Laptops and wires everywhere. There are less than a handful of open chairs in the seventy person room. I jumped into the middle of Chris Bromall’s “Implementing Tactics” session. A very sweet girl next to me emailed me her notes so I can get you (and myself) up to speed: DB Implementing Tactics Surround yourself with experts – and be a leader. Know your strengths and weaknesses. Ask questions and demand results. Become a client for your client.You can always get more money, but you cannot create time. Time is your most valuable asset.1^st step: Timeline and budget2^nd step: Replicate or innovate?

• • Discovery is key. During this time, you bring in an expert and you discuss the technical issues you wish to do with your client.

• • Techcrunch.com à Great blog to keep you informed on what is going on.

• • Lifehacker.com

  
  Onshore v. offshore

• • Time and budget in the U.S. is expensive.

• • Overseas, cultural awareness is essential. Odesk.com is great Web site in regards to offshore firms. There is a certain degree of risk involved with offshore vendors. Broomall only goes offshore to a new vendor if there is a small risk involved.

• • Keep out of South America, China and Southeast Asia because of poor English.

Open-source v. product

• • Open-source is free, but there are problems of support. Open-source is flexible and modular.

• • Product is something like Microsoft, where you pay but support is available.

Free vs. fee

• • Widgets are a great way to get a lot of functionality without having to pay for it. Widgets can go viral. (clearspring.com,springwidgets.com)

Always build in buffers when managing vendors…

• • NDA (non-disclosure agreement; often known outside of the United States as a confidentiality agreement; occasionally called a confidential disclosure agreement or CDA, or secrecy agreement), is a legal contract between at least two parties that outlines confidential materials or knowledge the parties wish to share with one another for certain purposes, but wish to restrict from generalized use. In other words, it is a contract through which the parties agree not to disclose information covered by the agreement. An NDA creates a confidential relationship between the parties to protect any type of trade secret. As such, an NDA can protect non-public business information.

• • Push – and give

• • • You never just want to push, push, push vendors. You want to be a partner with them.

• • Be straightforward, build relationships

• • Set clear milestones – When developing a project, make sure you set clear milestones. If you design a blog, set milestones for the design and the implementation, etc.

When managing client expectations…

• • Know and explain the limitations

• • Say no – but present alternatives

• • Honesty and transparency

• • Post-launch

• • Don’t launch it and forget it

• • Maintain and manage

• • Stay fresh! (and plan)

• • At the end of the day, technology should not be your message. It should do just what you need it to do for the client

  My apologies for the straight copy and paste of the Lecture notes. There will be fuller commentary on my next post. The session just ended and I am on to the educators section. More to come….

Tags: edelman digital bootcamp, Grady College, The University of Georgia, ugaedb08

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