We thought it might be helpful to hear our voice through the questions that we have collected through our practice…then have a co-founder answer them for you. If you come up with more questions, simply drop in a comment below and we will do our best to answer it for you. Enjoy!
1. “Why is your company name, “BigBadCollab”?”
Ben: Great question. Its one we hear a lot. Here is how I tend to explain it in meetings. “Big” describes the size of our company and the size of our ideas. There is always a question of “How big is your company?”. We are like, “um… look at our name. It says big”. “Bad” simply means the work we do is “bad”, but like Michael Jackson bad, which means it is great, if that makes sense. “Collab” is for the way we work with both our clients and resources. We scale according to project size and work load and want true relationships with both our clients and resources we work with. We engage work with a transparent communication style that helps position us as collaborative partners in a project, rather than outsourced resources.
2. “What is your project management method?”
Mark: Our methods are purposeful, intentional, and communicative. We use a tried and true method that is set but organic–tested and re-tested across over eight-hundred website launches of consistently establishing a documented understanding of the dimensions of a project (people, budget, goals, resources, time lines, etc). We then move the project at launch into our collaborative space for project management so that by roles and responsibilities, all those involved with the project have on-going visibility and participation in the project. We conduct weekly production meetings around each aspect of the project, ensuring its health along with applying corrective measures if we need to, and communicating all of this in motion going forward. Milestones and sometimes greater detail when necessary tells us all how we are proceeding (budget, time, resources, and work to be done). When we conclude, everyone knows, we have hit the goals, managed budget, time and resources. Essentially, we manage the project, and this is what sets us apart from so many others.
3. “How does your company culture affect your services?”
Mark: Culture defines and impacts so many things. From the outward expression of what we value to the client, to the in-office expression of authentically caring for one another. Culture is the definition of our core values, lived out in our daily work and words. It is the silent governor that helps us to know what is aesthetic, energizing, and positive. In our office, its the elements also of environment like streaming music, lighting, and even art.
4. “What kind of project would you say is the ‘sweet spot’ for BBC?”
Ben: Our sweet spot, wheel house projects are ones that involve a vision or destination that is trying to be reached. We love hearing clients explain what they want and dream for a project and then working with them to accomplish that dream. We are more than capable to respond to projects with work like a simple WordPress Theme, Website with Content Management System, iPhone App, but really love partnering in on a vision. The main reason for this is simple for us. We love making what seems to be the impossible, possible.
5. “Why do you believe your company is an ‘expert resource’?”
Ben: Experience. Our combined experience is vast, random and even a little strange. We have worked on so many different types of projects that our problem solving capacity is high. We look projects with a wide variety of options in mind. We aren’t sold and committed to one solution to every project. We have worked out solutions to connect point of sell machines to websites. We have built websites that had to integrate with six data sources. We have migrated data from one platform to another. We have designed skins on top of GPS navigation systems and kiosks that seemed impossible to get a sophisticated design on. We have built sites that work on all mobile platforms. We think about all this when engaging on client projects and come up with a truly customized solution to the problem.
6. “How is your company prepared to work on our particular project?”
Mark: We are built to respond. We scale, have investment capital, and are disciplined to execute. We have many methods that guide from inception through delivery–ensuring excellence across the board.
7. “How old are you as a company? How many people do you have?”
Ben: We started this adventure in October of 2008. We have two full time, in-office guys, and a long list of partners that we work with. It may seem like a little bit of a cop out answer, but we are as big as we need to be. We scale according to project size and work load. We have been as big as ten “workers” at one time and then back to just two. Every client is different and every project requires a specific set of talent that we engage per project. This keeps ‘custom’ in place while not forcing a ‘cost’ on our clients.
8. “What services do you provide the most?”
Mark: In the ‘unlisted’ sense of the word, “Leadership”. We are deeply experienced, thoroughly market-educated, and have deployed global projects across the span of our combined careers. So much success centers on the need for authentic leadership that this intrinsic value is simply a fabric of ‘who we are’, not necessarily ‘what we do’. Leadership focuses in on knowing what to do and when, and the real paydirt is not in a product or service offering, but knowing how to really get stuff done. Plain and simple.
9. “Ben, what are your favorite design tools and aesthetics?”
Ben: Wow. Well. Dang. Talk about putting me on the spot. My favorite design tools are Photoshop and Illustrator for production. I LOVE drawing on dry erase boards and most of my initial web comp sketches are done there. There is also something magical about drawing in a Moleskin with a black pen and sharpie. Love that.
My favorite aesthetics can probably best be described in a list, so here we go:
I love graffiti and wheat pasted posters. I love hand pulled, screen printed posters. I love texture. I love big, fully grown trees and the way their branches grow out to grab some light. I love old rusted signs and any elements that have put up a fight against nature and lost. I love old toys and figures that have “seen better days”. I love anything that you can tell has been loved by it’s owners. I love distressed leather, exposed wooden beams, brick and metal with the welds showing. I love the details of guitars and drumsets. I love what CDs look like after spending 4 seconds in a microwave (Careful!!), and I love the look of a fresh tattoo.
10. “Mark, what is the best description for knowing our work will be cared for?”
Mark: Our clients and their willingness to continually turn to us for more support is the best possible description of knowing your work will be cared for. As a trusted expert resource, our clients know their work will be cared for–and that is the same thing you can count on.
