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SocialKaty praises NextDoor Cafe as the perfect team building space

Chicago-based social media gurus, SocialKaty recently held a team building think-tank-incubator-workshop day at our client, State Farm’s Next Door Cafe in Lincoln Park—and made some great progress thanks to the unique public workspace.

The folks at SocialKaty dubbed this team building exercise “The Rebecca Black Initiative” (because it fell on a Friday), and powwowed on their 2012 marketing plan among Next Door’s slew of whiteboards, massive tables and endless cups of coffee and snacks. Here’s what they had to say on their blog:

We took our team to Lincoln Park’s Next Door Chicago. Statefarm had this brilliant idea to hire Philip Tadros of Doejo to build a coffee shop where people could rent space for free - a type of community office space. It’s an experiment for now (thus why it’s free), but while it lasts, check it out. The space is beautiful, with rooms full of white boards and tables big enough to spread out. The perfect space for an event like this. I highly recommend it. 

Glad you guys had a great time!

John Scribe

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Building software as a custom business solution

At Doejo, we’re constantly creating custom solutions to everyday problems, or simply finding ways to make software more efficient—Like platform applications improving the way you organize audio recordings, or find affordable body shops for car dents, or choose the right college, for example.

An old Forbes article randomly caught our eye highlighting this growing need: building software as a custom business solution. In a post written by General Electric VP and global technology director Bill Ruh, he says we’re in a budding Industrial Revolution-like movement “maximizing the potential of the “Industrial Internet,” a software-driven movement that will advance industry and improve lives by connecting people and businesses…”

He uses the analogy of the Industrial Internet being the “the Facebook or Twitter of things enabled by customized, innovative software,” improving the way we communicate and therefore perform—improving and simplifying notifications, scheduling, reminders, payment processing, etc. With this comes the benefit of value-adding efficiency and shortcuts, taking the friction out of day-to-day processes and improving connectivity. 

Speaking of connectivity, this brings up another Forbes article by Axeda Corp. founder Dale Calder, who asks readers in “The Internet of Things: Like Facebook, But Bigger,” to “imagine the power and productivity that would be unleashed when everything you use and interact with is being extended by an army of developers.” This brings to mind the way iPhone’s apps now empower your phone to act as a TV remote control, a flashlight, a GPS, an eBook reader or an ATM, for example. At some point, someone, somewhere thought, ‘my iPhone could easily use the camera flash as a flashlight,’ and then made it happen.

Here’s a look at how Doejo is building software as business solutions for clients or as in-house projects. These are examples of how you can take existing technology people are already familiar with and apply it in a new, novel ways. Many of these problems were simple hiccups requiring simple solutions as well, we found over the years.

Wiggler: Internal Groupon project management tool

Back in 2011, we built Wiggler, which provides Groupon execs with a customized project management platform so they can stay on track of the surging company. Think of it as a corporate to-do list. Providing group management notifications, tracking copious milestones and organizing internal priorities are functions of Wiggler―from operations, marketing and legal to HR, product services and even mergers. We designed this private application to keep a staff of about 50 Groupon managers well coordinated smoothly and simply.

Weungry: A group ordering platform that’s GrubHub meets Seamless meets Evite

Weungry is an in-house project that provides a platform for restaurants to post their menus online for e-commerce ordering and group ordering, with a focus on the user experience. If a whole office wanted to order food, for example, a user can send an e-vite to the staff to order from Weungry and pick what they prefer from the menu. The administrator can then set a budget and either cover the cost singularly or have each person in the office enter his or her credit card information, streamlining the payment process before placing the order.

Another software solution we developed while working on Weungry was in improving faxes sent from online orders to the restaurant itself—many restaurant that use GrubHub for example, require orders be sent by fax. And we all know how unreliable faxes are. So our developers equipped Weungry to confirm that faxes are processed properly. This led us to create a separate application where you can take photos of documents to fax from your phone. 

TextHog: Easy expense tracking for the iPhone

In 2009, we created in-house expense tracking app TextHog. TextHog became one of the first message-based (SMS) expense reporting mobile platforms in the iOS market. We wanted the app to let users email or text everyday purchases into one location to track and manage spending.

Data is compiled into graphs for visual learners and spreadsheets via Quicken and QuickBooks for tax filing. Users can snap photos with their camera phones of receipts, create tags, categories, bill reminders and set budgets to stay organized.

John Scribe

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The Blank Sheet Project

"All creative people are aware of the unique challenge posed by the screaming silence of a Blank Sheet of Paper. It is a call to arms and an opportunity: an opportunity to create something lasting and memorable, to challenge traditional thinking and to be innovative, creative, even radical. Whatever our profession, we each have the opportunity to use the power of creativity to truly leave our mark. The Blank Sheet Project is the platform for inspirational creative excellence."

The Blank Sheet Project is a concept any creative can understand. This project and website is giving designers a chance to go back to the basics to create truly great design. A vareity of prominent creatives will discuss their own idea of the blank sheet of paper. They discuss their own industries and the development of design from their years of experience. Its a really neat idea and unique way to look at the creative process. More designers should explore and start to consider the blank sheet of paper in their own work.

Visit the project for yourself! http://www.theblanksheetproject.com

Richelle Intern

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Doejo video visits AGC

Yesterday the doejo video team and art director visited a new kind of school on the southwest side of Chicago called The Academy for Global Citizenship. While we weren't chasing after chickens, eating 3 organic meals a day or doing yoga, we were filming video footage for their upcoming fundraising campaign.

If there was anything that we learned from our 10 hour shoot, it was that AGC's mission is to create a new future for education and for the world. Not only are they able to empower their students to see the world differently and respect the planet we live on but also have fun while doing it. Having solar panels in their urban garden and teaching kids about food sustainability may seem like fluff, but the proof is in the pudding. Statistics have shown that their test scores and productivity levels have well surpassed many local neighborhood schools. Richard Daley and Michelle Obama have applauded founder, Sarah Elizabeth Ippel's brave mission to change the world and ignite an education passion to make this planet a better place. The energy and life at AGC is contagious.

And all of this is happening in one of the most underserved areas of Chicago where there are more barbed wire and concrete than actual grass. Ippel's vision was to offer her educational revolution in a ethnically diverse community that needed it. 

Now its time for the school to expand and spread their mission to larger pastures with the purchase of new land to build a completely net-positive and sustainable school that will be their new ground-breaking home. This isn't a concrete building with wall to hold their kids but a living, breathing ecosystem that will encompass the schools mission and energy. Not only will portions of the school be built into the ground but they will also reuse and collect every drop of water that hits the site in order to reuse. Kids will look at apple orchards and organic gardens instead of gravel and curbs. With the help of Team Doejo, we hope to produce and create a fundraising video that successfully reflects the magic of this place and together, change the world.

To learn more about their new school ecosystem and how you can change the world visit: www.agcchicago.org/netpositive (designed by doejo)

Elizabeth Design Ninja

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Create content like you create products.

Startups treasure their products and put a huge amount of effort and passion into creating them.

However, many startup blogs and communities don't have the kind of craftsmanship that their products do.

Your company does not need to blog ten times a day to have an impact.  Focus on creating content that is not merely related to the press release of the day.  Great examples are Paul Graham's essays.  Many of them were written years ago, but if you stumble upon them today they are still a great read. 

A few tips for taking a product focused approach to creating content.

1) Start with a mindset of creating a product (content) you would love

This mindset will guide your writing process so that you naturally avoid writing spammy or uninteresting content.

2) Pick a market

If the product your startup creates has a specific market, you will probably be creating content targeted towards them much of the time.  Many times, you will also be targeting your industry peers, or markets you want to collaborate with.  Getting inside the mindset of your target is an extremely important step in creating great content.

3) Define the 'featureset'

Content can take the form of text, video, pictures, and sub-features of all of those.  Think of all the awesomeness that is baked into a product like an iPhone.  Your content can be a combination of all the mediums or just use one, but the more you bake in, the more irresistible it can be.

Consider using beautiful artwork, or generating infographics.  People love seeing this stuff included because most content they see everyday is mass produced and lack these features.  If you don't have the skills in house to create an infographic or a cool illustration, hire someone to help you.  Freelancers and agencies love collaborating on this stuff because it lets them flex their creative muscle.

4) Narrow down and execute

Just like in building your apps, stick to a lean mindset.  It is easier to achieve quality if you keep your content short.  Because you've thought and crafted your words carefully, you won't need to overload your content.

5) Launch and refine - the feedback loop

It's time to launch your content and spread the word.  This is a whole topic in itself, but to get started, reach out to a few friends and colleagues who you think might be interested in your content, or could offer feedback.

Just like in creating products, you will be able to use this feedback to refine your content, and get ideas for your next piece.  Your audience will naturally grow out of sharing your content with a few select peers because they will have been a part of of the creation process and want to share it with their friends as well.

Lastly, make yourself easy to contact.  Include your email or social media handle, and people will find you in no time.  By the way, I'm ziad@doejo.com  and @ziadbc on twitter :)

Ziad ziad.com

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