Matrix Group International

Tag: Matrix Group

  • An Office Buildout Is Just Like a Web Site Redesign

    An Office Buildout Is Just Like a Web Site Redesign

    Matrix LobbyMatrix Group is getting close to moving to its new space at 2711 Jefferson Davis Highway in Arlington (Crystal City), VA.  This is the first time that we’re doing a buildout and I’m looking forward to seeing how our physical space can support how we collaborate and do our work.  I’ve also been fascinated to realize that a construction project is like a Web site design project in many ways:

    User Experience

    • Our construction project began with our Architect visiting our existing space, interviewing staff, and learning how people work together and on their own. This is akin to the user experience part of all of our Web projects where we look at analytics, interview staff and users, and create personas to represent key target audiences.
    • The space plan and architectural drawings are akin to navigation and wireframes. In our case, our Architect conducted a test fit to make sure the space would fit our general needs, then created a plan that indicated where we would have offices and where we would have open space.
    • Then came design. When designing a Web site, we create multiple designs over multiple rounds for the home page, sub-pages, content pages, print style sheet, etc.  For the office, we picked carpet, colors, office furniture system, lighting, and chairs.

    Implementation and Budget

  • Celebrating 10 Years With a Microsite

    Celebrating 10 Years With a Microsite

    Matrix Group 10t hAnniversaryWe did it! We launched a microsite for the Matrix Group 10th anniversary! It took us several months and a whole lot of research, but we did it. Why create a site for the occasion?

    10 years feels like a real milestone to us, especially to me. Like I say in my “Where We’re Going” letter, when I started the company, I wasn’t thinking about balance sheets or Web standards. I just wanted to help companies with their Web sites. And when my Advisory Board Chair asked me about my five-year plan (during year one), I just laughed; I was so focused on surviving the first year, five years felt like a lifetime.  So it felt right to create a microsite that lets all of us at the company see where we’ve been and think about the future. (more…)

  • Happy 10th Anniversary, Matrix Group!

    Happy 10th Anniversary, Matrix Group!

    Matrix Group logoI can’t believe that Matrix Group will be 10 years old tomorrow. A decade.  10 years!  When I started Matrix Group in shared office in Georgetown, little did I know that the journey would be difficult, challenging, exhilarating and deeply satisfying.

    It feels like just yesterday that I was renting furniture to impress a dotcom client coming in (year 1), getting our own cabinet at the data center (year 3), and celebrating at the Torpedo Factory (year 5).

    Looking Back on the First Five Years

    I found the e-mail that I sent out to clients, partners and friends inviting them to our 5th anniversary party back in 2004.  Here is what it said:

    “When I pondered starting my own company in April 1999, I had no idea how wild the ride would be.  The first year was all about surviving, begging clients and staff to come on board, launching our first applications, figuring out what we wanted to be when we grew up, and feeling poor when every other Internet company had millions to spend.

    The second year was about creating a process that would make us different from other companies, figuring out that clients need us to build their sites AND help them stay on top of Web technologies, and building an internal infrastructure that could support our growth and activities.

    The third and fourth years were about deepening our knowledge of Web development best practices, strengthening our ties to clients, figuring out how to keep and retain our excellent staff, and launching a software division.

    This fifth year has been about tackling integration projects that other companies won’t touch, hardening our development and testing processes, rethinking how we can do our best for clients, discovering that our software has made all of Matrix better, assessing which of our services to keep and which to abandon, and deciding what we want to be when we grow up.”

    (more…)

  • What Clients Want: To Be Understood

    What Clients Want: To Be Understood

    childinshoesOne of my Project Managers (we call them PMs at Matrix Group) was struggling with an account. The client was frustrated, the Project Manager was frustrated, so of course, now I’m frustrated. I called the client, had a long de-brief session, worked through some issues, and with a few tweaks, the project was back on track. The PM wanted to know how I did that. My secret? I put myself in the client’s shoes.

    As a business owner, I get to be manager of staff and projects AND client to our many vendors.  As the chief salesperson for the company, I interact the most with customers and users.  As a liberal arts person turned techie, I know enough to be dangerous, but I can’t write a line of CSS to save my life.  All of this means that I can more easily see a situation from a client’s perspective.   Here’s what I’ve learned over the years about clients:

    • Clients are busy, the Web site is usually just a small fraction of their job, they don’t spend all day thinking about the Web site, and there’s a whole lot of  stuff going on that they don’t know and don’t care to know. We can never assume clients know that a new version of Internet Explorer is coming out and it’s going to be more standards-compliant, that title tags should not be more than 64 characters or Google will ignore them, and that a print style sheet is different from a printer-friendly page.
    • Most clients are non-techies who need a technical solution. They seek a solution and a result.  We need to give them context for our solution, and enough detail so that they can make an informed solution, but not so much that they get overwhelmed.  We also need to communicate concepts using terms they understand.  For example, when a Web design has been approved and we have to now slice the design, I liken it to going to blueline.  Clients who have ever had anything printed are familiar with blueline; it’s close to a final proof and changes cost time and money.

    (more…)

  • What Customer Experiences Are Core To Your Business?

    What Customer Experiences Are Core To Your Business?

    Customer Service SurveyDuring the last couple of weeks, I made presentations to a couple of clients. The first client thinks we’re good but they’re not raving fans. The second client thinks Matrix Group is fantastic, we are a solid partner and we have contributed greatly to their success. I asked my Client Services Directors: why is there a difference in how these two clients perceive us, our work and our value to them?

    The ensuing discussion was an interesting one. We decided that all talk of what we actually do aside (Web design, integration, content management, hosting, yada, yada), what ultimately makes a client a raving fan is whether or not they have certain experiences with us. Regardless of how much money they spend or the type of work they ask us to do, there are core customer experiences that are critical to a client’s happiness.

    Over the past few weeks, I have been thinking non-stop about what constitutes an organization’s core customer experiences.  I analyzed my membership in the CEO organization Vistage.  Vistage offers members a number of services and benefits but the core experiences are: one on one coaching, world class speakers and issue processing with peers.  Ultimately, if I don’t feel satisfied that I am getting my money’s worth in all three areas, I’m probably not going to keep my membership.  In other words, no matter how good the Web site or the social events, if I am not supremely satisfied with my core experiences, I am going to bail.

    I’ve been huddling with my team and working to define our core customer experiences.  (We must assume that clients want a fair price for our work, excellent work, and on time results.)  So far, we’ve come up with: (more…)

  • Have You Googled Your Name Lately?

    Have You Googled Your Name Lately?

    Search the WebOne of the goals of the last redesign of the Matrix Group Web site was to make my bio more prominent in search engines. I had previously resisted putting any information about me on the Web site for a variety of reasons, but my new biz team reasoned that since I do a lot of speaking and writing, people will Google my name; when that happens, we want the Matrix Group Web site to pop-up on the first page, if not first on the list of results.

    I typed “joanna pineda” into Google tonight and this is what I found:

    • An interview that I did for The Washington Post back in 2003 is the number one result.  This makes sense, given The Post’s Google page rank.  Here’s a wikipedia page on how Google page rank works.
    • This blog, The Matrix Files, is the 3rd listing.  This is great, exactly what we wanted.  The blog strategy is working.
    • The About Joanna Pineda page on the Matrix Group Web site is the 4th listing.  Fabulous.

    (more…)

  • Surviving in this Hellish Economy

    Surviving in this Hellish Economy

    Okay, it’s official. The economy is in a recession, but what are you doing about it? What is your company or organization doing to weather the storm or even thrive in it?

    I was recently interviewed by Jill Foster for the Network Solution blog on a variety of topics, including using social media for recruiting and what we’re doing here at Matrix Group to survive this hellish economy.

    When our fiscal year ends next June, I want to be able to say that we were counter-trend and that our company grew, despite the recession.  Here are my top strategies for surviving this economic bloodbath. (more…)

  • Why Perfect References Aren’t Always a Good Thing

    My favorite business guru, Tom Peters, blogged recently that “hiring is the most important aspect of business” and I couldn’t agree more. I know down to my core that if we hire the right people, they will take care of our customers, they will be passionate about our business, and they will always strive to do the right thing.

    Why is why, in addition to interviewing well and having great writing/coding samples, candidates for positions at Matrix Group must have great references. Paradoxically, we’re less inclined to hire a person with a perfect track record and perfect references, you know, the person who has never missed a deadline, never gone over budget, and never had a project go south. Why?

    Because top talent has experienced some serious screw ups and they have recovered, and they have seen the impact of poorly managed or poorly engineered projects.

    Don’t get me wrong. I don’t want to hear about one screw up after another, but I do want candidates to tell me what they have learned from their mistakes and those of others, and how their experiences will help them avoid FUBARs in the future.

  • Where Do Broken Web Pages Go? The Internet Library, Of Course

    Where Do Broken Web Pages Go? The Internet Library, Of Course

    Whitney Houston sings “Where do broken hearts go?” Me, I have often wondered what becomes of broken or lost Web pages — you know, the URLs that used to work but now display a 404 or file not found error. Are these pages deleted from the servers? Or have they just been unlinked? And what do I do if I really need the information and it’s now gone?

    You’ll be glad to know that there is a whole movement devoted to changing the content of the Internet from ephemera to artifacts. Internet libraries are springing up everywhere to catalog and preserve Web pages, images, even audio and video files.

    The largest (I think) Internet Library is the Internet Archive, a “nonprofit organization dedicated to building and maintaining a free and openly accessible online digital library, including an archive of Web.” The archive is a collection of snapshots of Web pages from the around the world, taken at various points in time. (more…)

  • Start Wearing Purple

    Start Wearing Purple

    It seems purple is the color of the season and I’m not complaining. If you know me, have been to my office, or spent any time on the Matrix Group Web site (or this blog for that matter), you know that purple is an integral part of the Matrix Group experience.

    I was pleased to see that Yahoo! has launched a Start Wearing Purple campaign. Even though the logo on the Yahoo Web site is red, it seems that purple has long been the company’s official color. Why purple? Yahoo says purple is associated with innovation and imagination.

    Hmmm…. I always thought purple was associated with royalty and girl power, but hey, I’ll buy the innovation and imagination connection. Jerry Yang, Yahoo CEO, says he “bleeds purple.” Hmmm…. even I’m not crazy enough to say stuff like that. (more…)