Happy holidays!

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We hope you have a relaxing Thanksgiving!

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We’ll be back in action on Monday, January 4th, so if you have an emergency, shoot us an email at support@jumpchart.com and we’ll get back to you as soon as we’re at our desks!

Happy holidays!

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If you have an emergency during that time, though, just shoot us an e-mail – we’ll do our best to get you taken care of as quickly as we can.

Happy Holidays!

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The Old Way

Before, during and after the website architecture/content creation jobs, I’m writing other stuff, too, like blog articles, support documentation, internal communication, and newsletters. I used to have my own external system to keep track of research and notes for these projects. I won’t lie, it was messy. It involved a notebook here, a spreadsheet there, a list of URLs in an email somewhere else. One day, after searching for half an hour for a page in my notebook containing some crucial interview information, I knew something had to change. I needed an app, a tool, something to keep all my crap in one place. Then it dawned on me that I already had the perfect tool for this type of organization. Ever since my “duh” moment, I use Jumpchart for pretty much everything.

Blog Articles

When I write for blogs, my drafts all begin in Jumpchart. Yes, even this one! To streamline the process, I created a project titled “Blog Articles.” Then I made three primary pages, one for each of the blogs I write for. I decided to get even more specific to help with my (dis)organization. I broke my subpages for each blog into four sections: In Progress, Out for Review, Edits Needed, and Published. With this system, I can quickly see the status of each article. For me, this makes it really easy to jump right in on actual work without having to try and remember where each article is in the publication process. The best part? Organizing is done by drag and drop. It literally doesn’t get any easier.

So here’s an example of what your “Blog Articles” navigation might look like:

The navigation gets long sometimes, but that’s okay because I don’t always have to look at the whole thing. I usually keep the “Published” and “Out for Review” sections collapsed, and the others expanded. I set calendar reminders to follow up with the articles pending approval.

Sometimes, if the research process is intensive enough, I’ll make a whole new project for one article so I can store images, notes, and other resources. But most of the time, the main “Blog Articles” project works great for me.

Newsletters, Support Docs and the Rest.

This “Blog Article” format works for pretty much everything else, too, with minor tweaks here and there. The Jumpchart project I created for “Newsletters” is especially helpful because I have all my previous newsletter content in one place. So in just a couple clicks, I can quickly and easily reference the content I’ve already covered, double check formatting from previous issues, and make sure to stay consistent with tone and subheads.

Distraction Free Writing.

I’m bad about getting distracted, I really am. All it takes is a notification to go off, or an alarm to sound and I’ve abandoned my writing project and I’m checking email instead. But Jumpchart has a really great feature that I’ve fallen in love with – the distraction free writing mode. This feature gets rid of all the extra stuff on your screen, and leaves you face to face with nothing but the words on the page. I still have to summon the internal strength to turn off my email alerts, but once I’ve done that the rest is history. For those times when the words are flowing like an avalanche from the top of the Rockies, there’s nothing better than being able to really zone in.

Ideas Under One Roof.

If you’re a writer, you know ideas for all these pieces come in just that – pieces. I might get an email with the word count specs, a Skype message with a reference link, and a Twitter DM with an interested interviewee. That’s not even counting how the actual ideas enter my head – freaking all over the place. Jumpchart has proven to be a great place to hop in, jot down the idea, note, reference, or link, and get back out. No more scouring the pages of my notebook for that random thought I had over lunch… now when those ideas strike, I fire up Jumpchart on my iPad or phone. And of course since it’s a web app, I can access it from anywhere.

I’m proudly partial because I work for the company that created Jumpchart. But all biases aside, I love Jumpchart for more reasons than the fact that I know the designers and developers personally. I find this tool useful day in and day out and at the end of the day, it makes me better at my job. What more could I ask for?

This puts us in a really great place. Some of us are building the apps we know the rest of us need to do our job. Since many design studios are just like us – that means (usually) there will be demand for what we build.

We’ve been tossing around an idea for a small application here lately. We have a problem tracking purchase orders for client work. Stock photos, printing, screen printing, etc. all get purchased on behalf of our clients. It is a complete mess to try and track:

• How much the vendor quoted you
• Which vendor had the best price
• If the vendor responded
• If the vendor included tax, shipping, etc.
• How much you told the client it would cost with your markup
• How much it actually cost when the job was done

We’ve been toying with the idea of building a super simple app to help our design side manage this. We’d love your feedback on whether you think it might be useful to your studio or business too. I’ve attached some super simple wireframes below.

What do you think? Would you use it? If it was free? If it was $5?

If you have an emergency during the break, just shoot us an e-mail – we’ll do our best to get you taken care of as quickly as we can.

Happy Holidays!

You get to see a project through from start to finish, influencing nearly every part of it. You get to watch proudly as a mere idea transforms into a great portfolio piece. You put your blood, sweat and tears into content creation and development. You get to work with great people to reach the end product. You get to use your skill of turning studio language into something your clients can wrap their brains around. Sometimes you even get to hand deliver the finished product with a big pretty bow on it.

But when something goes wrong, you’re the person it always makes sense to blame.

(Sigh.)

Regardless of who actually made the mistake, if you’re the last one to touch it before it goes to a client, you have to take partial responsibility. Sometimes this can make your hard work seem all for naught. After all, your goal was a perfect project, right?

Adjust your expectations. Take the error in stride, assume the responsibility, and own it. The key to dealing with mistakes as a PM is to grow from and build on them. When you turn ugly red check marks into pretty green plus signs, see it as an opportunity to make your team stronger, and improve your relationship with the client.

So, being a project manager is really like accidentally deleting that term paper only to find it backed up on your key-ring zip drive. You’re learning fast…

“We’ve not seen what they’ve done but what we can say is that they don’t have 10,000 people in R&D in the vision category,” [Samsung product manager Chris Moseley] said.

(Because more people working on a project always equals more quality right?)
http://www.macrumors.com/2012/02/14/samsung-underestimating-apples-potential-impact-on-television-market/