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Posts tagged: google
Working With Difficult Clients: When Stay & Educate, When to Leave
Google’s Visual Design Leader announced he’s leaving the company on his Stopdesign blog, suggesting the engineer-driven company had become too difficult to work for:
Without a person at (or near) the helm who thoroughly understands the principles and elements of Design, a company eventually runs out of reasons for design decisions. With every new design decision, critics cry foul. Without conviction, doubt creeps in. Instincts fail. “Is this the right move?”
When a company is filled with engineers, it turns to engineering to solve problems. Reduce each decision to a simple logic problem. Remove all subjectivity and just look at the data. Data in your favor? Ok, launch it. Data shows negative effects? Back to the drawing board. And that data eventually becomes a crutch for every decision, paralyzing the company and preventing it from making any daring design decisions.
Yes, it’s true that a team at Google couldn’t decide between two blues, so they’re testing 41 shades between each blue to see which one performs better. I had a recent debate over whether a border should be 3, 4 or 5 pixels wide, and was asked to prove my case.
Ouch.
It’s an interesting glimpse inside Google – and a good illustration of the difficulties faced by creatives in technology driven environments.
Freelance writers find themselves operating in similarly difficult environments; without fulltime access to managers or an in-house champion, credibility can be hard to grow.
During the dot-com boom years, inexperienced marketing managers often forced me to justify even the most basic marketing decisions.
In one instance, a novice marketing manager challenged me to “prove” (on the spot) a benefit-driven ad concept would outperform the pun-based headline he favored.
In another, a manager said copying the competition’s materials and message allowed us to “piggyback” our efforts atop their marketing budgets.
Oy.
In another, I suggested testing direct response offers. That night, the engineer/founder of the company stayed up late and – intrigued by the testing grid I’d sketched – crafted a program testing several dozen attributes, including slight variations in typeface, color and similarly unimportant factors.
The last scenario was more amusing than difficult (at the very least, the founder was engaged). The first two instances were more problematic, and in those situations, it’s easy to get frustrated.
Life grows complicated when the marketing process becomes a power struggle instead of quest for results, and you may ultimately decide those environments don’t work for you.
Still, sucking it up and attempting to educate the client remains the best path. At the very least, forwarding interesting articles, links and tidbits builds credibility.
And yes – at some point, a client should become comfortable with your decisions. If that day never comes, then consider – as Douglas Bowman did – simply moving on (or tacking a 30% “hassle factor” fee to your estimates).
As for Mr. Bowman, don’t work up any tears. He just began his new job as Twitter’s Creative Director.
Keep writing, Tom Chandler.
Google Keyword Research Tool Now Displays Search Volume
Maybe it doesn’t quite eclipse the presidential race in the news cycle, but I learned (via Dave Alston) that Google’s External Keyword tool now offers keyword search volumes.
This handy little addition allows you to do simple keyword research, though serious researchers will continue to use services like Wordtracker.
Still, “Free” has a certain pleasing quality all its own, and for lightweight keyword research (often I’m giving clients an idea what’s searched for and what isn’t), this is handy.
In fact, I just ran a quick search and dumped the results into a spreadsheet for a client conference call that should have started four minutes ago.
(Blogging. It’s more than a profession. It’s a way to fill the minutes between calls.)
Keep writing, Tom Chandler.
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Google to Struggling Newspapers: Have You Guys Ever Tried Porn?
Google isn’t universally loved by newspaper execs and other content creators, who notice Google’s making boatloads of money from content created by others – much of which is originally found in newspapers.
Now – with newspapers struggling – Google’s noticing that the source of much of their salable content may disappear. And even Google knows that’s bad.
That’s why Google’s offering up a paid-content vision for newspapers – one that sounds eerily like… the current business model for the online porn industry (via the SiliconValley.com site, bulleted for simpler reading:)
Is this the porn industry model? Tell you what – you visit a few of those sites, and let me know.
For now – and from this safe, virus-free distance – I’m suggesting Google’s suggestions align very closely to the online porn biz model.
In the past, I’ve joked that those interested in seeing the future of “legitimate” ecommerce on the Internet need look no farther then the porn industry.
(I’ve also said you’re “never more than one mistaken click away from porn on the Internet,” and it turns out both are true.)
That Google’s vision so completely aligns with what I’m going to call The Online Porn Model For Fun & Profit (Porn 3.0?) should raise a few eyebrows.
Are porn purveyors truly the visionaries the newspaper industry needs to embrace, or is somebody at Google simply spending too much time surfing where they shouldn’t?
As always, the Underground disavows all knowledge of online pornography except those parts which could prove useful to his customers.
Just saying is all.
Keep writing, Tom Chandler.
You can read the whole article via Google to newspapers: Let us be your broker before you go broke | Good Morning Silicon Valley.