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Craig Morrison

Product Designer

Bio

I'm a Product Designer and Entrepreneur. Founder of Kwilia and UsabilityHour.

Recent Answers

Startups

What are the best practices in getting my startup off the ground with dwindling funds?


Craig Morrison

Product Designer

Hi, I'm Craig Morrison, I'm a Product Designer and Entrepreneur. The biggest red flag I see here is that "development" is painfully slow. What are you trying to develop? More features? Bigger product? More more more more more? Stop. Stop development entirely. No more building. You have a product. That product has users. Feature bloat will kill you. Every "addition" you put on your product costs more time and money to maintain (and fix). Keep that in mind. The more you build, the more you're adding to your monthly burn. If you don't have much money, you need to halt everything and focus 100% on the goal of generating revenue. You need more paying users. Focus on two things: 1. Communicating with current users to find out their pain points in their lives and with your product. 2. Use the info you discover about your current users to find more users. With the proper user research, you should be able to establish patterns in your users that will teach you how to speak to their pain points when pitching your product. It should also give you an indication where these users hang out, either online or in real life. The next step is to target these ares using the knowledge you gained from speaking to users. If you have a free product which you're hoping to generate ad revenue or get funding/bought than you might want to consider if there is a way provide a paid version of what you've built.

Career Advising

If you could go back in time to my age (18) what would you do differently?


Craig Morrison

Product Designer

Just one thing. Stop worrying about the future. You'll be fine.

Product Development

Any strategies for building a creative portfolio without giving work away for free and thus risk losing product value in the eyes of the customer?


Craig Morrison

Product Designer

Do spec work for large companies, but, don't just redesign something for fun. Find a company that has a problem with something that relates to your field (for example, a UX Consultant, like me) and then solve that problem with your redesign. Explain what the problem was, how you solved it, and the value you created for the business by implementing your solution. No one cares about your design, they care about the value you're creating for their business. Focus on that.

Photography

Can anyone shed light on some business models for photography?


Craig Morrison

Product Designer

Teaching. Set up some sort of online, or even better, night course at a local college. Charge for it. By teaching, you set yourself up as an authority on the subject. The more you teach, the more people see you as the person who knows those most on the subject. What you'll get out of it is more business referrals and more clients. Seems weird, and most people will say "you'll be training your competition!" but in fact, you won't. Just because you teach someone how to use a camera, it doesn't turn them into a professional photographer, but it does form a relationship of trust and knowledge between you and boatloads of potential clients.

Blogging

How can you start a blog and make it popular within a month?


Craig Morrison

Product Designer

This depends on your definition of popular, but I can help you out. You're not going to be getting thousands of hits per month, but you can gain some popularity. 1. You're going to need to publish two posts per week, so you better be ready to write. One for your blog, and one for someone else's. 2. You won't be publishing any "round up" content, like 10 best tools for "blank". You're going to need to deliver ACTUAL value here. 3. Make sure that the topic of your blog is first about something people are actively looking for online. User Google Trends to test out some keywords. 4. Use BuzzSumo.com to search for keywords of blog posts and check out how many people are sharing those. Take a look at the most popular posts and then out do them. Write an even more comprehensive and valuable post than that one. 5. Build your email list as quickly as you can. Use Appsumo.com and install their list builder app. 6. Provide a content upgrade for each post. For example, an eBook, a checklist, anything that relates to the value of the article you wrote. Exchange the free item for their subscription to your email list. 7. Email your list once per week with a new article you just published. Ask them to share it if they like it. 8. Guest post for the second article you wrote each week. Find popular, related blogs and pitch them a post idea. Link back to your blog, but to a landing page that specifically outlines the value of signing up for your email list. OR 8a. Link back to a landing page that gives away content bonuses that you mentioned in the guest post. 9. Run a contest where you give something away related to your blog topic. (don't give away an iPad if you're a real estate agent, you want to attract subscribers that have to do with your niche.) 10. Die from exhaustion.

Resume Writing

Starting a Startup, still in concept and idea phase, How to put what progress/accomplishments on resume?


Craig Morrison

Product Designer

When I hire people, I actively search for people with side projects, either current or past. I'm not interested in the skills they've obtained from them, I'm just searching for a "self started" or motivated person. People who start side projects are generally more passionate and have a greater understand of the overall process of the working environment. Just simply mention that you're motivated by starting things and building them from the ground up, and that you're currently doing that now.

Branding & Identity

Is it ok from a brand perspective to have different color schemes for your logo for different purposes?


Craig Morrison

Product Designer

This is absolutely fine as long as you create and incorporate it into your branding guide and keep it consistent. You should define theses alternate logos, and then creates rules around how they are used and when it's appropriate. But above all, what is the REASON you want to use different colors? If it's "just because" then no, you shouldn't. Keep in mind, the branding of your logo is about being recognized and creating an emotional connection with your customers that makes them feel they trust your product and your message. Changing your logo constantly means your customers no longer recognize you as easily.

Social Media

I own a start-up for an app bringing people together for simple things of life in a secured and efficient way. How do I penetrate the market?


Craig Morrison

Product Designer

I would suggest launching in certain geographical locations ONLY. Kind of like how Uber does it. An app like you're describing is pointless if it's value comes from location based services. Push one small geographical locations through marketing tactics that will bring people to your app download page. Think of localized contest in which the prizes have something to do with the location (major league baseball tickets, for example). If someone attempts joining from a different location, inform them you're launching soon and keep their emails on file. This then tells you where the most demand comes from, and give you a good idea of the next location to "open". This also allows you to test what is working and what isn't because your app will be used by people as if it were already popular all over the world.

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Areas of Expertise

Growth HackingDigital MarketingStartupsLean StartupsUX DesignUI DesignUser Experience DesignProduct DevelopmentAnalyticsUser Experience Strategy