Posts Tagged ‘people’

Grateful Post

June 7th, 2009

This morning I suddenly realised that I and most of us don’t voice kudos enough to those who have helped us in our lives. I read somewhere that saying out loud “Thank you or I am grateful for [insert name here]” is a great way to make yourself feel better especially when you’re feeling down.

There are lots of things that you experience that shape your life but sometimes there are people you meet that just seems like it was meant to be. In my experience, I feel that people have:

  • Given me books to read or suggest what to read
  • Shown me what blogs to read and subscribe to so I don’t have to spend loads of time looking for myself
  • Told me that I can do it even when I feel totally unqualified to do it
  • Advised me about what options I have or clarified my thinking by taking their own time out to talk with me
  • Encouraged me to take the next step

At the end of the day it is up to you to decide which information to recieve and act on and what pathway to take and so on. I want to take this time to name some people who I feel have greatly influenced me my career path.

So, I am grateful to:

  1. John Clegg, my husband and partner for 7 years – John has always believed in me in my capabilities. He was my boss in my earlier work experience. He is my most reliable and probably most patient, as I tend to garble my words, resource for anything tech and web. He is my walking, talking wikipedia for technology and business terms and concepts.
  2. Caroline Dewe, CEO of Fronde Anywhere, one of my closest friends – for letting me tag along to all her sales and business dev meetings with clients and mentoring me as well as through osmosis teaching me to not bullshit. That’s what it comes down to – relationship and trust. I also created loads of diagrams and conceptual models for her business presentations and pitches. That’s how I started learning about communication through pictures. She is a kick-ass cook too.
  3. Hayden Vink, ex-colleague – for showing me and taking me to the deep end of understanding the meaning of value, for sharing all his RSS feeds to blogs and articles that has opened my eyes to the world of innovation and creative thinking. The time with Hayden was probably the most eye-opening for me in terms of what I believed in and having the courage to do it. Now I just follow him everywhere on the net.
  4. Zef Fugaz, ex-colleague and manager at Provoke – Even before I met Zef, I used the interaction design templates and documents he created at Synergy/Fronde and wondered if I would ever be like him. I finally worked with him, at Provoke, where he carved a niche for me, to lead the strategy side of experience design. Sometimes you need someone to give you the space and show you the door to learn if you are really good at something. I am really enjoying it and am getting the hang of it.

There are more people that I can name. But these four stand out when I think of huge impacts in the direction that I’ve taken. I hope other people take the time to be grateful as this is a great way to look back and see where you’ve come from and where you can still go.

My own philosophy in life is that everyone you meet and wherever you are, are meant to be. It is how or what you make of it that makes a difference in your life and will leave either a positive or a negative impact.

I hope to add to this list as I have so much more to learn still…

Also instead of trying hard to gain recognition, I thought it would be a nice change to GIVE recognition.

Have a great day! Thanks again. :)

Dawn of the age of the "newbie" consultant?

May 7th, 2009

i am not the best at coming up with names – but my question here is about what i am seeing in the last 6 months to be more and more in demand, in NZ anyway.

I think the time has come for those practitioners who have come through the ranks, walked the walk, by doing and really caring about the outcome of their effort, to start consulting at a business level.

Businesses are also getting smarter at picking up these people as well. They are getting more value for their money. this year, i have seen at least 4 our of 5 clients preferred to work with the same person again because “they know everything”, “they care” and “they get the work done” and talking to colleagues in the field say the same thing.

Trends amongst the newbie consultants. In no particular order, newbies:

  • care about the experiences of their clients and their clients’ customers and users
  • Collaborate closely with clients
  • Share
  • Encourage participation
  • Draw sketches and pictures
  • Empathise
  • Research
  • have stories of their own experiences
  • teach
  • network
  • refer other people if it means they get the job done
  • are happy to and are capable of getting their hands dirty if required
  • do not bullshit
  • are not scared to not know the answer
  • build work based on their brand “Me” attitude
  • focus on problems and opportunities, not features
  • facilitate conversations and work with clients to identiy and solve problems
  • can dig deep with the big picture in mind
  • absorb knowledge and learn from people around them
  • thrive on feedback

there are lots of people out there that need help with their businesses online. with so much technology available and articles and how-tos accessble through Google, you also get lots of people who bullshit their way through, selling features and tools to solve problems. there is a gap for those who dont know any better and i think its these new consultants who can help them.

I also think there are lots of things that newbies lack such as strong track record in business consultancy, experience in managing businesses, etc. but with the can-do attitude, perseverance and hunger to learn, i think its not hard to gain this experience. After all, you have to be in the game to win.

A lot of these “newbies” are still under the radar. Here are a few who have their profile on the web:

Grateful Post

November 11th, 2008

This morning I suddenly realised that I and most of us don’t voice kudos enough to those who have helped us in our lives. I read somewhere that saying out loud “Thank you or I am grateful for [insert name here]” is a great way to make yourself feel better especially when you’re feeling down.

There are lots of things that you experience that shape your life but sometimes there are people you meet that just seems like it was meant to be. In my experience, I feel that people have:

  • Given me books to read or suggest what to read
  • Shown me what blogs to read and subscribe to so I don’t have to spend loads of time looking for myself
  • Told me that I can do it even when I feel totally unqualified to do it
  • Advised me about what options I have or clarified my thinking by taking their own time out to talk with me
  • Encouraged me to take the next step

At the end of the day it is up to you to decide which information to recieve and act  on and what pathway to take and so on. I want to take this time to name some people who I feel have greatly influenced me my career path.

So, I am grateful to:

  1. John Clegg, my husband and partner for 7 years – John has always believed in me in my capabilities. He was my boss in my earlier work experience. He is my most reliable and probably most patient, as I tend to garble my words, resource for anything tech and web. He is my walking, talking wikipedia for technology and business terms and concepts.
  2. Caroline Dewe, Ex-CEO of Fronde Anywhere, one of my closest friends – for letting me tag along to all her sales and business dev meetings with clients and mentoring me as well as through osmosis teaching to not bullshit. That’s what it comes down to – relationship and trust. I also created loads of diagrams and conceptual models for her business presentations and pitches. That’s how I started learning about communication through pictures. She is a kick-ass cook too.
  3. Hayden Vink, ex-colleague – for showing me and taking me to the deep end of understanding the meaning of value, for sharing all his RSS feeds to blogs and articles that has opened my eyes to the world of innovation and creative thinking. The time with Hayden was probably the most eye-opening for me in terms of what I believed in and having the courage to do it. Now I just follow him everywhere on the net.
  4. Zef Fugaz, ex-colleague and manager at Provoke – Even before I met Zef, I used the interaction design templates and documents he created at Synergy/Fronde and wondered if I would ever be like him. I finally worked with him, at Provoke, where he carved a niche for me, to lead the strategy side of experience design. Sometimes you need someone to give you the space and show you the door to learn if you are really good at something. I am really enjoying it and am getting the hang of it.

There are more people that I can name. But these four stand out when I think of huge impacts in the direction that I’ve taken. I hope other people take the time to be grateful as this is a great way to look back and see where you’ve come from and where you can still go.

My own philosophy in life is that everyone you meet and wherever you are, are meant to be. It is how or what you make of it that makes a difference in your life and will leave either a positive or a negative impact.

I hope to add to this list as I have so much more to learn still…

Also instead of trying hard to gain recognition, I thought it would be a nice change to GIVE recognition.

Have a great day! Thanks again. :)

dawn of the age of the “newbie” consultant?

October 19th, 2008

i am not the best at coming up with names – but my question here is about what i am seeing in the last 6 months to be more and more in demand, in NZ anyway.

I think the time has come for those practitioners who have come through the ranks, walked the walk, by doing and really caring about the outcome of their effort, to start consulting at a business level.

Businesses are also getting smarter at picking up these people as well. They are getting more value for their money. this year, i have seen at least 4 our of 5 clients preferred to work with the same person again because “they know everything”, “they care” and “they get the work done” and talking to colleagues in the field say the same thing.

Trends amongst the newbie consultants. In no particular order, newbies:

  • care about the experiences of their clients and their clients’ customers and users
  • Collaborate closely with clients
  • Share
  • Encourage participation
  • Draw sketches and pictures
  • Empathise
  • Research
  • have stories of their own experiences
  • teach
  • network
  • refer other people if it means they get the job done
  • are happy to and are capable of getting their hands dirty if required
  • do not bullshit
  • are not scared to not know the answer
  • build work based on their brand “Me” attitude
  • focus on problems and opportunities, not features
  • facilitate conversations and work with clients to identiy and solve problems
  • can dig deep with the big picture in mind
  • absorb knowledge and learn from people around them
  • thrive on feedback

there are lots of people out there that need help with their businesses online. with so much technology available and articles and how-tos accessble through Google, you also get lots of people who bullshit their way through, selling features and tools to solve problems. there is a gap for those who dont know any better and i think its these new consultants who can help them.

I also think there are lots of things that newbies lack such as strong track record in business consultancy, experience in managing businesses, etc. but with the can-do attitude, perseverance and hunger to learn, i think its not hard to gain this experience. After all, you have to be in the game to win.

A lot of these “newbies” are still under the radar. Here are a few who have their profile on the web:

Chandima Kulathilake, Hayden Vink, John Clegg, Kate Insoll and Zac, Zef Fugaz, Ross Howard, Phillip Fierlinger



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