The pulse of Alexander Interactive

As a junior designer the thought of “creativity” and “organization” even being in the same sentence seems counterintuitive. But I learned early on that you cannot be an unorganized designer at Ai.

If you don’t organize your work, your designs will suffer. You can’t afford to lose things or forget tasks or client requests. Every missing document or lost bug assignment is time lost. This sometimes can be a difficult task when you have four project managers approaching you at the same time.

Prioritize 

One thing I’ve learned at Ai is how to prioritize. There is never a task too small, but some are more urgent then others. At the beginning of the day I take a moment to gather myself, prioritize my tasks and let all the project managers know where my priorities are and when they should expect their tasks to be completed. It’s always better to let a PM know they might not get their design change till the afternoon than to leave them hanging. (Their jobs are hard enough.)

Make a List

Once my projects are prioritized, I make a to-do list. Now don’t get me wrong; I love the internet and all it has to offer (just look at where I work) but I love the simple joy of Post-It notes. Call me old-fashioned, but there is nothing better than a good old pen and paper for making a to-do list (and the satisfaction of crossing things off).

It doesn’t matter what you use for your list as long as it works for you. Besides Post-Its, I personally find the Action Pads really helpful. If you find it easier to organize your to-do list on the computer, there are lots of programs. A favorite of the Ai design crew is Teux Deux, a free minimalist web-based to-do list.

Name Consistently

Now my workload is assessed, my day is prioritized, and my handy Post-Its are in sight – a to-do list is useless if it falls beneath the pile of papers on your desk. The same applies for your digital organization.

When working on tasks, you should have a consistent way of naming files and folders. I use concise but descriptive names that can easily be found via search. Always use a numbering system so you can track which file is the most recent. This has been especially essential recently in our work with retailers whose products are changing constantly with the season.

Save, Save, Save!

Last (but certainly not least) the Golden Rule: “Save your files. Constantly.” Make ‘Command+S’ your friend. You can have the most organized file system and the best naming method, but none of that will matter when your system crashes and you’ve forgotten to save your last hour (or day) of work. I’m having a flashback of losing hundreds of resized images in a single computer crash.

Don’t let my nonchalance fool you. As a junior designer, I’ve had to learn some of these lessons the hard way. Organization is difficult work, but the more you work at it the easier it gets.

Tracking your tasks, prioritizing, keeping your workspace organized and constantly saving progress will give you peace of mind and save you precious time, allowing you to be more creative. While some new designers may think of the two as mutually exclusive, organization and creativity go hand-in-hand.

We’re more than halfway through the 2012 Paleo Challenge, and we’ve got a three-way tie on the leaderboard. At the midway mark Nick, Tim and I are in a neck and neck with Seth and Jess Dale trailing right behind waiting for a nice crisp soda or a neglected slice of cake to throw us off course.

With three weeks (but fewer pounds) under our belts, we’ve all gotten more comfortable in the kitchen by sharing more than a dozen Paleo recipes. My library of Paleo resources has grown. I’ve learned about ingredients that I never knew existed and have saved a heck of a lot of money.

While some of us were skeptical about certain dishes before we tasted them, everyone has been in love with the food. It has been refreshing to have a new homemade dish each day. There have actually been no repeated meals brought in for the entire challenge so far.

Across the board, everyone’s favorite part of the challenge has been cooking for each other. We’re even talking about continuing that tradition after the challenge. As Jess Dale put it, “It’s amazing, cost-effective and healthy to boot.” Well, to be completely honest, cooking has been everyone but Tim’s favorite part.

Tim’s favorite thing about the challenge?  Bacon.

We’ve each struggled with a few cheats here and there. Some things have been harder to give up than others – Seth is shouting “Diet Coke!” over my shoulder right now. And each of us have had to resist the delectable treats that always seem to make their way around the office.

Taking pictures of every meal and having a group of friends who we see every day has been a great way to keep us accountable. It’s brought us closer as a group and we’re all looking forward to seeing who comes out on top at the end.

While we look forward to the celebratory cheat meal late next week, the Paleo lifestyle is something that a few of us are going to maintain, with the 80/20 rule in full effect, beyond the challenge.  Eating clean feels good, so why stop?

1. Methodology

“It’s very important that a project manager has experience using a system or methodology of approach, and can document and communicate it to the team. People need to know what’s going to occur, when, where and how.”

My take: This is vital; I even mentioned it in my recent “Why Athletes Make Good Project Managers” post. To reiterate: As the PM of a project team you’re on the hook to ensure both the internal and external teams always know the upcoming key activities and who is responsible for each. Proactively sharing information without being asked helps guarantee success, and paying attention to your audience when communicating facilitates the information transfer.

While all PMs have their own methodologies of how to get things done, consistency between PMs within the same company is key. We all use the same templates and follow the same project lifecycle, and we’re always evolving our shared superset document with findings from recent projects. Succeeding is easier when there are no blurry lines.

2. Techniques

“With project experience we add tools and techniques to our tool belt. Those techniques are very beneficial for a project manager to share and pull out at specific times.”

My take: While this can be interpreted in many ways, here’s how I apply it: As time goes by and I accumulate more projects under my belt. I learn new ways of managing issues, risks, clients, internal resources, etc.; we all do.

At Ai, we’re encouraged to share our findings at recurring PM team meetings, and we’ve instituted mini-mortems at predetermined checkpoints throughout each project phase to capture both project-specific and company-wide findings. These mini mortems have proven extremely useful, and we share all captured information via our company wiki so we’re able to reference it later.

As we all gain experience, our tools and techniques evolve along with us, and it’s important to share our findings with each other so we can help each other grow.

3. Software

“The software that is used should enable project success. We are all familiar with the previous generation of project management software that was so complex nobody really used it, defaulting instead to paper or sticky notes. Today, project management software is very collaborative, often customizable, and widely available. Many also have social tools built-in to enable project collaboration.”

My take: At Ai we’ve definitely gone through a bunch of software to get us to where we are right now, in terms of what PMs use to run projects – We’ve narrowed it down to Basecamp, Harvest, Jira, MS Project, etc. I’ve been the guinea pig in testing out other software, with the goal of always seeking to gain further efficiencies when it comes to running our projects. The hunt is always on for something that isn’t necessarily more robust, but more applicable to the way we work here at Ai. One of the great things about Ai is that each team member has input. We’re not set in the tools we’re using now, and the exec team is always open to suggestions for improving the way we work.

4. Templates

“Developing templates that can be mobilized and quickly and effectively implemented is very simple today. The benefit to your team is that being able to reach for a template saves a lot of their time and effort. Templates also help to keep work processes more consistent and standard; your team will know what to expect and when.”

My take: It took us a little while, and we’re still always evolving our documentation, but we’re definitely in a great spot with regards to having a central place for us all to access templates that we use over and over again here at Ai. Standardizing with templates helps to (1) ensure the internal team, no matter the project, is always seeing consistency between PMs’ documentation, (2) allow one PM to step in for another PM easily in times of need without having to relearn a certain way of doing things, and (3) save time!  Most likely, every document we’re creating for our projects has already been created on another, so no need to recreate the wheel every time.

Often these four tools are underutilized or taken for granted by entry level PMs. Learning to use standardized methodologies, techniques that maximize efficiency, software that is designed for the tasks at hand and time-saving templates are among the most important lessons that have helped me grow in my project management career. I use each of these four tools everyday at Ai.

The PM Hut is a great place to learn new strategies that will help both rookie and veteran PMs.  It’s also great to read articles like these that confirm tactics you’re already using.  You can check out more of their educational articles at their site, PMHut.com.

With the New Year almost two weeks behind us, the time when resolutions often fade and reality sets in is quickly approaching. Without accountability and the support of others, it can be tough to stay on track.

Enter the 2012 Ai Paleo Challenge.

How did this challenge come about?

Over the course of the past few months, Ai has accumulated a contingent of employees who all do Crossfit, a strength and conditioning program that promotes “constantly varied, high-intensity, functional movement.”  Crossfitters believe and have proven that a Paleo lifestyle fuels athletes to have the best performance during workouts as possible.

But Crossfit is much more than just a fitness regime; it’s a community. And no better way to stick to your New Year’s resolutions than by having the people in your community hold you accountable.

What is Paleo?

Paleo is a way of eating; it’s a lifestyle, not a short-term diet. The name Paleo comes from the word “Paleolithic”, and it’s often referred to as the caveman diet.   The concept is to eat like our ancestors ate, omitting major everyday foods like sugar, wheat, rice, corn, and dairy. The goal is to consume locally grown produce, and animals that eat and are raised naturally.

Put simply: You focus on what you can eat – meat, fish, nuts, seeds, fruit, and vegetables, keeping starch and sugar intake to a minimum. Consumption should be kept to levels that will support exercise but not body fat.

What are the Ai Paleo Challenge Rules?

Duration: The challenge will last for five weeks. From Monday, January 9 until Friday, February 10 all participants’ meals must be Paleo (some people doing “moo”-Paleo in which some dairy is allowed).

Cooking: Every week each participant cooks a Paleo lunch for their fellow challengers per a  cooking calendar agreed upon before the competition.

Scoring:  Different types of Paleo cheats are worth different amounts of points. The person with the lowest amount of points at the end of the challenge wins.

Note: The following drinks are allowed – 1 glass of red wine, 1 shot tequila or vodka, and unlimited coffee (as long as it only has milk in it) each day.

Blogging: All meals must be posted and labeled to a Tumblr blog daily (honor system in full effect). Snacks do not need to be included, but honesty regarding cheat snacks is expected.

Prize: At the end of the challenge, the group will go out to a big hearty meal – one big cheat meal . The winner will be treated to their food and drinks.

But in the end, as cliché as it sounds, we all win. And even though everyone reacts to eating Paleo differently, knowing that we were able to eat clean and stay away from processed foods for over a month is a victory in itself.

Who is competing?

Five Ai employees are competing, each of whom belongs to a Crossfit affiliate and is familiar with eating Paleo.

Follow us as we venture on our primal journey over the next month. Keep your fingers crossed for the benefit of our other coworkers and clients that we don’t take things too far (i.e. walking around the office barefoot, growing out our hair and/or starting to resemble apes more than humans).

May the best cave(wo)man win!

Be a leader.  Always be prepared.  Communicate.  Stay disciplined.

These concepts have been a part of my life since I was 10 years old, when I first stepped out onto the volleyball court.  At that age coaches must simplify the game and stick to the basics, no matter the sport; a fifth grader can’t handle much more.  Almost two decades later, with four years of Division I volleyball under my belt, and a half a decade into my project management career, I can’t help but look back and realize the same rules still apply.

Be a Leader

There’s no question that the project manager (PM) is looked upon to provide direction and has the capacity to influence members of the team in the same way a sports team captain would.  In both instances, you’re a decision maker, have to be quick on your feet and always have the end goal in mind.  You lead by putting the team first, the passion you exude becomes contagious, and you know how to get the best out of others.  Enthusiasm, confidence and the ability to help facilitate points of clarity in times of uncertainty are vital both on the court and in the office.  You must have patience, understand and embrace the process and make team members understand the value behind everything the team does as a whole.

Always be Prepared

Ask any collegiate volleyball coach or player why he or she is successful and some portion of accomplishment will likely be attributed to preparation.  Before every volleyball match in college we reviewed game tape of our opponents and ourselves.  We’d write down and submit notes on what we saw, practiced daily, studied our tendencies and consistently worked on our mechanics to see what worked and what didn’t before the next match.  Different combinations of actions led to different results; the ones that worked were recorded and repeated, and the ones that didn’t were adjusted until they became the former.

Years later (not to say that I’m no longer active – enter: Crossfit) I’ve replaced my daily collision with a wood gym floor with a daily coffee, a keyboard and a process I follow that is always evolving based on the same concepts above.  Every client, project, and project team is different.  What worked for one client or project may not work for the next, but setting aside time to review lessons learned from previous engagements prior to starting a new project is a valuable exercise that is often overlooked.  Documenting wins and losses upon completion and referencing back to them is critical for future success, and no PM, coach, or player can argue that.

Communicate

On the volleyball court communication is fundamental. Whether it’s calling out hitters on the opponent’s side, non-verbally sharing play signals with teammates, or even engaging in self-talk to get you through to the next point, no one should ever have to guess what your next move is. The same holds true for me now.

As the PM of a project team you’re on the hook to ensure both the internal and external teams always know the upcoming key activities and who is responsible for what.  Proactively sharing information without being asked helps guarantee success, and paying attention to your audience when communicating facilitates the information transfer.

Stay Disciplined

Being a collegiate athlete demands sacrifice and therefore balance.  You’re juggling daily practice, traveling, classes, schoolwork and social time.  You must have the discipline to get things done within a given timeframe without sacrificing quality, and holding yourself and your teammates accountable.  Being a PM demands the same attention to detail and self-control. Between tracking multiple work streams, attending meetings, producing your own deliverables, and helping the team stay motivated you’re forced to constantly prioritize and hold yourself and the team accountable.

Being part of a team with a common goal is where I thrive.  By surrounding myself with people who are smart and driven will only help me grow, both on the court and in the office.  While many non-athletes are successful PMs, having the background in sport has helped develop my leadership and communication skills while teaching me to always be prepared and keep myself disciplined.  And I must admit high fiving coworkers and clients can go a long way too.

Last week David Ow, Director of Project Management, took the PM team out to our annual holiday dinner, a time to get out of the office and change the scenery for a few hours while reminiscing on the past year.  And while we definitely spoke about things other than project plans, budget updates and weekly status reports, it was hard not to reflect on what we’ve learned since the same time last year.

Although the PM team at Ai is comprised of people with diverse backgrounds and experience, as a team, we can all say we’ve learned to keep the following top of mind –

• Be fact-based.
• Espouse numbers as a means of supporting your position but remember that the numbers aren’t your position (in and of themselves). That is, critical analysis of what numbers, metrics, etc. are telling you is equally if not more important than the numbers themselves.
• Provide options and implications to those options in order to (a.) make a decision and/or (b.) help facilitate the making of a decision.
• Planning has to be realistic.  You can’t succeed if it can’t be accomplished.
• Champion “reasonable” and “realistic”, but remember it’s your job to figure out creative approaches to getting to the finish line.
• Think like it’s all on your shoulders, but remember that it’s not.
• You are a facilitator; a guide; a remover of obstacles; a creative problem solver; a generalist who people will come to for all of the answers – even if you’re not the right person… but you are not The Boss.
• You’re responsible for bringing the right people in at the right time and setting them up to do what they do best.
• Be flexible / nimble.  Even the best-laid plans go awry.  Even the most proven processes will go off-the-rails for a variety of reasons.  The true test of your mettle as a PM will be how you respond, react, and adjust in a timely manner.
• Celebrate success. Since projects are finite, they will have an end…no matter how far off that might seem at present.

Cheers to my fellow PM team members, and to our fearless team captain, David, who continues to guide us to the finish line time and time again.

Happy Holidays!

During the month of November everyone awaits their Thanksgiving tradition. Whether it’s Turkey mid-day or takeout at dinner time, it is a time to be with loved ones, reflect and give thanks. This month we also decided to give back.  And Ai showed up. BIG.

Although usually camera shy, I gladly posed in front of what seems like a delivery for a mid-sized NYC bodega. However it is 564 food items donated by Ai-ers during our Thanksgiving food drive benefitting Urban Pathways (UP). With me are Jennifer Leao, committed staff member of UP, and Ora Timbers, a formerly homeless New Yorker who lived at Ivan Shapiro House – one of the residences Urban Pathways supports. Ora is now in her own apartment in the UP scatter site program with a permanent part time job in UP’s development department. Food drives free up budget dollars, allow for increased critical services and help Urban Pathways have more success stories like Ora’s.

The Ai food drive was scheduled to run from November 8^th to 28^th.  As our 1^st food drive, I was prepared to accept 150 cans as a success. It was a satisfying surprise that we more than tripled our goal.

We got off to a very slow start with no can contributions the first days. Once the race got going, the Front-End Engineers took an early lead.

The last week the competition got tough.

On November 22^nd, the Management Team + IT pulled ahead. They continued with a solid pace, courtesy of a genius strategy (i.e. boxes of food delivered from Amazon). At the last moment, the Front-End engineers won back their victory as half of the team trekked to a nearby grocery store returning with over a 100 cans in one trip.

The winning Front-End Engineers are below in all of their glory. Congratulations to them on a big win and to everyone who participated for having a positive impact on the lives of homeless this winter. We tip our proverbial hat to you!

This morning Ai released its T-Commerce Report, a best practices guide for tablet-based UX design and t-commerce review of the ten largest retailers on the web.

We’ve written about the importance of t-commerce UX optimization before on the blog (and E-Commerce Times) and reviewed Amazon’s redesign from a t-commerce perspective. The T-Commerce Report goes into more depth on how the top-selling sites on the internet are adapting to a tablet based future and how you can do the same. Check it out here.

The Ai office was abuzz today with the news of Amazon’s Kindle Fire. The new tablet appears to be the first competitor to steal the wind out of the iPad’s sails (and possibly iPad sales as well).

The overall sentiment around the implications of the product itself was a guarded excitement. Most of that excitement focused on the price, an appetizing $199.

It is only a matter of time before t-commerce reaches the tipping point that sends it into its boom. A sub $200 price tag could be that tipping point. If so, retailers with tablet-optimized UX will be the benefactors. With only a seven-inch screen, the Fire will put an even higher premium on the size of retail sites’ calls-to-action.

While the Amazon redesign may have overlooked many t-commerce UX fundamentals, one site that appears to be perfectly optimized for use on the Fire is the recently launched, MyHabit, Amazon’s partner in competition with Gilt Groupe. With large call-outs and a minimalistic design layout, the site appears to be tailor-made for use with the Fire (even down the the flash product videos, which will render on the Fire’s Silk browser).

After the (positive) sticker shock, the second-most exciting piece of news to come out of today’s Amazon press conference was the the Fire’s native Silk browser. Silk is a truly tablet-optimized browser that will split site rendering processing power between the tablet and Amazon’s cloud computing system. Using Amazon’s cloud as a type of “endless cache,” sites should render significantly quicker than they would using only the Fire’s dual core processor.

This type of “split browsing” (as Amazon is calling it) has huge implications for t-commerce. During this early period of tablet development, processing assistance is vital for optimizing page load times.

Ai has put a premium on designing sites for page load time optimization. Will this innovation make this optimization irrelevant? The answer is almost certainly “no” since even with the demo of the browser show some lag in load times. It could mean though that sites optimized for page load speed have comparable load times on Silk as they would on a laptop.

The one real certainty coming out of this news is that the future of t-commerce is getting closer by the minute.

Tuesday night marked the reemergence of the Ai trivia team, newly named “First Order of Business.”

Competing against 25 other teams, First Order of Business stayed in the running for an outright win all night. After putting up four solid rounds, including a perfect 10/10 round three, the Ai crew was only 4 point (answers) out of the lead.

Sadly the last round proved perplexing for our persistent pixel pushers. With only two correct answers, First Order of Business toppled down the leader board. The bonus question gave the team a chance to make the podium, but the team’s last ditch effort came up incorrect.

Ai finished 11th, in the top half of the pack, but five points behind their one-on-one opponents,”Cliff Clavin’s Mailbag,” who finished fifth.

For a sampling of last night’s action check out the questions below (the Ai team got all five correct).

Name the following US Presidents by their middle names:

1. Simpson

2. Gamaliel

3. David

4. Earl

5. Wilson

Answers Here

Congratulations to ”Cliff Clavin’s Mailbag” and the rest of Tuesday’s winners (and to anyone who knew who Gamaliel was).