Silicon Valley Diary #2
Posted on | April 6, 2009 |
Given the previous day’s travel and excesses, I woke with a spring in my step - no doubt propped up at the excitement of our first day of appointments, including a date with one of my ‘must-see’ companies - IDEO.
After months of anticipation we were finally going to meet with some of Silicon Valley’s finest companies.
Now before I go any further I need to explain that although few companies explicitly asked us to refrain from blogging about the details of our visits, I think it’s only fair to all concerned if I brush over some of the details.
The first company we went to see was Red Bricks Media. They started life as purely an SEO specialist, but have since spread sideways to cover the closely associated creative services. RBM really set the tone for the rest of our appointments; they were extremely welcoming (providing an awesome spread of breakfast food and drinks), gave their time willingly (we were joined by half a dozen Red Brickers) and they were incredibly generous with the information that they were willing to share.
SEO isn’t of great interest to me, so I honed in on their creative side, and the team gave us a detailed breakdown of how they communicate and manage relationships with their clients. It’s matters like this that take some creative companies years to fine tune, and being informed of how another company deals with these issues was incredibly useful.
After Red Brick Media we all boarded our luxury minibus and headed out of San Francisco to Palo Alto, and the headquarters of Ning.
Ning’s software is starting to touch a lot of people, whether they are aware of it or not. Ning provide a customisable platform so that people can build their own social sites. As before, our host was more than welcoming; no sooner had we shook hands than we were directed to the very impressive ’snack shelves’. I couldn’t quite figure out if the selection was there to compensate staff having to work outrageous hours, or to encourage them to work late - carrot or stick, it could have fed an army for a month.
Ning’s strategy is a very astute one, and they seem to have identified a user need, and are hell bent on fulfilling it.
The day ended with a lengthy visit to a company that I’ve admired for a long time - IDEO. Their product design is legendary, and their more recent moves into the world of ‘user experience ‘ or ‘UX’ is only adding to the reputation.
This was the first of three ‘chocolate factory’ experiences - the chance to look inside companies that I’ve held in high regard - and conveniently they were spread out; one for each of the three days.
Again, IDEO provided us with what seemed like a legion of staff to make us feel welcome and provide as much information as possible. We started with a presentation about IDEO, its ideals and its methodologies. Most of this can be found in books, or online, but being able to question the finer points added another dimension.
Following this we took a tour of their offices. Literally every step we took revealed a new point of interest; the den-like rooms that were covered in brainstorm-friendly Post-It notes, the shelves laden with inspirational objects for the staff to experience (representing colours, or materials that might guide their designs) and the workshops with designers re-engineering a product’s packaging. It really was like looking inside Santa’s grotto.
The session ended with one of IDEO’s legendary brainstorming sessions. Ideas bounced around between the Cross Creative guys, and our hosts; each was drawn on a Post-It and added to a growing mindmap that was effortlessly being composed by one of IDEO’s many creatives. It was inspiring to take part.
The day ended with a modest drinking session in a bar near to Red Brick’s office, where we were joined by one of their founders. The lack of sleep was tugging at my brain, so in an uncustomary move, I took the sensible option of an early night.
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