AIAIO: Our Blog

Seven years ago today I walked into an office of 11 on Park Avenue South, a wide eyed college graduate with no knowledge of what it took to build a Web site, let alone manage the entire process.  I remember signing the contract in my college dorm room a few weeks before graduation to become a full-time Jr. Project Manager at Ai.  What ensued from there was more than I could have imagined.

In seven years, I’ve worked with some of the most smart, talented, people who all exhibit the DNA that makes up the humans who call Ai their home.  I’ve gained experience managing projects, managing relationships, and contributing to the overall improvement and quality of Ai’s processes among other things.  I’ve learned how to problem solve, how to communicate based on my audience, and how to consistently manage against living project plans and defined budgets.  I’ve contributed to the launch of dozens of Web sites, went from being the interviewee to the interviewer, and grew up a member of a passionate team of creative tech nerds.

That office of 11 grew into an office of almost 40.  The suite on Park Avenue South became an entire floor on 5th Avenue, and that inexperienced college grad became a project leader and Ai veteran teaching those who come after her the lay of the land.

A lot has changed over the past seven years, between people who have come and gone, Mayor Jack Reynolds transitioning from a young pup to a well-groomed VP of Security, two office relocations, and a newfound respect for our beloved Morgan Freeman.  But, through the past seven years, a few things have remained constant – Ai has always been a place to recognize the potential in its employees, to encourage an open forum for new ideas, and to seek innovation and improvements on a process that will forever be evolving.

Tonight my little sister graduates from college, and I can’t help but wonder how her next seven years will unravel.  I can only hope she gets the opportunity to grow in the same ways that I’ve had the chance to by being an employee of Ai.  So, on my seventh anniversary of beginning my evolution from a college grad to a Senior Project Manager at Ai, I look back and can only feel proud and fortunate to have witnessed all the growth Ai has seen and that I’ve seen within myself.

AI is heading to Chi-town, and we want to see you!

We will be at the 9th annual Internet Retailer Conference and Exhibition from June 4-6th at McCormick Place West. Please stop by Booth #1666 to say hi and talk shop… or just talk.

IRCE is the world’s largest e-commerce event and is a major educational event that offers online retailing and wholesaling professionals and consumer marketers the insights and analysis they need to give their businesses a competitive advantage in this expanded world of possibilities.

A history lesson and evolution timeline brought to you by Ai…

1993

The World Wide Web debuted to the public, for free, 20 years ago today. Yup, only 20 years ago. Here was the first website, which has been re-released by CERN for this occasion:

1996

Our founder, Alex Schmelkin, made his first website for Hofstra University 17 years ago. Check it out:

2002

The year Ai’s created its VERY FIRST WEBSITE. The lucky client? DonorsChoose.org

2003

We developed our first ecommerce website for FragranceNet.com. FragranceNet.com is ranked 153 on the Internet Retailer Top 500.

2013

That’s now! This month we launched MyRingPop.com, with e-commerce and custom product configuration. Voila!

Any guesses what websites will look like and what technologies will be important in another 20 years?

Noble. Magical. Enchanting. New Jersey. Well played team. Well played.

The lines were drawn. The Houses were declared. Onward

A joyous feast of texas toast, chicken and meat water soup.

House of Ai prepares for battle

Ai’s office was proud to play host to GetTaxi’s Israeli tech startup gathering and Ron Huldai, the Mayor of Tel Aviv, this afternoon. A wide array of Isael-based tech companies met in our uber-comfy Sofaplex to discuss technologies ranging from mobile payment systems to personalized video advertisements their firms have developed.

Host GetTaxi is an Israel-based smartphone app whose New York location is managed out of Ai’s NYC office. Their app, which is currently live in Tel Aviv, London, Moscow and St. Petersburg, digitally hails taxis for 10,000 rides per day. GetTaxi is planning on launching its New York City service this year.

Other companies that displayed their wares at today’s meeting included: Wix, Pango, BillGuard, ADagoo, Mobil, LoyalBlocks, and Eyeview.

“Tel Aviv is home to 700 startups,” said Huldai ,”and we are excited by those that spread their branches to include the Big Apple.”

Josh Levine, Ai’s Chief Experience Officer, presented his session: “UX & Design: When Does One Trump the Other?” with Jordan Lustig, Director of Product Management for Saks Fifth Avenue.

The presentation explored the delicate balance and interplay between User Experience and Design in e-commerce website production from both a designer and retailer’s point of view.

Download the presentation here.

Ai is back in Orlando, Florida, and we want to see you!

We are at the Internet Retailer Web Design and Usability Conference at the Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate. Our booth is #400 in the Conference Exhibit Hall, and we are discussing the latest and greatest in web design through tomorrow, Wednesday, February 13.

IRWD focuses on the latest strategies to communicate product quality, brand identity and increase conversion rates on the web.

Josh Levine, Ai’s Chief Experience Officer, will be presenting a session titled “UX & Design: When Does One Trump the Other?” tomorrow at 1:30pm with Jordan Lustig, Director of Product Management for Saks Fifth Avenue. We would love to see you there. The presentation will discuss how to balance the best of user experience and design from both a designer and retailer’s point of view.

Earlier this summer and on the tails of a full-site redesign, Ai Emerge launched a mobile site for Stop & Stor.

After the launch of the full-site redesign, mobile accounted for 25% of site traffic and was trending up. This was the perfect opportunity to mobilize!

The new mobile engagement included discovery, user experience, design, and development work. The discovery and user experience phase was crucial in providing a strong baseline to begin the project. Our strategy was to look at the quantitative data to help drive our recommendation, but to also get in mindset of the end-user: busy people searching for storage in a big city. In doing so, we were able to identify the most useful features to include in the mobile site. These features included simple and straightforward search options, easy ways to contact locations, and pay bills on the go.

In the design phase, we aimed to uphold the brand identity while effectively translating it to a mobile platform. We optimized graphics to target not just the iPhone but other popular mobile devices like the Android, as well as tablet. We designed graphics to load quickly and degrade gracefully on older devices.

During the development phase, we leveraged and optimized the existing CMS so the business had a streamlined process to make site updates across both full-site and mobile platforms. This helped to minimize overhead for updating content. We also ensured that the interface behaved just as efficiently for the end-user. We implemented mobile best practices such as using advanced device detection so the site would load properly on any device, while including the option for the user to toggle their interactive experience from desktop to mobile.  In addition, we used mobile-specific fields, forms and interactions to enhance accessibility and usability across devices.

Since the site launched in July 2012, mobile traffic has already improved! Time spent on the site along with usage of the reservation system has increased resulting in a -21% change in bounce rates, a 13% increase in average visit duration, and a 93% increase in utilization of the online reservation system.  Because of the improved mobile user experience, increased usage of site functions and time spent has shown that users are much more engaged than before.

We are so excited about this result and look forward to continuing our partnership with Stop & Stor.

Achievers has announced this year’s 50 Most Engaged Workplaces™– the award aims to inspire enhancements to the workplace by championing the growth of employee-centric organizations. Ai is thrilled to be ranked among the top US organizations.

The judges read, re-read and compare survey questions related to the Eight Elements of Employee Engagement™: Leadership, Communication, Culture, Rewards & Recognition, Professional & Personal Growth, Accountability & Performance and Vision & Values.  Forms are filled out without any company names so submissions can be judged with as much anonymity as possible.

We are delighted to have made the cut!

To Achievers-we love what you stand for. We agree employees are a company’s greatest asset; when companies empower them to succeed and recognize performance, not presence, the employees and the business both reap the benefits. Thank you– we are honored to be among the 2012 50 Most Engaged Workplaces™.

As my time at Alexander Interactive (Ai) comes to a close, I’d like to reflect on what I learned while I was here. I started at Ai with little experience in project management. Ai gave me the opportunity to learn through hands-on experience managing an internal project. This project did not follow the traditional project process, but I was still able to experience some of the major project process milestones.

My first introduction to the project process was the Project Triangle, which represents the three points of a project: Scope, timeline and budget. In any given project one of these points is fixed and cannot change. The fixed point for my project was the timeline, so I began by developing the timeline. I then created a staffing plan, which allowed us to understand how much the project would cost.

Then we began working on the project. Basecamp was crucial to the success of the project. All of the files, weekly key activities, and meeting notes were posted to Basecamp. Having all of the documents in one place kept everything organized and allowed people to quickly access the information they needed. I then used Todoist, a to-do list web app, to track all of the next steps.

While I won’t get to see this project completed while I am at Ai (it launches in early September), I did get to see another project progress almost to completion. This project was already well underway when I began at Ai, but I was able to join the team, experience the design process, learn about client interactions and observe presentation practices. I also attended many meetings, which taught me to share materials beforehand, bring copies of relevant documents to the meetings and to avoid going off topic. I was a mini-PM for the summer, and it was a great opportunity to see the project process in action.

While at Ai I also conducted research on resource management software, Facebook storefronts Open Graph and Shopcade. I developed an Ai dictionary and a site launch dates list on the internal wiki. I also assisted in the development of an Ai Pinterest account and learned how to post to the blog (making this post possible).

At school I manage four organizations and attend four classes each semester. Keeping all of my organizations and schoolwork in order is challenging. While convincing all of the organizations that I manage in college to use Basecamp may prove impossible, Todoist will definitely be coming with me to college. I will also use the system of next steps and task tracking to make sure that people are aware of and actually accomplish the tasks that I assign to them.

Ai is not all work and no play. There were many moments of laughter and fun. For me, Ai was not just a job but a great life experience. I can honestly say that I have learned more than I had anticipated during my time at Ai, and I want to thank everyone at Ai for making my time as a PM Intern so great.