Thanks to Junta42’s Joe Pulizzi for the gracious invitation, knowledge and opportunity to spread a little CS love.

—Ian

We often hear that an idea is only as good as it’s execution but we rarely hear that execution is only as good as the investment in the idea. The beginning of any project begins with an assessment of satisfaction. “This is good but could be better.” “This is terrible.” Or, “This is no longer relevant.” Whatever the present state of the project — something, or someone, ultimately decides that change is necessary.

This is your fork in the road. This is your opportunity. Do different to get different.

—Ian

—Ian

*thanks to Griffin Farley

Many of these lessons can be transferred to content strategy and interactive solutions. If you want a new website and have never had one, you also don’t have legacy systems to untangle, databases to rejoin, layers of stakeholders to appease and vector versions of your logo to track down. In short you have a blank slate. While I am not advocating starting from scratch for many reasons including — SEO ranking, branding and resource allocation for starters — It is imperative to understand that working with an existing site presents both unique challenges and opportunities that require deeper digging. Dig deep my friends, dig deep.

—Ian

1) Make mistakes.

Lullabot prides themselves as an awesome place to make mistakes. When an employee made a terrible data error, co-founder Matt Westgate told her, “You made a giant mistake, and you really screwed up here. That is why you are now Lullabot’s data import expert.” The company also bought her a massage.

Environments where people can’t admit mistakes become very hostile and dishonest work environments.

Fess up to your mistakes. Make them a highlight of your weekly team calls.

2) Room for stupid.

Smart people can ask stupid questions. “Take your stupidness and help other people become less stupid.”

3) Give it away/Have faith

Find out the awesome things you do and give it away. (But not all of it.) Have faith that by giving it away, you are making the pie even bigger.

Out-teach. Out-share. Out-contribute.

(Props here to 37Signals)

//

But one of my favorite parts was how they select clients.

When a potential client comes to Lulllabot, they need to meet 2 out of the 3 criteria:

1) They are a nice person.

2) They have a healthy budget.

3) They have a fun project.

“And one of them has to be that they are nice.”

How’s that for a rule to live by?

–Britta

Check it out fullsize

—Ian

Then there are the noted “web/content strategy folk” saying we shouldn’t be spending time arguing about the hierarchy of practices—to that, I disagree.

Here’s why:

1. A little disagreement never hurt anyone. Perspectives are gained, knowledge is transferred and opinions are challenged/strengthened. We don’t argue enough or correctly if you ask me.

2. Budgets are being slashed and agencies are specializing: we just do strategy, we just code, we just do PSD’s, we just do CMS,  just IA here, etc. This does not bode well for these people called “clients” who are increasingly unclear what they need, who they need and how they are going to manage the project/vendors.

3. The practices, do not have clear working boundaries, systems or languages and arguing/defining and redefining hierarchies starts this conversation.

I have found the practice of collaborating with other practices, or intra-practice, a crap-shoot—some great experiences and some nightmares. But I believe the goal of agency symmetry is incredibly important and something I am committed to spending more time, money and energy pursuing. This Ad-age article from a few weeks ago really hit it home for me. I hope it inspires you.

“As agency specialization continues, the holding companies have not worked to force and enable coordination, de-duplication and value creation. Instead they have allowed creative agencies to be marginalized. In my view they have enabled massive inefficiency driven by duplication and, sadly, have enabled open strife and conflict in full view of marketers, which only serves to diminish the value of all agency parties in the eye of marketers. The holding companies need to confront this issue fast or they risk being marginalized. Agencies need to collaborate amongst themselves to create client-focused value vs. playing out strife in public view of their clients. This, in my view, is killing agency credibility and value among marketers.”

Kimberly-Clark CMO Tony Palmer

Read the full article

—Ian