Podcast appearances and mentions of dan mall

On this episode of Low-Key Legends Dan Mall shares his journey as an entrepreneur and the challenges he faced in building and closing his agency, SuperFriendly. He emphasizes the importance of culture, margin, and taking care of people in building a successful business. Dan discusses the factors that led him to shut down his agency after 10 years, including the desire to spend more time with his family, the lack of a clear goal for the agency, and the changing industry landscape. We dive deep into the importance of mindset and the skills needed for success in the design industry. Dan shares a contrarian view that not everyone should be paid for their work, especially if the work is not valuable. He believes that compensation should be tied to the value of the work being done. He also emphasizes the importance of learning and teaching as forms of compensation. Britt and Dan discuss the challenges of running a freelancer-based business and the need for transparency and empathy in the industry. Find Dan on Social: → Dan's Site → Design Systems University → Newsletter → Twitter → Linkedin

There's a reason why we've been talking about design systems for a number of years now—it's the key to collaboration at scale. Few people get that more than Dan Mall who has helped the world's most recognizable brands create design practices that are truly sustainable and successful. We spoke to Dan about his new book, Design That Scales, which dives into how to create, manage, and sustain a successful design system. And he shares where the people involved in a design system fit and how they can best collaborate.  In case you missed it, Dan also joined us for an AMA recently. He's a wealth of knowledge. Find the full show notes, transcript, and more on our Substack: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/dan-mall Bio Dan Mall is a husband, dad, teacher, creative director, designer, founder, and entrepreneur from Philly. He shares as much as he can to create better opportunities for those who wouldn't have them otherwise. Most recently, he ran design system consultancy SuperFriendly for over a decade. Now he's trying to share as much of what he's learned to help designers get the respect they deserve. Currently creating Design System University. [more via Dan's website]. *** Premium Episodes on Design Better This is a premium episode on Design Better (learn more in the announcement here). We'll be releasing two premium episodes per month, along with two free episodes for everyone. Premium subscribers also get access to our monthly AMAs with former guests, ad-free episodes, and our new enhanced newsletter The Brief that compiles salient insights, quotes, readings, and creative processes uncovered in the show.  Upgrade to paid *** Visiting the links below is one of the best ways to support our show: Methodical Coffee: Roasted, blended, brewed, served and perfected by verified coffee nerds

How do you make your design system an internal rooted practice? Our guest today is Dan Mall, entrepreneur and author of Design That Scales. You'll learn how small practices can evolve into a design system, why adoption should tie in to your company's mission statement, how to declare your strategic plan when establishing a design system, and more.Podcast feed: subscribe to https://feeds.simplecast.com/4MvgQ73R in your favorite podcast app, and follow us on iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Podcasts.Show NotesDesign That Scales — Dan's new bookDesign System UniversityEpisode 258: Data-driven Design Systems with Berk ÇebiOmlet.devZeroheight, Supernova, Knapsack — modern tools for design systemsCheck out Dan's websiteSign up for Dan's newsletterFollow Design System University on Twitter and LinkedInFollow Dan on Twitter and InstagramGet Dan's bookThis episode is brought to you by Penpot — the open-source design tool for design and code collaboration. Penpot 2.0 now includes a Components System that allows for systematic element reuse across projects. So you can design faster and more consistently at scale. Join Penpot for free at penpot.app.Interested in sponsoring an episode? Learn more here.Leave a ReviewReviews are hugely important because they help new people discover this podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, please leave a review on iTunes. Here's how.

Come hang with us! Like what you hear? Connect with me - Website: ⁠gun.io/taylor⁠ Email: taylordesseyn@gun.io LinkedIn: Taylor Desseyn Tweet me: @tdesseyn Pics of the life, wife, daughter & dog: @tdesseyn

Dan Mall is a creative director, designer, founder, and entrepreneur. He currently runs Design System University: curriculum & community to support how you design at scale. In this episode of the podcast, Sophia and Dan ask the question, are design systems folks and OOUX folks the same folks? LINKS: Catch up with Dan on his website, danmall.com. Learn more about design systems at Design System University. Take your design career to the next level with The Self-Paced OOUX Masterclass. Continue the discussion on The OOUX Forum! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ooux/support

This week I sit down with Dan Mall to peel back the layers of what it takes for junior designers to excel in their careers. Dan shares invaluable insights from his own experiences, emphasizing the importance of advocacy, networking, and embracing followership to excel in our careers. The post 66. The Continuous Evolution of a Designer with Dan Mall appeared first on Beyond UX Design.

I sit down with Dan Mall to peel back the layers on what it takes for junior designers to excel in their careers. Dan shares invaluable insights from his own experiences, emphasizing the importance of advocacy, networking, and embracing followership to excel in our careers. The post 66. The Continuous Evolution of a Designer with Dan Mall appeared first on Beyond UX Design.

In this episode, Scaling Design Systems for Digital Transformation, Jon and Dan explore the multifaceted world of design systems, delving into challenges, priorities, and experiences in both consumer-facing and internal business contexts. Dan covers the significance of design systems in achieving design maturity at scale, with insights from his latest book, "Design That Scales." They discuss creative approaches in digital transformation, challenges in scaling design, and the importance of addressing internal systems impacting user experience. Key takeaways include: the need for a flexible and pragmatic approach to design systems the importance of diverse skills and representation in design teams the nuanced nature of working with C-suite members. the role of AI in design systems, managing ego and toxicity, and the critical aspects of governance and operational flow Dive into practical insights, debunked misconceptions, and valuable perspectives for navigating the complex landscape of design systems. Book: Design That Scales Websites: DanMall.com, DesignSystem.University, GreatJob.Kids LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/danmall/ TW/X: @DanMall IG: @DanMallTeaches YT: @DanMallTeaches More Episodes: ⁠⁠The Limina Podcast⁠⁠ Music by TimTaj: ⁠⁠⁠https://timtaj.com⁠⁠⁠⁠ Modern Technologies by TimTaj: ⁠⁠⁠https://timtaj.com⁠⁠⁠ This is Interview by TimTaj: ⁠⁠⁠https://timtaj.com⁠

A very special dad, and fellow NBA fanatic, Dan Mall joined Davy and Juan to talk about parenting kids in reaching the pivotals, but not yet tween, meeting methods that may work for families, and getting kids into trying new things. Rosenfeld Media link Great Job Podcast

In a world where organizations constantly strive for efficiency and innovation, Design Systems have emerged as essential tools. They are pivotal in delivering greater value to users while simultaneously enhancing team productivity and satisfaction.Yet, these systems often stumble. Many companies face challenges in implementing and maintaining effective Design Systems.In our latest episode, Alen and Tom delve into these challenges with Dan Mall, a leading authority on Design Systems and the author of the new book "Design that Scales." Dan also runs Design System University, creating, collecting, and curating curriculum, content, and community to help enterprise teams design at scale.Previously, Dan ran design system consultancy SuperFriendly for over a decade. We discuss his experience running a successful distributed agency and his reflections on what he'd do differently a year after wrapping up this business.Our conversation also ventures into critical areas for design freelancers and agencies: pricing strategies and the evolving landscape of design subscription models. Drawing from his expertise and his book Pricing Design, Dan offers clarity on these often misunderstood topics.So join us as we uncover the intricacies of successfully implementing and gaining buy-in for Design Systems. Discover how to measure their impact meaningfully, and learn from Dan's extensive experience in running a distributed agency and navigating the complex world of design pricing.

The basics of building a design system are fairly simple. Ensconcing a system in an organization's culture so that it's actually adopted and used is a more complex undertaking. Dan Mall takes a content-first approach as he helps organizations evolve their design systems from projects to products and ultimately to firmly embedded practices that let teams deliver the efficiency and consistency benefits that such systems offer.  https://ellessmedia.com/csi/dan-mall/

Welcome to the inaugural episode of The Great Job! Podcast hosted by Emily and Dan Mall. The couple sees parenting as a (great!) job with no rule book. Much like in their marriage, the duo are learning everyday, every step of the way by making very intentional choices.Their two children have entered what they call the pivotal age, commonly known as the tween years. Not only is this stretch of time transitional for their children in many ways, but also for themselves as parents. Emily and Dan discuss having to confront your own childhood stuff while parenting in real time, and how to handle modern technology issues, like cell phone boundaries, as parents without any generational precedent.Emily and Dan then introduce the five key areas of parenting that The Great Job! Podcast will be exploring this season and why each is so important to consider.1. Family values: how can we figure out what we hold really important in order to simplify decision making?2. Boundaries: what even are they? And what do they look like in real life?3. Teaching life skills: should my child be able to do x,y,z by a certain age?4. Emotions: because so many feelings come up when parenting and as a child, how do we regulate our ability to express emotions? 5. Mental health: how do we work through the hard stuff? Expect at least two sides to every issue! Emily and Dan love to have a healthy debate and encourage the same from their kids. They wrap up the episode by sharing what it's been like to work together on this podcast project, and how it differs from other projects they have collaborated on in the past. They may have been pals since elementary school but new experiences bring out new sides of each other to learn about and appreciate. Stay in the loop and sign up for the Great Job! newsletter.Episode Outline: (00:07) Raising kids comes with no handbook(04:30) The pivotal years mark transitions for kids and parents (13:01) Introducing the five parenting topic areas of the podcast(18:59) Working together professionally for the first time(24:01) The beauty of healthy disagreement(25:22) Whoever wants it more does the workConnect with Dan and Emily: Great Job! WebsiteGreat Job! Twitter Great Job! Facebook Great Job! LinkedIn About Dan and Emily: We're Dan and Emily Mall, the parents behind Great Job! We've known each other since 5th grade, been together for over twenty years, and have spent the last 12 years raising our two daughters, Sidda and Charlie. We started this space after we noticed a lot of our friends and teachers (and our kids' friends' parents) coming to us for advice or to compliment the way our kids sometimes show up in the world. We wanted a way to share our stories of what's worked and hasn't for parents and caregivers, who, like us, struggle with raising amazing humans.

This week we get together with Emily and Dan Mall from Great Job Kids! A fantastic resource, “Helping parents and caregivers design their own handbook for raising amazing kids.” They are definitely The Power Couple. Their perspective on parenting was such a breath of fresh air because they understood no one is perfect, everyone is different, and we are all simply trying our best every day.

Welcome to the Great Job! Podcast, the show that reminds you that as a parent or caretaker, you're doing just that – a great job. In each episode, you'll hear stories, practices, and strategies related to topics like building boundaries, understanding different parenting styles, approaching difficult conversations with your kids, and so much more. Your hosts, Emily and Dan Mall have been together for over twenty years and have spent the last twelve raising their two daughters. They believe everyone deserves a non-judgmental space to show up as themselves, share, make mistakes, and grow, and they're here to help you set up the best future possible for your kids and family. Join them for weekly episodes curated for intentionally raising amazing humans. Keep up to date with Emily and Dan, the podcast, and more at greatjob.kids.

While we've been developing design systems for years, we're only just now learning how to create systems that are successful and sustainable. Dan Mall is the author of the soon-to-be released Design That Scales: Creating a Sustainable Design System Practice, which explores the cultural elements that contribute to sustainable design systems. Not surprisingly, it's usually pain that motivates change. In fact, companies occupying the number one spot in their respective markets usually have the least incentive to change. As the saying goes, “Number two tries harder.” But even in the most-ready-for-change scenarios, design systems sit, at best, at a third level of priority. Dan asserts that the challenge is to approach design systems as a byproduct of the products and features that bring customers value. Otherwise, design systems will always be on the backburner. Dan and Lou discuss tricky topics around design systems: - Designers' fear of job loss to design systems. - As we move toward sustainable design systems, who should make the decisions? Who does what and when? - How to approach design systems in a sustainable way. - The best way for product and systems teams to collaborate. What you'll learn from this episode: - Why culture, rather than product maturity, will determine whether design systems are successful - How to address fears of job loss as a result of design systems - How to keep people motivated through a systems change - How product and design teams can work together efficiently - How design systems have changed over time - The role of governance in systems change - Why following precedent within your company will get you farther faster Quick Reference Guide [0:00:32] Introduction of Dan Mall and his book Design that Scales – Creating a Sustainable Design System Practice [0:04:49] On reaching cultural alignment [0:07:01] What prompts design systems change [0:09:26] When jobs feel threatened [0:12:21] Cultural signs and markers of design system success [0:16:59] November 29th, 2023 – Design in Product Conference [0:18:20] On governance and sustainability [0:24:44] On collaboration between product and design teams [0:27:33] The evolution of design systems for ICs [0:30:35] Design Systems University [0:32:38] Dan's gift to listeners Resources and links from today's episode: Design in Product Conference on November 29, 2023 https://rosenfeldmedia.com/design-in-product Design Systems University https://designsystem.university/ The Useful School https://usefulschool.com

This episode of Deep Dives highlights the 5 things I learned from interviewing designers like Dan Mall, Grace Walker, Adrien Griveau, Yuan Wang, and Luis Ouriach. You'll learn: 1) How to organize variables in Figma and think strategically about primitives vs. semantic tokens 2) How to price yourself as a first-year freelance designer 3) How the best design systems teams operate 4) How to level up your design portfolio and rethink your case studies 5) How to collaborate with engineers like the founding designer at Linear

Welcome to the first episode in our Design Better series on the creative process. In this series, we're going beyond the confines of design to speak with some of the most creative people in the world, to learn how they approach collaboration, come up with innovative ideas, and overcome creative obstacles. We'll speak with guests like Ed Catmull, co-founder of Pixar; Autumn Durald Arkapaw, cinematographer for Loki and Wakanda Forever, and OK Go, one of the most creative bands in the world right now. Before we get there though, we have a very special guest for you. You may have first heard of David Sedaris from his annual reading of The Santaland Diaries on National Public Radio in the U.S., a story that chronicles his misadventures as Crumpet the holiday elf, and has been a holiday tradition for over 30 years. Or, if you're like us, you may have gotten to know him from some of his early books like Naked. And if you don't know David Sedaris, you're in for a real treat. We chat with David about his acute powers of observation, how he prototypes his essays in front of live audiences, and whether fear exists in his creative process. One quick announcement before we get started. We're continuing to explore new ways to help you learn, grow your career, hone your craft, and get inspired here at Design Better. As part of that, we'd like to invite you to 3 free AMAs (“Ask Me Anything”) with some amazing experts:  First, on September 21st, Dan Mall, founder of Design System University, who's helped companies ranging from Eventbrite, to Nike, to United Airlines, develop and deploy sustainable design systems will share what he's learned to help designers get the respect they deserve while scaling digital products sustainable. Next, on September 28th, Judy Wert, co-founder of Wert & Co, who has been guiding the careers of top designers through ups and downs in the job market, will join us for an open discussion where you can ask questions, get career guidance, and gain perspective on the challenging design and tech job landscape. Finally, on October 4th, Debbie Millman, host of Design Matters —the first podcast about design, and one of the longest running shows in the world—will be with us and you'll have a chance to ask one of the best interviewers in the world what inspires her and what she's learned about creativity over the course of her career. For more details and to sign up for free to each AMA, go to dbtr.co/AMA2023. Bio David Sedaris is the author of Barrel Fever and Holidays on Ice, as well as collections of personal essays, Naked, Me Talk Pretty One Day, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, When You Are Engulfed in Flames, and his most recent book, Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls, each of which became an immediate bestseller. Please visit the links below to help support our show: Methodical Coffee: Roasted, blended, brewed, served and perfected by verified coffee nerds

If you're familiar at all with design systems then I definitely don't need to introduce you to Dan Mall. He's as OG as it gets.In this Deep Dive, Dan shares his take on Figma variables, where design systems are headed in the coming years, and a lot more…

Learn about design systems as we talk to Design System University founder Dan Mall about his Config 2023 talk, “Your next component.” Links https://danmall.com https://twitter.com/danmall https://linktr.ee/danmall https://www.youtube.com/c/danmallteaches https://designsystem.university Tell us what you think of PodRocket We want to hear from you! We want to know what you love and hate about the podcast. What do you want to hear more about? Who do you want to see on the show? Our producers want to know, and if you talk with us, we'll send you a $25 gift card! If you're interested, schedule a call with us (https://podrocket.logrocket.com/contact-us) or you can email producer Kate Trahan at kate@logrocket.com (mailto:kate@logrocket.com) Follow us. Get free stickers. Follow us on Apple Podcasts, fill out this form (https://podrocket.logrocket.com/get-podrocket-stickers), and we'll send you free PodRocket stickers! What does LogRocket do? LogRocket combines frontend monitoring, product analytics, and session replay to help software teams deliver the ideal product experience. Try LogRocket for free today. (https://logrocket.com/signup/?pdr) Special Guest: Dan Mall.

In this episode, Amy and Laura talk about their experiences as freelancers, consultants, coaches, trainers, and everything else in tech. They explain which business models to use when and how to not get screwed by red flag clients.  Episode Transcript Some useful links for more information after you listen to the show:  Avoiding worker misclassification from Bitches Get Riches Tips for figuring out your pricing at Anthropologizing  Pricing Design by Dan Mall from A Book Apart And, of course, the classic tumblr Clients from Hell Got a hiring topic request? Reach out to Amy on LinkedIn and we can cover it in a future episode.

Kendall and Chris discuss how design systems represent the strategic platform for how a company creates product. View the transcript of this episode here.Register for our upcoming ‘Design Systems Buying Guide' webinar on May 24th, 2 pm (EST), hosted by Chris Strahl and Dan Mall. GuestKendall Totten began as a graphic designer & frontend web dev and found Drupal early in her career. She contributed to the frontend for sites such as dallascowboys.com, weather.com & redhat.com. At Red Hat, she helped to champion the OS design system & web components project PatternFly Elements. She is now the Engineering Manager at Pinata and lives in Raleigh, NC.HostChris Strahl is co-founder and CEO of Knapsack, host of @TheDSPod, DnD DM, and occasional river guide. You can find Chris on Twitter as @chrisstrahl and on LinkedIn.Sponsored by Knapsack, the design system platform that brings teams together. Learn more at knapsack.cloud.

Dan Mall wears many hats - he is a designer, teacher, author, entrepreneur, father, and much more. In this episode, Dan and Nadia discuss different design leadership theories such as how to create psychological safety for yourself and your team, decision making, and how and when to form design principles.   Here's a look at our discussion: 0:30 : What lead Dan to start his own agency and then pivot to his newest venture, Dan Mall Teaches 6:00 : The importance of pricing in design 8:30 : Decision making & choosing between a lot of good options 13:00 : Giving people permission to try things and do their best work  18:15 : Creating personal psychological safety through taking risks 24:00 : Finding balance while working multiple design jobs 28:00 : Managing/Coaching people for their next job 34:00 : Forming your own design philosophies & principles  41:30 : How to get in touch with Dan   Links mentioned in this episode: Dan's Website Dan's Book: Pricing Design Book: The Decision Book: 50 Models for Strategic Thinking Book: How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk Dan's Twitter Dan's Instagram Dan's LinkedIn Dan's YouTube Page

Dan is a husband, dad, teacher, creative director, designer, founder, and entrepreneur from Philadelphia. During the start of his career, Dan found himself amongst the people at the forefront of the web standards movement. In our conversation we talked about his career, the people who influenced him, the various eras of his design firm SuperFriendly, and his personal mission to create better opportunities for those who wouldn't have them otherwise.

We hebben 2023 gehaald en we gaan in deze aflevering even terugblikken op de Design System advent calendar van Dan Mall, er komen dit jaar een hele bult handige CSS features beschikbaar voor alle browsers en we gaan het even kort hebben over de UX rondom Voice Assistants. 1:10 - Design System advent calendar van Dan Mall 6:24 - ROI Design Systems in Excel - https://twitter.com/nathanacurtis/status/1583565587485073408 9:52 - The W3C design tokens community group - https://www.w3.org/community/design-tokens/ 12:20 - Arc Browser - https://arc.net/ 15:50 - nth-child() - https://twitter.com/bramus/status/1612755458774929408 15:50 - dvh viewport unit - https://web.dev/viewport-units/ 19:50 - Chrome viewport resize behaviour - https://developer.chrome.com/en/blog/viewport-resize-behavior/ 23:52 - Media Query range - https://css-tricks.com/the-new-css-media-query-range-syntax/ 25:35 - Top Layer in chrome  - https://developer.chrome.com/blog/what-is-the-top-layer/ 32:20 - Container Queries in FireFox nightly 33:00 - UX van Voice Assistants 42:50 - Rhasspy voice assistant - https://rhasspy.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ 44:46 - Flipper Zero - https://flipperzero.one/

We zijn in december aanbeland en dat houdt in dat er traditiegewijs veel adventskalenders zijn. In deze aflevering bespreken we er weer twee, één voor HTML en de ander voor Design Systems. Verder bespreken we hoe je de ecologische voetafdruk van een website naar beneden kunt brengen, hoe handig CSS speech property in de toekomst kan zijn en hoe je betere foutmeldingen kunt schrijven. 0:48 - Spotify Wrapped 3:15 - HTMHELL adventskalender - https://www.htmhell.dev/adventcalendar/ 4:44 - Design System adventcalendar van Dan Mall - https://twitter.com/danmall 7:30 - Betere foutmeldingen schrijven - https://wix-ux.com/when-life-gives-you-lemons-write-better-error-messages-46c5223e1a2f 16:06 - Sustainable Web Tactics - https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2022/10/sustainable-web-development-strategies-organization/ 17:38 - Bereken CO2 uitstoot van je website -  https://www.websitecarbon.com 18:30 - https://digitalbeacon.co/ 20:30 - Solar powered website - https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/ 25:23 - The green web foundation - https://www.thegreenwebfoundation.org/ 29:00 - Leonie Watson CSS Speech property - https://tink.uk/why-we-need-css-speech/ 35:03 - Fallback font generator - https://screenspan.net/fallback 38:20 - Wes Bos instagram reels - https://www.instagram.com/wesbos/ 40:16 - Andor - https://www.disneyplus.com/nl-nl/series/star-wars-andor/3xsQKWG00GL5

In this episode of the podcast I got the chance to sit down and talk to author, speaker, Creative Director and CEO of SuperFriendly, Dan Mall. We talk about design systems, making them accessible, SuperFriendly and building a company, achieving goals, and much more! Intro/Outro music graciously given permission to use called, "Settle In" by Homer Gaines. Sound editing by Chris Enns of Lemon Productions. Transcripts can be found at: https://toddl.dev/podcast/transcripts/mall/ Show Notes https://danmall.me/ - Dan's personal Sit https://twitter.com/danmall - Dan on Twitter https://superfriendly.com/ - Super Friendly https://abookapart.com/products/pricing-design - Pricing Design on A Book Apart --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/frontendnerdery/support

Dan has been a creative director, designer, and developer since 1998. He has taught design systems and collaboration at public conferences, private client engagements, as higher education instruction, and on many podcasts and videos. Dan's superpower is getting people excited, even when there's challenging work ahead. Dan met his wife Emily when they were both in 5th grade. Together, they raise daughters Siddalee and Charlotte, yorkshire terrier Max, and mini sheepadoodle Matilda just outside Philadelphia, PA. IS YOUR TEAM LOOKING FOR DESIGN SYTEMS COACHING?Hire SuperFriendly and experience digital transformation through design systems coaching and practice - https://superfriendly.com/ CONNECT WITH DAN MALLTwitter - https://twitter.com/danmallLinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/danmall/Website - https://danmall.me/CONNECT WITH MELinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayneil Twitter - https://twitter.com/jayneildalal 

The Creative Director Dan Mall joins the show to talk about his career path and the moments that led him to start SuperFriendly, his own agency that is all about design systems. Dan shares his ethos and explains why he considers himself as an intentional person. We explore some of the key moments within the foundation of SuperFriendly and we talk about the practices that companies value the most when it comes to working with agencies. Listen and discover what design agencies and Hollywood movies have in common! Jump straight into: (01:33) - Introducing Dan Mall: A family man and professional leader who believes that everyone is creative. (06:52) - Icebreaker questions: A day in Dan's life, his latest obsession and why people describe him as intentional. (13:52) -  “People value design”: Dan's background, influences and events that got him into design. (19:35) - What is SuperFriendly? Get to know Dan's agency model and why it's similar to Hollywood. (22:48) - A decade in the business: Exploring some of the key moments within the foundation of SuperFriendly. (31:54) - “Narrow positioning draws more clients”: What is SuperFriendly's main focus in 2022? (36:19) - A centralized-package-managed-version-controlled-software-product: The evolution of SuperFriendly's concept for design systems throughout the years. (43:01) - Try to help people: What is Dan looking forward to in the following years? When is his next book being published?   Episode Resources: Connect with Dan through https://www.linkedin.com/in/danmall/ (LinkedIn) and https://twitter.com/danmall?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor (Twitter) https://danmall.me/ (Dan Mall | Homepage) https://superfriendly.com/ (SuperFriendly) https://daneden.me/blog/2021/thinking-is-work (Thinking is Work - Dan Eden) https://articles.uie.com/design_rendering_intent/ (Design is the Rendering of Intent - Jared M. Spool)

Season 5 is right around the corner. Our featured guests include Jasmine Orange, Dan Mall, Timothy Bardlavens, Catt Small, and Chris Thoms. The new season kicks off on Tuesday, April 26th with new episodes released every other week. Jump straight into: (00:00) - Introduction (01:26) - Figma Config (02:18) -  The Technically Speaking Product Design Glossary (02:48) - Jasmine Orange, designer at EY talks about why moving fast and breaking things isn't always a good idea. (04:27) - Dan Mall, founder of design systems agency, SuperFriendly discusses his design ethos and how he believes that everyone is a creator. (06:05) - Catt Small, Staff Designer at Asana discusses the importance of senior IC's and the importance in organizations and as a career trajectory. (08:10) - Timothy Bardlavens discusses his definition of chaotic good and how he applies that to his work at Meta. (09:35) - Chris Thoms shares how he got in touch with the children and communities that he's designing for and how that is now a part of his purpose at NWEA Figma Config https://config.figma.com/events/figma-config-2022/talks/f933d6145e7f?type=item (Register) The Technically Speaking Product Design Glossary: 118 Terms You Need To Know https://airtable.com/shrwyDAxHBUNcXnM0 (Download) Follow Technically Speaking on https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcwBLFBbMX6lMXV6l20SFzw (YouTube), https://www.instagram.com/technicallyspeakinghw (Instagram), https://www.linkedin.com/company/technicallyspeakinghw (LinkedIn).

As you probably know, Brad Frost is the author of "Atomic Design," the creator of pattern lab, and a design systems advocate and educator. He writes front end code, writes about writing code, and consults to companies looking to create successful, effective design systems. In this episode of the podcast, Sophia and Brad discuss how technology is like a river, why it's important for everyone on a project to have a shared language, and how design systems are like furniture parts. If you like this conversation, make sure to scroll back and listen to the first three episodes of the podcast. I've got some introduction episodes as well as a conversation with Dan Mall, which as you might expect, compliments this episode nicely. As a huge fan of the atomic design philosophy and brad frost himself, I am super excited to share this conversation with you! LINKS: Follow Brad on Twitter: @brad_frost Keep up with Brad on his site: bradfrost.com If you haven't read "Atomic Design" yet, what are you doing? Buy it here: Atomic Design Cohort 6 of the OOUX Certification Program is being pushed to February. If you want to be a part of that cohort I STRONGLY encourage you to get on the waitlist by going to OOUX.com/waitlist. We will only email you when enrollment opens. Promise to respect your inbox. If you don't want to wait until Feb, you can get started now by enrolling in the Self-Paced Masterclass which is the exact same content, just without the bells and whistles of the certification. And if you decide you want to upgrade to the certification when enrollment opens, you just pay the difference. See a side by side comparison and Ooux.com/training Not convinced? Check out Ooux.com/testimonals to see what certified strategists say about OOUX and the course. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/ooux/support

Dan Mall, Creative director and advisor, founder and director of both SuperFriendly and Arcade and design systems extraordinaire talks to us about the collaboration between designers and engineers to hot potatoing between design and development and the shift that is needed in design to better focus on people. DanMall.meDan on TwitterSuperFriendlyArcadeStand By Me, Ben E. KingThe Count of Monte Cristo , Alexandre DumasDesignOps Island Discs is brought to you by zeroheight, the design system documentation platform. You can jump in at any point and create your first styleguide for free. Until next time, bon voyage...

You may remember Dan Mall as the co-founder of the Businessology Show, but these days he's at the helm of SuperFriendly Design, a one-of-a-kind creative model that is comprised solely of contractors. Now, most people may sweat at that idea, but Dan is here to break down how he implements healthy rhythms into this unique structure while maintaining an incredibly high level of work quality. It's truly a great listen for all business leaders!

You may remember Dan Mall as the co-founder of the Businessology Show, but these days he's at the helm of SuperFriendly, a one-of-a-kind creative model that is comprised solely of contractors. Now, most people may sweat at this Hollywood-inspired idea, but Dan is here to break down how he injects healthy rhythms into this unique structure while maintaining an incredibly high level of work quality. It's truly a great listen for all business leaders!

Dan Mall is the CEO, Founder, and Creative Director at SuperFriendly Design Systems, a one-of-a-kind creative agency. On this episode, Jason picks Dan's brain about positioning for accountants. Specifically, why it's important for firms to take steps to position themselves in the accounting marketplace. This really informative discussion is a little bit different, but SUPER valuable to firm owners. Get your pens and notepads ready! Follow Thriveal on social media: Twitter: twitter.com/THRIVEalCPAs Instagram: instagram.com/thrivealcpas/ LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/thriveal/ Facebook: facebook.com/THRIVEal Join the Thriveal community: thriveal.com/apply

When you think of a design agency you might imagine a large, bustling office, with an open floor plan, teaming with creative people. And most of the time, reality would meet your expectations. But not all of the time. Because that's not what Philadelphia based agency, Superfriendly, is. It's not even close. Superfriendly is a distributed design collaborative. Which means their team members reside all over the world. Like specialized creative agents, they are tapped to collaborate on projects that maximize both their skill and their personal experience. Our guest in this episode—Dan Mall—is the founder and sole employee of Superfriendly. Dan shares how and why he structured his agency the way he did and why having the right people in the room is how you win. You will also hear how Dan reverse engineered his entire career. From entry level designer to agency strategist and the double-edged sword of youthful arrogance. But the most compelling part of this conversation is how Dan and Chris discuss pricing. You're probably familiar with the various pricing models. Like hourly, value-based, cost plus, etc. But have you ever thought about the ethics involved in each? Some may think value-based pricing is unethical. Others might argue that charging hourly is. Who's right? And what's the most important part of the equation? We'll let you decide, but we suggest you listen to this episode first. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Dan Mall, CEO and Founder of SuperFriendly, joins us for a far-reaching conversation about building prolific design teams, how to create a British Coffee House innovation culture, why rewarding the ‘worst' ideas can beget the best ideas, and how stealing and remixing Gordon Ramsey's scrambled egg recipe is the secret to getting good at anything. Enjoy everyone! Drinks: Coca-Cola Classic, Whalers Rhode Island American Pale Ale, Victory Brewing Company Summer Love Golden Ale Links: www.superfriendly.co --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/whatbubblesup/message

In today’s episode, I speak with Dan Mall. Dan is a creative director and advisor from Philly. He’s the founder and CEO of SuperFriendly, a design collaborative that helps in-house teams make better digital products with design systems. Dan is the author of Pricing Design, and co-founder of Arcade, a fun way to manage design tokens for enterprise teams. Enthralled by his role as husband and dad, he also finds joy writing about design and other issues on Twitter and on his industry-recognized site, danmall.me.  We dive into the difference between boundaries and psychological safety, why these practices should matter to every designer, the connection between risk and creativity, tactical ways to inspire a culture of learning, as well as how to contribute and challenge the status quo for better collaboration and impact.

We’re revisiting highlights from this year’s run of Hi-Res Daily episodes with a look back on conversations with Jason Rothman, Jon Billet, Alex Hillman, Mel Calantropio & Meg Potoma, Ellen Manning, Lydia Nichols, Andrew Zaeh, John Antes, Nate Nichols, Dan Mall, Gena Senior, Emily Kelley, Allan Peters, Debbie Millman, Neil Binkley, Nisha Dent, Kelly Holohan, Jason Craig, Amberella, Nicole Saltzer, Dermot Mac Cormack, Thomas Foley, Chris Piascik and Christopher Lands.

Have you heard about design systems? It's a catchy concept that's been getting quite some attention lately from our friends at the digital UX community. And I think we as a service design community can get a lot of value out of it as well! Here's my simple understanding of a design system... The main idea is that a design system provides you with a standardised set of components and patterns. This standardised set allows you to deliver results more efficiently and with more consistency. In an online environment a component might be a button and a pattern might be the steps in the ordering process. Now I hear you thinking... I don't work with buttons and checkout flows. So how can I as a service designer benefit from a design system? That exactly the question I had as well! Fortunately, good friend of the Show and design systems ninja, Dan Mall was willing to come on and lay it all out for us. --- [ GUIDE ] -— 00:00 Welcome to episode 116 02:05 Who is Dan 03:45 Getting started with design systems 07:30 The use case for design systems 11:00 Where does a design system live 14:30 Design systems for services 18:30 Where to start 26:30 Patterns and components 31:15 Finding the right balance 33:45 Design sytems are culture 36:30 Systems as word 39:00 Who's job is it 41:30 Reasons why design systems don't get adopted 44:30 How to sell a design system 47:00 It's an ongoing journey 49:00 Recommended resources 50:50 Final thoughts --- [ LINKS ] --- * https://www.linkedin.com/in/danmall/ * https://superfriendlydesign.systems/ * https://superfriendlydesign.systems/classes/make-design-systems-people-want-to-use/ * https://bigmedium.com/ideas/boring-design-systems.html * https://shop.smashingmagazine.com/products/design-systems-by-alla-kholmatova * https://abookapart.com/products/expressive-design-systems * Thinking in Systems: A Primer - https://amzn.to/2WITxgx --- [ ENJOYED THE SHOW ] --- Take a look at some of the other episodes. https://go.servicedesignshow.com/spotify --- [ YOUTUBE ] --- Every episode of the Service Design Show is also available as via the official YouTube channel. https://go.servicedesignshow.com/youtube --- [ FREE COURSE ] --- HOW TO EXPLAIN SERVICE DESIGN Learn what it takes to get your clients, colleagues, managers, CEOs and even grandmas as excited about service design as you are! https://servicedesignshow.com/free-course

What's up OOUXers, this conversation with Dan mall is bonkers…Dan Mall is one of the leading experts in design systems — he's the cofounder and creative director at Super Friendly, a design collaborative that brings design system guidance, leadership, and execution to companies like Capital One, Girl Scouts, Harvard, Carnegie Mellon, and so many more. He's the creator of a new design system course, not out yet, but check out the link below to sign up for updates so you can be the first to know about it. Dan and I discuss the personality traits that make a good system designer, how to start a design system project the right way, we debate the pros and cons of “flexible cards” which can lead to what I call masked objects, and we come up with a plan for how OOUXers can fill a needed gap in the design system world…putting components in context and rooting them in the real world valuable objects that users and businesses care about. LINKS: Get on the waitlist for Dan's Design System Course: https://superfriendlydesign.systems/classes/design-systems-with-superfriends/ Dan's Twitter: https://twitter.com/danmall Josh Clark's referenced article: https://bigmedium.com/ideas/boring-design-systems.html --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/ooux/support

When it comes to putting a price tag on service design many people struggle. It can be hard to articulate the value that you create through your work. Therefor many service designers just avoid the topic in general. What if you would treat the pricing of service design as a design challenge in itself where the goal is to come up with a solution where all parties benefit? The conversation about value, price and money becomes much less uncomfortable! In this episode. Dan Mall explains how you can do that through an approached called value based pricing. The things you're going to learn in this episode will not only help you to charge more for your work while at the same time delivering more value for your clients. --- [ GUIDE ] -— 00:00 Welcome to episode 107 01:40 Who is Dan 03:20 60 second rapid fire 05:40 Why talking about value matters 08:30 Feeling valued 09:30 The stigma around business 11:00 Object value pricing 13:15 The basis of value pricing 15:00 Creating alignment around a goal 18:10 What is important to you 19:10 The dangerous separation between business and design 21:00 Challenger sales 24:10 Setting a benchmark 27:00 Prototyping with numbers 29:45 Giving guarantees 31:40 Pricing experiments 35:20 When do you start charging 38:00 Do this in every sales conversation 40:45 Look for win-wins 42:30 Recommended resources 43:30 Get in touch with Dan 43:55 Final thoughts --- [ LINKS ] --- * http://danmall.me/ * https://twitter.com/danmall * https://www.linkedin.com/in/danmall/ * https://superfriendlydesign.systems/ * https://www.relay.fm/presentable/59 * https://jonathanstark.com/ --- [ BOOKS ] --- * https://abookapart.com/products/pricing-design * https://www.winwithoutpitching.com/pricing-creativity/ * Implementing Value Pricing - https://amzn.to/3amGurq * The Challenger Sale - https://amzn.to/2Dy35W4 * Shark Tales - https://amzn.to/2XRkLmd --- [ MORE ] --- Enjoyed the show? Take a look at some of the other episodes. https://go.servicedesignshow.com/spotify YOUTUBE Every episode of the Service Design Show is also available as via the official YouTube channel. https://go.servicedesignshow.com/youtube INSTAGRAM Get an exclusive behind the scenes look of the Show. https://go.servicedesignshow.com/instagram --- [ FREE COURSE ] --- HOW TO EXPLAIN SERVICE DESIGN Learn what it takes to get your clients, colleagues, managers, CEOs and even grandmas as excited about service design as you are! https://servicedesignshow.com/free-course

…on climbing some mountains. Dan Mall is a creative director and advisor from Philly. He’s also the founder and director of SuperFriendly, a design collaborative that brings exquisite creative direction and design to the world’s most important and interesting organizations. Dan joins the show for a conversation about why he still loves Flash, giving yourself permission to stop reading a book, and letting smart people do what they do best.

Dan Mall is the Founder & CEO of SuperFriendly, a design collaborative that helps in-house teams make better digital products with design systems. Having worked with clients like United Airlines, Harvard Business School, athenahealth, Capital One, Apple, dotdash, Google, Reader's Digest, The New York Times,  ExxonMobil, and more, Dan has a passion for playing matchmaker between surprising art direction and intuitive interaction design and building teams that are finely tuned to the solutions clients are looking for. In this episode, we talk about Dan’s design roots in Philly, how working with Jeffrey Zeldman shaped his career, fostering trust as a design director, his inclusive approach to building teams, and so much more.

Dan Mall is the Founder & CEO of SuperFriendly, a design collaborative that helps in-house teams make better digital products with design systems. Having worked with clients like United Airlines, Harvard Business School, athenahealth, Capital One, Apple, dotdash, Google, Reader's Digest, The New York Times,  ExxonMobil, and more, Dan has a passion for playing matchmaker between surprising art direction and intuitive interaction design and building teams that are finely tuned to the solutions clients are looking for. In this episode, we talk about Dan’s design roots in Philly, how working with Jeffrey Zeldman shaped his career, fostering trust as a design director, his inclusive approach to building teams, and so much more.

On this episode of the Businessology Show, Jason Blumer reconnects with co-creater, Dan Mall! Dan is also the founder and director of SuperFriendly, which is a teaching agency. Meaning they help in-house design teams create systems to make a better design product. Dan gives Jason details on how this type of agency runs and the benefits of being a teaching agency.

Dan Mall calls in from the East coast to chat with Chris about design systems and their role in enterprise organizations. How does this affect the teams that work on them? The guys also discuss what digital products actually are in relation to design systems. How to create a "one ring to rule them all" type of system and does that even exits? They continue to dive into agile, designers' roles, how teams are finding they're wasting time, and much more.Dan MallCreative Director, Advisor, CEO and Founder of SuperFriendlyDan Mall is a creative director and advisor from Philly. He's the founder and CEO of SuperFriendly, a design collaborative that helps in-house teams make better digital products with design systems. Dan is an enthralled husband & dad, author of Pricing Design, and co-founder of SuperBooked, a service that helps you find work with a little help from your friends. He writes about design and other issues on Twitter and on his industry-recognized site, danmall.me.You can find Dan on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Octavius, Adam, & special guest Dan Mall take a Retrospective look at Superman: The Movie (1978)

The story of how SuperFriendly helped The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. A conversation between VP of Digital Marketing Mamie Peers and SuperFriendly founder Dan Mall. Read the transcript at https://superfriendlydesign.systems/helped/cosmopolitan-las-vegas/

Thank you for listening to SmashNotes.com - You are awesome! In this warm summer edition: The lost art of apprenticeships, and how and why Dan Mall is growing a new breed of designers by teaching them to do everything. Remote Work Report from Hiten Shah, and advice on how to make your own company more productive. Jason Calacanis on how to prepare your kids for life from the young age, and how the Elon Musk school is doing it. Rosie Sherry, the maker behind the Ministry of Testing, and what she did not expect from a life of a mother. How a failed client relationship catalyzed Jason Schuller to start Press75. If you would like to learn more about your favorite podcasts, take a look at SmashNotes.com and use the new search feature to get just the right set of notes. Don't see what you are looking for? Email me `community@smashnotes.com` and let's set you up with an account. You too could create high quality notes for your friends to follow. Till next week! ~Kirill p.s. This update is brought to you by Crowd Cow, the best way to buy delicious, organic, responsibly grown beef, chicken, pork and seafood. Try Crowd Cow today, and get a $25 credit to your first purchase. Nom, nom!

Enter design system pros Brad Frost and Dan Mall, long-time collaborators known for their expertise in bridging the gap between designers and developers. In this episode of the Design Better Podcast, Aarron and Eli talk with Dan and Brad about reducing friction between these two very different disciplines. They explore a few misconceptions around agile methodology, the risks of the creative technologist role, and breaking the design process to fix it. This is a conversation you don’t want to miss.

Dan Mall joins me to talk about pricing 7-figure design projects.

My guest today is Kevin M. Hoffman. Kevin is a designer, manager, and author who has led teams of designers both inside and outside of large organizations. In the last few years, he's turned his attention to designing better meetings. In this episode, we talk about how he's using information to engage with prospects and clients so they can design meetings that add value to their lives. Photo credit: Michelle Milla Listen to the full conversation https://theinformeddotlife.files.wordpress.com/2019/03/the-informed-life-episode-5-kevin-m-hoffman.mp3   Show notes Kevin M. Hoffman Meeting Design: For Managers, Makers, and Everyone by Kevin M. Hoffman Dan Mall SuperFriendly Super Friends Karen McGrane Google Docs GitHub Dropbox Box Schoolhouse Rock: I'm Just a Bill Bear Note Markdown Google Keep Read the full transcript Jorge: Today on the show, we have Kevin Hoffman. Welcome Kevin! Kevin: Hi, how are you? Jorge: I'm doing alright. Kevin: Good. Jorge: I've known Kevin for a long time, but the folks listening to the show might not know you — so why don't you tell us about yourself Kevin? Kevin: Sure. My name is Kevin M. Hoffman. I go by Kevin M., just because at this point I think there's four or five Kevin Hoffmans in the in the various platforms: email, Twitter… Anytime I speak at a conference, there are two Kevin Hoffmans that always get my replies and there's another Kevin Hoffman that gets a lot of my emails. One time I applied for a bank account and the bank started emailing him right after I left. And I did not want to do business with that take anymore because they didn't write my email address down correctly. So I go by Kevin M. and what I do… These days what I'm doing is taking about two decades plus of experience working in a variety of contexts, but always on a design capacity. So I've worked in nonprofits and in the public sector, I've worked in agencies, I've run companies, you know design consulting agencies. I started a product. And I spent the last couple of years working in a large company — in a Fortune 100 company — and I try to take all of that, and I think about specifically this one piece of everyone's work experience which is meetings. So everybody has meetings. All of our processes — kind of a unit of measure in processes meetings — you know, if you're a designer, and you're part of you've been part of an agile transformation, or you're undergoing that or you're planning one — a big part of that is renaming meetings and following kind of a rigid recipe of meetings. And what I do is take all this experience I've had and things I learned from other people about making meetings do a job that you want them to do, and create ways for people to assess and measure meetings are doing a job for them. And if not, get rid of them. And if they are doing a job help them continue to grow and flourish. I wrote a book and published it last year about this topic. And these days what I'm doing is just talking to different kinds of clients and doing workshops and helping them develop their own meeting health indexes. Kind of a sense of how well the meetings are serving the employees of their companies. Jorge: That's fascinating. I'm hearing you describe this and thinking about how much our trajectories mirror each other. Kevin: Yes. Jorge: Like you, I was recently at a company and as of last year, I left that company, and I'm also independent. And I also have a book that came out, and I'm in the process of transitioning from working as part of a team to working on my own and being kind of more responsible for things like procuring clients and getting things done. Kevin: Yep. Jorge: And I'm wondering what that experience is like for you and what role information plays in that process. Kevin: Yeah. I think the first time I was independent was about seven or eight years ago. And I was really lucky in that I had a couple of former colleagues from working at agencies that had already gone this route of going independent and then building teams of contractors to undertake design projects. And one of them — a guy named Dan Mall — he had already started working this way, and he's worked this way for quite a long time. He has an agency called SuperFriendly. It's named after the SuperFriends, the show from — gosh, I want to say the 80s — I think it's the 80s — where all the DC Super Heroes would come together and the concept… Jorge: Is that the one with the power twins? Kevin: Yeah, where one takes the form of a bucket of water and the other one always takes the form of something else. Jorge: Right. Kevin: But it seems like a bucket of water is always… And they had a monkey, for some reason. I remember that. But anyway, Dan brought me into this world of SuperFriends, which is people who for whatever reason find themselves relatively senior — experienced in their craft, whatever part of the design process their craft is, whether it's discovery and strategy or UI design or front end development or back-end development, whatever it is. And because certain people just like working together, that's no reason that they have to necessarily form a traditional company. They can just work together when there are problems to solve together. And after spending a couple of years working with Dan and other people who worked in that way — in that context — I decided to just try it out and and learn how to really initiate a conversation with someone in any context where you learn about the problem that you might be able to help them solve and then move that conversation through into some sort of formal agreement. You know, the reason I brought up when I first started, is I remember early on a colleague of mine who I have deep respect and love for — a woman named Karen McGrane — she referred an RFP to me. Like there was an RFP for a website for a bank. A small bank — I can't remember the name of the bank — and it was the first time I had ever written a proposal and I remember thinking to myself: I'm going to write this proposal. And I'm going to write the best proposal I can write right now.” Because I'd been writing proposals for a while in agencies… And I'm going to assume I'm not going to get this work, but this is going to become like this… What's the word I'm looking for? I don't want to say “cornerstone” but like this go-to document that as I write other proposals, I'll just pull from this master proposal that I wrote. Jorge: Like a template? Kevin: Like a template, but it's almost more like… I think of it this way, one of the things that I do over my career, a piece of information that I keep, is success stories or portfolio work stories where I came into a situation, I performed certain actions, and I observed certain outcomes. And trying to tell those kinds of stories at different levels of zoom, at different scale… I try to collect those. And I have a Keynote document that has like maybe between 10 and 15 stories in it that are some of the best stories I've collected over the years, but anytime I send that to a prospective client to say “this is what I do,” I might just pick a subset of those stories. But I had to make the master portfolio document at first, you know, and that was that master proposal thing that I made. Jorge: Sorry. I'm just very curious about this. Kevin: No, interrupt me at will… Jorge: So it sounds like if… Kevin: … somebody has to. Jorge: [Chuckle] It sounds like it's a like a kit of parts or like a LEGO box of sorts where you can build customized or bespoke portfolio pieces or portfolio documents based on what you get the sense is most interesting to the prospect. Is that right? Kevin: Yeah. One of the things that I've learned in my work is that I think as a designer. I have a desire for the process to be clear and articulated. And in this case, we could be talking about the process of a prospective client or just a person you meet, a colleague you meet in some context. Their journey from being that to being either a regular client or at least a client that you actually help solve some problems and work with. And I think what I found is it's better for me to think about having good collections and not worrying about the process. So I'll give you an example of what I mean. This idea of the master proposal… I have proposals for workshops. You know, I do workshops at conferences; I do between two and four year these days, and I do corporate workshops. But anyway, I'm in the process of booking workshops. I have some master proposals for generally the kinds of content that I teach, the kind of exercises that I help my clients run, and the kind of outcomes that they can expect. But I don't give that to anyone and I'm fortunate enough that I get some inquiries. I get a nice trickle of inquiries via my website or via conferences I've spoken at. People follow up when their budgets are good, whatever. I always follow up that first inquiry. However, it comes in with a 30-minute conversation. Because in that conversation I want to learn for myself if I believe that the tools that I teach and the methods and the way that I look at this problem… I want to believe that it has the capacity to solve a specific problem that that person is having. And it could be as specific as — and these are two examples from recent conversations –it could be as specific as, “we're about to invest a large sum of money in an agile transformation at a big company, and we want to make sure people can run our daily stand-ups well or know how to facilitate a retrospective.” And it could be as general as, “one of my goals for 2019, for my team, you know, I'm a VP of design and manage between 20 and 50 designers, one of my goals is for us to set an example for what a better meeting is in this organization. I feel like our designers aren't as present as they could be or they're not leading the meetings that we could be having.” So it could just be like, “we just want it to be better.” And in either case, the proposal that I write has to speak to the problem is they understand it. So it's taking that big uber-proposal and then finding out how do they describe their problem, and then identifying the methods and language in my portfolio of success stories or in my existing work that fits that problem, the way they've described it. And then I go through a process where I actually create a Google Doc — ideally a Google Doc, but some sort of cloud based collaborative document — where I say, “Okay. Here's what I heard. Here's what I think I would do. You know, this is a rough estimate of the cost. But first, tell me if this will help you evangelize this in your organization.” And I'll give them a week to comment on it, to rewrite it, whatever they want to do. And the really interesting thing about that part of the process that I've learned lately is that I've had experiences where I've said things that I believe to be true — not necessarily for their company, but just universally true — like I believe that people think they're better at meetings than they are. Right? I believe that people think of meetings as things that can be done relatively easily, and if we have to have one we have it and we get through it. And I also have the belief that most companies don't make heavy investments in improving meetings in the organization as a serious ongoing effort of organizational change. A prospective client came to me recently. I had some language to that effect about how this isn't a common investment, and it turns out it had recently been a big investment they had made, and what they had tried wasn't working. And had I not known that, had I not had that step in the process for them to tell me, “Oh, this language is reminding us of the fact that we've already spent money on this and it didn't work,” and re-tailor the language to say, “this is why this might work where your previous efforts didn't work.” I might have alienated some person signing the check somewhere. Jorge: I want to read back what I'm hearing you say with regards to the proposal, and I want to circle back afterward to the actual process of keeping track of these conversations. But for the moment, let's stay with this proposal. It sounds like there are two parts to this. One is having the “kit of parts” that allows you to assemble a proposal for a prospect, and the other is placing those parts in a sort of sandbox — in this case, Google Docs — that allows you to collaboratively create the final thing with the prospect. Is that a fair reading? Kevin: Yeah, absolutely. I think that one of the interesting things that I've observed in working in design and process is this idea of working in the open, you know. I've been on a couple of teams where they've put into their contracts with their clients that they mandate an open process either they blog the process as it happens, or they mandate an open design process meaning the process as it happens in real time is documented. These days, GitHub and obviously cloud-based things like Dropbox and Box are good for that. But via the web, there's an evolving project story. I feel like it fundamentally… maybe not explicitly, but at a deep level implicitly, requires trust for both parties. And if I do that at the proposal stage — if I say, “Look, we're going to work in the open… In the open as far as you and I are concerned. So I'm going to give you a document. Anyone in your organization can read it and change it, and I'm going to be reading it and changing it as well. You know, responding to your comments — not agreeing with everything you say — but just you know, helping get helping us get to know you.” The benefit of that is it gives me a sense and it gives them a sense of what it's like to work together. So if at any point I or they feel like, “Oh, the way our dialogue is going… We're not speaking the same language, or there aren't really problems here that I think I'm going to be able to help you solve,” or whatever it might be. It's a lower cost way of getting there. And fewer meetings, because all of this comes out of anything from a 15 to 30-minute initial conversation. Jorge: That's such an important insight. Right? The idea that these documents are not just… They don't just exist for their own sake, but they're also a dry run for the process of working together. Kevin: Yeah. Jorge: I'm curious when you say “working in the open”… That sounds very enticing to me, this notion of showing your work and co-creation is something that… something that I've aspired to in my work. I have not always been successful at it. And part of the reason I haven't been as successful in some cases as I would have liked to is that I have found that the openness… So if you open something up, if you open a collaboration process up to just anybody, you might get a lot of voices that are not invested in the outcome in some ways and it could derail the conversation, right? If everyone does not have the same outcomes in mind or if you're not working together towards the same outcomes. In the case of the proposal, it sounds like you're working with a very specific group of people, but does this ever extend to a larger group within the organization? Or do you keep it to your prospect and perhaps a select few others? Kevin: In my experience, for this specific process what I found over the years is that if I keep it to a smaller group and allow that group to advocate for the value they see in working with me and working together, it all also gives me a little bit of information about what their position or a capability of creating consensus is within their organization. I mean if I'm cynical, there's always a process of finding “where am I having a conversation with someone who actually is a signer on a budget?” You know somebody who is actually making a decision about a particular budget. So it's always a good sign… And I generally ask pretty early in the process, “do you have a specific budget that you're thinking about for investing in this problem?” Because I have relatively predictable rates within a range, but if you have a specific budget that you're thinking about I know what it takes for me to do the work, I can write a proposal pulling from those LEGO pieces that is more tailored to a specific budget if I have to. I don't often find that's the case now, but earlier when I was doing really large scale projects with teams of upwards of 9 or 10 people that I would hire, that was more often the case where I would have to be creative within usually six-figure budgets. I would say more often than not like a budget between 100k and 500k and try to really solve a problem within a constraint that somebody really had. But now if I'm talking to somebody early on as an individual consultant — I don't build teams to do the work that I do at this point — and they say something like, “oh, we have to pause the conversation because the person who would make the decision about the budget is on vacation,” that tells me who else I need to bring into the document conversation. And I would say so far in my new consulting practice — my relatively nascent practice — I would say more than half the time I'm speaking to somebody in a position who's managing a budget. But when I'm not it's usually somebody who's really motivated by the problem and has a connection. I haven't had an experience where somebody's playing like, “I really want to talk to you and invite you to come help my organization with this thing, but I don't have any connection with any budget and I can't pay you.” You know, that hasn't happened yet. Jorge: Yeah, but those folks are likely to not even initiate the conversation right? Kevin: Sure. Jorge: They're not going to have a project. Kevin: Yeah. Jorge: I love this idea of the Google Document as a sort of… I don't know if it's fair to call it a catalyst for this conversation to happen that surfaces all this information about the team. The team for you and you for them, right? So it's a way to get to know each other and see if the fit is right. I'm wondering what other tools you use as part of this process. In particular, it sounds like you have multiple conversations going sometimes. You talked about speaking at conferences and having folks who have read your book and reach out. How do you keep track of all these different conversations so that you know where things are at? Kevin: So I generally… If we think of the journey of a sales lead, things generally start either via my website kevinmhoffman.com, where it says on the site pretty plainly, “if you'd like me to come to a workshop for your organization contact me,” and my email's right there. Or I do a workshop at a conference, somebody who's representing an organization has that experience. I explicitly say I customize this workshop if I do it for your organization, and they reach out to me within anywhere from a week to two a couple of months. Depends on where people are in their various budget cycles, and if their budget… If they're at the beginning of a budget and they have a lot of flexibility, or they're at the end of a budget cycle and they're trying to spend down or whatever it may be. So anytime I think about a journey — and I know earlier I said designers like to have this clean process — the metaphor that comes to mind is this: we're talking about SuperFriends earlier. There was also this cartoon thing called School House Rock and the one that I remember and I imagine a lot of people who know what Schoolhouse Rock is remember is, is one about a bill. “I'm Just a Bill sitting here on Capitol Hill,” and how that bill goes on a journey to become a law. So, the first thing I do to keep track of my potential clients is I try to keep a list. It's messy but I try to keep a list in a couple of different places. So I have a big white board in my office. There is the mega list for the week that I'm constantly erasing and rewriting. And as a lead becomes viable… So here's an example of a viable lead, I do a workshop with at a conference, somebody comes up to me and personally says, “I really enjoyed that. I would be curious about having you do this at my company. What do I do?” I say, “well, let's set up some time to talk.” They reach out to me. We actually have a conversation. In that conversation, I'll make a commitment to getting them a proposal pretty rapidly, usually within anywhere from 24 to 48 hours. And that proposal is just that thing that I pull you know different parts of what I've done for other people. I pull in what I think feels right. So the whiteboard list, that's one place that stuff lives. Now let's say I'm in the mode of meeting people at a conference. And if I do a workshop at a conference, I might meet all the attendees in my workshop, but I also might do something like a book signing or I might just meet people at lunch or you know over coffee at a break or whatever. I keep a running list of action items in a very messy way across a couple of different platforms. I really like Bear note. There are two things about Bear note that I like. One, I like that it's kind of a cloud of notes. You can have no taxonomy of how you structure and organize content, but it's very easy — like Google — to find things. So the interface of Bear note is basically a search field, and if you type into the search field and nothing comes up, it turns actually into a title field. So I can actually click on a button and start a note with that title. Jorge: Bear note is an app, right? Kevin: Yeah. It's an app. It's a macOS app but it syncs via iCloud. And I just constantly make these notes. If I'm in a meeting I transcribe my meeting notes in there; I focus on action items. They have a nice little to-do list. They use Markdown to create checkboxes. And ​if you're comfortable writing in Markdown — which is a way of adding formatting to text — if you're comfortable with that, Bear note does a good job of rendering it in a nice way. So I have Bear note syncing on my phone. I meet somebody from a company like IBM, they're like,” hey, we might want to have you. Come do a lunch and learn at some point.” I'll quickly add that to the stream of Bear note that that lives in my life. Occasionally, I might add it to use something like Google Keep. I've bounced back and forth between Google Keep and Apple's Notes app for lists, but usually, those are more like grocery lists and doctor things and personal things. Most of my professional life lives in this stream of Bear notes that I had. When I was at Capital One, I basically installed Bear note on my locked down Capital One system on day one, found out that they didn't allow iCloud synching because of regulations around large banks and had to decide, “okay, where am I going to take most of my notes and carry that device with me at all times?” So that's how I keep track of what conversations I had with whom. Then they make their way onto the whiteboard when they become viable. Once they're on the whiteboard, they become Google Docs. And I'm looking at: okay, what are the recent Google Docs that I've been editing in, watching for comments to come in, or edits to come in from prospective clients and respond you them in real-time? So those become very high priority pieces of content for me. When a proposal is in an active state or a live state. And then the next thing I do is basically establish follow-up steps. So I'm going to reach out to you by this date with these questions. You had said, “okay, the next step is when so-and-so gets back from vacation. We're going to share this with the Executive Vice President. Get approval on this budget.” So that's the next step in the bill becoming a law is getting it passed that approval step. Then… Jorge: Do you do you somehow mark the next steps on the whiteboard? How do you keep track of that? Kevin: The whiteboard is really only the next thing I have to do for the person. So the whiteboard is usually like, “write proposal – client name.” And if the proposal is in a live state, it would be like “get signed work agreement” or “send standard working agreement over” or whatever. The legalese stuff is always… I've found that that's usually pretty boilerplate, but there's always something that goes back and forth in that process of, you know… Something about intellectual property or something about work for hire or there's some aspect of it. In some projects that I was talking about where we've worked in the open, that's become an issue where if I'm doing a large-scale team size project and we say, “oh, we want to blog this process for your community. As we finish things, we're going to put up posts and link people to the design work.” You know, some people have concerns about that being something their competitors would get a leg up on them from. And I have opinions about that. But you know, that's not what this is about. Jorge: This is fantastic Kevin. I'm so excited; I think I'm going to start a whiteboard of my own like the one that you're describing because what I heard you say — and the thing that excites me about it is that it sounds like you have this process where you initiate a conversation in physical space with a person, right? You're talking at a conference or in a workshop, and you follow up… Or the next step is moving a record of that conversation to this digital space with Bear notes. And then you follow up with those folks and eventually if they make it to the next stage, they move out of digital space again onto a physical space, to this whiteboard. And then from there, they move to another digital space, which is Google Docs. Kevin: Yeah. Jorge: It's like the process goes in and out of your digital domains as it moves, like the bill going through Congress. Kevin: Uh-huh. Jorge: Fascinating. Kevin: Yeah. Jorge: T his is fabulous and it's been really insightful. Where can folks go to follow up with you and find out more? Kevin: Sure. So Kevin M. Hoffman is the fastest way to get a hold of me. Kevin M. as in Michael Hoffman dot com. Kevin W. Hoffman is not me on Twitter. Kevin Huffman on Twitter is not me. Kevin M. Hoffman on Twitter is me. My book is obviously out… It's been almost been out for… It's coming up on a year. And you can always get a hold of me through the publisher, Rosenfeld Media. The book's called “Meeting Design: For Managers, Makers, and Everyone.” So the idea is that… The title comes from this idea that we think of meetings as either being the domain of people who are leading the meetings — usually managers — but there's this idea that we're all citizens of meetings. And there's different ways, if I'm somebody who is responsible for making the thing, that there's ways to be a citizen of a meeting, to participate. If I'm responsible for running the there are there's ways to do it, but it's thinking about all angles: how do you make them work? Jorge: It's basic literacy for anyone who has to collaborate with anyone else, basically. Kevin: Yeah. Jorge: It's fantastic that you've written this book. And congratulations, because it's been well received. Kevin: Oh, thanks. Yeah, it's the thing I wanted. Like I wanted to have this book when I graduated from graduate school and I went into the workforce. First, it was in public libraries and colleges. I was in these meetings, I didn't know what they were for and how they connected to our mission and what my role was… And I just wish I had… I wished I'd had a manual of how to connect to this stream of information that's happening in our work. So that's why I wrote it. So hopefully there's a version of me that won't have to deal with what I had to deal with. Jorge: Well and so many more of us will also be able to benefit from your teachings on this subject. And on that note, I want to thank you for your time today. Because we will also benefit from what you've told us today. Kevin: That's how we all figure it out. Right? We all share the ideas and hopefully, somebody avoids some mistakes. Jorge: Fantastic. Thank you so much, Kevin.

Special guest and Superfriend.ly founder Dan Mall joins the show to talk about his book, “Pricing Design.” We tackle one of the hardest parts of being a designer: asking for money.

Lots of people think product design is just about buttons, images, features, and workflow, but there’s a whole lot more. Next up I talk to Dan Mall about how building a culture of design helps companies build better products.Dan Mall is a creative director and advisor from Philly. He’s the founder and executive director of SuperFriendly, a design collaborative that gives clients direction. Dan is an enthralled husband & dad, author of Pricing Design, and co-founder of SuperBooked, a service that helps you find work with a little help from your friends. He writes about design and other issues on Twitter and on his industry-recognized site, danmall.me. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The story of how SuperFriendly helped the Harvard Business School Digital Initiative. A conversation between Digital Initiative director Dave Homa and SuperFriendly founder Dan Mall. Read the transcript at superfriend.ly/helped/harvard-business-school-digital-initiative/

The story of how SuperFriendly helped Philly.com. A conversation between Philadelphia Media Network digital operations managing editor Eric Ulken and SuperFriendly founder Dan Mall. Read the transcript at http://superfriend.ly/helped/phillycom/

This week! We're joined by Bianca in our New York office to go through our open tabs. We discuss collecting conceptual art, the emergence of visual contracts, and best practices for presenting (and receiving!) portfolios! Remember! We are now an ENHANCED podcast. That's right - If you listen to our podcast in Overcast or Pocket Casts, or Castro, you can get super special images, links, and chapter breaks in your player while you listen. Featured links from our discussion - Want to get these in your inbox every Friday? Sign up for our text-only tinyletter at tinyletter.com/jackywinter Lara Conceptual Art Wasn’t Meant to Be Collected. Now It Sells for Six Figures https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-conceptual-art-meant-collected-sells-six-figures Ten thousand lines about 10 inches (25 cm) long, covering the wall evenly. https://massmoca.org/event/walldrawing86/ Sol LeWitt Dia:Beacon https://www.diaart.org/program/exhibitions-projects/sol-lewitt-collection-display JWGYTB Episode 048 http://jackywinter.givesyouthe.biz/811701af Jeremy Australia’s first visual employment contracts launched https://www.aurecongroup.com/about/latest-news/2018/may/visual-employment-contract Jacky Winter’s 8 Easy Steps to Project Perfection https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKbRMXa_m3U Bianca A Portfolio Hiring Managers Can’t Deny http://danmall.me/articles/portfolios/ Contact SuperFriendly http://superfriend.ly/contact/ Dan Mall’s Twitter https://twitter.com/danmall?lang=en Dan Mall article- Illustrators http://danmall.me/articles/illustrators/ JWGYTB Episode 019 http://jackywinter.givesyouthe.biz/368c5bf9 Hire Francine at Spotify! https://www.francineforspotify.com/ Basecamp jobs https://basecamp.com/about/jobs Thumbs Up / Thumbs Down Lamington Drive- Make Piece http://lamingtondrive.com/shows/make-piece/ Wicker Kittens http://wickerkittens.com/ If you like the show or these links or think we sound like nice people, please go and leave us a rating or review on iTunes. It helps other people find the show and boosts our downloads which in turn lets us know that what we're doing is worth doing more of! To subscribe, view show notes or previous episodes head on over to our podcast page at http://jackywinter.givesyouthe.biz/ Special thanks to Jacky Winter (the band, with much better shirts than us) for the music. Listen to them over at Soundcloud. Everything else Jacky Winter (us) can be found at http://www.jackywinter.com/

The story of how SuperFriendly helped build ALPS, a design system for the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. A conversation between Assistant Communication Director Brent Hardinge and SuperFriendly founder Dan Mall. Read the transcript at http://superfriend.ly/helped/seventh-day-adventist-church/

The story of how SuperFriendly helped to reimagine of Smashing Magazine. A conversation between Smashing Magazine founder Vitaly Friedman and SuperFriendly founder Dan Mall. Read the transcript at http://superfriend.ly/helped/smashing-magazine/

Show Description****************Chris and Dave chat with Dan Mall about designing a portfolio that hiring managers can't deny. Should you tailor your portfolio for each specific job you might apply for? Where does privilege come into play when applying for jobs? Could it backfire? And be sure to stick around for an opportunity to add the […]

If you've been around the web industry for a while, you may have heard of Dan Mall. He's a creative director, designer, and overall great guy. We dive into some great topics like what motivates him and keeps him going, how he structures his very busy work day, how he prices his work, and the "Hollywood" business model. During the call we reference a few things like his podcast that he used to run with Jason Blumer. When talking about optimizing your day, Dan mentions Benjamin Hardy, who can be found here. Dan Mall's websites: http://danmall.me/ http://superfriend.ly/ https://superbooked.com/

Dan Mall and I discuss Art Directing the Web

Creative director, advisor, designer, developer, author (Pricing Design), speaker, mentor, musician, and entrepreneur (SuperFriendly, SuperBooked) Dan Mall is Jeffrey Zeldman's guest. Running a studio, pitching, value pricing, the apprentice program, “Make Grunt do it,” how to start a startup, “the most exciting design systems are boring,” walking away from big pitches, launching a service to help you find work. Links for this episode:A Book Apart, Pricing Design“How to Scope Work,” an article by Dan MallSuperBookedDan Mall (@danmall) | TwitterBrought to you by: Squarespace (Visit Squarespace.com to get a free trial and use the offer code BIGWEBSHOW for 10% off your first purchase).

Creative director, advisor, designer, developer, author (Pricing Design), speaker, mentor, musician, and entrepreneur (SuperFriendly, SuperBooked) Dan Mall is Jeffrey Zeldman’s guest. Running a studio, pitching, value pricing, the apprentice program, “Make Grunt do it,” how to start a startup, “the most exciting design systems are boring,” walking away from big pitches, launching a service to help you find work.

As a creative leader who's worked with everyone from Apple to ESPN, Dan shares his biggest leadership lessons on servant leadership and how to ensure teams work well together. Claire: Hi everyone. I'm Claire Lew and I'm the CEO of Know Your Company. Today, I've got a good friend of mine with me that I'm so excited to… Read the full article

In the second episode of Season 2 of the “Revolve Conference Speaker Podcast Series,” Ilise Benun, of Marketing-Mentor.com, interviews Dan Mall  of Superfriend.ly, whose topic is “Should Designers…” at The Revolve Conference, where design and creativity meet marketing and design. The big event will be held Oct. 26-27, 2017 in downtown Charleston SC. Details here: http://revolveconference.com and more Revolve speaker podcasts here.

According to Heraclitus, the only thing that remains constant is change. The internet itself has evolved exponentially over a relatively short amount of time. Few relics from the early days of the web remain, and those that have, have been forced to change. Adam McClean is the SVP of Product at Dotdash. Dotdash was once About.com. The very same About.com that has been around for 21 years. Adam and his team were increasingly aware that the landscape around them was changing, and that they needed to evolve. They made the switch to a new brand, Dotdash, and a new process, to keep up with technological and market changes. Dan Mall, who runs SuperFriendly out of Philadelphia, joins the podcast to share his views on the evolution of dotDash’s process in support of their new brand. Dan will also be teaching one of the daylong workshops at UI22 this November 13-15 in Boston, MA. He’ll show how to develop workflows for the multi-device world we live in.

Our guest today is Dan Mall and he is a creative director and founder of SuperFriendly, and also the co-founder of a new service called SuperBooked. Listen to him as he talks about his origin story, how he started his companies, and maybe talk a little bit about super heroes and cooking. So, stick around! Twitter Website SuperFriendly SuperBooked Big Spaceship Dan’s Calendar Unsubscribe book Support us on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/ftf

Dan Mall returns! Dan is the director of SuperFriendly, a design collaborative, and author of a new book about the approaches professionals can take to valuing their project rates called Pricing Design, which published by A Book Apart.

Dan Mall returns! Dan is the director of SuperFriendly, a design collaborative, and author of a new book about the approaches professionals can take to valuing their project rates called Pricing Design, which published by A Book Apart.

Dan Mall returns! Dan is the director of SuperFriendly, a design collaborative, and author of a new book about the approaches professionals can take to valuing their project rates called _Pricing Design_, which published by A Book Apart.

Dan Mall lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and is the CEO of Superfriendly, a design collaborative that seeks to connect talented and passionate people with design and development projects all around the globe. Since 2012, he and his company have worked with companies like: Google, Apple New York Times, Carnegie Mellon, About.com, Oreilly, TechCrunch, Entertainment Weekly and many more to produce delightful products and user experiences. Before Superfriendly, Dan was at Big Spaceship, Happy Cog and a Technical Editor at A List Apart. Dan is dedicated to elevating our industry and training designers. Right now, Dan is pushing the needle in the way large organizations connect with their users and their devices. From Insurance transparency to understandable and usable weather data to diminishing the barrier to a new career, Superfriendly and Dan Mall are working to widen the perspective of what design means to real people and how real people can impact the future of design. "I think that my mission, at least when it comes to work, is connecting people to opportunities, they wouldn’t have had otherwise. I feel like that’s the thing I’m good at and that’s the thing I can do for people and so that’s kind of what’s been on my mind lately." Dan has a unique perspective on the design community and the industry as a whole and has made it his personal mission to make a difference to improve: diversity in technology, mentorship career transitions and the overall training and building of design team to name a few. As a personal belief, Dan created the Superfriendly Academy to create an apprenticeship program that helps people in the process of making a career transition. He works to not only provide the opportunity for someone to gain a new career skill but the professionalism that goes along with that skill for that person to greatly succeed. On this episode we discuss: The concept and success of a non-traditional design collaborative, Superfriendly. Superbooked and how this product could help him and users like you maintain your professional network. The idea of the human connection and that working together is a good way to get to know each other better. How finding the right project for the right person can produce great results. The lack of diversity in the tech industry. The Superfriendly Academy and their apprenticeship program. The differences between and apprenticeship and an internship. Career transitions and the value of mentorship. The success story of Greg the apprentice. Follow Dan here: @danmall www.superfriend.ly Visit the Funsize website Subscribe to The Funsize Digest Check out Funsize on Instagram

Today, I talk with Jason Blumer. Jason is the president of Blumer CPAs an accounting firm that has worked with creatives like Dan Mall and the Forefather Group. We talk about the art of business coaching, steps to building your business, the importance of value pricing, and more.

The O’Reilly Design Podcast: Pricing design, charting your learning path, and working with friends.In this week’s Design Podcast, I sit down with Dan Mall, founder and director of Superfriendly. We talk about what skills designers should learn, pricing your work, and why getting to know yourself is just as important to becoming a great designer as learning the craft.Here are some highlights from our conversation: Working with friends I have a fairly non-traditional company, the design collaborative that I run. It's called SuperFriendly, and I'm the only full-time employee, but oftentimes the projects we do have multiple people on them. The business model is called the Hollywood Model if anybody wants to research it. Of course, I brand it and I call it the ‘Super Friend Model.’ Basically what that means is that for every project that SuperFriendly does, I bring together a team of people to work on those projects. Some of those are contractors, some of those are other shops, maybe design shops, or research shops. Sometimes it's moonlighters, you know—people who have full-time jobs who want to do something at night and on weekends. Depending on the project, as long as they're the right people, I try to make it work with wherever they're from or whatever they're also currently doing. It's kind of the way that Hollywood makes movies—a movie studio doesn't employ directors, or actors, but they bring those people together and they make a film together for a year. They all kind of go their separate ways after that. Designers should know how to... There's this debate that breaks out—on Twitter, or Facebook, or wherever designers are talking—every couple of months about whether designers should code, and people vehemently argue for both sides of this. I'm in the camp that says designers should “blank”—insert anything there, and the answer is probably yes because it's just to say, should you be getting better as a human and learning more things? Absolutely. There's no pain if you don't. If you don't learn to code, and you're a designer, that's okay, but I want to try to make the argument for why those things are actually beneficial to you as a designer. Some people see that as not part of a designer's job, but I see that as very much a part of a designer's job. That actually helps you, it helps your teams, it helps the products that you're building. The talk [I’ll give at the O’Reilly Design Conference in March] is really about how to manage this: should designers learn code, and then should they learn business, and then should they learn sales? Should they be strategists, should they learn Ruby on Rails, should they learn about the back end? The answer is yes if you can. If you can do that, absolutely, but how do you prioritize that stuff? In the talk, I'm going to be sharing some stories about stuff that I've learned along the way of doing projects as part of SuperFriendly teams, and how I've seen other people handle that. How do designers who code work differently than designers who don't code? Can both of them be equally as effective? I'm going to try to make a case for how coding, specifically, can help a designer's skill set, and how that could actually help influence a product, and product direction, and move even faster and more efficiently without losing quality. A lot of the talk is going to be centered around ways to prioritize this. Should you learn X code first, or should you learn HTML, or should you learn strategy, or should you learn Lean UX? How does that fit in—people are saying Agile is going to help, and people are saying Lean is going to help. How does all of that stuff fit in? Ideally, my goal for this talk is to help designers make sense of all these terms that are floating out there, and if they’re willing to learn, where they should start. Hopefully, I'll be able to shed some light on that. The value is not the craft learning. There are so many ways you can learn craft. There are all these great things that can let you learn how to code Ruby on Rails, or how to design, or learn flat design, or whatever. I think the tougher thing, the one that everybody experiences, and experiences in a different way, is that there's always some issue beneath that. For some people, it's self confidence, for some people, it's time management, for some people, it's feeling like a professional, for some people, it's imposter syndrome. Those are really the things that we work on. That's the thing that takes nine months to conquer or to work through. Learning a programming language, you can do that in 12 weeks. That's why there's all these boot camps out there that are fairly successful. It's really becoming a professional. Pricing design I wrote a book, Pricing Design, and the basic premise of the book is that people pay for things they really want. Not an unobvious concept, but sometimes we forget that when we're pricing in business. We think it needs to be so ‘businessy’—I’ve got to plug a bunch of numbers into a spreadsheet that does some fancy multiplication, and add some padding and accounts for this percentage, and subtract this thing, and then the discount thing, and then the magic number that gets output from the other side is a good qualified price. The truth is, it actually couldn't be further from the truth. As you described, pricing is emotional. We buy things because we want them. We buy things because we like them. We buy things that are logical and illogical. That's how people's minds work. Whether or not you're buying on behalf of a business or you're selling on behalf of a business, it's still people selling to people and people buying from people at the end of the day. There's a lot about pricing psychology. There's a lot about the way people think about money and value that I think we don't take advantage of as designers and developers and business owners. That's the basic premise of the book—just try to understand what you're selling and what your client wants to buy. I'll take web design as an example. A lot of web design agencies and shops and freelancers think they're selling websites. No one ever is selling a website. No one buys a website. Nobody wants to buy a website. They buy the thing that the website will do for them. The website is the thing that will let me sell this cool jewelry that I make. If I didn't have a website, I couldn't sell my jewelry effectively.

The O’Reilly Design Podcast: Pricing design, charting your learning path, and working with friends.In this week’s Design Podcast, I sit down with Dan Mall, founder and director of Superfriendly. We talk about what skills designers should learn, pricing your work, and why getting to know yourself is just as important to becoming a great designer as learning the craft.Here are some highlights from our conversation: Working with friends I have a fairly non-traditional company, the design collaborative that I run. It's called SuperFriendly, and I'm the only full-time employee, but oftentimes the projects we do have multiple people on them. The business model is called the Hollywood Model if anybody wants to research it. Of course, I brand it and I call it the ‘Super Friend Model.’ Basically what that means is that for every project that SuperFriendly does, I bring together a team of people to work on those projects. Some of those are contractors, some of those are other shops, maybe design shops, or research shops. Sometimes it's moonlighters, you know—people who have full-time jobs who want to do something at night and on weekends. Depending on the project, as long as they're the right people, I try to make it work with wherever they're from or whatever they're also currently doing. It's kind of the way that Hollywood makes movies—a movie studio doesn't employ directors, or actors, but they bring those people together and they make a film together for a year. They all kind of go their separate ways after that. Designers should know how to... There's this debate that breaks out—on Twitter, or Facebook, or wherever designers are talking—every couple of months about whether designers should code, and people vehemently argue for both sides of this. I'm in the camp that says designers should “blank”—insert anything there, and the answer is probably yes because it's just to say, should you be getting better as a human and learning more things? Absolutely. There's no pain if you don't. If you don't learn to code, and you're a designer, that's okay, but I want to try to make the argument for why those things are actually beneficial to you as a designer. Some people see that as not part of a designer's job, but I see that as very much a part of a designer's job. That actually helps you, it helps your teams, it helps the products that you're building. The talk [I’ll give at the O’Reilly Design Conference in March] is really about how to manage this: should designers learn code, and then should they learn business, and then should they learn sales? Should they be strategists, should they learn Ruby on Rails, should they learn about the back end? The answer is yes if you can. If you can do that, absolutely, but how do you prioritize that stuff? In the talk, I'm going to be sharing some stories about stuff that I've learned along the way of doing projects as part of SuperFriendly teams, and how I've seen other people handle that. How do designers who code work differently than designers who don't code? Can both of them be equally as effective? I'm going to try to make a case for how coding, specifically, can help a designer's skill set, and how that could actually help influence a product, and product direction, and move even faster and more efficiently without losing quality. A lot of the talk is going to be centered around ways to prioritize this. Should you learn X code first, or should you learn HTML, or should you learn strategy, or should you learn Lean UX? How does that fit in—people are saying Agile is going to help, and people are saying Lean is going to help. How does all of that stuff fit in? Ideally, my goal for this talk is to help designers make sense of all these terms that are floating out there, and if they’re willing to learn, where they should start. Hopefully, I'll be able to shed some light on that. The value is not the craft learning. There are so many ways you can learn craft. There are all these great things that can let you learn how to code Ruby on Rails, or how to design, or learn flat design, or whatever. I think the tougher thing, the one that everybody experiences, and experiences in a different way, is that there's always some issue beneath that. For some people, it's self confidence, for some people, it's time management, for some people, it's feeling like a professional, for some people, it's imposter syndrome. Those are really the things that we work on. That's the thing that takes nine months to conquer or to work through. Learning a programming language, you can do that in 12 weeks. That's why there's all these boot camps out there that are fairly successful. It's really becoming a professional. Pricing design I wrote a book, Pricing Design, and the basic premise of the book is that people pay for things they really want. Not an unobvious concept, but sometimes we forget that when we're pricing in business. We think it needs to be so ‘businessy’—I’ve got to plug a bunch of numbers into a spreadsheet that does some fancy multiplication, and add some padding and accounts for this percentage, and subtract this thing, and then the discount thing, and then the magic number that gets output from the other side is a good qualified price. The truth is, it actually couldn't be further from the truth. As you described, pricing is emotional. We buy things because we want them. We buy things because we like them. We buy things that are logical and illogical. That's how people's minds work. Whether or not you're buying on behalf of a business or you're selling on behalf of a business, it's still people selling to people and people buying from people at the end of the day. There's a lot about pricing psychology. There's a lot about the way people think about money and value that I think we don't take advantage of as designers and developers and business owners. That's the basic premise of the book—just try to understand what you're selling and what your client wants to buy. I'll take web design as an example. A lot of web design agencies and shops and freelancers think they're selling websites. No one ever is selling a website. No one buys a website. Nobody wants to buy a website. They buy the thing that the website will do for them. The website is the thing that will let me sell this cool jewelry that I make. If I didn't have a website, I couldn't sell my jewelry effectively.

The super friendly Dan Mall joins me to talk about how animation fits into his design process. He shares his proven approach to finding inspiration and customizing animation to the project’s brand. We also discuss how and when to present animation ideas to clients and teammates along the way. Full episode notes and transcript: http://motionandmeaning.io/episode12.html

Value-based pricing for small budgets, staying creatively relevant, and freelancing vs full-time.—with special guest, Dan Mall of Super Friendly! --- Ask a Freelancer is a new Cushion podcast where experienced freelancers answer questions about freelancing. This episode's questions include: - Have you always freelanced? - Do you think freelancing full-time helps or hurts you in staying creatively relevant? - Everyone's talking about value-based pricing, but how can you apply that thinking to clients with smaller budgets? Hosted by Andy J Miller Guest Question by Dan Mall of Super Friendly Music by Metavari Brought to you by cushionapp.com

In this week’s episode of The Secret Sauce, Senior Designer Ashley Cyborski discusses our iterative design feedback process and how this helps move designs forward to effectively meet our clients’ ideal results. TRANSCRIPT Allison Manley [AM]: Welcome to The Secret Sauce, a short podcast by Palantir.net, that offers a short piece of advice to help your business run a little bit better. I’m Allison Manley, an Account Manager here at Palantir, and today we’re talking with Ashley Cyborski about a good design iteration and feedback process. Ashley Cyborski [AC]: Hi everyone, My name is Ashley Cyborski and I’m a senior web designer here at Palantir. You may remember my other podcast about the benefits of designing in the browser. You should check that one out if you’re a web designer feeling hesitant about taking the leap to HTML and CSS. Today, though, I want to talk about our design feedback process here at Palantir, because it is a bit different than traditional design processes. I’d like to rewind and give you a bit of background. At Palantir we use agile methodologies during our development process. For anyone unfamiliar, agile is a 2 week cycle called a sprint where you prioritize work, complete those tasks, present the work to the client, and receive feedback which you can then incorporate into the next sprint. It is a process of continual improvement and collaboration. Our design feedback process came out of a desire to incorporate that same level of collaboration and continual improvement into the design phases of a project. After a lot of thinking, and quite a bit of inspiration from a webinar by Dan Mall, we came up with a process that is iterative, but accommodates our clients’ needs.  The process isn’t perfect and we are continually working to improve it, but it is a huge improvement from where we were just two years ago. The core principle of our design feedback process is iteration. Though this sounds pretty obvious, it is very different than the traditional design feedback and iteration cycle. In a traditional process you present your work, receive feedback, incorporate that feedback into the design that you had presented, and then re-present your work, around and around until the client decides to approve the design. And though that works quite well for print design, it is counter intuitive to web design, especially when paired with an iterative development process. In our feedback process we often tell our clients to think about moving designs forward. At the start, we present 2 to 4 style tiles to the client. Then, we ask them to choose the “most correct” one to move forward with. The one they chose may not be perfect yet, but through iteration and with the proper input, we move the design closer and closer to that “ideal”. In order to get there, we need that input. We ask our clients to provide feedback on the chosen style tile and the discarded ones. We prompt with questions like “What did you like about this design?”, “What don’t you like about this design?”, and most importantly, “Why?” Our goal is to understand our client’s thoughts and feelings, including what is inspiring them and what is concerning them. We take all that feedback and the selected direction, and begin on the first static comp. We don’t spend our time iterating on the selected style tile.  At this point we repeat the process with static comps. The feedback received during the comp phase is worked into the prototype. From there on out, the prototyping process syncs up with the sprint cycle, and feedback on prototypes is defined and prioritized along with the remaining design tasks and incorporated on a sprint by sprint basis. That was a lot of words to describe how we move the design process forward. You might ask, why don’t we work on one deliverable until it is “perfect” or close to perfect? Well there are a few driving factors. First, our process becomes faster and more efficient because we don’t have to pause the project to work out small, inconsequential details that would otherwise resolve themselves in the future. The entire project doesn’t pause until we get it to some subjectively “perfect” state of design. This is important and unique to web design, because your design will appear on any number of machines, browsers, screen sizes, and with multiple variations of changing content over the course of its life. A website is a living, breathing, changing thing. Second, we can adjust the course of our design as the project moves forward and develops. We aren’t stuck with a decision we made in week 1 of the project, when we learn something new in week 7. Development prioritization can drive design prioritization and the design benefits from active and informed developer feedback and input. This benefits the designer, because we aren’t completing work that ultimately will not be implemented, and benefits our clients because they aren’t paying to design work that ultimately won’t be implemented. Third, we get to the browser faster which benefits both the client and the project. I track some of these in a blog post about designing in the browser, but I’ll recap the main points here. Clients tend to understand designs better once we get into the browser because they are more realistic and interactive which helps clients provide better, and more relevant feedback. In browser designs also foster more productive communication and collaboration with developers and reduce duplicated work. Additionally, designers have more control over the final, implemented design. Finally, and possibly most important to the feedback process, it is easier to implement feedback and iterate on the design system in code than it is across multiple page comps. The feedback changes are instant, consistent, and more efficient. Ultimately, this means that the client is able to provide more realistic and relevant feedback, which can be implemented and iterated on faster and more efficiently, all while the design process flexes and flows with development’s needs and prioritizations. I think I’ve outlined a lot of the benefits of our forward moving design process, but I should caveat that we are still iterating on this process to make it even more efficient and effective. One of the major gaps in this process right now is client education and buy in. It is often hard to convince a client, with little to no experience with web design, to adjust their preconceptions about the design approval process. It is also hard to get buy in, for example, that the homepage static comp does not have to be “perfect” in order to move onto the next deliverable. Clients fear that their feedback will be lost or forgotten or that it isn’t being taken seriously, when they do not see it implemented immediately. Clients often tend to be relatively uncomfortable moving forward with something that is not “Approved” or finalized for these exact reasons. One way we try to counteract that is with documentation, making sure we track and the requests changes and tickets. It is up to the designer to communicate as best we can the benefits of this process to our clients upfront. I really believe that ultimately a client gets a better, more flexible end product when using this process. I’d love to hear other’s experience with a similar process. Whether it is an issue you’ve run into and solved, or just with your own experience with a similar process as a client or designer. Leave a comment on this post or tweet to me @AshleyCyborski. AM: Thanks for listening to this edition of The Secret Sauce. You can find more great tips on our brand spanking new website at palantir.net, and you can also find us on twitter @palantir. Enjoy your day!

In the middle ages, guilds began the practice of apprenticeships. Master craftsmen could employ young people for a typical term of seven years exchanging training, food and housing for labor. Apprenticeships are now taking shape in the digital agency world. Dan Mall shares his approach to creating skilled craftspeople one at a time, over nine months. More than just learning the skills required to do the work, they learn how to be professionals.

In this episode: Ben attempts to pivot the episode, Jim has several personal relationships, Geof continues to ask leading questions and Brijan gives everyone a yacht. Extra: one of our office chairs makes a squeaking sound similar to a fart (scout's honor!). Please note that the opinions expressed here are not that of Rally Interactive and any possible reference to anyone living or deceased is purely coincidental. Also, we have no idea what we are talking about. This episode was brought to you by: Rally Interactive and Air Lookout. Send feedback to podcast@rallyinteractive.com or http://twitter.com/rallybanter # Mentioned and discussed on the show - Side project: Air Lookout - airlookout.com What would you tell a junior designer? Degrees and school? - G.E.D.? Do you need college? Brijan doesn't actually tell why he got in trouble - Drugs? Gangs? Shop lifting chapstick? Nobody will know. - Awkward accents… Actual advice - Don't chase money - Work at places with the best work - Role models, find studios, establishing a connection - Relationships and work ethic - Don't be afraid to start over - Show up to work - The money (may) come… eventually… - YACHTS! - Learn everything - Specialize? - Talk to designers you like. Reach out. - Michael Bierut (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Bierut) - Funsize (http://funsize.co) - Community and peers - Isolation in college - Internships! - Elegant Seagulls (http://www.elegantseagulls.com) - Real world experience vs. school experience - The perfect program? Apprenticeship? - Dan Mall (http://danielmall.com, https://twitter.com/danielmall) - Webmaster?? (wtf?) When did you realize design was a thing? - Everything around us, besides nature, is designed - Realizing designer as a job and their influence - Connections with James Burke (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPcZ_5uCldg, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connections_(TV_series) ) - Jim's texting addiction - Modern civilization: everything is designed - Myspace templates… How to get a job? - Portfolio advice - How do you judge work for a hire? - Distilling/curating best work - Know your audience - Focus Lab (http://focuslabllc.com) - Jim shuts down… Beeeooooop… What can be taught or not? - Taste? Aesthetics? Problem solving? Work ethic? - Learning taste - Can passion be taught? # Brijan Powell - Freelance Interactive Designer working out of the Rally office and motorcycle riding hellion. - http://twitter.com/brijan # Ben Cline - Part owner, designer and string cheese consumer at Rally Interactive. - http://twitter.com/yocline # Jim DeBrock - Designer at Rally Interactive and Logic Pro tutorial consuming beast. - http://twitter.com/jimdebrock # Geof Crowl - Designer at Rally Interactive and connoisseur of fine italics. - http://twitter.com/rectangular

Dan Mall inspires us to get really good at what we do by constantly practicing it. He reminds us of the importance of work/life balance and setting the right priorities. He also reminds us that there’s a big difference between being a leader and being a boss, and how great leaders are always looking for […]

In our last recorded guest episode of 2015, we were able to catch up with Dan Mall! We couldn't have asked for a more perfect episode to end our year - in this show Dan drops knowledge about freelancing, job titles, and helping people do the best work of their lives.

What if site speed were actually a life-or-death matter? Kim Conger from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty worked with Dan Mall and Tim Kadlec to make performance the top priority. Read more »

A week later than planned (sorry,) on this week’s Unfinished Business, I’m joined by returning special guest, designer Dan Edwards. And because you wait all day and then two Dans come along at once, joining us is creative director, founder and director of the SuperFriendly agency in Philadelphia, Daniel (the Dan) Mall.

Dan Mall founder and design director at SuperFriendly joins Gary Rozanc to discuss the ever changing role of interactive designers from simply designing visuals to not only needing to understanding an organization’s goals, but help identify new goals beyond visual design and sell the clients on that vision. The conversation also goes into details on the approach of traditional four-year university level graphic design education vs. apprenticeships, and the necessary skills, from software to business, that students will need to be industry ready.

I‘ve been looking forward to publishing this episode of Unfinished Business for over a month and I looked forward to recording it for even longer, because I got to talk about art direction and creativity on the web with two of the creative people that I respect most, Dan Mall and Jeffrey Zeldman.

This week, Dan joins us to talk about Element Collages, and how he uses style guides to help build multi-platform, multi-lingual websites.

Dan Mall is a designer and founder of Super Friendly, a Philidelphia based design studio. We talked about humility, value pricing, tinkering, building animations, new tools and much more.

It's time for Season 2! Dan Mall and Jason Blumer are back and will be kicking off with an interview with Wil Reynolds of SEER Interactive. Wil shares what he learned when he switched CEO roles with Rand Fishkin from Moz. Also hear how he deals with skeptics, the ONE thing SEER promises its clients, and so much more.Dan and Jason also share a few notes about what to expect in Season 2. Look for guests that can teach us about positioning, pricing, and onboarding this season. Also, get ready for our new site and branding soon! And finally, we are excited about 2 roadshows that will focus on the front end of business, what to work on before the work begins. We hope to have a show in NYC as well as one on the west coast.We'd like to thank our sponsors this week:Harvest: Harvest is a beautifully crafted business tool for tracking time spent on client projects. Work from anywhere by starting a timer via web browser, desktop, iPhone or Android. Head over to getharvest.com to start your free trial. After the free 30 day trial period, use code “Businessology” before June 1st and receive 50% off your first month.Zen Payroll:Payroll redesigned for the modern business. Sign up now for delightful payroll, we are accepting new customers daily. Head over to zenpayroll.com and get your first 2 months free.

Pricing is a tricky subject. So many of us have found our way along in the dark, without much help. In episode 3, we discuss pricing models as well as our own approach. We also talk about things we've learned from some very smart people who are experts on the subject. Show Notes 00:46 Yes, I Love Technology: News about new tech and how it relates to the mobiles. 11:51 Pricing: Not first date conversation. 13:41 Fixed Pricing 16:25 Value Based Pricing 26:08 Hourly Rate 35:10 Retainer Based Pricing 37:33 Pricing Resources 42:00 Funsize's Approach To Pricing 50:24 Common Pricing Questions Links Value Pricing with Dan Mall and Jason Blumer on the businessology show podcast Design is a Job by Mike Monteiro Q: How much does a mobile app cost? A: About as much as a car The Harvest Guide to Pricing by Harvest Visit the Funsize website Subscribe to The Funsize Digest Check out Funsize on Instagram

For this Snippet, we discuss Prequalifying Clients by Dan Mall. (http://www.pagebreakpodcast.com/snippets/prequalifying-clients)

Dan Mall is an award-winning designer from Philadelphia and Founder of SuperFriendly.

Dan is an award-winning designer from Philadelphia, an enthralled husband and dad. He's the founder & Design Director at SuperFriendly, co-founder of Typedia, and co-host of The Businessology Show – a podcast about the business of design and the design of business. Dan was formerly the Design Director at Big Spaceship, Interactive Director at Happy Cog, and a technical editor for A List Apart. He writes about design and other issues on Twitter and danielmall.com.

Dan is an award-winning designer from Philadelphia, an enthralled husband and dad. He’s the founder & Design Director at SuperFriendly, co-founder of Typedia, and co-host of The Businessology Show – a podcast about the business of design and the design of business. Dan was formerly the Design Director at Big Spaceship, Interactive Director at Happy Cog, and a technical editor for A List Apart. He writes about design and other issues on Twitter and danielmall.com.

Dan is an award-winning designer from Philadelphia, an enthralled husband and dad. He’s the founder & Design Director at SuperFriendly, co-founder of Typedia, and co-host of The Businessology Show – a podcast about the business of design and the design of business. Dan was formerly the Design Director at Big Spaceship, Interactive Director at Happy Cog, and a technical editor for A List Apart. He writes about design and other issues on Twitter and danielmall.com.

(due to some technical difficulties, give the podcast a few seconds before it starts)Dan and Jason take pricing creative services head on in this episode. Dan and Jason share their experiences in dealing with value pricing, the purpose behind it and the how-to. Learn about the balance of risk and fear, how to come up with a price, developing options for your customer, what a Value Conversation is and the strategy behind pricing.

Tim Williams, author of Positioning for Professionals, speaks to us on effective positioning, and how most creative agencies fail to do this (though they do it for their own customers).Through techniques of value pricing, differentiation, and focusing on a niche small design firms and agencies can set themselves apart to pull ahead of their competitors when landing new business.Strategy is not for the weak of heart - come learn how with seasoned guest Tim Williams of Ignition Consulting Group.

Ben Blumenfeld talks about his experience with Facebook, how he was hired at Facebook and how he negotiated some equity from them when first hired.This episode touched on designers receiving equity in a start up, what experiences designers should have before seeking investment, whether designers should build prodcuts before asking the Designer Fund for money and so much more!

This week on Boagworld: Paul gives advice to those who work with content management systems. Marcus finally talks about charge out rates and we talk to Dan Mall and Mark Huot about swfIR.