We made the big announcement to our staff today. Hanif is now the Manager, Consulting Services and I am focusing on business development. He has a great team supporting him so I am not worried about letting go… really.
In reality most of the team is still doing what they did the day before and I am still here too.
But, it's like rearranging the furniture at home; a change brings something fresh and new to the room and its residents.
With my new found energy I tackled some architecture issues with one of my senior developers for one of the products we are working on launching, did some product planning and kicked off the exercise of rejuvenating our corporate web site.
I went to a bunch of technology company websites and it is really quite amazing how similar they are. A few tell a better story but the layout and structure are remarkably similar. Services, products, about us… many even sound the same.
I don't know whether that is reassuring or disappointing.
I do know I have a dilemma and a complication or two.
The Dilemma
Follow the herd or be different.
I can just do what the competition is doing and build a brochure site that lists the services and products we provide… kind of a feature dump with a smattering or benefits and maybe a client example or two.
Or I can do something a bit different.
The Complication
I have more than one story to tell.
I can try to tell multiple stories in one web site and potentially confuse the viewer considerably. Or I can skip the stories and just list all the things we do and sell… the brochure site.
Or I can do something a bit different.
The Solution
I think the solution lays in simplicity of communication… one main story per site, with multiple sites to cover the different stories, and then do each story well.
Then one story to rule them all and in the dark…
Sorry, got carried away. I'll leave world domination to Sauron and the other evil empires. We are here to do good… yes precious… good.
Then one site that ties it all together… the big story that ties all the smaller stories together. This one will superficially resemble the lobby of a movie theatre… lots of cool posters depicting all the movies you can see in the complex.
Ok, it will kind of be a web brochure, but when you enter each venue, the story will unfold.
I have to start somewhere so a video store metaphor will have to do for the short-term. You can read the back of the case, but the story has to wait until later when you are at home, or in this case, once we have time to finish filming it.
P.S. The shoemaker's kids are getting lots of shoes… hopefully they won't all disappear.
