Katie and I attended SXSW Interactive in Austin a couple weeks ago and I’ve finally put together a short recap with a few notes of some of the events we attended. I went in with my high expectations of coming back with wonderful new knowledge and insights, but that was not really the case which was fine. Many of the panels, were mediocre at best and very hit or miss which seemed to be the general consensus.
Of course there is much more to the conference than the panels and we had a great time. We hung out with out of town friends, meet new people, peers and a few weirdos. We attended good talks, bad talks, cool parties and dropped my iPhone off a balcony. We didn’t learn anything earth shattering but came back with a healthy dose of encouragement and validation.
Show the path not the Destination
G. Hustwit, B. Dawes and J. Coudal gave short presentations followed by a discussion on the subject of creating more involving, entertaining, successful projects by structuring them in a way that encourages the audience to be a key part of the process of discovery. It was a great panel, Dawes was a riot and Hustwit and his computer were not getting along.
- Flow and segways are key, think like a DJ, work the crowd.
- Creativity is a balance between constraints, rules and a fear of freedom.
- Take people out of their comfort zone and they react.
- Leave out things intentionally and let the audience discover the intent on their own.
Keynote with Tony Hsieh of Zappos.com
Tony Hsieh spoke about his company culture and core values which have led Zappos to have an outstanding reputation for customer service and work culture. My favorite quote of the conference was one he pulled out from Al Gore “If you want to go quickly, then go alone. If you want to go far, then go together.”
- To be sustainable a team needs to be aligned and moving in the same direction.
- Communicate communicate transparently good and bad to your teams.
- Brands and their core values and culture should be the same.
- “Don’t chase the paper, chase the dream”-Puff Daddy to Notorious B.I.G.
- Create committable core values.
- Watch the video Part 1
- Watch the video Part 2
- Check out the illustrated notes
From Freelance to Agency: Start Small Stay Small
J. Zeldman, R. Black, K. Halvorson and W. Hess discussed the growing pains of freelancers and small agencies. The first part of the conversation was geared more toward freelancers but thankfully Halvorson of Brain Traffic turned it around to the small agency. During that portion it was encouraging to hear like-minded thoughts from an outside peer perspective.
- Set the bar high. “If they don’t squeak, you didn’t charge enough.”-R. Black
- Don’t try to be something you are not and provide what you are good at.
- It’s all about pipeline and cash-flow, nurture it of course.
- “I procrastinate therefore I am efficient.” – W. Hess
- Listen to the podcast
Creating e a Great Company Culture
This panel focused more on start ups and corporate culture, with similar themes as the Tony Hsieh keynote and more of the usual stuff on culture.
- Identify where everyone fits in the big picture and paint it.
- Don’t let people only communicate online or via email, make them speak.
- Over communicate the good and the bad.
- Have fierce conversations in person.
- Good leaders are not afraid of conflict.
Presenting Straight to the Brain
Panelists C. Atkinson, K. Sierra and C. Ball provided great tips on making presentations effective and ensuring that audiences actually learn something from what you have to say with your slides. “Sierra mentioned that it’s getting hard to find weird stuff on the web.” I bet I could find a few links to change her mind.
- Respect the limits of the mind, sync visual and verbal, guide attention.
- Use visuals that show emotion and context, visual anchors, less copy.
- Does each slide have a pulse, every slide should beg for it’s life.
- Emotion, chemistry and the unexpected turn the brain on.
Managing Expert Clients
I expected this to be more than a couple people reading text on a Power Point presentation about the very basics of client and account management. A third grader could have read the slides. They basically did everything the Presenting Straight to the Brain panel said not to do. I got the funk outta there.
Wireframes for the Wicked
UX and IA leaders discussed the various types of Wireframes and provided example of low and high fidelity, sketches and etc. I hoped for more insight into processes and challenges but seeing industry leaders examples as benchmarks was worth the time.
Studio Bliss
This was a core conversation presented by two people that should not be moderating or presenting anything. I don’t think they really even had a plan to be honest. The conversation amongst the attendees surrounded internal and client collaboration and turned out to be generally healthy which was the point of the “core conversations” anyway.
Society of Digital Agencies
This panel consisted of some of the top independent digital agencies that have joined forces and created a new organization, Society of Digital Agencies. This panel was inspiring as a small agency owner. Again, validating and encouraging that peers face similar issues, challenges and opportunities. We are not alone.
- Educating clients is key, they have a hard time understanding digital scope, process, timing and costs. Amen.
- Get clients to buy off on discovery first. Then get to requirements and development cost once the full scope is identified in discovery.
- Manage risk, manage risk, manage risk.
Guy Kawasaki Interviews Chris Anderson
Kawasaki drilled Anderson for a good hour about his soon-to-be released book “Free” and it’s concepts. Although Anderson held his own and went on about a hypothetical scenario by which his book could be free in some form or fashion. Anderson pointed out that the marginal cost for some forms of distribution approaches zero, thus the cost to the consumer should be zero. This was very entertaining, insightful and a great end to an eventful trip.
A few Resources
- Sketchnotes
- Various Videos
- Various Podcasts
- Can an Ad Guy Bring Bike Sharing to America? A. Bogosky Podcast
- Speaking in Styles: A CSS Primer for Web Designers Podcast
- Not the Same Old Story Podcast
- Design for the Wisdom of Crowds Video
- Is Spec Work Evil? Video
- UX Team of One Slides
*First image of our badges is via a hommie
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