What kind of business can you build in 54 hours? That’s the challenge at every Startup Weekend event and the group in attendance at the M@dison building for Startup Weekend Detroit was more than up to the challenge. Six of us from Atomic Object made the trek out to the event to participate. We built,... What do the following enterprises have in common: Automobile manufacturing Banking Garbage collection Hardware sales Video rentals Give up? Each of them, at one time, were nascent industries populated chiefly by small, local, mom & pop style businesses. Also in common: they are all now dominated by a small handful of mega corporations[1]. Is it…
People like to hear they’re doing a good job. They don’t like to hear that they’re falling short. This conflict makes it difficult to implement an effective, comprehensive system for feedback in an organization. Another more difficult problem is leadership lacking data on the positive things an employee is contributing to the organization.
Even since cavemen invented the wheel, people have been using specially designed tools to make their work and their day-to-day lives simpler. Can you think of a single profession today that does not benefit from the use of a tool of some kind? In an ideal world, a tool would be something that you invest…
Here at Atomic Object we have a strong culture of sharing the benefits of our success with each other – in many ways far more generously than is common in our industry. Of course, coupled to these rewards is an equally emphasized sense of responsibilities – not the least of these is our commitment to…
It’s been 44 months since I graduated from college. Here are 5 things I’ve learned about the software design and the surrounding business since then.
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…
Main Entry: agile [aj-uhl, -ahyl] Show IPA Part of Speech: adjective Definition: physically or mentally nimble, deft Synonyms: active, acute, alert, athletic, brisk, buoyant,bustling, clever, dexterous, easy-moving,energetic, fleet, frisky, limber, lithe, lively,mercurial, prompt, quick, quick on the draw,quick on the trigger, quick-witted, rapid, ready,sharp, spirited, sportive, spright, sprightly, spry,stirring, supple, swift, twinkle toes, vigorous,vivacious, winged, zippy Antonyms: brittle, clumsy, stiff (entry provided by http://thesaurus.com) Essentially, if you are considered agile, you are active, clever, sharp & quick. But Agile development isn’t something you can wrap your brain around & master quickly, as the definition of agile clearly implies. It takes time to master. Nor is…
Atomic’s been formalizing our usability testing approach for the last year or so. This is one part of the broader initiative and long-term effort of integrating design with our agile development process. We’ve sent Atoms to the Norman Nielsen Group Usability Week training, had brown bags on the subject, bought some books, tested prototypes, and,…
The reasons for and ways of accomplishing usability studies on complex web applications are well documented. They increase user satisfaction and retention, they reduce user frustration and training — in short they add business value in obvious ways. There are a lot of known ways of doing this testing, too. You can use discount methodologies,…
Carl is the president and co-founder of Atomic Object