Softway CEO Meets With Rice MBA Candidates

Last month Rice University so graciously invited me to participate as a mentor in an MBA workshop class held the evening of April 2 covering Social Entrepreneurship in the Digital Sector.

I would like to take the time to reflect on what I learned from such an eye-opening experience by sharing with you some of the fulfillment and inspiration I took away in just one evening of interacting with these extremely smart, up-and-coming entrepreneurs.

The workshop was set up with the class separated into five groups, with a mentor assigned to each group. One of the mentors wasn’t able to attend so not only did I have the honor of being invited to mentor one group but I was asked to mentor a second group as well.

The purpose of this MBA class was to have each group come up with a real-world social entrepreneur business concept and construct a business plan. At the end of the semester, each group is to present their concepts to a panel of judges and investors.

My role in this was to mentor the two groups and help them strategize how to take their business concept from theory to real-world practicality. I was to use my expertise as a successful entrepreneur and my breadth of knowledge in the digital sector to help the groups bridge the gap between the classroom and the business world. I helped them to think of scenarios that may and probably will come up and ways to successfully solve them.

Because these are social entrepreneurs that don’t have endless marketing budgets, I also helped them to expound on their marketing strategies and include digital tactics. I was really there to help them think beyond grassroots marketing and consider the many different ways the internet can be effectively used as a marketing tool.

Both of the groups I mentored had great business concepts and I was able to offer them ways to really complete their whole strategy. The caliber of their business concepts were very much indicative of Rice’s exceptional business education (and this is coming from a U of H Cougar). I was able to converse and challenge some of the brightest up-coming social entrepreneurs to delve deeper into the digital sector and be able to anticipate where their concepts could potentially stumble from a logistical standpoint.

As the evening went on, the dialog of Q&A between the students and myself gave me a feeling of satisfaction I have never experienced before. For the first time, I was able to realize just how irreplaceable real-life experience can be. The skill set and knowledge I have been able to acquire through the past ten years of enduring the trials from sustaining a business within the digital sector has placed myself and Softway in a particularly advantageous position.  As I consulted these MBAs, I found myself thinking back to how we consult our clients at Softway in a similar manner. The discussions encouraged me that there is not only a bright future for social entrepreneurship, but a real opportunity and value for the expertise and services we have compiled here at Softway.

While I often times hear entrepreneurs being compared to the’ sky-divers’ of the business community: brave, bold and willing to risk it all. Even the most fearless of business minds sometimes wonder if what they are doing is truly the most valuable direction to be taking their companies. After spending the day at Rice, I am comforted to know there is great potential and opportunity to be had with the up-coming business class and Softway teaming up.

It was truly inspiring to see such fervor and ambition from each of these students. The receptivity and attentiveness for each student made me feel respected and as a valued expert within my field. And I have no doubt, as each of these students begin to gain real-life experience with their own entrepreneurial ventures, we will find some of them on the cover of Forbes and Fast Company.

Finally I would like to thank Professor Reid Whitaker, Founder and Director, STEMscopes –Rice University and Andrew Ginakis, Managing Director of STEMscopes – Rice University for extending the invitation for me to partake in this workshop. STEMscopes is an education initiative funded by Rice, for which Softway has been creating 2D/3D animations for the past few months. I am truly grateful to have such wonderful clients and am honored to have been in attendance for this workshop.

The second day was jammed packed with panels, events, and thousands of people! You expect it to be huge but the mass of people outside and inside the dozens of venues were staggering. At any given time there are 20 plus events happening and each one seemed to have lines forming 45 minutes before it began.

Beyond Mobile: Where No Geek Has Gone Before

Today I spent the majority of the day focusing on UI/UX with JJ, Softway’s Creative director, and the first lecture was great! The name was called Beyond Mobile: Where No Geek Has Gone Before and covered how UX will be impacted by new technologies.  Right now, most people think of UX only in terms of a fixed screen like a mobile phone or television. Below are the major things to think about for the future of UX:

 1. Sensors are becoming really powerful, use them! Why do we only use touch screens to navigate or get the job that we need done? Use the technology that comes with your device.

2. Use augmented reality as a tool, not a gimmick. Sometimes Augmented reality is used as a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist. A few good examples of augmented reality in motion:

Augmented Reality In Motion Video 1

Augmented Reality In Motion Video 2

3. Migrating Interfaces. You might be working on one type of device and then move it over to another type of device with a completely different way of interacting.

4. “Appropriate Design for the appropriate content on the appropriate device.” True responsive design is more about how to handle content versus actual design. Eventually content will have to be responsive enough to go from TV’s to phones to wrist bands and eye wear. How to manage what is displayed is critical.

5. Just in time instead of just in case. Instead of fling up screens with tons of content, only load up the content needed for that user at that time.

100 Mistakes from Contributor to Chief Officer

We later met up with Mohammad, Saquib, and Robert to listen to 100 Mistakes from Contributor to Chief Officer by Elaine Wherry. The format was based around 3 minute short stories that the audience would interact with by explaining mistakes made within those stories. Here are the different levels we covered with some of the mistakes that stood out:

• The first story covered the Contributor which describes the people actually doing the work of the business.

• They want their first job to change the world!

• Speaking out of place in meetings, thinking their idea is the greatest ever!

• Feeling disheartened the first time a project doesn’t go right.

• Looking to leave to a different company if things don’t go as planned.

• The second story was now about a manager who just got promoted. This is significant because this is their first experience with managing others.

• They still want to work on projects instead of managing them.

• They try to be friends with the Contributors instead of their boss.

• If the Director gives the Manager’s team a difficult task the manager will put the blame on the Director instead of taking ownership of that task.

• Not being clear on tasks or assignments.

• Not knowing how to verbally correct mistakes made by contributors.

• If something isn’t done right, then they do the work because it is faster.

• The third story was about the Directors. This starts to get a glimpse into the inner workings of the company.

• Too many meetings! All these meeting must make them important.

• Not being available for Managers.

The talk also covered Vice President and CEO but the first 3 are the most pertinent. Overall, Softway was well represented and we all got involved in the discussion.

After fighting the typical Austin rush hour I finally arrived at the Austin Convention Center to pick up my SXSW Interactive badge and swag. While waiting to meet up with others, I met my first interesting contact of the day, a designer who interviewed with Softway Solutions three years ago. After talking for a while it’s amazing how much change has transpired for Softway in the past two years.

Bre Pettis Keynote

I missed the first half of Friday’s Keynote by Bre Pettis due to the insane crowds that suddenly converged on the convention center around 1pm. He mainly covered Makerbot, an affordable 3D printer that could help revolutionize manufacturing.

So why is this potentially interesting to a 3D director? Makerbot’s software can read .STL files and print that object three-dimensionally. So in theory we could take one of the 3D characters we’ve developed for our clients and create a small figurine of the character!

Later at 3:30 I got to catch Christina Wodtke’s talk called The Mechanics of Magic: 7 Game Design Insights. This was great from a game design standpoint, delving into the psychology of learning but all the theories discussed apply to web and mobile UX design as well.

Below I briefly listed out some of the highlights of the talk that relate to UX design.

• Four types of players (users): If you know the type of users you have, design for them!

1. Killers – This person always wants to beat another player
2. Achievers – Win those medals and internet points!
3. Socialites – Plays games for the social experience
4. Explorers – Needs to complete everything at 100%!

• Six keys of persuasion: Make them want to keep using your product!

1. Reciprocity – having others do actions back to you
2. Social Proof – I did it and here’s the proof!
3. Commitment – Have a long term goal for users to want to see to the end
4. Authority – Give the user power in some way (like forum moderator)
5. Liking – If somebody else likes something then maybe I should too!
6. Scarcity – Almost nobody has that so I want it!

The second is a good example of why focus testing you product is extremely important.

All in all I had a great time on Day One. Really looking forward to the next 4 days!

First, what is a hackathon? It is where designers and developers collaborate within a limited time to create software or hardware solutions. The goal is to have a usable product by the end of the hackathon. Our hackathon was for habitat for humanity, designnyc.com and Austin Community Food Bank. We were separated in to teams and handed a brief. Left to our own devices, the team decided that our goal was to have a working model and high fidelity wireframes to get our concept moving and still show where our work could evolve. In this post we have put together a list of things we believe are important when discussing how to be successful in a hackathon.

Working with people you don’t know (and how to make something with them)

1.     Establish Roles- It’s middle school all over again. No one is talking and when they do it’s muffled from the crippling fear of setting a first impression. Be brave and honest. State what you’re good at and how you think you can help on the project. Don’t decide for yourself, as there may be people better suited for the role you think you should have.

Establishing roles helped figure out where everyone’s skill sets were and helped decide what development platforms and APIs we would end up using

2.     Understand the Problem- The pressure of having a fixed deadline barely longer than a workday leaves a sense of urgency that equates to being 3 months behind on a project you just got the brief for. Minds start scrambling to make something before even reading the brief. Slow down and take the time, or as much time as you can spare, to figure out what your making and if it solves the problem. Setting up personas, shortening the brief to key points or even visually mapping out the problem is a great way to make sure you’re on target with your project.

The team took 20 minutes to just figure out who we were trying to speak to and how to properly address their concerns. We then separated  into two teams; one focusing on how to integrate the APIs with the current website’s database while the other team focused on creating the personas and moving into wireframes.

3.    Know when to stop talking- Concepting is fun, it’s Narnia for your creative mind. Ultimately you have to start doing in order to finish the project. Testing out the possibilities to really fine tune the project is great and needs to happen at the beginning. The skill is knowing when you have a viable solution to the problem and to stop thinking of cooler, better, sleeker solutions. The only way to know if you have a viable solution is if you understand the problem.

Our team worked iteratively on the wireframes till we thought we had a working mock up. After which we had a stand up critique to talk about falling in line with solving the problem and feasibility.

4.    Communicate-In the fervor of making, we sometimes forget to check in with other people and we make things that we think are solutions. Simple “Hey this is what I was thinking, what do you think?” let’s the team know you’re involved and value them. It also stops you from going to far in direction that the team my not want to go.

Our team sat at a round table and played musical chairs as designers and developers bounced back and forth trying to solve various design and development issues. Turning computers around every 10 minutes or so to show progress an occasionally dropping back to paper mock ups to solve things that we hadn’t yet considered.

At the end we had a working product (in Chrome, not time for testing) and hifi mock ups. We presented them to our peers and judges and waited for the voting. Sadly we didn’t come in first but I can say that the work we did is going to be a great jumping off point for designnyc and they will hopefully pick up the project.

I was lucky enough to work on the designyc.com mapping project with a team that was flexible and fast. The experience left me with the feeling that I could conquer anything and with anyone. Everyone’s skills shined in ways that complimented each other leading to the link below and the powerpoint presentation. We had 9 hours and a team of six – three designers and three developers – and this is what we made– http://radiant-shelf-6195.herokuapp.com/

Thanks to Brad Smith at Hot Pepper Studios Mariona Aloy Ciller and Jenifer Jones of WebVisions for leading the Hackathon.

Assign a value to everything – literally everything. Maybe that value isn’t always monetary for certain businesses but assigning a value that is relatable to how your company measures success is a necessity. It is common for people to know the average spend of their product and the cost of conversion from their website. What is not so common is the value of each website impression or the value of each click-through when it doesn’t directly lead to a conversion. This is important because you can’t measure the failures without knowing what it cost you.

Set aside an innovation budget – possibly for each department if your company is large enough. The speakers recommended taking 10-20% of the existing budget but where it comes from is an executive decision. This is important because when using digital strategies there can be a lot of trial and error and campaigns will fail. If you don’t know what you can afford to lose, you will end up losing your job.

Nurture your leads and employ multi-touch marketing. Digital marketing is all about being where your customers are and saying what they want to hear. Our internet marketing director consistently tells our clients that digital marketing is not about telling people what they should buy, rather finding out what they want to buy and making it as easy as possible for them to do so. Nurture your leads by warming them up to your brand and company vision so they are educated about working with you. Using a multi-touch marketing plan will give your company the exposure it needs to give your leads that warm and fuzzy feeling before you get a chance to sell them.

Experiment with Facebook advertising. Facebook is also experimenting with their advertising options and they release new options frequently so it’s important to keep a close eye on what they are offering. Currently there isn’t a lot of competition with Facebook ads because people don’t have a lot of faith in their effectiveness. For those who are willing to give it a shot, this makes it an economical paid advertising option because there aren’t too many others competing for the same audience.

Digital marketing is social. This of course includes social media but it should be applied holistically. Being social within the digital marketing community will save you a lot of time and money. This also applies to the campaigns you are creating in the aspect of establishing the right feeling about your brand to warm up your leads and get the conversation started about doing business.

You can purchase Vaccarello and Ginty’s book on Amazon Here.

By Kristen Gerner

1)      On Starting SpaceX and his original Goals for SpaceX.

His original goal was to get NASA a bigger Budget.

According to Musk, SpaceX was started after a failed search on the Nasa.com website didn’t list when NASA was planning on going to Mars. He thought about it and started to put together a vision to get people excited about going to Mars. He hoped that by creating buzz, and getting the American people excited about putting life on mars that Nasa would in turn get a bigger budget and accomplish what he only dreamed about at that time.

2)      On NASA

Nasa is not a competitor, as a matter of fact, they are SpaceX’s biggest customer and account for 25% of all of their launches. Musk notes, there is no way I would be where I am today without cooperation from NASA.

3)      On expanding SpaceX

They are looking to build a new launch station and Texas is currently the leading candidate. He joked that his appearance at SXSW was not the only reason he is in Texas and is currently scouting locations. He hopes to begin construction in 2014 and have launches from the coast of Texas 2 to 3 years later.

4)      On space exploration and why people have begun to get very excited about SpaceX

“United States is a nation of explorers. People need to believe that it is possible and they aren’t going to have to give up something important like healthcare to do it.” He believes that once people realize they won’t have to give up something important to increase the budget of someone like NASA, the support for something like a trip to Mars will be overwhelming.

5)      On how he deals with critical feedback.

One the secrets to success is that you listen to negative feedback and you always request those around you to provide critical feedback as well. He made it clear he does not have a problem with critical reviews but he does have a problem with false reviews. At that time the context he was referring to was the New York Times debacle which you can read more about it here.

6)      On China commoditization of solar power and low prices on Solar Panels coming out of China

“What China is doing for solar panels is awesome because they are lowering the price of solar energy for the entire world.”

7)      On his company Solar City

“Solar City is a giant distributed Utility. It is literally power to the people.”

8)      His New Year’s resolution

“My new year’s resolution was to have a little more fun. That’s why I’m at SXSW.” “We’ve accomplished some amazing things in the last few years but a lot of those years have sucked horribly for me”

9)      On making big changes in the world

“If you’re attempting change, you have to see if what you’re doing is going to result in disruptive change, if it is just incremental, it is not likely to be substantial.”

10)   On Education

Education should be as much like a video game as possible, if you can make it interactive and engaging then you can make education far more compelling and more interesting.

11)   On University education

“In Universities you will probably learn as much as what you’re going to learn at university in 2 years and you will most likely learn it from your school mates.”

12)   What he will be disappointed in if it does happen in his lifetime.

“If humanity does not land on Mars in my lifetime would be my biggest disappointment.”

13)   On going to Mars himself

“I wouldn’t mind dying on Mars, as long as it’s not on impact.”

14)   Best piece of advice he has to give

• Participate or take time to learn Physics, it is a good framework for reasoning.
• When thinking, you need to go about it by boiling things down to fundamental truths, and building the framework from there.
• Critical thinking is extremely important: Do you have the correct axioms? Does the logic necessary connect and what is the range of probable outcomes?
• It’s fine to Gamble as long as you’re the house.
• Always solicit critical feedback.

15)   On his biggest mistake

I have consistently put too much weight on someone’s talent and not enough on their personality. You have to see if they really have a good heart.

It is awe inspiring to here Elon Musk talk about his accomplishments and his future plans. He is the type of person that comes along once in a generation and is constantly the source of inspiration for millions. When asked by Softway Solutions on how he goes about deciding and prioritizing on new ventures his response was simple and elegant. “There isn’t really prioritization… I saw something that needed to be done.”

[Image: Flickr user djevents]

Our Special VIP guests began to arrive at 11:30am for a quick tour of Softway’s offices. After that, they were taken to the 18th floor of our building to one of our client’s, Brian Gavin Diamonds, offices. They graciously shared one of their meeting rooms with us for the event. There our guests were treated to some scrumptious lunch boxes, catered by Laykie’s Gourmet, and some nifty Google coffee cups.

The live webcast started around 12pm – and featured the following:

Keeping Up With the Evolving Digital Landscape with Lisa Gevelber, VP of Americas Marketing, Google
· The world is changing. The evolution of technology is giving people the opportunity to do extraordinary things. Lisa shared how Google is evolving alongside this changing world, in the way it thinks about its brand and its marketing.

The Zero Moment of Truth: Reaching Customers When It Matters with John Nicoletti, Director of Agency Development, Google
· Whether we’re shopping for corn flakes, concert tickets or a honeymoon in Paris, the Internet has changed how we decide what to buy. Google call this the Zero Moment of Truth, and they shared how this changes the way businesses reach their customers. They spoke about reaching the right customers when it matters, with the right message, using Google AdWords.

Working and Winning with an Agency: A Fireside Chat with Bickey Russell, Head of Channel Managed Agencies, Google
· Google knows small businesses can be hesitant about spending with an agency. Bickey communicated the importance of partnering with an online professional, how they should approach working with an agency, and what resources the Google agency team is providing agencies to help their clients succeed.

Softway Solutions – Partner Agency Case Studies
· After the live-stream, I presented 3 case studies to our guests and discussed how our agency could help them get more out of the web. These case studies included topics such as Google Adwords, A/B and Multivariate Testing, and both Onsite and Offsite Search Engine Optimization.

Our guests learned a lot and had a great time, many asking to set up meetings on a later date to see how we can help them further their presences online.! If you want to learn more about how we can help you with your online marketing, don’t be aftaid to give us a holler.

That’s not it… check out below for a recording of the webcast as well as some awesome pictures (taken by our one and only Brady Ware) from the event.

Tomorrow, March 5, Softway will be partnering with Google for an exclusive online telecast event – Google Engage.

As per Google’s request, Softway will be inviting a handful of prospective clients to join us in attendance of a roughly 90 minute, Google telecast event that will herald topics such as the evolution of digital technology, internet marketing within the digital environment, case studies, as well as discuss how Softway Solutions is continuing to pioneer new opportunities throughout the digital landscape.

Here, invitees will get the opportunity to network and learn industry knowledge on how to grow their online business presence; and how Google and Softway can work with them to accomplish such.

And the best part: Softway will be providing all food and drinks for the event!

The telecast will be streamed via YouTube, straight from the Googleplex in Mountain View, Cali. to Softway’s Houston-based headquarters. During which, speakers will include Lisa Gevelber, Google’s Vice President of US Marketing and John Nicoletti, Google’s Director of Agency Development.

The event will be hosted at Softway’s Houston headquarters – 7322 Southwest Freeway, Suite 1025, Houston, TX, 77074.

Nothing like enjoying the end of a busy week, where two projects go live.

Someone bring in Shipley’s for breakfast. We’re going to sushi for lunch. And we’ll wash it all down with a ‘happy hour’ at E.O.D. Job well done!… til Monday comes. Then it’s on to bigger problems and better solutions.

But for now, we celebrate!

This week, Softway is proud to announce the release of Tellepsen Churches as well as the unveiling of, local Houston favorite, Perry Homes’ consumer-facing mobile application in the App Store.

TELLEPSEN

To Texas aborigines, Tellepsen is widely as the premier construction juggernaut of the South. And rightfully so, Tellepsen has very few blind spots when it comes to their industry and expertise. However, in the recent years, Tellepsen has begun to notice their share in the liturgical construction market (that’s fancy talk for building churches) has diminished significantly.

You can find the new Tellepsen Churches website here. The intent of which is to act as the online flagship for their ‘Churches’ marketing initiative. Going on three years now, Softway’s relationship with Tellepsen has been a wonderful partnership – as we consistently find our development pipeline containing one or two projects for them at any given time.

PERRY HOMES

The Perry Homes iPad application was one of those projects where the client comes in with a firm vision on what they are aspiring to develop – feature list and all. So kudos (and much appreciation) go out to the Perry Homes staff for being so wonderful to work with!

Also, by providing their brand guidelines, Softway was able to complement the mobile application with a custom, brand standard user-interface design to truly communicate brand identity and inspire brand loyalty from its users (workforce or consumer).

With so much active participation from Perry Homes staff, all that was left for us to do was make an exceptionally reliable mobile application. With the ability to geo-locate the user and direct them to any of Perry Homes property locations, reliability and accuracy was paramount for user-experience, the Perry Homes brand, as well as to the overall applications effectiveness.

To view the full feature list and functionality capabilities, you can find (AND DOWNLOAD) on App Store, completely free! Home buyers, let the shopping begin!

And on that note, I see its 5 o’clock! Happy Hour(s)! Have a great weekend! And may you projects always make progress!

1)      Facebook has a mobile app dedicated just for page management.

Anyone who has a smart phone has most likely downloaded the Facebook app. It is one of the most downloaded apps on both iOS and Android and has over 100 million downloads on Android alone. However, not as many people are aware that Facebook has started to create additional applications that focus on specific features of Facebook’s user experience. Facebook Messenger (which as of Jan 16, 2013, awesomely allows sending voice messages!) came first and was followed by Facebook Pages last year. The app has the same look and feel of the Facebook app but allows you to easily manage your pages from a separate app.

Download the app now. 

2)      You can post in the past!

Facebook posts don’t have to always appear at the top.  You can click anywhere on your timeline and create a post. “Why would I want to do that?”, you say. Well, in this day and age a big part of your social media should be brand storytelling, and the best way to do that is with the Facebook Timeline. Take advantage of the timeline to put in posts that tell the story of your company or industry.

Make sure you also see some of the other creative ways people are using Timeline.

1. School uses Facebook Timeline to Teach History
2. Spotify turns Facebook Timeline into Music History Lesson

 3.     Vine! Short video sharing is now a thing. 

With Twitter’s brand new service (launched Jan, 2013), Vine, you can now post looping videos to a  Twitter like service. These short videos can be up to 6 seconds, include audio and are set to loop. The Vine app is now available in the app store for download.  We love new content mediums and are eager to see the interesting ways people begin to use this.

http://blog.twitter.com/2013/01/vine-new-way-to-share-video.html

4)     There is an easy way to create and share infographics.

Infographics have emerged as some of the best pieces of content one can share to their followers. Creating a quality Infographic is one of the best content marketing tactics available. However, in the past, finding a relevant infographic that applies to your business has been frustrating. Even more frustrating is trying to create your own infographics. Luckily, with Visual.ly you can now easily create your own infographic and share it to the masses.

5)     Get the most out of the pictures on your social networks by changing the size dimensions.

By changing the size on your pictures before you add them to your social media profiles you can make sure they look exactly how you intend.  Test out your creativity with this social media image size cheat sheet.

6)     Custom Short URL’s, are a great way to create brand recognition on your social media profiles and it’s easier than you think.

Websites that offer easy URL shortening like bit.ly and Hootsuite have emerged as great way to track where and how your links are being dispersed. This has evolved as a nearly common practice for any social media manager. However, there is also something special about seeing a short URL that has been branded by the company. For Example, Google.com has goo.gl and the New York Times (NYtimes.com) has nyti.ms. Try putting your domain in http://domai.nr/ and see if you can’t find one that works then follow the steps in this article.