As part of Boulder Startup Week, Viget hosted a moderated panel session, How Startups Get to Great Design. With over 150 people in attendance, this event built upon the success of our 2012 event Startups + Great UX = Great Success.

This year’s event brought together designers from agencies and product companies to discuss what works for startups when going through a redesign. The session was valuable, with moderator Jackson Fox doing an excellent job of keeping the topics on track and making sure each panelist had a chance to speak to their experiences.

Search keyword analysis for analytics has always felt more painful than necessary. Such analysis typically involves filtering through hundreds or thousands of subtly-different variations of search queries to form an impression of the relative importance of particular words and phrases. It's a time-consuming and often subjective process that isn't any fun at all.

Since current analytics services lack a tool to digest raw search query data into a list of the most important words, we built one fit for the task.

As project managers (PMs), we’re conditioned (often early in our careers) to exercise control over a long list of variables in order to drive a project to successful completion. It’s commonplace to hear specificity like, “designing this comp should take 4 hours; we’ll get client feedback in 2 days; and we have to deliver the 6 comps described in the contract.” The prevailing view is that project management entails perfection -- and that perfection requires to-the-letter execution. The reality, however, is very different. Projects are made up of people and require creative problem solving. And since people aren’t perfect and creativity is often a complex exercise, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that projects are therefore full of imperfections. While many of us come to this realization eventually, we need to do so more quickly. Actively embracing project management as an imperfect science will help us be better at it. As the saying goes, “perfect is the enemy of good.”

Like most returning from the yearly tech pilgrimage known as SXSW, I’m as excited and re-energized as ever to innovate and make the web a better place. This is a familiar feeling albeit a different perspective.

In 2011, I went to Austin as a digital producer for a big agency and it opened my eyes to new ways of thinking about and executing digital work. I returned from SXSW on a mission to work differently. Popular panels from 2011, including “Do Agencies Need to Think Like Software Companies?” inspired thoughts of change — but it was conversations outside these panels that led me to challenge the big agency way and to change our process and execution.

This year I went as a member of a smaller digital agency and with fellow Viget folks — some of whom have been attending since 2005 — the experience offered a different perspective. One co-worker stated, “SXSW used to be for the ‘doers,’ now it’s for the ‘talkers.’” I’ve heard this sentiment before, but never talked at length with anyone who has witnessed the evolution first hand. The attendance of smaller, leaner digital agencies that are part of the “old guard” at SXSW is quickly dwindling, making way for larger, louder, and less tech-savvy ad agencies and brands.

The successes of smaller digital agencies working directly with brands to create products and platforms in a more collaborative, faster, leaner way has been well-documented for the better part of the last decade — especially at SXSW. It’s left larger agencies attempting to learn from smaller specialized shops by trying out new processes, roles, or initiatives in order to attract and keep developer talent. These agencies have realized that digital is more than banner ads, social media campaigns, and ad buys — yet it seems they still can’t truly replicate what the smaller, more specialized digital shops are doing right.

While a number of smaller digital shops (like AKQA) have been bought out by larger companies, the smarter, forward-thinking folks are realizing the limitations of the structure and process at bigger agencies and are migrating away. Some join the brand side, others join smaller digital agencies (like me), while others spin up new digital agencies (like this one). But all seek to approach advertising/branding/marketing/making digital work differently than they had done so at big ad agencies.

I had the pleasure of meeting a full spectrum of brand, big agency, small digital agency, and startup digital agency folks in Austin. We discussed the industry landscape at length over a pint of Shiner. I shared a bit about Viget and the pleasantly surprising policies, process, and people that “get it” that I’ve experienced in my short time here. I spoke of the smart, creative, motivated, and multi-talented folks that work efficiently within our flexible process on smaller, more dedicated teams than the bigger agencies have. I explained that all team members share both creative ideas and poignant questions with clients (large and small) in a refreshing environment of transparency on every project.

Others shared similar positive experiences on recent projects, or recalled frustrations from their big agency past — ultimately reflecting on such an exciting time in our industry where brands are getting smarter and more digitally savvy. In a year where I was shut out of panel after panel due to the influx of the “new guard,” it was once again the conversations outside the panels that proved to be the most valuable experience.

If you turn to the co-worker sitting next to you and you ask “What can I be doing better?”, chances are you’ll get a generic, vague answer as most coworkers don’t want to make waves or be hurtful. It’s generally a great thing; but, it can make it hard to know between annual reviews if anything you’re doing is off-base. This is why when you start a new job, you are in one of the best positions possible to solicit advice on what you should and shouldn’t do in your job.

As a Project Manager at Viget, I work with members from all teams/groups/labs. As part of my Viget orientation, I was given the opportunity to talk with a member of each team/group/lab (a UX designer, front-end developer, backend developer, visual designer, and marketing/analytics team member) and learn more about how they operate, the deliverables they create, and - because of a final question I always asked - what they’ve liked and haven’t liked as much about project managers here at Viget. Because my question wasn’t asking them to comment on me or my work, everyone I talked to was very willing to cite examples of things project managers have done that they love and things they wish project managers would or wouldn’t do.