The Kmiec Ramblings

So I don’t normally ready USA Today, but when our client and our site is featured I feel obligated I think their write up is spot on. However, I do have a tiny bone to pick about their criticism. Based on the persona research we did, the need/want to search across states wasn’t a requirement. In fact, no one brought it up. Most people indicated they are going to a very specific destination and simply want more info about the location and what’s around the area. That said, we’re going to re-examine the use cases, personas, and needs/wants to make sure we didn’t miss anything.

Colle+McVoy recently launched a great new site for Taubman Mall Centers called Yearbook Yourself.  The site lets you upload a photo of yourself and see what you’d look like if transported back in time to specific years from decades of the past.  I think this photo of me from 1982 is pretty accurate

Yearbook Yourself

I had absolutely nothing to do with the initiative except getting to watch it all come together.  The team really kicked ass and put together a smart, simple, and intuitive experience that really delivers on the “brief.”

Get out there and Yearbook Yourself now!

What an awesome little discovery I made the other day. I stumbled upon this page from Google while looking for their “Don’t be evil” language. I’ve outlined the 10 principles and offered some commentary.

1. Focus on people – their lives, their work, their dreams: Amen! The more we can keep the user, the person, the mom, the dad, the teacher, etc. at the core the more we’ll be seen as useful. What this means though is that not every initiative is an ROI driven one.
2. Every millisecond counts: Yes, I don’t have time to wait.  A minute waiting for a site to load is just too long.  Heck 10 seconds seems to long.  We expect instantaneous results.
3. Simplicity is powerful: It’s very possible to convert seemingly complex things into very simple and intuitive experiences.  If it’s possible, why don’t we do it more?
4. Engage beginners and attract experts: I love this one.  Experts and knowledgeable members keep a community alive and useful.  But, a community of just experts is useless.  It’s like watching of doctors in a room trying to agree on the right course of treatment.
5. Dare to innovate: Don’t rest on your laurels.  Keep thinking ahead and more importantly, keep asking WHY and HOW CAN I MAKE THIS BETTER.
6. Design for the world: I’m a little torn on this one.  Conceptually I get what Google’s saying, if you design/develop/build for a small segment, you’ll never be able to scale and thus grow.
7. Plan for today’s and tomorrow’s business: Kinda straight forward.
8. Delight the eye without distracting the mind: This is one of the toughest things to do.  I can you delight and surprise me without making it too complex to comprehend.  I hate to say it, but this is exactly what Apple does so well.
9. Be worthy of people’s trust: If they don’t trust you, they won’t use you, and they won’t become your advocate.
10. Add a human touch: No one wants to be a number, a line in a database, or a 1 and a 0.  Make your experiences personal.

My old boss and good friend, Kevin Doohan, has finally completely drank the Kool-Aid.  Although this isn’t any ordinary Kool-Aid.  This is the type of Kool-Aid, that’s been expired for 6 years and laced with mushrooms.  It’s the type of Kool-Aid that you should only drink at a Pink Floyd concert.

I think that people’s perceptions generally mask the reality.  When things are great for you, you think they must be great for everyone else.  When things are bad for you, you think they’re bad for everyone else.  Sure, that’s a gross oversimplification, but it gets right to the heart of the situation.  How you view the world is relative to how the world treats you and views you, but it doesn’t mean that your view is how everyone else sees things.  Keep in mind, the world, can be as large or as small as you want it to be.

Here’s something I’m sure of, people don’t leave their job because they love their job.  In my own career, I’ve made good career choices.  ConAgra Foods was one of those great experiences.  As my Facebook page says, “3 years spent in Omaha, NE learning the ins and outs of corporate culture and politics…like who you can email and who you can’t.”  There’s some fun in there, but a lot of truth.  ConAgra Foods really helped me understand how to manage your way throw layers at a company and it prepared me to have conversations with C-level people at organizations.

Every place I’ve ever worked was a beneficial experience and has helped made me what I am today.  But, I can honestly say that whenever I’ve made a choice to leave an organization, it’s been for 1 of 3 reasons:

1. Contributions to the company were not valued or recognized
2. Compensation didn’t equal the peformance I was giving
3. Poor and/or uninspired senior leadership

This is exactly why I left ConAgra Foods.  Specifically, #1 and #2.

Just to make sure I wasn’t crazy, I decided to do some digging (something we do a great job of at Colle+McVoy) and unearthed several links that substantiate my own experiences.  This link, from HR Morning, titled, “7 big reasons people leave their jobs” is probably my favorite.  In that article we’re given the following reasons for leaving:

1. Downsizing or restructuring (54%);
2. Sought new challenges or opportunities (30%);
3. Ineffective leadership (25%);
4. Poor relationship with manager (22%);
5. To improve work/life balance (21%);
6. Contributions to the company were not valued (21%);
7. Better compensation and benefits (18%).

Hmm, kinda interesting.  Just so you don’t think I cherry picking data, I encourage you do a search in Google for, “why people leave their jobs.”  I promise you, you’ll find more of the same insights.

If I was working at Kmiec Inc. and was the man in charge, the company would abide by the following when it comes to employee growth and compensation:

1. Reward on the spot, don’t wait till the end of the year or the formal review.
2. Encourage people to take on more responsibility.
3. Don’t pay employees based on the market, pay them based on their importance to the company’s success.
4. Pay your top performers 10% more than the market rate; it’s hard to find good talent and once you have it, don’t let your competition take it from you.
5. Cut non-performers quickly; there’s no sense in paying someone who is clearly not performing well.
6. Promote people based on their performance not a predetermined timeline.  We should applaud people who climb the ladder quickly, not say things, like “she’s performing like a XXXX, but she’s only got XXXX years of experience so we can’t promote her.”  That’s a recipe for losing talent.
7. Actively listen to their career goals and help them get there.
8. Don’t let so called policies stop you from doing the right thing.  If the policy is stopping you or holding you back, it’s time to change the policy.

Honestly, it’s that simple.  Well to me it is.

Thanks, Kevin for inspiring me to get these thoughts down.  They’ve been in my head for a while and it was your kick in the pants that got me fired up.

Seriously; this is just insane…I’d like to see a face-off between these guys and military sharp shooters.

The team at Colle+McVoy along with the support of our client RBFF found some of the world’s best casters and pushed them to the limits.  The tricks and techniques are literally straight out of someone’s crazy fishing dream.  Check out this one where Gary Hain shows some Penn and Teller like accuracy.

You have to admit, that after seeing this video you totally want to learn how to do it.  I swear, I never knew the “casting” done by anglers could be do freaking cool.  Serious kudos to the team for coming up with the great idea and obviously thanks to our client for supporting a very non-traditional idea.

There’s a whole pipeline of great videos like this that we’ll be sharing very soon.

I generally try to read a few books at a time.  My former manager Kevin Doohan recommended that I juggle a “business” book with a easier/more enjoyable read.  I’ve taken his advice to heart.  I’m just about done with, “Men in Black: How the Supreme Court is Destroying America” which I received as a gift from my dad.  While I’m nearly done with that back, I did just finish reading, “The Breakthrough Company” by Keith McFarland.

Christine Fruechte, our CEO & President, shared her copy with me and asked me to give it a read.  I’ve read Blue Ocean and Good to Great, both of which are similar to Breakthrough Company.  This isn’t overly surprising when you consider that Keith is quite tight with Mr. Jim Collins.  It’s an interesting read and something I recommend to anyone trying to figure out how to win and make changes.  As noted here, this quote gives a great overview of the book’s main point, “When a leadership team realizes that strategy is really the single most important opportunity for learning within a company, it is free to drop some of the more cumbersome trappings of traditional strategic planning.”  Personally my favorite concept that McFarland shares is that leaders need to CROWN THE COMPANY instead of themselves.

Think about it.  We’ve all been at companies where we fundamentally believe the upper 10% are more interested in giving themselves fancy titles and larger bonuses instead of doing good by the company.  The concept of crowning the company is all about putting the company first and yourself second.  Not a bad philosophy at all.

Give it a read.

I’m really proud of the work we did for the Take Me Fishing campaign. All of the work, across all of the marketing channels is very good. The print looks great. Ditto on the direct. The spots we shot are fantastic and web site is amazing.

We just came out of usability testing and the site passed with flying colors. One of the things everybody seemed to really like was the Fishopedia. The Fishopedia was a brand new section of the site we concepted, created, and developed to be the A to Z compendium for fishing. It covers How to Fish, educates you on types of fish, helps you understand which equipment to choose, and offer much more. From step by step animations to detailed facts this is the place to go to for information on fishing.

So whether you are an avid or first time angler check out the Fishopedia.

I don’t want to brag, but I will. We’re kicking ass lately and it feels good to be recognized for the effort. Creativity-Online recognized the agency for it’s efforts on Paint That Shit Gold a few weeks ago. Now they’ve showered us with love for the Erbert & Gerbert’s Candle Cannon campaign.

Both of these initiatives leveraged our integrated offering. “Traditional” and “Digital” team-members pitched in, worked hard, and generated some fantastic work. Congratulations to everyone that worked on both projects…yes even those of you that were mysteriously omitted from the credits.

This comes courtesy of my friend Ashley Vaness. I’d seen it before a while back, but it still brings a smile to my face.