iStrategyBlabs

100 Questions Every Founder Must Ask Themselves

Date

June 13, 2013
Posted By

corbett3000
Comments

0
Categories

Entrepreneurship

I’ve spent the past 5+ years building a company I love and believe in. It has all the hallmarks of being a success – the team is happy, challenged and able to innovate on a daily basis. It’s profitable, community oriented and has unlimited opportunities for growth in the coming years.

With that context in mind – there are so many questions I should have asked myself from the onset.

I did ask some of the following questions of course, but I think if you’re going to start a company, or you have a young one, you’ll be greatly served by answering the following for yourself.

Find an hour or two to really focus on these questions and see what your answers are. They’ll change over time. Here it goes:

100 Questions Every Founder Must Ask Themselves (download)

1. What do we want to be?

2. What do we want to do?

3. What does the next 10 years look like for us?

4. What’s our mission and common vision?

5. What do we need to achieve our mission?

6. What does the plan look like?

7. What resources do we need?

8. How long will it take to implement the plan?

9. How much will it cost?

10. What does success look like to us?

11. What does it look like to me?

12. Do you want to make money or an impact or both?

13. Can you have both?

14. What’s the best way to have both?

15. Who are you competing with?

16. How are they better than you?

17. What don’t you know that you know you need to know?

18. How are you going to figure out how to uncover what you don’t know you need to know?

19. Are you capable of doing this job?

20. What are you good at?

21. What are you bad at?

22. Who/what are you jealous of?

23. What are you proud of?

24. What does swimming upstream look like?

25. What does swimming downstream look like?

26. What happens when you get to the ocean?

27. What does your product/service offering look like from a blue ocean POV?

28. If you could build this company for the next 10 years where would you do it and why?

29. How much less successful will you be if you don’t build it there?

30. Is that trade off worth it?

31. Is the mission you’ve been on the right mission for you anymore?

32. What will happen over the next decade w/ or w/o you in your community?

33. What is the culture of our company?

34. What is your personal set of values?

35. What values do you look for in others?

36. How would you describe your character?

37. How successful are you in your own eyes?

38. Who are you trying to impress?

39. What are you trying to prove?

40. When will you know if you’ve impressed them/proved it?

41. What is failure for you?

42. What the probability you’ll fail?

43. What happens if you fail?

44. What else do you want to do if there’s an “after this company”?

45. What is holding you back?

46. Who is holding you back?

47. How good a leader are you?

48. What do you do poorly as a leader?

49. What do you do well as a leader?

50. What do you need to do to be a better leader?

51. Can you name 5 people who’d be great mentors for you? Name them.

52. Is it feasible to have them as mentors?

53. What is your process for getting them to mentor you?

54. What do you want to accomplish by 30/40/50/60?

55. Is the current community you’re in a good thing in your life?

56. Why aren’t you happy in the community if not?

57. Are you living a life of mediocrity?

58. What’s so bad about mediocrity?

59. What’s making you mediocre?

60. When have you not been mediocre?

61. How mentally healthy are you right now?

62. How physically healthy are you right now?

63. How emotionally healthy are you right now?

64. What have been your biggest mistakes?

65. What have been your biggest good calls?

66. Could you have done a better job over the last 5 years? How?

67. How have others faired in your peer group over the past 5 years?

68. What should you stop doing?

69. What is a distraction?

70. What is worth investing in over the long term?

71. What would you do with $500k in extra cash?

72. What would you do with $1m?

73. What would you do with $3m?

74. What would you do with $10m?

75. What will the state of the world be in 1 year?

76. What will the state of the world be in 2 years?

77. What will the state of the world be in 3-5 years?

78. What will the state of the world be in 10 years?

79. What is the biggest risk you can think of taking right now?

80. What is the biggest risk you have the stomach for?

81. What happens if you take theses risks and fail?

82. What happens if you don’t fail?

83. What’s your emergency going broke plan?

84. What offer would someone have to make today to make you sell your company?

85. What offer would they have to make to hire you away?

86. What do you lose if you lose your company?

87. What do you gain if you lose your company?

88. Have you taken enough risks?

89. Is 5 years a long time in this business?

90. Why does time matter?

91. What is arbitrary?

92. What can you do to remove the arbitrary pressures?

93. Do you have enough pressure on you?

94. Do you have clear measures for success?

95. What do you need to achieve before you die?

96. How much of this is about you vs. everyone else?

97. Do you give a fuck? About what?

98. What is missing from your life?

99. What is missing from your company?

100. What will you do to live the life you want to live and grow the company you want to grow?

Let me know what you think in the comments. Were these helpful?

The United States of Wireless Infographic: A Behind The Scenes Look

Date

June 5, 2013
Posted By

Katie Lancos
Comments

0
Categories

Creative, Innovation Design, Our Work

On June 3, iStrategyLabs produced and released for Mobile Future the “United States of Wireless,” an infographic that highlights the ever-changing and competitive mobile marketplace.

Our approach for this infographic was a little different than the last few we have put together. Rather than depicting each stat on its own in a different section, we took a more holistic approach to the data and illustrated an overall story in a fluid, whimsical narrative.

Queueing off the original title for the infographic “Mobile Snapshot” (which was later changed, but still proved a useful starting point), we brainstormed scenes that were often heavily photographed and which could be represented in an elongated vertical fashion (to accommodate our publishing context—the Mobile Future blog). We first settled on a footrace, because as a sporting event, lots of photos were taken, and a racetrack could logically be represented in a linear vertical fashion.

Although the racetrack idea didn’t totally pan out, we still liked the idea of people running while using mobile phones. We thought—where do people run, hang out during the Spring (bringing a seasonal context into the mix), do a lot of different activities, and take a lot of pictures? The park!

With a scene-at-the-park concept in hand we brainstormed fun things people do at the park and creative ways to make them represent our infographic’s statistics.

Following that up with several rounds of Mike’s sketches and digital drawings and Sarah’s typography—our infographic was compete!

See below for some behind-the-scenes sketches:

And the full infographic here:

Experience the Redd’s Apple Launcher!

Date

June 3, 2013
Posted By

brycerudow
Comments

0
Categories

Creative, Development, Experiential Marketing, Our Work

As an agency that appreciates a good beer every now and then, getting to work with MillerCoors, and Redd’s Apple Ale specifically, was a dream come true for us.

Redd’s Apple Ale is the beer for those looking to branch out, so when approaching the project, we knew that the sky was the limit. So we thought, “What if you got to throw apples in a bar like in the commercials?” Then, like an apple to the head, it hit us. What if to help launch Redd’s Apple Ale, we let users literally launch Redd’s with an 80mph apple launcher and a fully-stocked bar just itching to be destroyed, and what if we let users win prizes while destroying it? Thus, our Redd’s Launcher was born…

PLAY IT HERE, LIVE, RIGHT NOW!

In almost no time at all, we had a fully-functional (only slightly terrifying to have in the office) Redd’s Launcher that was able to be controlled via an internet connection.

But we wanted to make sure this experience really satisfied the desire to destroy a bar, so we spent weeks imagining, designing, and building our very own Redd’s Apple Ale bar; it had everything from a 15-foot lit-up Redd’s sign to a pool table to a moose head on the wall. Then, we threw bullseyes all over it, letting eagle-eyed users get the chance to win prizes for their great shots.

But while all of that is great on its own, we wanted to branch out even further with the idea. “What if we added a bunch of special activations throughout the 12-day experience?” So, and I don’t want to give away any spoilers, we made sure that each day of the event was overloaded with anything and everything users might want to see hit with an 80-mph ball, making sure that this experience is just as enjoyable for those waiting to take control of the Launcher as it is for the user launching. Adding in things like live user-voting and a Twitter display, we’ve guaranteed that.

Get your trigger fingers ready for 12-days of non-stop destruction, brought to you by Redd’s Apple Ale.

Behind the Scenes – Simply Gifted Marketplace and Merchant Widget

Date

May 13, 2013
Posted By

Eric Shutt
Comments

2
Categories

Development

When we worked with Simply Gifted to build a new online gift card platform, we knew we needed to create an incredibly easy product for small businesses to create and sell online gift cards, and for customers to purchase and send them to friends.

Leveraging existing APIs, we followed our process of IA/UX, design, and development to create a beautiful, intuitive service to buy and sell gift cards, with full analytics and tracking for Simply Gifted to continue to monitor and optimize the platform.

What we produced is quite possibly the easiest way for small businesses to create and sell gift cards — and the best way for customers to find and purchase them on the web. Here’s a quick look at the finished product, and the process of how we produced it, below:

IA/UX

Widget:

We started by creating wireframes and user flows of the entire set-up and purchase process for business and customers.

We worked hard to make the platform as easy to use as possible, simplifying the user experience and removing every obstacle possible.

Scott, our design-lead on the project (above), works on early wireframe concepts.

The merchant website widget was designed for simplicity and ease of use for both businesses and customers:

Marketplace:

The gift card marketplace was designed to be equally simple, and easy to browse. Website visitors can search, customize, and purchase gift cards for local businesses across the country:

Revisions:

We went through a robust feedback process during IA / UX to ensure that all functionality was accounted for up front. It all turned out great:

Design:

After wireframes were complete, we took to adding a beautiful design to compliment the functionality.

Development:

After designs were polished, we dove in to code the fully functional Simply Gifted platform. We meticulously tested our code to make it flawless for the Simply Gifted launch.

What emerged is quite possibly the easiest way for businesses and customers to create and buy gift cards online.

For businesses, creating and selling gift cards is painless – and the typical hassles with merchant set-up and payment processing are removed. For customers, it couldn’t be easier to browse and find gift cards for great local businesses and buy gift cards for friends.

It was a pleasure to work with Simply Gifted, and we’re excited to see how the future of online gifting develops as we continue to be a part of its evolution.

Behind The Scenes: Douglas Development Website Redesign

Date

May 7, 2013
Posted By

Eric Shutt
Comments

0
Categories

Creative, Development, Our Work, Strategy

When we set out to rebuild the Douglas Development website (project detail) from the ground up, we were excited to be working with one of the most well known developers in the DC area.

With a stunning property portfolio and a national reputation as a leader in redevelopment of historic properties, we knew we would need to build an online property that would compliment their physical property portfolio and beautifully showcase their work.

We quickly uncovered that the most important aspects of the user experience would be to easily find properties and contact a leasing agent to arrange a tour of the space.

We designed a stunning property showcase with the user in mind. Large photos are the centerpiece of the site, with easy options to find and download property information, location maps, news and more. On mobile and tablet devices, task-oriented features are prioritized to enable easy navigation and use on the go.

Here are a few of our favorite features of the site:

Fully responsive design

The website is built to handle a wide range of uses, from full corporate presentations at the Douglas Development headquarters, to mobile users looking for directions to a property tour. At the website’s largest size, property photos are in the spotlight. When it scales down to mobile (and tablet) through the responsive design, task-oriented features are prioritized, allowing you to quickly pull up the property map and directions to get to your tour of the space on time.

Homepage carousel with parallax animation

Look closely at the homepage and you’ll see that the big, beautiful building photos are complimented by moving clouds and sky. The perspective is meant to emphasize the subtle details and character of the architecture, and leads you into the website wanting to see more.

Easy search and sort property filters

Look for properties by type, availability, and location. If you’re looking to lease a commercial or residential space in the DC area, there’s no easier way to find it than on the Douglas Development website.

Easy options to schedule a tour

Learn more about the property, and find the perfect space. After you’ve found the perfect space, scheduling a tour with one of Douglas Development’s leasing agents is only a click away.

Map embeds with custom branding

Easily find property locations and directions to site visits. On your way to a site visit, the easiest way to get there is to pull up the Douglas Development website and get Google Map directions directly from the property profile.

Social media integration

See behind-the-scenes photos from construction through completion on Twitter. Want to see what’s happenning behind the scenes at Douglas Development year-round? Check back regularly to see fresh photos on Twitter from property sites around town.

Custom content management dashboards

We designed custom page templates and dashboards to make content entry and updating a breeze. If the front-end couldn’t be easier to navigate, the back-end couldn’t be easier to manage. We customized the CMS in WordPress to give Douglas Development all of the tools they needed to keep the website looking great, and up-to-date.

We’re thrilled to have worked with Douglas Development on this project and have the opportunity to showcase work by one of the leading companies in the DC area.