We all make assumptions all the time. In fact you likely made an assumption about this article before you clicked on it. It’s human nature for our brains to fill in blanks and make connections based on very few inputs. The problem with going from gut rather than factual knowledge is that more often than…

Recently, Automattic design and research teams paired up to conduct a foundational research study to learn more about small business owners. One of the insights that immediately stood out as I made my way through the study, is that while having an online presence is crucial, a website is seen as something accessory to what…

I know I need to be writing articles. […] Do that for me. I hate writing articles. I despise it. “I despise it”  – these words from one of our customer interviews caught my eye, as they are pretty strong. I can empathise with this feeling though. Not that long ago I was a small business owner myself, and I despised…

Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about my dentist. Like most dentists I’ve been to, it’s a small operation — basically just one dentist and a couple of assistants. They’re not necessarily interested in marketing or growing their business. No Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter account. They’re not interested in reaching a new audience or being…

When I speak about my work as a Design Operations lead I often focus on the  three pillars of design operations to help ground the conversation in the framework of Process, People, and Projects and the partnerships that unlock more effective ways of working. This is a helpful framework because it outlines the distinct areas…

In recent months, we’ve done a fair amount of research on small business owners, and how a website can help them find their presence on the web. As I paged through some of the results recently, an interesting pattern began to emerge: many of the aspects of a service that are appreciated by small business,…

When I was younger and needed a plumber, I’d open up a thick phone book and sort through listings alphabetically. There were names like “Al’s Plumbing,” or “AA Plumbing,” and even an “AAA Plumbing.” All of them named alphabetically superior than the other to grab my attention first. If you were a business that didn’t…

Musings on Six Months as Head of Design Operations @Automattic – Part One Coming into my role as Head of Design Ops from a prior career in design consulting building out similar types of practice areas (think Program Management / Project Management / Production) I had some pretty definitive notions that I could basically apply everything…