| http://37signals.com/svn/archi..._board_finding_good_people.php | Date: 4/25/2006 3:56 PM |
Announcing the Signal vs. Noise Job Board. Our answer to the dozens of requests we’ve been getting every week for a while now: “Do you know where I can find a good designer?”, “Who’s available to do Ruby on Rails work?”, “Have you heard about any project managers being available?”.
It’s $250 to post a job. You get 500 characters to make your pitch and it stays up for 30 days.
We will be promoting the job board in various ways over the next few months including a permanent position in the SvN sidebar which is seen by tens of thousands of people every day.
| http://37signals.com/svn/archi..._kick_in_discovery_edition.php | Date: 4/25/2006 9:26 AM |
- Richard P. Feynman didn’t give a shit about awards
- After winning the Nobel Prize: "I don’t like honours…The prize is the pleasure of finding the thing out, the kick in the discovery, the observation of the people who use it. Those are the real things!"
- Paul Graham: Startups worry too much about people copying them
- It’s all about execution. "Startups should worry more about making something worth copying and less about whether someone will."
- Web designer = arrogant, close-minded, fascist oppressor
- Eric Meyer: "You have to make a judgment call, one that will appear wrong to some fraction of your users…you can never satisfy everyone with your choices of Web design techniques. It is simply not possible."
- Lean Thinking applied to software development (PDF)
- Toyota Production System management style brought to software. Eliminating waste, empowering front line workers, responding immediately to customer requests, etc.
- Book: Beyond Culture by Edward T. Hall
- "The problem with bureaucracies is that they have to work hard and long to keep from substituting self-serving survival and growth for their original primary objective…Bureaucracies have no soul, no memory and no conscience."
- Color tools
- The Color Wizard lets you type in the value of your color and get an automatic return of that color’s complementary color, split complementary, analogous, etc. Spin the color wheel to generate color combinations.
- The Monome 40h is a reconfigurable grid of sixty-four backlit buttons
- Video shows groovy usage as a music controller. Buttons can be configured as toggles, radio groupings, sliders, or organized into more sophisticated systems to monitor and trigger sample playback positions, stream 1-bit video, interact with dynamic physical models, and play games.
- Ajaxian on Pyro
- "Pyro embeds WebKit on OS X (which is very easy to do, enabling these applications nicely) to offer a rich experience on top of 37signals Campfire chat application."
- Apple plans new 50-acre campus ("our business has basically tripled in the last five or six years")
- Jobs addressed the Cupertino City Council members on Tuesday, April 18: "We’re pretty thrilled. Since we’re your largest taxpayer, I thought you might be happy for us."
- Thomas Jefferson was a badass
- Quotes page including "A little revolution now and then is a good thing; the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."
- YOtel
- Inspired by British Airways first class and Japanese capsule hotels. Includes revolutionary internal windows, whatever that means.
- How C.R.A.P is Your Site Design?
- Mike Rundle on Contrast + Repetition + Alignment + Proximity.
- Analysis of recent redesigns by NY Times and Wall Street Journal
- WSJ editor: "If you try to cram it all onto the home page, you’re just going to get killed. On the other hand if you don’t surface a lot of it intelligently, you’re not reflecting the full panoply of what’s there."
- Prick (jokingly) judges children’s art work
- "The premise: I can draw better, spell better, and run faster than your kids. So being that my skills are obviously superior to those of children, I’ve taken the liberty to judge art work done by other kids on the internet."
| http://37signals.com/svn/archives2/palais_ideal.php | Date: 4/24/2006 7:14 PM |
It all started one day in 1879 when a postal worker in Hauterives, France tripped over a rock. 34 years/9,000 days/65,000 hours later he had built Palais Ideal (photos), a bizarre four-sided castle made from concrete, lime, and wire that combines architectural styles from various time periods and countries.
Cheval stopped to examine what he called his “stumbling block.” He found its shape so bizarre that he decided to take it home. The next day he returned to this same spot and found more beautiful stones which he gathered up enthusiastically and carried off. This event he took as a divine sign. “Since Nature provided me with sculptures I shall become an architect and a mason (besides who isn’t a bit of a mason?). While tramping I thought of Napoleon who said the word ‘impossible’ does not or should not exist. Since then I agree with him. The word impossible no longer exists.” With these rocks of varied and fantastic shape Cheval would create his “fairy-like palace beyond imagination,” the Palais Ideal.
| http://37signals.com/svn/archi...s_projectondemand_amex_crn.php | Date: 4/24/2006 11:22 AM |
Mightyv: Calendar with Horizontal Hours
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Windows Setup: “Recommendation: Get another antivirus program”
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Project-On-Demand: Earned Value
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American Express Merchant Services: 10 Upload Buttons / Maximum of 5 uploads
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CRN: Peeldown Ad
| http://37signals.com/svn/archi...lix_mailers_over_the_years.php | Date: 4/22/2006 10:04 AM |
A really interesting look into the 5-year progression of the Netflix mailer. I love the practical design decisions, the trial and error experimentation, the minor details (like a little hole to keep the packages from inflating on airplanes) that make a big difference. Neat stuff. [via DF]
| http://37signals.com/svn/archi...he_filter_week_of_april_21.php | Date: 4/21/2006 3:25 PM |
Some interesting comments posted this week at Signal vs. Noise:
» On Screens Around Town
Dean 17 Apr 06
the new NYTimes design is not cutting it for me…I recommend the “Today’s Paper” page on the new design to get quick access to the top stories in each section with less fluff on the page (you can jump to sections too): http://www.nytimes.com/pages/todayspaper/index.html
Adam 18 Apr 06
The moment you slap an ad on your site it changes what that site is. It changes the terms of the dialogue. It just does. Doesn’t matter how small the ad is, or how putatively useful: it indicates to me that, rather than being a respected peer with whom you are interested in having a conversation, you now understand me as an eyeball to be monetized. How can that not skew things? It does. Something’s getting lost, and I held that “something” in great esteem. I’m sad to see it go.
D 18 Apr 06
I’d rather there be no ads on my favourite sites, but if a small ad - especially if it makes a rational appeal for a product I might actually be interested in - can help one of my favourite authors support themselves doing what they love and therefore write more, well that’s a good thing innit?
Coudal 18 Apr 06
I’ve been running ads on coudal.com for a while and I’ve bought thousands of dollars of Goog and display ads on other sites. From those two perspectives we’ve struck a pretty good balance with The Deck and a big majority of the response from readers has been positive too. So far so good. Plus, the ‘punch-the-monkey’ ad scheduled for May is really hilarious. You’ll love it.
» On Sunspots: The full moon in the Trades edition
SI 20 Apr 06
From: http://www.etre.com/blog/2006/04/f_me/ …”â¦Suggesting that F-shaped scanning is [an] innate [human behaviour] seems to push a very specific agenda - an agenda that sees users’ behaviour (and ultimately usability gurus like Nielsen) driving design. Yet it seems to me that, in this particular instance, it is design that is driving users’ behaviour.”
Sam 19 Apr 06
to clarify to qwerty: this is a blog, not your employee handbook. the authors say what they like. don’t act shocked when “less documentation” doesn’t work in your nuclear missle silo.
Don Wilson 18 Apr 06
Tim, after numerous dead ends, here’s where I think the cartoon originated.
http://www.scaryideas.com/Cartoons/ITProjects/
» On Rubber ball lessons
Ward Andrews 19 Apr 06
Writing, storytelling, marketing, creating a product…it’s all design.
» On Less financial options in your pocket
Danno 20 Apr 06
I don’t like the idea of a wallet telling me how many paper bills I can have on me…I refuse to be arsed to figure out the change I’m going to get back from my purchases during the day just to appease my wallet.
Tom 19 Apr 06
90% of the email I get - via work or at home is top-posted. The only people who don’t top post are uber geeks.
Dan 19 Apr 06
I always put a “See my comments below” at the top when I inject my comments in the sender’s message. I make it a different color too. That helps…I find that sometimes replying at the top is nice, and sometimes replying in-line is. It depends somewhat on the length of their questions/comments that need responded to.
» On Skirts/Flowers
Daniel 20 Apr 06
Flowers, or eyes… http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/users/jgd1000/iriscollage.jpg …Stumbled over those photos a year ago. So beautiful, and a little scary, I think. Taken by John Daugman in his work on iris recognition.
Kathleen Fasanella 21 Apr 06
Another chica here, comfortable in geekdom, only dated geeks, married one etc. However, I do feel out of place here because I work in “fashion” and everybody has the idea that people in the fashion industry are prima-donna artist types. Sorry, no. Fashion = manufacturing = engineering. To whit, (the fellas should like this), I posted an article entitled “anatomy of a camel toe pt.1” which explains how inappropriately used technology has created the popular/reviled fitting defect known as “camel toe”. It’s not due to fat chicks wearing too-tight pants; camel toe is an engineering defect from the sewing factory floor.
[Ed note: I never expected to see a (thoughtful) comment about camel toes!]
» On Fly on the Wall: “I’m running into a problem with HumanTime”
brad 21 Apr 06
Donald Rumsfeld works standing up for 8-12 hours a day, which is why he doesn’t think keeping Iraqi prisoners standing for hours at a time should qualify as “torture.”
Bob Aman 21 Apr 06
The steward seriously missed his calling. The man was a stand-up comedian, and a dang fine one at that. I haven’t laughed so hard in ages. That whole safety thing you have to suffer through every time? He turned it into a comedy routine: “Please pretend to pay attention while we explain the safety features of this Boeing 737. I know, I can’t believe it either, but there’s a safety card in the seat pocket in front of you. No one ever reads it, so I’m not going to even bother asking you to. At this time, you should have your seatbelts on, your tray tables up, and your seats in their upright and most uncomfortable position. This is a no complaining, no whining, no smoking flight. If you absolutely must smoke, I suggest you avail yourself of our smoking area out on the wing…that is, if you can manage to get it lit. While you’re out there, feel free to enjoy our inflight movie, Gone With The Wind. We don’t expect a loss of cabin pressure today. If we did, the three of us would have called in sick. But if we do lose pressure, masks will automatically fall from the ceiling. After you’re done screaming, simply put the mask on and breath normally, like this: [Darth Vader Imitation]. Please put your own mask on before helping your children…or those who are acting like children, such as your husband. Now, since we’ve been cleared for take-off, I’d like to ask you to lean over and please press your face against the window so that all those other bankrupt airlines can see that we have a full flight. Neener, neener! And thank you for flying Southwest today. Remember, no one loves you, or your money more than Southwest!”
| http://37signals.com/svn/archi...hosting_now_supports_rails.php | Date: 4/21/2006 11:51 AM |
GoDaddy now supports Rails on their Deluxe and Premium hosting plans. Welcome aboard!
| http://37signals.com/svn/archi...2/simplicity_is_profitable.php | Date: 4/21/2006 10:18 AM |
Southwest airlines continues its streak of 33 years of unbroken profitability. There’s a lot that’s different about Southwest, but at the core of Southwest is simplicity.
Simple fares (no secrets, one-way fares aren’t more expensive that round trip fares, fewer fees), simple planes (they only fly 737s — every SW pilot or flight attendant can work any flight), simple seating assignments (they don’t have any), simple meals (they don’t have any), simple friendliness (shiny happy people), less big airport hassles (serving the unserved at smaller, simpler airports), dead simple rewards program (based on # of flights, not miles), simpler fuel costs (they buy futures to lock in prices), etc.
There’s a lot to learn and LUV about Southwest’s dedication to simplicity. It’s clearly their advantage.
| http://37signals.com/svn/archi...o_a_problem_with_humantime.php | Date: 4/21/2006 10:14 AM |
We compared the similarity of the hidden shapes in the Fedex (arrow) and Basecamp (checkmark) logos. The story behind the Basecamp logo from Jason: “we first had the mountain turned around…so the tall hump was left, shorter right…Anil Dash said ‘hey if you turn it around it makes a checkmark’…DONE.”
Sam’s working on time parsing. He wrote this, “I’m running into a problem with HumanTime.” I wondered if that was some sort of deep philosophical statement. Sam is a subtle philosopher.
Jason went on a sharpie refueling mission…
Jason: 7 color sharpies in the hizzie
Jason: look out pointillists
David posted this product shot and Marcel said, “it’s funny (interesting) how more and more products are throwing in a mac laptop in the background for product photos.”
Ryan gave some advice to Sam who’s writing an Ajax-related article: “it’s also helpful to consider the difference between ‘how i do something’ and ‘how you do something’…it can be way easier to write how you did something instead of trying to offer a general tutorial.”
Jason took a stand for standing desks (though he doesn’t actually have one). Marcel’s not sold: “from standing all day while teaching i can attest that it doesn’t scale temporaly after a while.” I chimed in: “adjustable is supposed to be the best ergonomically. i always like that concept: the best position for you is something (anything) different than the position you’re in now. (keeps repetitive stress type bad stuff from happening).”
I have a vision for a horizontal work station. “something that would let you lie on your back while using your computer (split keyboard at your sides w/ suspended screen or projected screen image on ceiling). a bit ridic but would be perfect ergonomic solution. plus, then companies could stack workers vertically, like at one of those japanese pod hotels. ; )”
Tip from Marcel: Pineapple juice is refreshing and delicious. Another tip from Marcel: Joao Gilberto.
Speaking of music, Fela Kuti is popular in 37land. Jason recommends Best Best of Fela (I’ve got Confusion/Gentleman and dig it a lot too). Ryan concurs: “oh fela is the man.” Jason loves the 14 minutes tracks. Marcel was convinced: “endurance love making all over my ears…blush”
The word enterprise came up and led to one of Marcel and Ryan’s patented tete a tetes…
Marcel: in french theory, ‘enterprise’ is a term which refers to a philospher’s life’s work :)
Ryan: oh really? i thought that in french theory “enterprise” stood for a ham sandwich, cuz everything is relative and can be deconstructed beyond recognition
Ryan: (I kiiid)
Marcel: you win
Marcel: which, unfortunately, means you lose
Ryan: damn!
Marcel: or not!
Marcel: gives up
Ryan: somebody call hegel
Jason pointed out this “insanely pretty bird.”
Jamis is moving to Idaho. The state motto there? “Esto perpetua (Let it be perpetual)” which Marcel thinks rocks. Jamis added: “trivia fact about idahoans: every person I’ve known who was raised in idaho seems to know the state song, etc. by heart.”
Jamis pointed to a review at Amazon that quoted author Dave Marks: “Don’t use exclamation points! This makes any writing look amateurish and fuzzy. If you’re saying something that’s important, the way you say it should be strong enough so that you don’t have to tell your reader that it’s important by using exclamation points at the end of your sentences.” Jason said, “punctuation is a crutch I will never even use periods any more I’m serious” Marcel countered, “huzza…verbs supperfluous…verbless speech!”
Ryan thinks tagging outside of social software is “extremely overrated” which led to a discussion of how people use tags…
Ryan: does anyone here use a tagging feature in some software?
Jamis: del.icio.us
Jamis: but that’s about it
Jason: Backpack
Marcel: i don’t really…on the rare occassions i use delicious i’ll take my post but i do so rather perfunctorily
Ryan: have you ever used your tags to find your own links?
Jason: flickr too
Marcel: and i’ve never actually searched delicious by my tags
Ryan: JF, have you ever used your tags to find one of your photos on flickr?
Jason: not really, but I do use other people’s tags
Jason: quite often on flickr
Ryan: yeah i use other people’s tags too
Ryan: but that’s public
Ryan: i know i’ll never win on the tags issue
Ryan: i am interested in if people use them tho
Nice letter:
I’m proud to announce that my partner and I have started promoting our rails service…I know positively that we could never have pulled together a service with the potential to reach a wide audience on an investment of less than 10k in cash without rails, basecamp, or your philosophy.
Jamis’ toilet broke…
Marcel: and until then….i hope you have a spare ;)
Jamis: yah, we do :)
Marcel: Jamis man doesn’t need to go to the bathroom anyway
Marcel: he transcends the physical
Ryan: “hey don’t toss that milk jug. i need it.”
Jamis: I’ll just stop eating for a few days
Marcel: or you could burn just as many calories as you eat and become a perfectly fueled machine
Ryan: Less Waste
Jamis: efficiency!
Jason changed the room’s topic to “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” -Edmund Burke
Marcel went to the dentist. Marcel’s teeth must have been pretty impressive because one of the girls who works there invited him to “an interactive theatrical dance party opera” this weekend. “A small part of me is perversly intrigued to find out what that actual turns out like,” he wrote. “It will also, apparently, include a silent auction, public body paiting, as well as break + aerial dancing…doesn’t sound very silent on the whole.” Jason replied, “Sounds illegal.”
Sam’s working on the Backpack calendar. He posted a demo movie where he added this new event: “shoot more rats.” Speaking of, Jason updated us on Operation Enduring Freedom…From Rats. So far he’s shot three and now he’s gone and bought an electrocution device…
Marcel: i’m imagining you emerging from the water surrounded in flames, face painted all black
Marcel: Apocolypse Now style
Marcel: these rats fucked with the wrong guy it seems like
Jason: dude it’s true man
Marcel: you are about to Get Real
Jason: Real is in effect
Jason: Get Rats
| http://37signals.com/svn/archi...the_right_tool_for_the_job.php | Date: 4/21/2006 10:08 AM |
| http://37signals.com/svn/archives2/skirtsflowers.php | Date: 4/20/2006 11:54 AM |
Photos from promotional materials for “Waist Down — Skirts by Miuccia Prada”, an exhibition that runs from April 19 through May 31st at the Prada Epicenter in NYC.
| http://37signals.com/svn/archi...on_beaver_overthinking_dam.php | Date: 4/20/2006 10:59 AM |
The Onion: Beaver Overthinking Dam
Despite time constraints dictated by the changing seasons, Messner has spent nearly 400 beaver-hours stripping logs of their bark and foliage, and more than two weeks scouting locations up and down the Muskoka River. “I just want everything to be perfect,” he said.
That beaver needs to Get Real!
| http://37signals.com/svn/archi...es2/fighting_the_top_reply.php | Date: 4/19/2006 3:20 PM |
I used to be a staunch defender of proper reply styles, even for casual emails. Insert your replies below the relevant paragraph and trim the exchange to be just about the matters of discussion. But as the volume of email goes up, I’m finding it harder and harder to fight the uphill battle.
The thing is that very few email clients are geared to work with “proper” reply styles. Both Mail.app and GMail just dump you at the top of the email with everything indented and that pesky “On Apr 19, 2006, at 3:47 , Somebody wrote:” header fixed in. It’s edging me on to be bad, be lazy, just top-post my reply, and get on with it.
So if I want to be good, there’s a lot busy work to be done. You have to delete the time header every time, you then have to insert yourself in the quoted material and delete around you to make space, and then you can do something about it.
How about someone made a filter to Mail.app that would kill the header, make room for your reply under each paragraph, and more easily allow you to kill paragraphs that are not relevant for the reply.
Actually, I’d be a happy camper if we could just start simple and kill the header, make the quoted text start all the way at the top, and insert my cursor below the quoted. Then we can get clever from there.
Perhaps this is a round about way of saying “I’m sorry” to everyone receiving a top-posted reply from me these days.
| http://37signals.com/svn/archi...ial_options_in_your_pocket.php | Date: 4/19/2006 12:48 PM |
While living in Denmark, I used to have just a debit card in my pocket. No additional credit cards, no cash. The card fit inside a aluminum sliver made for just that one card. Life was good, life was simple. “Just on the amount” was in the top 20 of most used daily phrases.
Coming to the US was a rude awakening. You actually need cash. And cheques. And multiple credit cards. Entirely too many financial options for my one card sliver, so I broke down and got a 5-card holder and a money clip for cash. But that’s two pieces, now. At least one too many.
Now here comes the Jimi: The wallet for people who hate wallets. That’s a great idea! Just about enough reduction to make it viable for the US overload of options.
Now make one that doesn’t just fit the look for someone with their cell phone in a belt clip, a pen or two in their front pocket, and their pants riding entirely too high above the waste. In other words, what’s up with those colors? Neon’ish colors and a translucent shell is such a short trip from neat to tacky.
| http://37signals.com/svn/archives2/rubber_ball_lessons.php | Date: 4/19/2006 9:06 AM |
Some writing/marketing ideas riffing off How the Rules of the Red Rubber Ball Came to Be (part of the promo site for a book by Kevin Carroll).
#1: Put your name on it.
Let’s start at the end of this section…the very end: “Story by Meg Daly (megdaly.com)”.
Most sites like this are written in Anonymous Promotional Voice. You know APV: a bland summary of info with minimal flavor/personality. If APV was a hot sauce, it’d be extra mild.
So it’s noteworthy that the words here actually end with a credit. Meg has attached her name which is a sign this sauce may just have some kick to it. When someone signs something, it’s a lot more likely that person actually cares about his/her craft.
This signature also makes you realize how rarely copy on business or promotional sites is credited to an actual person. Maybe if more people signed site copy, the quality of online writing would improve. When people put their name on something, they tend to care more about how it turns out.
[Edward Tufte on the importance of authorship: “All too often, such documentation is absent from corporate and government reports. Public, named authorship indicates responsibility, both to the immediate audience and for the long-term record.”]
#2: Write a story, not copy.
The other interesting thing with the “story by” end note is the use of the word story. This isn’t copy or text or promotional content or a bio. It’s a story. Copy is something that you throw in to take up space. It’s there because it has to be. A story has life. It has characters. It has a plot. It’s interesting. A story has value. Sites need less copy and more stories.
#3: Start with an evocative hook.
The whole piece is good but I especially like the intro:
Remember the red rubber ball of your elementary school playground?
The one with the criss-cross texture that made your palms tingle. You could use it for four-square, kickball, dodgeball and basketball. Remember its fire-engine hue and oh-so-satisfying “whump” when it hit the ground?
Athlete, trainer and speaker Kevin Carroll remembers that ball well.
“The red rubber ball saved my life,” he says.
These few paragraphs evoke nostalgic memories, cue sensory perceptions with talk of touch and sound, and provide enough mystery to make you want to read more.
We know people scan online so it’s tempting to always stick to just the facts. And a lot of times it really is best to just get to the point and get out of the way. But a hook is a hook. The idea of starting with specs like page count and publication date seems like a pale alternative compared to an evocative introduction like this one.
#4: Overcome writer’s block by starting with small bits.
Carroll’s method of writing the actual RRRB book also offers some writing guidance.
Their nudge was followed by another nudge, from Joanne Gordon, the writer and editor of the book that came out of the Roadtrip Nation adventures. When she spoke with Kevin in 2003, she says, “he knew he had a book inside him.” So she gave him an assignment. She told him to write for 30 minutes for 30 days about his life from his earliest memories.
This sort of Getting Real approach to writing is a great way to overcome blank-page-induced paralysis. What works for software design also works for writing: Break your big assignment down into chunks. Start a book with blog posts. Write something — anything — every day for a month. Brain dump. Build now and edit later. Then you’ll know if you’ve actually got something worth following through on.
#5: PR starts with you.
The success of RRRB shows you don’t have to go through The Man to get a book into the hands of the public.
It took only nine months from the time the book was printed in May 2004 for Kevin to sell out the entire 11,000 copy print run. He did no marketing. He did not even sell the book at conferences. His sole means of selling the book was mentioning it at his public speaking events and telling people the Web site from where they could order it. Kevin would also give books away to hundreds of young people he spoke to in his travels.
If your message is tight, you don’t need to sit around and wait for the machine to make you a star. Get your voice heard. Give stuff away. Promote through education. Speak wherever you can.
Speaking of speaking: Start on a small scale. At first, you may be talking to a small classroom or at some podunk conference. Ya gotta start somewhere. Fwiw, 37signals didn’t start out giving keynote speeches at SxSW. There were years of smaller speaking gigs at schools, companies, little-known conferences, etc. The plus side of starting small as a speaker: It lets you hone your message and delivery so you’re ready for the big time when the time comes.
#6: Sticky points are sometimes tiny/hidden.
The design of RRRB is cool. There’s a circle of red rubber on the cover, school ledger journal pages within, and playful illustrations that work with the theme of the book. The RRRB site highlights the design process, turning it into a selling point that backs up the theme of the book.
When Kevin was done with his manuscript he flew to Kansas City to meet with Ann about the book’s design. She introduced him to her whole team of designers so they could get a sense of Kevin’s personality. Then Ann assigned the book to one of her junior designers who had never designed a book before.
“You both have no rules,” Ann said about her hunch.
Even the printing path of the book is used to capture the inspirational tone.
Next, the book was sent to Metropolitan Fine Printers in Vancouver BC, the only printer that was willing to take on the complicated job. The many colors, textures and papers of the book are what make it unique - and also difficult to produce.
“We never throw away a challenge,” says Metropolitan Account Executive Scott Gray. Kevin flew to Vancouver to meet Scott and share the story behind the book with three shifts of print technicians, sales staff and management.
They became some of his biggest fans.
Your sticky points, the ones that get people to pay attention aren’t always obvious. Sometimes it’s the little stuff — the things that you overlook. An example from our world is the attention we received from Basecamp’s iCal integration. We got tons of links and visits from Mac sites because of something we didn’t realize people felt strongly about…a very pleasant surprise.
Phew. All that from just a few pages of text at a mini-site. Not too shabby. Any sites out there that have provided you with unexpected lessons?