Yes, it’s true. We’re going to give away the most important thing ever in our third blog post. It doesn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense to divulge such information right away, but hey, that’s kind of the way we do it.

Before we get to the absolute most important thing ever, allow me to preface this post. We at Intrigo deal with Entrepreneurs and small businesses exclusively. On a daily basis, we meet with our clients, and see many of them succeed, and some of them fail. That’s the unfortunate reality in being an entrepeneur, sometimes it just doesn’t work. And when you’re working with entrepenuers, sometimes it just doesn’t matter what you do, or what kind of product you create, sometimes the business you’re working with doesn’t make it. So what does that mean when you’re thinking about striking it out on your own and starting your own company? Well that’s where we get back to the absolute most important thing ever. It’s the one thing that we look for whenever we work with a client, even before we start to evaluate their products and business plan. It’s also the one thing that will allow you to fail, get back up, try again, and succeed in the long run. It’s the one thing that you need in every single employee, and the one thing you need with everyone you contract with, work with, heck even associate with.

Okay, so are you ready for what that one thing is that can make or break everything?

PASSION

That’s it. The one thing that we look for in every client, every employee, every contractor, is passion. In my entire life, including two years of working for Intrigo, I have not seen anyone or any business make it without passion. It’s the only piece that can motivate you at the beginning, keep you focused through the tough times, and relish the success when you find it. Now, here’s the good part, how to look for it.

Passion in your Clients

This is one of the most important pieces when we at Intrigo identify the clients that we work with. We get tons and tons of business plans and business ideas that run across our desks. We try to meet with all of them regardless of how we feel about their plan or their product initially, because passion and conviction in their product and idea can overcome faulty plans through sheer determination. Regardless of whether or not you work in a consulting field, passion is the best indicator of a possible long term relationship. Passion in one’s company means that they’re more apt to recognize effort and delivery. This means that you as a provider

You like things that are gratifying. And by this, I mean they affect you. It might not be life altering, but it forces you to pause.  The physical world provides us with daily gratifications embedded in music, phones, and cars.  It’s what distinguishes successful products. But when it comes to web applications, I continuously see a lack of respect for creating a gratifying web application. How does this happen (over and over again)? In the upcoming weeks, I will be writing a series of articles on gratifying UI. Today’s post is an introduction to the different directions I will be investigating.

Vital Web Applications
My mornings are pretty routine. I wake up at 5:30, unplug my Blackberry, and read through my emails. Then I get up, let the dogs out, maybe eat a little cereal, and eventually bring my Thinkpad out of standby. Groggily, I open Facebook to see if any of my friends are in relationships. 30 seconds later I check bank account balances followed by Google analytics, and eventually read some blog postings.  After I’ve completed my morning status check, I login to Basecamp where I remain for the next twelve hours. I’m making a point and it is not that I wake up early and work long hours, it’s that I checked Facebook first, followed by several other important web applications. Each of these web applications could change my life at any moment; i.e. a girl that I’ve liked since 6th grade could become single or an unexpected financial transaction could be processed. The information that each application provides is vital. And that’s how you make a good web application. You create an application that becomes part of someone’s morning queue.

Niche Authorities
Being a reliable, on demand, resource works too. Not every web application aims to be a daily staple. In fact, most web applications that want to have a fighting chance, try to be a niche authority. They succeed by doing a better job, solving fewer problems.

I suspect a general user’s interest is highly underestimated. If a user is looking for a widget, the user WANTS the widget. They don’t want anything more than to purchase the widget. So then why am I also required to create an account, check boxes about newsletters, and asked about extended warranties before I can pay? If users have a successful first experience, they will return creating future page views allowing new opportunities to collect more information.

Does your user interface birdie par?
I’m always jazzed to play golf until I actually play. After slicing the ball into the rough on my first stroke and ricocheting it to the opposing fairway on my second, frustration mounts. With a slightly better third stroke, I put the ball 50 yards shy of the green, but still in the trees. The pitching wedge brings me within feet of the pin. Three strokes later, however, my putter is found lifeless in a nearby lake while I contemplate seven strokes on a par three.  The first hole was much different for my golf buddy, Eric. He shot a whopping 320 yard drive out of the blocks laying him up for a comfortable 20 yard pitch. With both strokes perfectly executed, Eric makes the ball magically disappear with an inaudible tap of his putter.  If golf skill translated to Internet skill, Eric could adapt to complexly convoluted web applications like he can to bunkers, hills, and lakes.  But most users can’t, and those who can will find easier alternatives. Like a golfer attempting to birdie par, building an interface that users master before losing interest will improve conversion.

So we at Intrigo have been working with a client now for about a month and a half, and I personally spent about four to five hours a week meeting with them discussing their logo, going over revisions, and trying to find a direction that works. Combine this with the fact that we have had three designers work on directions, and one exclusively focusing on this project, and you can see how this has been a somewhat frustrating experience for everyone involved. We’ve been able to pull a few very valuable lessons from this, and some tips that hopefully can help anyone when they start to work on their own logo.

Get on the Same Page

This particular client, more so than any other client I have ever worked with, typifies this point.  Combine the opinions of three managers, six investors, all of us at Intrigo, and the friends and families that get their input on the logo, and it’s incredibly easy to see how you can have fifty different directions going.  The best logos we’ve designed, and the best that I have seen, come from an established vision and message that creates focus for the designer. Focusing on your message and the meaning gives clarity to the designer and to yourself.  But most importantly, it helps you as the desicion maker figure out what it is that you are actually looking to see.

The process of focusing on your message is much easier when it’s just one person making the decision, as more minds means more ideas and more directions.  That’s why it’s imperative as a group to first discuss your message and goals for the logo before you even begin to work with the designer. The group that we are currently working with continues to struggle with this fact. They don’t convey their ideas to the investors properly, and allow themselves to get pushed around by their investors.  The investors are of a different market and different mindset, and don’t fully understand the medium of the company or the goals of the management team. Those things combined means that you get no vision, and eight voices. That’s just not a good situation for anything.  So make sure that there’s a vision first.

Let the Designer Help You

Now, if you’re working with a designer it’s generally because you’re not one, and are looking for the help of a professional in crafting your logo and message. So listen to them, and don’t be afraid to ask questions throughout the process.  The best place to start is to come up with what message you want to convey, then sit down with your designer and look at some of their past work, and other work you like. Have them show you logos, and describe the message that you see, and what you like and dislike about each logo.  This is generally tough for someone who isn’t used to thinking in this fashion, but that’s why you have a designer there to help. A good designer can interprete your statements and begin to narrow in on your aesthetic.  Plus, they can combine what you like to see with what they have been trained to do, create in a way connects with your customers.

Now there’s a hundred more pieces that go into this process, but these two tips should really help get your logo started in a direction that you like.  It’s also something that we tend to see our clients too often neglect.

To steal a page from Nathan Bell’s blog, Intrigo’s search for top talent continues as we look to bolster our staff with more top talent in the Portland area!  Benefits include health care, 401K with 6% matching, and a grab bag of other little perks.

Web Applications Developer
We would like someone who wants to grow into a project manager/team lead role and has demonstrated at least some skills in that area already. Starts at $55,000/year.

Graphic Designer
From the ad: “You must provide a portfolio to be considered. We design software using standard web technologies, we are not interested in Flash designers. Demonstrated experience working closely with fickle clients is a plus. The ability to convincingly and tactfully defend and fight for a design you know to be good is even better. :)” Starts at $50K

Marketing and Sales
From the ad: “This is a hybrid position for someone skilled in marketing, sales and light project management. You’ll be responsible for generating and following up on leads, making the sale and bridging the ongoing communication between the client and the design/development team.” $30K plus 10-15% commissions.

We’re continuing our search, so if you have any interest please drop us a line. We’d love to hear from you!

Blogtrigo is now officially up and running!  You can check here for the latest news and updates from the Intrigo team.  Every new project, new launches, new clients, and some general thoughts and information will be posted here to tell you not only what we’re doing, but some interesting notes to help out you and your business with the web.

Let us know what you think!