to be in. Earlier in my career, I aspired to be a web manager, so I took job descriptions of web strategists and looked at all the skills and experiences needed. I printed out the job description (circled the salary) and taped it to my bathroom mirror, I saw it every morning and night, a double dose of self-reflection. Over time, you start to piece together the projects, programs, and apply new skills to learn how to do this. With time and perseverance, your resume will catch up to where you want to go.
Education matters, but not as much as you thought
For very specialized jobs, where in school training is essential (law, medicine, sometimes programming) this bullet doesn’t apply to you. More and more executives I meet have degrees in something they didn’t study in school for. For most jobs, they hire you because of what you can do for them, not what school you went to. There’s a reason why education falls to the bottom of the resume, and the ‘value statement’ is at the top, quickly followed by real world experience. Don’t get me wrong, education is very important, a bachelor degree is really expected in today’s workplace, but I often lean on the broad, theoretical knowledge I gained as a primer (or glossary) for me to dive in deeper in the business world.

You are a company of one
The other observation I share with my friend (and now you) is that you are a company of one. Even though your paycheck is being delivered through your employer, you are solely responsible for your direction, what you learn, how you perform, and how much you’re paid. I firmly believe that you are paid what you’re worth, so when I hear people complaining “they are underpaid”, in my mind, I translate that as you’ve “undersold yourself”, get skilled, spend time on weekends or early mornings to learn more, and apply new projects, programs and skills –or leave. Therefore, you are your own CEO, CMO, CFO, COO, CTO, you’re in control of your destiny. As you can tell, I don’t believe in fate, you are driving your ship of one.

Develop your plan, and put it in writing
If you’re with me so far, develop your own plan, both short term and long term plans, and set goals on how to reach them. Often, these goals don’t have titles or companies in them, but they describe the environment, or the end outcomes of which you want to reach. Over time these goals will change, and that’s ok, but at least you’re looking forward. I learned this from my buddy’s dad when I was growing up, he had several businesses, and one of his dreams was to have a Ferrari –he achieved it.

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