When I started from my one bedroom apartment fifteen years ago, there was an immense excitement around internet businesses. It was hot in 1998 and all the things that went with it were huge. It felt expansive, full of energy and unfocused. That's what made it so exciting.
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However, most of my early days were exactly the opposite. I was intensely focused on the next day of work. I started teaching myself to code and then learned on my own how to operate (survive) a business. For five years, day in and day out, I did this, my attention drawn
sharply on learning how to help people design for their customers. The first dot-com bust enabled ZURB to thrive because it gave me time to learn my craft. I was focused, but I wasn't yet focused with a capital "F". Focus (big "F") is what helped us grow the a business. |
Forward to today — we've expand our efforts beyond services into Foundation, our Apps and the Expo. At times, it feels like we've extended our efforts too wide to truly understand product design. But when it comes to
design thinking, there is focus and Focus. At the scale of a company, you have to balance your short-term gains with long-term thinking. In a learning company, you have to keep giving people in the organization room to grow, even if it projects as being "unfocused" to the outside world. |
Over the next few months, you'll start to see some of our intense learning come into Focus as we sharpen the
presentation of our work, refine our voice
and gear up for our next phase of growth. While our solutions will continue to have complexity and depth, our overall business purpose and focus will shine through: Help people design for people. |
Now on to the news! |
