Where am I heading?

April 2, 2019

For the last 20 years, I have been talking to clients about getting their projects launched. Starting in 1999, my neighbor asked me if I knew how to build a website. I didn’t, but within a few days, I had something running on Homestead (I think that is what it was called, o.g. Webflow 😃 ). He wanted to build a clone of Napster with a Latin music focus. I remember a phone call we had to discuss the salsa dancers I had on the home page. In college, I built websites for Counter-Strike clans, and they would give me feedback in forums or with ICQ. Then 2005, now as a web designer at threefivetwo, and for the next 12 years, I can’t count all the different ways clients gave us feedback: In-person, Over the phone, Email, Basecamp, JIRA, Slack, Hipchat, Lynx, PDFs with written notes, physical print outs, etc.

Things get lost in the mix or misunderstood, there would be conflicting feedback, and clients can lose confidence as everything seems like a scramble to the line.

Getting sign-offs on projects whether you are a freelancer or agency is always an anxious time. For the client, it is equally stressful. One side of the conversation wants to feel good about sending the final bill, and the other side is scared; they might have missed something in the run-up to launch, is someone in their org going to yell at them, is the agency just going to disappear after they get paid.

With Punchlist, I wanted to build a tool that makes both sides feel comfortable with sign-off, whether it be for the final invoice or launching to the world.

By getting everyone involved (allowing even people who have never seen the project) with the ability to view all of the feedback allows for better communication and a full understanding of the final product.

I have some general ideas for the next couple steps, but I wanted to think through what my Northstar for Punchlist should be. It feels easy to get caught up in the product and lose sight of the bigger vision. When I think through what my ultimate goal is I keep zeroing in on giving stakeholders the confidence their website is exceptional.

This means there are no typos, copywriting/imagery represent the brand well, there are no design issues, everything looks great from mobile up to desktop, your target audience feels good about your choices, etc. All the things that go into giving you confidence in your website being ready for the rest of the world.