Digital agency founders talk

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Sometime in early 2005, Danny Bluestone saw the potential in creating a digital agency that bridges the gap between usability, visual design, project management, marketing and programming. At the time he had no funding.

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The Cyber-Duck story From 2005 to 2013 in a nutshell Follow us: @cyberduck_uk

9Dec 2013

ABOUT CYBER-DUCK@cyberduck_uk

User Experience Web & Mobile Hosting & Support Marketing Consulting

Hi. I am Danny Bluestone

Founder and Managing Director

@danny_bluestone

Hi. I am Sylvain Reiter

Co-Founder and Development Director

@sylvainreiter

Top 500 company in Europe, The Middle East and Africa 2012

The only digital agency certified in

ISO 9241:210 and ISO9001:2008

Top 20 South East digital agency

according to turnover and growth

User-centred Design & Marketing

Test-driven Development

Start

Client and user research

Technical research

System

architecture

Experience prototypes

Technical prototypes

Functional

specification

Platform development

Visual design

Testing and QA Launch

Marketing and support

OUR CURRENT WEBSITE

http://mobile.smashingmagazine.com/2013/06/18/

adapting-to-a-responsive-design-case-study/

THE VISION

Don’t go detailed before you work out your niche

KEEP YOUR VISION LOOSE

Your first projects and products

DIFFICULT PROJECTS OPEN DOORS

Image from: http://uthmag.com/seth-godin-is-wrong-about-your-resume/

“One of the largest turning points of my career was firing the client who accounted for a third of my company's work.”

Seth Godin Best selling American author, entrepreneur and marketer !

Your first projects and products

DROP BAD CLIENTS

PROCESSES

Image taken from: http://www.e-cartouche.ch/content_reg/cartouche/ui_access/en/html/GUIDesign_UCD.html

The elements of user experience

Image: http://acmelab.gatech.edu/slu3/wp-content/uploads/Elements-of-User-Experience.png

User centred design (UCD)

Image: http://www.sapdesignguild.org/resources/ucd_process.asp

Scrum

Lean

A framework - ISO9001:2008

•ere not

MAKE THIS THE ESSENCE OF YOUR PROJECT Persuasion = Ethos. Pathos. Logos.

“Within 12 months, ISO9001 helped us to improve

profitability by 177%. The team understands the business,

department and their own objectives”.

* comparing Aug 2012 with Aug 2013Cyber-Duck Ltd

Combining UCD, agile and lean

By combining UCD, ISO 9001 and agile together we gain:

• A superior user experience design process

• An agile mindset and manoeuvrability

• Strong quality management processes

!

!

!

TRAITS OF A FOUNDER & LEADER

Technician

Manager Leader

BLEND WORK, MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP Get the best out of yourself

The project management triangleUNDERSTAND THE ‘PM’ TRIANGLE Get the best out of yourself

Image from: http://www.kelvingoh.com/productivity/getting-things-done-gtd/

BECOME ULTRA EFFICIENT Get the best out of yourself

FIND MENTORS Get the best out of yourself

ALWAYS BE COMPOSED Get the best out of yourself

http://jerusalemchannel.tv/healing-clue-from-oath-of-maimonides/

Image from: hhttp://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/new-nhs-helpline-is-putting-peoples-lives-at-risk-say-doctors-8604624.html

Get the best out of yourself

CREATE A CULTURE OF COMMUNICATION

Image from: http://www.business2community.com/sales-management/want-software-sales-leads-avoid-being-a-yesno-man-0397729

DON’T BE A YES MAN Get the best out of yourself

GET THE BEST OUT OF YOUR TEAM

Always hire co-founders and key staff

THAT ARE SMARTER THAN YOU

Always be on the look out for new talent

HIRE STAFF WHEN YOU’RE NOT LOOKING

Get the best out of your staff

RECOGNITION

Get the best out of your staff

AN INNOVATIVE CULTURE

Get the best out of your staff

REWARDS

Get the best out of your staff

TRAINING

HOW TO MARKET YOURSELF

How to market yourself

BE SUPER PASSIONATE

How to market yourself

PRESENT AT CONFERENCES

How to market yourself

MOVE INTO A GREAT SPACE

How to market yourself

DO CHARITABLE WORK

How to market yourself

HOST EVENTS AND PARTIES

How to market yourself

INVEST IN UNIQUE TECHNOLOGY

CONCLUSION

Top 10 tips to survive

1. Departmentalise your organisation

2. Become an effective and organised leader, manager and worker

3. Boost your team’s training, involvement, rewards and recognition

4. Make it your relentless mission to deliver quality

5. Research and create processes that work

6. Become a people’s person if you are to manage staff

7. You should also become a geek and an expert in your domain

8. Create a user centric culture where everything is tested all the time

9. Don’t wait for people to find you, market yourself

10. Immerse yourself with mentors and people that support you

Q&A

Thanks for listening to our story. We would love to talk to you later!

Please follow us @cyberduck_uk

We are also hiring

• A studio manager

• HTML5 and PHP web developers

• Digital marketers

• UX producers

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