Creating custom software can be extremely complex—juggling evolving technologies, competing stakeholders, many types of users, etc. And that makes it risky, both for the company who funds the project and for the consultant who stakes their reputation on it.
Author: Brittany Hunter
How Taking “Half-Steps” Can Further Your Career (& How Your Company Can Help)
Earlier this fall, I participated on a panel of women in STEM for the Grand Rapids Girls Robotics Competition. My fellow panelists and I had the pleasure of a very engaged audience of young women in high school, and we explored a wide range of topics relevant to women in STEM fields.
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How to Prepare for that Interaction You’re Dreading
Here’s the situation. You have something you need to say, and you dread having to say it. This could happen under a variety of circumstances:
- You need to give some negative feedback to a colleague or employee.
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Six Traits of Outstanding (& Outstandingly Successful) Clients
In over 15 years of consulting, I’ve had the privilege of working with hundreds of clients and stakeholders. While many of them were memorable for different reasons, some clients have been truly outstanding in terms of our working relationship and what we were able to accomplish together.
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Review: Withings/Nokia Health Steel HR Smartwatch
Author’s Note: Shortly after I wrote this review, the Withings family of products was moved under the Nokia name, receiving a new branding treatment and a new app as a result. While my Steel HR Smartwatch has the Withings name on it, the product is now owned and sold by Nokia.
I’ve had my Withings Steel HR smartwatch for a little over a month now, and I want to share my first impressions. Read more on Review: Withings/Nokia Health Steel HR Smartwatch…
Planning for Unpredictable Costs During Your Project’s Grow Phase
Most custom software projects have three major phases in their lifecycle. First, there’s the Build phase. This is the initial period of time when a platform is being designed and developed, which culminates with an initial launch (typically a Minimum-Viable-Product first launch or beta release).
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Six Pitfalls on the Road to Valuable Custom Software
If you’re about to invest in custom software, you have high hopes for what it can do for your business. As my colleague Mike wrote recently:
Building custom software is like sculpting with clay—you can create just about anything you can imagine. Read more on Six Pitfalls on the Road to Valuable Custom Software…
Read more on Six Pitfalls on the Road to Valuable Custom Software…
Atomic’s Curriculum for Teaching Young Developers about Design
Created for recent Computer Science grads, Atomic’s Accelerator program is designed to supplement their development training and get them up-to-speed fast on higher-level consulting practices and skills. Participants in Atomic’s Accelerator Program make a commitment to study on top of their 40-hour work week, and they receive significant coaching and training in project management, team leadership, and handling customer relationships.
In recent weeks, I’ve had the fun and energizing opportunity to lead the design-focused portion of our Accelerator curriculum. Members of Cell Zero have been doing three to four hours of reading homework on design topics each week, complemented by two-hour discussions in which we unpack and distill our learnings.
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Teaching and Learning with Atomic Roundtables
Recently, Atomic Object Grand Rapids created a new lunchtime practice that we call Roundtables. The concept is (intentionally) simple. Roundtables happen on the first and third Thursday of each month in our café space. We keep a sign-up sheet on the side of our refrigerator. Anybody is welcome to sign up to host on a topic of their choosing.
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One Simple Question to Improve Your Visual Design Skills
“Why?”
This is the question you need to be asking yourself.
Good interface design is a series of carefully thought-through decisions that were made with the user in mind. This is true throughout the entire design process: from the initial idea through defining requirements, sketching and wireframing, interaction design, and on into the visual design phase.
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