Hammerkit Blog

After the success of the Hammerkit One Month Master Class, we decided to look back over some of the more salient topics in greater details. Consider this the Hammerkit PhD Project. Not for the faint of heart, but it gets you ready to hang with the best.

Repeatability - Waste Not, Want Not (focus on the theme of wasted time and energy with non-repeatable solutions)

Formatting - Understand The Form (focus on how thinking in terms of web formats is absolutely necessary to understanding the industry)

Digital Media - This Is What The Modern Campaign Looks Like (focus on how digital is calculably unavoidable if you want to stay relevant)

Lean - How A Buzzword Becomes a Battle Cry (focus on how lean solutions became a point of pride)

As well as diving into these topics in more detail, we will also be producing our new podcast focusing on these topics to help you get to grips with the changing face of PR. So look out for these articles over the next few weeks and stay tuned!

There are many things that we need to consider when trying to repeat a digital solution. At Hammerkit, we have developed our “Lean Digital Production” methodology to make it as fast and efficient as possible and I have tried to break the challenges into a few categories to help you understand what we do to make solutions more quickly, cost effectively and to a standard level of quality. The key to beating the challenges is systems-thinking, i.e. trying to broaden the scope of the challenge beyond the immediately obvious impact to solve ancilliary issues as you go.

Functionality
The core of any web service is “what does it do?” – these are commonly referred to as the functionality and when we create a web format (the original web service we use as the master version) we embed a specific set of requirements as core functionality. We document this functionality as a set of features (along with their advantages and benefits for the sales materials: systems-thinking) and we loosely couple the functionality to the front-end interface via an example deployment. This will be with one or more dummy companies and lets the client understand how similar functionality can be reused and repurposed.

Information Architecture
The next aspect of an solution is “what inputs and outputs are needed?”. Typically these will follow the functionality that has been requested, but it may be that the information architecture comes first. We have to build certain data structures in our database to make the solution work, so this forms the basis – but clearly we do that in a way that lets clients add their own requirements for data and information capture. This extends to how outputs are passed to the user (screen reports, PDFs, excels, etc.) We try to keep these easy to customize so that there is minimal addition work to make it fit a client requirement.

Integrations
The web format will probably contain certain key integrations needed for the functionality to operate, but we leave it open for the client to define certain additional integrations. These are achieved via pre-built interface elements in our platform that minimize the need for custom coding to the very minimum. We also look at the integration requirement to understand whether it is actually necessary at all – in many cases an email can suffice where a data integration was requested. Usually all that is required is asking the right questions.

Content Management
The end-client will always wish to update their own content, so it is important to add an admin interface that allows this to happen. When we construct a web format, we construct a content management interface (CMI) to make this easy. As content is often the single biggest delay in the roll-out of a solution, we try to make the CMI available as early as possible in the production process.

User Interface
This is the part that can be given much more attention. In typical projects, the vision of the designer is lost in the transmission to a final web service. We try to remove this danger by ensuring the designer is fully aware of the features and builds a user interface that leverages them as well as possible. This removes the need for rounds of review at design stage and then again at programming stage, as typically happens in traditional web projects.

Our Lean Digital Production methodology is mostly about standardizing how we approach the creation of services. The truth is that it is possible to get the functionality 80% ready with a web format and spend more time on the design and messaging aspects of a site. We know from experience that clients will appreciate that more – it is words that sell, not functionality. 

As industry professionals, we sometimes forget that we have in-built capabilities to see beyond the look and feel of a web site. This means we understand what it takes to make something, and just what you can do to repeat a solution. You may have encountered the challenge that your clients cannot do this – they just cannot imagine what it will be and they need you present something that looks just like them in order for them to be confident that you can handle their digital project.

Typically, you need to go through a rather involved process to create a vision for your client of what their web service is going to look like - paper-prototypes, wireframes, static mock-ups and functional descriptions - and a lot of this work is done before you get the deal in many cases! This is risky, time-consuming and more often than not unfulfilling for both you and client. The problem is always, that no matter how beautiful your art is, the final product always misses something that the client thought was going to be there.

There are fantastic examples of how to do it right, and I remember clearly the advice from Paul Boag (@boagworld) that he never, but never does more than one suggested layout and never just sends a visual - he sends a video with him explaining the design choices in context. His view was this avoided what he called "Frankenstein" layouts with bits of functionality grabbed from various options and thrown together in a haphazard way.

When we devised the CloudStore we thought about this. We listened to a many industry practitioners about their approach to the challenge and decided we needed to make it easy for clients to know what they were going to get. To do this, we decided early on that we needed to show "live prototypes" demonstrating how one format has been repeated for different clients. What we underestimated was the value of this small feature – it has gone from being an afterthought to one of the key aspects of repeat ordering.

The point is that the client should not only know what their site is going to look, but also know exactly how it will do it - meaning they can put their hands on the format before they order from you. This sets the expectations at the right level and means the client can order with a high degree of confidence in what they will receive. This is a big change from the current "Ta-Da!" approach to showing the client the finished article (usually to their initial delight and subsequent disappointment).

To overcome this challenge, we are adding more example sites and trying to provide a range of look and feel options that reflect different classes of client; from banking to FMCG. The idea is that we can make it easier for the client to imagine how it will look for them and shorten the sales cycle a little bit more.

It would be great to hear how far you have had to go to get a client to understand what a service might look like before they have ordered. 

The classic case for the study of all things lean is Toyota, and more specifically the Toyota Production System (TPS) pioneered from the 1950s onwards. This development of this methodology of production was credited to Ohno, an engineer with a passion for perfection.

The Toyota production system was a shining example of how principle-led production can become more than just how things get done. It is about why, where and when they get done. It was about focusing energy on the parts that matter, not wasting effort on the things that work well.

To create the environment for focus, Ohno and Toyota created core principles that are pure common sense:

Empowerment – allowing the people who do the job to reimagine their job to make it better

Creativity – seeking hundreds of ideas and using everything you can from wherever it came from

Expertise – relying on deep knowledge and understanding to pursue perfection

Flow – creating continuous, uninterrupted value-adding activities in a natural order

Perfection – pursuing the goal of perfect elegance

What did I learn while reading the books on TPS? That discovering the true value you add is challenging, but once you have found it you know it. It is like love at first sight. You just know. The job of lean is to discover value and to stop doing the things that do not add value completely. To discover value, you have to look at the whole picture, not the details inbetween.

Understanding the whole picture means “seeing” everything. This is what lean practitioners call the value stream - and it begins and ends with the customer, not the producer. The point is to remove waste and reduce the time from zero to value to the minimum time possible.

When you understand the value stream, you can then design your production methods to allow value to flow. This means aiming for frictionless production where value is added at each step of the production process. The goal is to minimize waste of all types and to ensure that the thing of value moves forward, not back, through the process. Our eyes perceive flow – so to gain flow you must institute simple visual cues that allow everyone to understand that something has arrived, is being worked on and is ready to leave your section of the production process. This ensures people behind you keep giving you things at the right speed and that you give people in front of you things at the right speed. Regular frequency is more important than raw speed.

Once you have attained flow, you want to ensure that you don’t push unwanted goods out of your production line (think unneeded features or iterations in web development). Instead, you need to design things for demand from the customer (or pull). Pull is difficult to achieve, as it needs everything to be working in flow and everyone in the value stream to be in step. The purpose of pull thinking is to eliminate waste before, during or after the production process. You make what you sell, not sell what you make. That way you do not have unwanted inventory, have to discount prices to move old stock, or have capital tied up that could be put to better use.

The final step brings in the concept of Kaizen (or continuous improvement) to the equation. It is the pursuit of perfection. In Kaizen there are three steps; create a standard; follow it; make it better. The pursuit of perfection is a continuous process that never ends. The final step also brings into play another important concept – elegance.

The pursuit of perfection seeks to embody elegance in the value delivered to the customer. Elegance is simplicity on the other side of complexity – not easily achieved, but once down so seems obvious to all.

So when focusing, the things that matter are the value you can add to your customer, the elimination of waste and the creation of flow. If you can focus on these business will be good – trust me on that J

One of the key findings from talking to the digital directors of over 50 PR companies in the last 12 months is that we still think in terms of “1s and 2s”. What I mean by that is that we consider that if we create a great solution for a client, we might be able to use it again, maybe, with another client – while the truth is that this seldom happens.

Why is this and what opportunity is being lost? Well, I believe one reason is related to the complex, programming project-oriented approach to creating solutions for clients. These are difficult, challenging and nearly impossible to deliver on-time, on-budget and to the original specification. I have felt for a long time that it is time for a change from project-based deliveries to a production process orientation, and we have created our business to support PR agencies moving in that direction.

Another obvious reason is a lack of continuity in the way services are sourced, created and managed. Even if you are lucky enough to have a great internal team, invariably they will get more excitement out of starting with a blank sheet of paper and solving a who load of new programming challenges than repurposing something done before. If you outsource, then you probably do so on the basis of cost/quality criteria for that project – meaning you have different external contractors working on different projects. In both cases, there is a break in any potential for a viable back catalogue to emerge.

The missed opportunity is staggering.

If you are a large agency, with say 50 offices and perhaps 1000 retained clients you have 50,000 potential sales opportunities for a typical digital solution. Selling it 50 or 100 times rather than once or twice could have a massive effect on your top and bottom lines. With a solution retailing at $10,000, the missed turnover is $1m.

So how do you do it?

First, separate form and function – learn to look for the underlying solution that could be repeated. If you have just developed a charitable giving service, could that same underlying functionality be used by another client?

Second, share the great ideas across your agency – use your intranet, your project space, or even our own Hammerkit CloudStore to share your back catalogue and help your account teams to sell more. Clients appreciate being offered new things – we know because we asked them.

Third, move the thinking from once or twice to 10x and 20x – then on to 50x and 100x. There is a huge latent sales potential in your client base and working with repeatable solutions you have the capability to make your digital deliveries faster and more easily.

A tip we have discovered is that clients find it difficult to imagine how you can take one site and make it look like another – help them out with visual mock-ups that look like them – the sales will happen very quickly after this.

We specialize in repeatable digital solutions, so if you would like to find out more just send me an email or message me on Twitter @msorsaleslie.

Today the vast majority of web services for business clients are created from scratch. I call these one-offs – pieces of original art commissioned by a client from a supplier.

A typical scenario is a client with a business need meeting a web developer. Brainstorming then ensues arriving at ideas as to how the client need can be solved by the supplier. The ideas are then turned into wireframes, that are then filled in as beautiful artistic layouts and then given to programmers to be turn from static to working sites. It is a project, with the attendant challenges of every project. So,hand-built, one-off, commissioned projects built by small teams in specialist suppliers. Sounds like how Rolls Royce build cars doesn’t it?

Taking the lead from mature production industries, it seems logical that we move now from one-off, hand-built creations to something a little more efficient. The question is how to ensure that clients get what the need (a unique digital creation) while finding better ways to produce it.

Some of the research our team has done has looked at how production has changed in other industries to see how it might affect our industry. At the end of 1980’s people started feeling that mass marketing was no longer the way to go. Consumers were demanding more customization, they wanted products faster and they wanted better quality. A research area called mass customization was developed in order to bring customers what they demanded.

Mass customization was introduced as a term by Stan Davis in 1987 as

“the situation when the same large number of customers can be reached as in mass markets of the industrial economy, and simultaneously they can be treated individually as in the customized markets of pre-industrial economies”

Davis S.M., 1987, Future Perfect, Addison-Wesley, New York

There are eight (8) different levels of customization that range from mass production at one end to one-of-a-kind production at the other. Mass customization places in between these two, as can be seen in image below.

The focus of mass customization is to offer the variety and customization needed to be able to deliver individualised products to customers. The goal is to offer these products at an reasonable price. This way you can offer customized products that your clients want at a price they can afford. Mass customization focuses therefore on a variety of different niches, or market shares.

We have taken this challenge on board, with the goal of trying to make a core product that is developed as far as possible while not customizing it to a specific client. We call these web formats, and each is ready to be tailored to order. The benefit to us is that our product development and product life cycles are shortened with mass customization.

So, consider your digital production approach and look for opportunities to apply mass customisation. You will gain massive benefits from focusing on a single process that can produce a variety of end products that are similar but customized in the end to a specific client. You will be able to broaden the scope of products you can offer without extending your risk too far, and, importantly, lower your production costs so you can be more competitive and profitable.

I would welcome your thoughts on whether mass-customisation has a place in our industry and what the very best examples there are of it in action today. Ping me @msorsaleslie and lets talk.

I am indebted to Petteri Streng for allowing me to borrow some of his work in the production of this article. 

A web format is a package of materials that allows a new web service to be localized, redesigned and rolled out according to a pre-defined formula.

The obvious thought is that a web format is just a site template that we copy. If that were true, we would all be using web sites that work like that. In actual fact, to make a format you need a lot more. It must encompass the sales and marketing, design, production and maintenance phases of the solution lifecycle. Here is the list of the things we design and produce when we make a format: 

-       a product design: what it is and what it does
-       a web site template: how the functionality is packaged
-       a format bible: how we made it and make it again and again
-       a business case: what the business benefits are for a client
-       a range of examples: what it can look like
-       a financial case: how much a PR agency can make from it
-       a FAQ and support statement: how we support the agency and client
-       a commercialization plan: how we licence and sell the format
-       a 2-sheet and 4-slide sales pack: support materials for account teams
-       client reviews: what the clients think of the solution
-       delivered repeats: what the real delivered cases look like in live action

We are not going to into all of these in detail here, but suffice to say that you need to broaden the thinking beyond just making web sites to make repeatable digital solutions a reality.

How do we know this? We worked with a range of producers and borrowed ideas from an industry that has been making formats successfully for decades – TV. We are all familiar with formats like Pop Idol, X-Factor, Who Wants to be a Millionaire – but we are probably less conscious of just how much TV is format-driven. The commercial reality is that format TV far outstrips ready-made TV in the profitability stakes and we believe that the Internet industry is heading in a similar direction.

There are lots of potential examples of great web formats for the PR industry, from corporate communications and mobile sites to social media integrations. This means lots of potential for completely new sources of revenue and profit.

If you would like to learn more about how we make web formats and repeatable solutions send me an email or connect with me on Twitter @msorsaleslie

Since starting Hammerkit in 2007 we have, like all young businesses, been seeking our sweet spot – that place where our combination of experience, expertise and technology can add the most value. We believed from the very beginning that nothing much had changed in the how web services are created and that we could change that.

The breakthrough came for us when a PR agency client suggested they needed “something that allowed them to create products on a shelf that could be reused, resold and repeated.” We took this statement and matched it against ourselves and discovered our sweet spot – repeatable solutions.

There is a joy in finding your niche.

We decided to split the web world in two: One-offs, the pieces of art that are possible because a client has the will, the budget and the timescale to develop a beautiful, unique and ultimately short-lived solution; and Repeatable Solutions, the web formats that allow high quality functionality and web concepts to be reused while still providing a unique experience for the client using lean digital production approaches. The key to this is to remove as much of the coding effort needed to repeat a solution – a feat our Hammerkit platform is sublimely positioned to do.

When we thought about this more deeply and we understood that we should not try to be a magic bullet solution. Looking at any other industry, there are custom-built, hand-crafted, beautiful pieces of art that exist at the premium end of the price scale and there are the solutions the rest of us can afford. These solutions are still high quality, well-design and fully-functional but because they are mass-customised rather than created from scratch they are more affordable.

So, the next time you are working on a set of requirements for a client just think, “Is this ART or BUSINESS I COULD REPEAT?” – if it is the former great! If it is the latter, contact us and find out how we can turn it into a repeatable solution.