Closing a Chapter

After nine years and eight months of my life, I resigned from my job today. It's exciting and terrifying at the same time. This is the only job I've known as an adult. I've complacently gone through the same routine, day after day, year after year. Change has been a long time coming.

And now, thanks to this recent passion I've discovered, new opportunities have presented themselves. Two of them actually. Both awesome, both great fits. And now I have to decide which path to take. It's not easy. And it's all happening so very fast.

These final two weeks at my day job are going to be like closing a giant chapter of my life. It'll be partially sad. My coworkers are my family, and it will be hard to leave that. But honestly, I feel a ginormous sense of relief. I'd say this should have happened a long time ago, but timing is a funny thing. And I can only hope that everything has purposefully led up to this amazing point in my life.

Opportunities for Designers in Startups

My friend and fellow designer, Sharon, tweeted this video to me yesterday, and it was just what I wanted to hear. Jenny Lam is a designer, a founder, a maker of software. As opposed to all of the articles I've been recently reading about why startups need designers, she discusses why designers should strive to be startup founders themselves.



From 27:20 to 30:45, there's a great snippet about Startup Weekend and why it's a great opportunity for designers. I know I sound like a Startup Weekend poster child. Did I mention I'm an organizer for the upcoming one in Philly? Oh, it's gonna be phenomenal!

Startup Weekend Changed My Life

Dramatic title, right? It's kind of a long story.

Last fall I decided that I needed to up my game, learn some new skillz, and thanks to a Geekadelphia blog post, I discovered Web Start Women. After a class or two, I noticed on the WSW message board something about a thing called Startup Weekend in Delaware. It said something like, "Learn to make an app in 54 hours!" Hmm.

It wasn't long after when I noticed the same event was going to be taking place in Philadelphia. I did a bit of research and realized, hey now, it's not a weekend class in app building after all. But it sounded neat and scary and intense and scary, so, venturing completely outside of my comfort zone, I signed up.

I was absolutely terrified for the weeks leading up to the event. I probably read this document 492 times in preparation. I spent hours upon hours trying to come up with an idea to pitch. I wrote my 60 second pitch and memorized it word for word, practicing in the car for an hour before heading into the building. I sat in the lobby and noticed that there weren't really any other ladies picking up badges. I walked up to the second floor for "mingling," where I stood against the wall, clutching a bottle of Coke like it was made of gold, and wondering why the hell I signed up in the first place. I was a socially awkward nervous wreck.

As 150-ish geeks filed into a lecture hall, I thought I was going to vomit. At the urging of a fellow attendee, I changed my pitch slightly (you know, the one I had totally memorized) and only had a few minutes to prepare in the ladies room. But I did it. I gave my pitch. And I dizzily stumbled back to my seat holding a giant white piece of paper that read "Hangplan."

To avoid giving you a diary-esque play by play of my entire weekend, let me sum it all up in a very long, run-on sentence. My idea got lots of votes so somehow I was lucky enough to formulate a power team of 10 amazing people and we worked tirelessly (thanks to luke warm Red Bull) to build a web app, a mobile app, an API, attack social media, make a video, survey people, etc. and on Sunday evening we pitched to a panel of judges and came in second place. (Side note: Woohoo!)

Having said all that, while none of this may sound life-changing, there were some personal side effects of Startup Weekend. The most prominent would be meeting a person who has since become a creative project partner, a brilliant career mentor, an inspiring life coach, and one of my absolute closest friends. Without getting too sappy, you know when you meet someone and you're sure that your world will never be quite the same? Yeah, so that happened.

Another side effect was this budding interest in startups and a new area of design (for me). I had always vowed to be a print designer. My dream was to do stationery and invitations. Interactive frightened me. But getting a little taste of UX/UI design definitely whet my appetite. And now I'm ready to devour it all. The more I learn, the more I love it. And really, I owe that to Startup Weekend.

And lastly, this event instilled a sense of confidence in me. Hey, my ideas don't totally suck! Well surprise surprise! Living in the in-house world for ten years, I've been on my own. I've never worked on a creative team. I worried that I wouldn't know how to interact with others or explain my thoughts. I worried that maybe I did things wrong but never knew it. I worried that my designs were garbage and my opinions were crap. But working so closely with my team was amazing. I wasn't afraid to share my perspective, and you know, people listened. And others shared their viewpoints and made my ideas even better. I started to understand what I had been missing out on for so long, and I left feeling optimistic and self-assured.

I have been recommending Startup Weekend to everyone. (Particularly designers because there was quite a lacking in that department at the one I attended.) I understand that not everyone will experience the same monumental revelation that I did, but it was also just crazy fun. And I'm really grateful for the trajectory it put me on.

Love Notes

Dang it. *grabs tissues* I can't tell if I want to marry this guy, grab my scissors and make a pop-up book of my own, or just buy a whole crapload of Field Notes. Heartstrings successfully tugged.

Field Notes: Red Blooded from Coudal Partners on Vimeo.

Dream Come True

One of the best things I have done with my career (and really, my social life) was joining the HOW Design forum back in 2004. As a solo in-houser, I was (am) a lonely girl. Having a group of talented, experienced, and all-around wonderful designers at my disposal was so valuable for my growth. Many of the people I met back then are now my closest friends.

In addition to the forum, I was lucky enough to attend the HOW Design Live conference six out of my nine years here. This was where I met my "internet friends" in person and gained oodles of knowledge, inspiration, and perspective on the design industry. I'd highly recommend this event to any designer.

While enjoying numerous drinks after the closing party of the last conference, a friend had asked, "Mel, when are you gonna speak at this thing?" I laughed it off. I was no industry expert by any means. And my portfolio of work was paltry in comparison to the big shots typically on the agenda. (And probably paltry in comparison to most of the attendees.) But with a little encouragement and a bit of brainstorming, I thought submitting a proposal was worth a shot.

Imagine my surprise when I received an email in October notifying me that my proposal was accepted!

The conference program arrived in my mailbox this week, and I still can't believe that my name is listed in there alongside my heroes and those who have inspired me for years.

Curious about my topic? Well, a few days after the most recent conference, while still in Chicago, I thought about what my area of expertise might be. What advice would I have to give? And it dawned on me. So On Sunday, June 24th at 3:45, I will be presenting, "How to Survive Your Soul-Crushing Day Job." (Note: I say this jokingly. Obviously my job has its benefits. But there are certainly those soul-crushing moments.)

Here's the description in the program:

Learn how to live a creatively fulfilling life, even if you're not passionate about your day job, by constantly challenging your creative muscle.

So now I have four and a half months left to develop this presentation and learn how to control profuse nervous sweating.