Jason Putorti

Executive Director, Resistbot Action Fund

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8 Lessons Learned from Political Startups – Startup Grind

A look back on working to make a difference from 2009–2016

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My Leadership Resolutions

Mistakes made in ’15 and how I’ll move forward

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Design is the Business

Why Good Design Matters, Where to Focus, and What Makes a Great Process for Startups

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...if you are under 20 years old, you’re part of Generation S, the smartphone generation. That means you grew up with the following rule set: 1.  The seemingly most successful person in all of media — Kim Kardashian — got to her position by having her sex tape “leaked” 2.  Your worth is based on your followers, views, likes, and other social currency 3.  Your phone is your primary consumption device 4.  Everyone wants to follow your story, because you’re a unique and special snowflake 5.  There is no shame in being who you are — because you’re a unique snowflake! We can debate if any of these things is true, but I can tell you they are true to Gen-S, and that’s all that matters.

Jason Calcanis

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Talk covering at a high level, why design matters, where to focus your design efforts, and what makes a great design process.

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Six Problems With Our Democracy… And Who’s Working To Fix Them

In Silicon Valley and beyond there are several companies that are working to change the systemic problems with our government, and it's worth highlighting..

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Larry David 2016

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#bucn #nlwc (at Roberto Clemente Bridge)

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The thing that people don’t understand is that the only way you can be successful with your branding is if you have a great product to sell. If people go home and aren’t happy, that won’t work. Your product has to stand up for itself.

P. Diddy

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Hillary on the trail

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Pull quotes from Hoefler & Co.

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Curious about customer behavior? Use data. When it comes to digital products, web and mobile analytics tell us exactly what customers do. Even if customers say they would never, ever, ever buy rainbow suspenders for their avatar, we just never know what people will do when we’re not watching. Better to trust the data and see what people actually do rather than trust what they say they’ll do. Making decisions about product quality? Use instinct. To build quality into a product, you have to pay attention to hundreds of details like crafting clear help content or moving that button 3 pixels to the left. None of these small changes individually would prove worthwhile with data. But taken together, they create an overall impression of quality — a halo effect that improves a product in many ways. So when wondering how much time to spend on the details, designers should trust their instincts. Deciding between a small set of options? Use data. There’s nothing like an A/B test for making an incremental, tactical improvement. When trying to pick the just-right words for a homepage header, there’s little to be gained in arguing over the right copy. It’s better to test a few versions and pick the right one based on data. The key is to measure the metrics that really matter to the business longer term (such as signups, purchases, or user retention) instead of just measuring clicks. Concerned with long-term impact? Use instinct. A good reputation takes years to build, but just one bad experience can destroy it. So when balancing between tactical easily measurable goals like more clicks, and long term goals like trustworthiness, it’s essential to listen carefully to one’s instincts. And if those instincts need a little boost, get curious: go out in the world, talk to people, and gather data. From Should Tech Designers Go With Their Guts — Or the Data?

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5-day design sprint for Hillary Clinton campaign by Moving Brands

[beforetheyran]

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Bill and Hillary, when Bill was campaigning for governor of Arkansas in 1978. (The Washington Post)

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I grew up listening to classic rock and I’ll tell you sort of an odd story. My music tastes changed on 9/11. And it’s a very strange—I actually, intellectually, find this very curious, but on 9/11, I didn’t like how rock music responded. And country music collectively, the way they responded, it resonated with me and I have to say, it—just as a gut level, I had an emotional reaction that says, ‘These are my people.’ And so ever since 2001 I listen to country music . . .

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), in an interview with CBS This Morning

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One of the things we hit upon was the quality of a host.  That is, the role of the architect, or the designer, is that of a very good, thoughtful host, all of whose energy goes into trying to anticipate the needs of his guests—those who enter the building and use the objects in it.  We decided that this was an essential ingredient in the design of a building or a useful object.

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