The Real Fruits of Our Labour

Tom Holder and Keir Moffatt discuss the things they have learned as a result of a long-serving, agency-freelancer working relationship.

This talk was delivered at Web Dev Conference 2010 in Bristol, UK.
http://webdevconf.com

Transcript

1. The real fruits of our labour?
2. @iamkeir • Web Freelancer • HTML/CSS/UI • B-Boy, Mantis Wrangler • What does the web mean to Keir?
3. @tholder • Technical Director and Founder Simpleweb • ContactZilla.com • Climber • What does the web mean to Tom?
4. What does the web mean to you? • Answer...
5. The Internet has been switched off! (Even Facebook)
6. What are we left with? • Millions of lines of useless code (wallpaper) • An over priced laptop • More free time
7. One thing you will be left with are the relationships you have built.
8. Relationships with } Evangelists Colleagues Clients Users
9. Building good working relationships... Communicate Good Work Collaborate Good Relationships
10. Communicate • Be confident - know your team • Be responsive and react quickly • Be honest - about your skills, about your intentions, about your mistakes • Understand people
11. Communicate • Be genuine, be transparent • Inspire trust and confidence • Understand the client and manage their expectations • Share progress throughout • Sometimes, you have to turn a job down • Krispy Kremes
12. Collaborate • Not because you have to but because it’s fun • Whiteboards and ideas • Version control (Git) and Bug Tracking • Open Source http://github.com/simpleweb • Eat your own dog food • Don’t be afraid to ask for help
13. Collaborate • We don’t compete, we share the load • Share knowledge • Work on-site whenever possible • Respect other people's processes • Join mailing lists, Twitter, forums, communities
14. Good Work • Be obvious, not clever • Don’t reinvent the wheel - frameworks! • We work in an imperfect world • Pay your debts off sooner rather than later • Start simple and iterate
15. Good Work • Understand deadlines (realistic & justifiable) • Deliver on time (be productive, not precious) • Check the direction is right, constantly • ‘Be suggestive’ - you’ll get more work! • Be professional
16. The real fruits of our labour? Relationships Love what you do and the people you do it with.
17. Stuff we’re excited about • NoSQL Couch,Mongo,Hadoop • JavaScript, Node.Js - hot! • ActivityStrea.ms • Death of Flash! • HTML 5, Canvas, CSS 3 • Perch CMS • Google Apps
18. Questions? • Getting a job/interview • Networking vs Not-working • Accumuniggles (little spoons) • Love Monkey • Bucket o’ Love • Hypersharing/social bullshit