Carl Erickson | Atomic Spin

Research the extremes of a user community

By Carl Erickson | Published: May 1, 2012

Atomic is currently collaborating with IDEO on a consumer-facing web app. The integration of IDEO’s user-centered design practices with Atomic’s software design and build practices is a powerful combination for our client. Working with an old friend and getting to know some more of the smart, talented people at IDEO have been great. We’re learning...

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Posted in User Experience | Leave a comment

Atomic Object is Expanding to Detroit

By Carl Erickson | Published: March 10, 2012

Atomic Object is opening a second office. We’ve selected Detroit as the location for our first expansion. AO Detroit, or AOD as we refer to it, is expected to grow to be a peer to the Grand Rapids office. To lead AOD, we’ve hired a managing partner with years of experience in corporate IT, product…

Posted in Company, News | Tagged business, detroit, expansion | 20 Comments

Automotive or software, design is design

By Carl Erickson | Published: February 8, 2012

I love cars. I find inspiration in the design, engineering, and history of cars. For the second year now I’ve attended AutoWeek’s Design Forum with my daughter. This very well-run event is a half day of talks and panels from luminaries in the field of automotive design, followed by guided tours of the North American…

Posted in Design & Development | Tagged design | Leave a comment

Small teams are dramatically more efficient than large teams

By Carl Erickson | Published: January 11, 2012

I sat on a panel for a conference last year with fellow owners of “boutique” software development firms. I use the word cautiously, as I’m not completely sure what people mean by boutique in this context, but there are usually implications of small size, specialization, and expertise. One of the more engaged audience members worked…

Posted in Project Planning | Tagged defect rates, efficiency, software cost, team size | 65 Comments

Reflections on 2011, predictions for 2012

By Carl Erickson | Published: December 9, 2011

‘Tis the season for reflection and strategic planning. 2011 was a big year for Atomic. We hired 12 people this year, comfortably exceeding our goal of 10 in 11. We launched Atomic Embedded to bring more embedded agile practice goodness to the world. We grew our design capacity by 200%. We started a team of…

Posted in Company | 2 Comments

Reflections on four years of integrating design and development

By Carl Erickson | Published: November 16, 2011

Atomic started down the path of tightly integrating design and agile software development in October 2007. Before that time we’d relied on outside designers, partner firms, and even our clients for the various activities and artifacts that go by the name “design.” We felt then, and we know today, that by integrating design and development…

Posted in Culture, Design & Development | 1 Comment

Interns and Apprentices at Atomic Object

By Carl Erickson | Published: October 4, 2011

Interns and apprentices have always been an essential part of Atomic Object. Choosing to work with students and recent graduates has been, in part, how we bootstrapped the company. Since our founding in 2001, we’ve had 33 people go through our “program”. I use the word in quotes because we’ve considerably changed our approach to…

Posted in Company | Tagged apprentices, hiring, interns | 1 Comment

Copying charts reliably out of Numbers

By Carl Erickson | Published: September 15, 2011

I generally like using Numbers on my Mac to create charts. I’ll put these charts into blog posts, emails, documents and diagrams when I need data to get my point across. Numbers has some foibles, but I find it produces much more attractive charts and graphs than Excel, and Excel can be pretty capricious as…

Posted in Tools | Tagged mac, OS X | 2 Comments

I work with amazing, generous people

By Carl Erickson | Published: August 16, 2011

A few weeks ago I blogged my appreciation for Grand Valley State University. My company, our community, and the state of Michigan benefit greatly from the good work they do. Grand Valley was less than 10 years old when they built the Zumberge Library, and to say things have changed a bit in those 40+…

Posted in Company, Culture | Tagged fund raiser, gvsu | Leave a comment

What we expect startups to know

By Carl Erickson | Published: August 10, 2011

Ten years of working with entrepreneurs has given us some insights into what’s necessary to increase the odds of their success. While there is no magic formula you can follow to create a successful product or company, there are some things you can do to increase your odds, or, put another way, there are some…

Posted in Startups | 2 Comments

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