curiousgirl's playground

I'm truly impressed by Janice Fraser, one of the founding members of Adaptive Path. She is an entrepreneur, interaction designer, and editor -- all in one! She writes an inspirational blog (hah, she's "clevergirl") and has an excellent podcast here.

• Partnerships (people) are most important. It's all comes down to trust. Adaptive Path's success is due to the solidity of the seven co-founders. Janice talks about her great relationship with Peter Merholz, President of Adaptive Path, and how even if they did get it into conflicts (ps: constructive discontent is always healthy), the conflicts would be meaningful.
• Make meaning. Not just in the Guy Kawasaki's "Let's Change the World" kind of way. Janice stresses creating meaning for your employees, making sure they want to be there and are 100% passionate.
• Be stingy.
  • Financially. The founding members of Adaptive Path spent 6 months arguing over whether or not to buy a printer and lived without an office for a year.
  • On features. Less is more. Each additional feature = extra expense = additional design, development, testing costs.
• Alignment = Integrity. Hire for the right characteristics in people. The right people will create the right product vision. The right product vision gets you the right customers. My questions for Janice are: What exactly does "right" mean? More importantly, how do you know what is "right?"
• Companies are designed for people. Firm culture is critical. Janice says, "If work is not fulfilling, people will not have loyalty." What I admire most about Janice is her brutal honesty. She's not afraid to admit "she's human" and makes mistakes, too. As CEO, Janice says she "has no power" and instead must empower others around her. She cites a specific example with a newly hired PR person where she took more control than she was supposed to. This PR employee approached her about it, and she accepted the feedback and immediately apologized and let go. For Janice, her employees are her partners.
• You are employed by an industry, not a company. Think about the bigger picture. Take the long view.

technorati tags: janice fraser, adaptive path, design, ceo, entrepreneurship