I’m naturally a rebel, which means I need specific motivations to be able to get anything done. Working on two websites over the last 9 months has taught me a lot about working with my rebellious tendencies, and I wanted to share a few of those lessons with you.
Be a copycat. I was asked early on in the process to identify websites that I admired. My first inclination was, of course, to rebel. I value originality, so the very thought of looking elsewhere for ideas is antithetical to my process. But then I saw the wisdom in this. It allowed me to articulate to my team what I liked and what I didn’t like. Without these reference points, I think we would’ve wasted a lot of time figuring out my tastes. In the end, my team was able to come up with a compelling combination of all the things that I liked in a way that I couldn’t have imagined on my own.
Make the process your own. I found the overall process of website development boring until I realized that I could choose my own stock images. I understood why my team had been choosing photos of people in business suits: I work with lawyers!
But, I don’t work with just any lawyer. I work with the 21st Century Lawyer. Once I began to create a vision for photos and images, I really felt like my voice was present not just in the website but also in the development process. Defending my decisions for certain photos that didn’t make sense to the outside world was the moment I became alive and knew I was onto something great. Check out what I mean!
Be careful about seeking feedback. Before launching, I reached out to friends and family for their thoughts. Feedback is always dangerous territory for a rebel. At first, I asked for general feedback and found myself overwhelmed with the breadth and depth of information I was receiving. I Iearned quickly that I needed to apply project management principles. I decided to send specific requests to individuals who I thought had strengths in those areas. For example, I sent grammar questions to my cousin who is a wizard! I sent aesthetics questions to my girlfriend who is an artist. This made the feedback process more fun and less rebel-inducing for me!
Ignore perfectionism. After several rounds of grammatical edits, my project manager encouraged me to launch both sites before ensuring they were perfect. I was paralyzed by the prospect of a mistake being found. Once I accepted that any mistake could be (and was) fixed in an instant, I felt comfortable being uncomfortable. It’s important to know when to let go of things – even for a rebel.
Thank you to the folks at Eggs Media for their genius support and for allowing me to be a rebel. To all my dear friends and family from whom I sought feedback, thank you for putting up with my rebellious tendencies. I couldn’t have re-launched www.21stcenturylawyer.ca and www.hireback.ca without y’all!
