The Local Wisdom Blog

Week 1  2010

Let me start by saying Happy New Year.  Hope this 2010 brings continuous happiness, more episodes of the Jersey Shore, a Jets Super Bowl, even faster internet speeds, teleportation (maybe that’s asking for too much) and more cool, creative and awesome projects for LW. So with that said, this past week’s themes included “busy is an understatement”, “the science of Account Management”, and “10+ years of a united front”.

At the end of each year, our shop is launched into the thralls of projects, projects and yes more projects. Our customers have allotted their 4th quarter budgets for new websites, web apps, and/or have updates that they need to their current sites. Their timelines are always ASAP or yesterday. Last week was a beautifully executed balancing act performed by our project managers, designers and developers. While working on 4 major projects and preparing for a large pitch, busy was an understatement.  It’s weeks like that which fuel my passion for this business and adds to the adventure that is Local Wisdom.

Busy weeks bring their own trials and tribulations and why would the first week of the “new decade” be any different. Our customers have needs and wants.  They need to have their initiatives complete but want to have it delivered (at times) at the flip of a switch. Insert fantastic Account Management & Project Management here.  The end of the year always seems to be a negotiation on timelines with our customers.  With the 87.5 holidays and everyone taking vacation time, it makes for an interesting scheduling feat but we manage. Customers sometimes have issues. We listen and understand as the process is a give and take….and most importantly Local Wisdom always delivers.

We celebrated our 10th year in 2009 so this year would make it 10+ years of making Smart, Happy, and Healthy Websites.  I have to say that our core team, which has not changed, is as united about the direction and future of LW as we were in the basement plotting and planning about this years back.  Hiring talented, passionate, reliable, self motivated people can be a challenge for any company, but we have certainly succeeded in doing so. It’s great coming to work each day knowing that every employee shares a common goal in the success of our family…I mean company.

With that, till next time. Another busy week = more juicy themes.  This weekly review was brought to you by Derrick Larane, Sales Director here at Local Wisdom.

Week 45

This past weeks themes included, late night focus, sharing is caring, and another LWer gets married.

Let me start this review by saying last week was the rat race for our team. Our focus was parsed between brainstorming, designing, and preparing a very large presentation, sprinkled with other customer work and the normal internal-day-to-day business tasks…”I exhale.” One late night, in particular, had some us at the office past midnight. No worries though, burning the midnight oil only happens once in a-blue-moon and we always get permission from our wives or else. It’s weeks like that reassures the whole business ownership thing as everyday is a new adventure which consistently breeds new challenges.

Pinaki, Mike, and myself were invited to speak about entrepreneurship to the Society of Woman Engineers at Rutgers.  It was awesome and strange for us to go back to Busch campus and walk through the student center again after almost 10 years of not being a student.  Granted I do go to campus for Rutgers Football games but its to the stadium and home.  It felt good telling the Local Wisdom story and answering all the questions from the students. Thanks to Christine Sommoro, President of SWE and Evelyn Laffey, Assistant Dean and Director of Woman in Engineering Programs for having us.

Friday was Eric Williamson’s wedding, one of our website curators.  What a great time had by all.  Eric and Jessica had a beautiful affair in Jackson, NJ with the reception in Toms River.  We danced, laughed, and drank…we certainly let loose after a most stressful week. Check out the pictures.

It’s 4th-quarter here, busy will be the most often used word around this office, along with websites, design and curation in an almost tie for second.

With that said, so long and till next week.

This weekly review has been brought to you by Derrick Larane, Director of Sales here at Local Wisdom.

Week 44

This past week’s themes included all hands on deck, the art of proposal writing, and a Local Wisdom Halloween.

First, I wanted to start by congratulating members of the LW team, David Spira (Information Architect), Christine Robinson (Project Management), Pinaki Kathiari (Director of User Experience), and RJay Haluko (Sr. Web Designer), for the execution of a very large proposal. It was certainly a team effort and we got it done. Speaking of getting proposals done, there is definitely an art to writing proposals. No two proposals are the same. Our proposal process is as follows:

• Gaining an understanding of a customer’s business needs
• Aligning customer business needs with Local Wisdom expertise
• Defining project scope, timeline, and cost

The finesse is always in the documentation. The final proposal should always speak to a customer’s unique business needs, the overall execution strategy, as well as the personality of the project.

Last week rounded off with one of our intranet Design Discovery meetings run by RJay. We believe having e v e r y o n e on a project team to discuss creative, helps drive our work as well as achieve consensus on the overall design direction. Engaging workshops with interactive creative Q&A makes for truly productive sessions.

Halloween was celebrated on Friday at our office, with some interesting, fun, and original costumes. Look out for pictures very soon!!!

Week 45 looks to be busy one. So expect some good commentary.

With that said, so long and till next week.

This weekly review has been brought to you by Derrick Larane, Director of Sales here at Local Wisdom.

Week 42

This week’s word is “Relationships.” Everyone now repeat after me, “ri-ley-shuhn-ship“.  A healthy company culture is one where all employees have a great relationship with one another. Not to brag (but I will) thats what its like at Local Wisdom.  And relationships outside of the company continue to lead to some interesting new opportunities. I love new opportunities (specifically when its a new website design, application development, and curation type opportunity.)

This busy week at Local Wisdom started with some tactical conversations with some of our customers. Proactive problem solving strikes again. Being good listeners, digesters and responders is a part of the norm for our team.

A new curation engagement began,  received approval on a design, and a new website architecture was presented…and I exhale.

The week ended with the four owners, Pinaki, Mike, Shawn, and myself attending a Leadership Management training at Dale Carnegie. It was an intro class but pretty darn awesome. The session focused on combining leadership and management, two terms with different definitions. With some good team based workshops and an exercise by the name of  ”Who drop the ball,” the session really made a positive impression on our group.

In even cooler news a few of us just bought Uncharted 2 and there is a 3 player online co-op mode for this game. I suspect some late nights and coffee mornings are in the future…happy Web Siting all and until next week.

This weekly review was brought to you by Derrick Larane, Director of Sales here at Local Wisdom.

Week 41

As fourth quarter casts its wand of new opportunities we continue to have our eye on the prize. Who else can we share our love and passion for everything web? You could be the next customer that says wow thanks Local Wisdom for that delightful project experience.

The second full week of October brought some interesting challenges our way while at the same time provided an opportunity for some proactive problem solving. “Boy I love a good thought session.” And yes the problem was resolved.

Busy has been the word of the week.  However we stay balanced with a nice company outing to Fuddruckers, always a great load balancer and stress reliever. Till next week…

This weekly review was brought to you by Derrick Larane, Director of Sales here at Local Wisdom.