This has been hugely positive, and it’s helped to shape more successful solutions. Recently, we’ve been focusing on helping our clients better understand their customers through user research and usability testing. In any given year, that’s looked like a mix of corporate websites, campaign sites, and apps. Over the years, we’ve mostly helped our clients solve fairly well-defined digital problems, making the solutions to those problems as awesome as possible.
What does a typical project look like for you? We scaled our level of risk as we grew more confident in our ability to run the business and to deal with challenges. We didn’t have an office for the first six months, keeping our overhead low and working from home, cafes, or clients’ offices. There’s no such thing as “self-made.”Īs for the actual setting up part, that was easy. It was an equally good reminder to me just how important other people have been in my success in life. We had our first project, and it was for a well-known brand-we were off! It was incredibly exciting and encouraging and a good reminder that things happen when you’re committed. An ex-colleague had heard about what I was up to and put in a good word with his creative director. I’ve got $7k in the bank and I’m about to give half of that to Steve Jobs for a MacBook Pro. I remember thinking to myself, “Okay, I’m twenty-six. Budgets weren’t exactly free-flowing and digital was still very much the poor cousin compared to more traditional channels. Thankfully, New Zealand escaped the worst of that, but the business climate was still relatively depressed. We launched in 2010, just after the global financial crisis. What were some of the early challenges you faced? We’ve become great friends, and he’s provided me with valuable insight and perspective throughout the years.
He ran an export company and contracted me to build him a website and market it.
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The most influential in my professional life has been a family friend who gave me my first real start in business. I’ve been really fortunate to have a number of great role models and mentors. Did you have a mentor when you were first getting started? Auckland’s nestled between two coastlines, so if you’re into anything to do with water (surfing, boating, diving, etc.), this is the place to be. The climate is great (not too hot or cold), there’s a vibrant creative and technology scene, and the city offers a unique blend of Pacific, Asian, and European cultures.īut it’s the proximity to the great outdoors that really makes it special. I’m originally from Wellington (the capital of New Zealand), and my friends who are from there get a bit upset when I tell them that Auckland is a much better place to live, even accounting for the crazy traffic and property prices. I wanted to create a company that would help other companies have better conversations with people through technology.
The same principle applies to conversations in the marketplace. What you choose to do with that space (what you say and how you say it) fundamentally determines how well you’ll be received. In any conversation, there’s a space that exists between people. It’s pushed me to my limits, and I have a much better understanding of myself and other people because of it. It offers great opportunities for self-determination and expression. It’s much harder to keep it going.īusiness is a continual creative challenge. Something I know for certain is that it’s easy to start an agency. Twenty-four years later and nine years into The Space InBetween, I like to think I’ve learned a little bit more about business and what it takes to make it work. My credit with my grandparents’ fax machine had run out. After about a week, dozens of faxes, and no replies, I was forced to shut down shop. My strategy was simple-go through the “Yellow Pages” (remember them?) and fax businesses handwritten letters pitching my web design services. Perhaps the craziest ones are those who fail and choose to do it again. Anyone who starts a business and sticks with it is a bit crazy. Someone who I once looked up to told me I was in the wrong industry. What made you decide to launch your own agency? We’re makers, shapers, and creators, helping to design more human-friendly organizations through user experience research, participatory design, and usability testing. In one sentence, tell us about The Space InBetween.
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