Polyfoam Website Redesign

Polyfoam Corporation, a leader in custom-molded foam products, came to us as a referral from long-time client Cold Chain Technologies. Polyfoam produces extruded polystyrene products that can protect items during shipping or insulate anything from pharmaceuticals to fresh fish. In addition to a large variety of stock items for display, construction uses, and packaging, Polyfoam can also create custom molds to engineer packaging that meets specific needs.

Polyfoam came to us because their site didn’t present them as the industry-leader they are. They were looking for a more modern and professional image, and wanted to be able to update site content in-house.

As part of the updated design, we streamlined and clarified their navigation to give greater prominence to their services and markets. We also added a site-wide search, enabling users to quickly find Polyfoam products, which are presented through high-quality images.

The whole site is powered by a powerful content management platform, enabling Polyfoam to easily add and edit content on the site.

Visit the Polyfoam Corporation Website

XHTML and CSS Specialist

Proposed Start Date: August 1, 2007
3000k, Inc., a leading interaction agency in Worcester, MA, is seeking an Interface Specialist + Designer, available immediately. We’re looking for a XHTML and CSS whiz. Someone who can code up designs that are accessible, cross-browser and cross-platform compatible, and that utilize the most appropriate mix of current and emerging front-end technologies. Your work will directly impact our efforts with a rapidly growing client list, our Web 2.0 projects, and the long-term success of our company. Read: you’re going to matter here and make a difference.

If that sounds like you, submit a copy of your resume and work samples to employment@3000k.com.

Read the rest of this entry »

Today we had a “speed networking” event with members of our private sector network (as part of the InnerCity Entrepreneurs program). I met a gentleman with over 35 years of experience managing and growing companies named David Kimball who has a lot of great advice to share.

For the past few months I’ve been focusing on the steps necessary to grow 3000k into a larger and more sophisticated business. We’re growing our staff, focusing on our process, and delegating tasks and responsibilities. Mr. Kimball, in a 10-minute session, was able to offer great insight into this process. His advice: transition from being a craftsperson to a teacher/mentor.

What David was referring to is growing from an individual with a set of task-specific skills to someone who can teach others - employees, partners, outside contractors - and help them learn the process, skills, and knowledge to perform those tasks. I can’t grow the business and do everything at the same time. In order to reach the next level it’s vital for me to work with everyone here and make sure they become expert in their area and in how we do business.

I’ve been feeling this for months but Mr. Kimball was able to quickly and succinctly express what’s required. Great advice, and a testament to how indispensable experience really is.

You may remember a few posts back at the end of last year about my departure from 3000k. Well, this is another one, but it’s more final.

I left 3000k as a full-time employee in December to pursue a career in writing. It’s gone pretty well so far - about as well as I could have hoped for in my first 6 months, actually. But when I left, I also left a number of long-term projects unfinished.

Because I didn’t want to let them languish, I stayed on at 3000k a couple days a week from January to May. Some of you heard from me in that time on various items.

As of today, I’m officially gone from 3000k. The projects that I had stayed for are either done or have progressed beyond where I can work on them directly. So this is, literally, my last hour at 3000k.

I’ve had a great three and a half years here, learned a huge amount, made many great connections, gained some terrific colleagues, and had fun. I’m looking forward to the next phase of my career and to watching 3000k grow.

I may still freelance on projects from time to time, so if you need writing, you may end up talking to me. Otherwise, as the saying goes, I’ll see you in the funny pages!

At the most recent InnerCity Entrepreneurs (ICE) meeting we had the privilege of hearing thoughts from Joe Goodman, a co-founder of Bob’s Discount Furniture. Since the company started in 1991 they have grown from 8 employees to over 2,000 and now run a very successful furniture business across the Northeast. Furniture is a tough industry and this growth is no small feat, so naturally we wanted to know how Joe and the team did it.

One consideration at Bob’s was how to address “free” offers from competitors - such as “free” delivery and “free” financing. They decided they would not offer the same thing. Delivery and the interest on “free” financing are actually costs the business incurs, so they get built into the price of each product. Nothing is ever really free.

This has developed into the policy at Bob’s to educate customers about the cost of services like delivery and clearly separate those fees from the cost of products.

Joe advised us to try this exercise to find ways to differentiate our businesses. “We looked at what our competitors were doing and moved in the opposite direction,” he said. This led to key insights during the founding of Bob’s and many of the resulting policies stand to this day. Looking at the competition and considering opposite policies set them apart in real ways.

This is a wonderful lesson for any fledgling business: look at what your competition is not doing and consider that as a way to stand out.

We often think of our “team” as being the people we see every day, like the people in the office or in our department. I used to have clear buckets for team members - if you’re part of 3000k you’re on the team. Today I had an argument with someone who’s a partner of ours and realized that it wasn’t fair because we’re both working for the same goals. We are, in fact, on the same team.

It turns out your team isn’t just the people you see every day. It’s not the people you share and office or department or company with. Your team is the people who are working toward the same goals as you.

This is what defines a team in sports. Each player has a different role but everyone works together to win. It’s the same in business. Your company, partners, customers, shareholders, and vendors are all on the same team. You’re working together to become more and to win.

Funny how the world changes when you realize that Apple, Rackspace, and the insurance company are playing ball with you.

To Steve Jobs: catch!

We’re honored to be selected as a member of the inaugural Inner City Entrepreneurs Worcester class of 2007. Ali and Eric will be participating in this program over the course of the next nine months and will work together to build a growth plan and strategy to take 3000k through 2010.

The program offers four key components: classroom education, a peer-to-peer advice group, a professional services network, and one-on-one coaching. The goal of this program is to help provide a “streetwise MBA” to executives and key staff of Boston- and Worcester-based companies. Program participants tend to be post-startup stage firms that need to develop their human capital to continue growing.

We believe the success of 3000k is a result of our clients’ success - having strong sites, generating great results, and seeing the benefits of working with an integrated web provider. To continue enabling their success we’re reinvesting in our firm so we can offer better services from a better company. To this end we’re excited about joining I.C.E. and improving ourselves.

Huge thanks to Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Citizens Bank, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Business Empowerment Center, members of various Massachusetts development organizations, and the other companies and individuals who have made I.C.E. possible. We’ll make you proud!

And, of course, thanks to our friend Jeff James at Red Galoshes for introducing us to the great people at I.C.E. and paving the way for us.

More about I.C.E.: www.innercityentrepreneurs.org
Red Galoshes: www.redgaloshes.com

Those of you reading this may be saying something similar to what we’re saying: Patrick, we hardly knew ya!

When we hired Creative Director Patrick Coyle away from Molecular in October, we knew we were getting a great talent. Unfortunately, we weren’t the only ones who knew it and Patrick has been hired away from us by an offer so overwhelmingly good he couldn’t refuse it.

Patrick has taken his experience, skills, and talent to TripAdvisor, a travel planning and review website that boasts partnerships with some of the biggest websites and travel companies around.

We’re sad to see Patrick go, of course, but wish him well. We’ll keep you posted about our search for new creative talent as it progresses. And this time, we’re keeping our new creative director a secret!

We’ve found that looking for parallels between web development and other industries can be a great way to clarify our processes or best practices. We create websites; tradespeople create buildings. In either case experience, skills, tools, and raw materials are used to build something that meets certain needs. So what can we learn from the trades?

One key to success as a tradesperson is choosing the right tools and building a standard toolbox. Expert carpenters have well-worn hammers, saws, and drills in their toolbox. Ours just happen to be code snippets, libraries, and software packages instead of hammers, saws, and drills.

Working with the same tools and building mastery with those over time allows us to:

• Implement and build sites efficiently.
• Predict potential problems and know the solutions to mitigate those problems in advance.
• Manage sites in a more standard manner.
• Develop in-house expertise that’s easy to replicate on future projects.

Just as a carpenter wouldn’t buy a new saw every time he cuts a piece of wood there isn’t a good reason to arbitrarily change our software toolbox. We consider changes if the needs of a project won’t be met well with our standard tools. Typically these cases involve:

• Technical requirements our standard tools don’t meet.
• Availability of a new tool that’s substantially better than what we’ve been using (cheaper, faster, better).

The key for us is working to attain mastery with our standard tools. We’re proud of our work and understand that it reflects who we are, so we strive to do the best job we can on each site we build. Knowing our tools and using them to the fullest is one way we realize this goal.

On a yearly basis we, like many companies, hold performance reviews. These are private one-on-one meetings to clarify job responsibilities, recognize and appreciate a person’s strengths, identify their weaknesses and address strategies to mitigate or adapt to those weaknesses.

Traditionally this ends up being a rather one-way review which, in some situations, results in the boss preaching in a parental manner to their staff. I once worked for a boss who was terrible and failed to do his job well or to even understand what he should do, given everyone else’s tasks. He only recognized weaknesses that he also shared and hypocritically focused on those during reviews. When the staff gathered later for lunch or break this resulted in a lot of frustrated laughs and a lack of respect for our boss. There was very little change or improvement.

Our reviews at 3000k counter this by being two-way. As the owner I review a person’s performance and they do the same for me. We both prepare written evaluations with suggestions for improvement prior to meeting so we have documents to reference and benchmark against during future reviews.

I’ve found this to be an invaluable way to start a conversation with my staff about how I could improve my work, and how we can better work together to mitigate the weaknesses we’ve discussed. I often have as much or more to improve than the person I’ve been reviewing!

This process shows that I’m open to change and feedback, that I care about what employees think of how I’m working and want their ideas on how to improve, and that I want to talk about these issues. It then gives me a chance to set a good example by working to improve, or a good understanding of how hard it can be to change if I don’t alter my weaknesses and need to help staff with the same problem. We’re only human.

So start a conversation. Have a two-way performance review and see what feedback you get from your boss, or have to give. It’ll make you both better at what you do and probably identify ways to work together you’ve never thought of that make the most of your strengths and minimize your weaknesses.