How do you know whether or not you care about the problem you’re working on?  Here’s our litmus test in part:

1.  First, define the problem you’re solving in reasonably broad terms.
2.  Then, answer yes or no to this:  If the problem was somehow magically “solved” (to your satisfaction), but you weren’t the one that solved it, would you be fine with it?

We have always said, “If one day we wake up and learn that somehow the problem has been magically solved — even if it was by a competitor, we are fine with that.”  Honestly, we would probably be a little miffed that they had beaten us, but still OK.  As long as they really solved it.  We could have stopped toiling away the sleepless nights working on that particular problem and we would have found other problems to work on.

The concept here is:  You care enough about a problem that you don’t necessarily mind if someone else solves it.  What really frustrates us entrepreneurs is when competitors win, but they don’t actually solve the problem.

One way to explain this concept better is to look at an extreme example.  Lets say the problem you were working on was curing cancer.  Of course, you’d be passionate about finding a cure.  You’d be working hard.  It’s an important problem, and it’s not surprising that you care.  Now, imagine if you woke up one day to learn that someone else had created a cure.  You’d be glad that the problem was solved — even though it wasn’t you that solved it.  Sure, it would have been great to get the fame and glory, but that surely wouldn’t cause you to wish the other scientists/researchers/doctors ill.  Nope.  You’d wish them well.  Why?  Because fundamentally, you care about having the problem solved.

Now, if someone else ends up doing it, and winds up delivering on our mission, well, then, more power to them. We care enough about the problem that we don’t mind if someone else solves it.  That’s why we truly wish our “competitors” well.  But know, just because we wish them well doesn’t mean we’re going to make it easy for them.  After all, like you, we are entrepreneurs and as such, fair but fiercely competitive.

Summary:  When possible, work on really big problems.  They’re more fun, and it’s easier to get excited.  But, even if you’re not working on a really big problem, it’s OK, as long as you at least care enough about the problem you are solving that you don’t care who solves it.  You just want it solved.

If this appeals to where you are…please join us. We are live in April and there is plenty of problem for all of us to work on together here.

1. “Why is your company name, “BigBadCollab”?”

Ben: Great question. Its one we hear a lot. Here is how I tend to explain it in meetings. “Big” describes the size of our company and the size of our ideas. There is always a question of “How big is your company?”. We are like, “um… look at our name. It says big”. “Bad” simply means the work we do is “bad”, but like Michael Jackson bad, which means it is great, if that makes sense. “Collab” is for the way we work with both our clients and resources. We scale according to project size and work load and want true relationships with both our clients and resources we work with. We engage work with a transparent communication style that helps position us as collaborative partners in a project, rather than outsourced resources.

2. “What is your project management method?”

Mark: Our methods are purposeful, intentional, and communicative. We use a tried and true method that is set but organic–tested and re-tested across over eight-hundred website launches of consistently establishing a documented understanding of the dimensions of a project (people, budget, goals, resources, time lines, etc). We then move the project at launch into our collaborative space for project management so that by roles and responsibilities, all those involved with the project have on-going visibility and participation in the project. We conduct weekly production meetings around each aspect of the project, ensuring its health along with applying corrective measures if we need to, and communicating all of this in motion going forward. Milestones and sometimes greater detail when necessary tells us all how we are proceeding (budget, time, resources, and work to be done). When we conclude, everyone knows, we have hit the goals, managed budget, time and resources. Essentially, we manage the project, and this is what sets us apart from so many others.

3. “How does your company culture affect your services?”

Mark: Culture defines and impacts so many things. From the outward expression of what we value to the client, to the in-office expression of authentically caring for one another. Culture is the definition of our core values, lived out in our daily work and words. It is the silent governor that helps us to know what is aesthetic, energizing, and positive. In our office, its the elements also of environment like streaming music, lighting, and even art.

4. “What kind of project would you say is the ’sweet spot’ for BBC?”

Ben: Our sweet spot, wheel house projects are ones that involve a vision or destination that is trying to be reached. We love hearing clients explain what they want and dream for a project and then working with them to accomplish that dream. We are more than capable to respond to projects with work like a simple Wordpress Theme, Website with Content Management System, iPhone App, but really love partnering in on a vision. The main reason for this is simple for us. We love making what seems to be the impossible, possible.

5. “Why do you believe your company is an ‘expert resource’?”

Ben: Experience. Our combined experience is vast, random and even a little strange. We have worked on so many different types of projects that our problem solving capacity is high. We look projects with a wide variety of options in mind. We aren’t sold and committed to one solution to every project. We have worked out solutions to connect point of sell machines to websites. We have built websites that had to integrate with six data sources. We have migrated data from one platform to another. We have designed skins on top of GPS navigation systems and kiosks that seemed impossible to get a sophisticated design on. We have built sites that work on all mobile platforms. We think about all this when engaging on client projects and come up with a truly customized solution to the problem.

6. “How is your company prepared to work on our particular project?”

Mark: We are built to respond. We scale, have investment capital, and are disciplined to execute. We have many methods that guide from inception through delivery–ensuring excellence across the board.

7. “How old are you as a company? How many people do you have?”

Ben: We started this adventure in October of 2008. We have two full time, in-office guys, and a long list of partners that we work with. It may seem like a little bit of a cop out answer, but we are as big as we need to be. We scale according to project size and work load. We have been as big as ten “workers” at one time and then back to just two. Every client is different and every project requires a specific set of talent that we engage per project. This keeps ‘custom’ in place while not forcing a ‘cost’ on our clients.

8. “What services do you provide the most?”

Mark: In the ‘unlisted’ sense of the word, “Leadership”. We are deeply experienced, thoroughly market-educated, and have deployed global projects across the span of our combined careers. So much success centers on the need for authentic leadership that this intrinsic value is simply a fabric of ‘who we are’, not necessarily ‘what we do’. Leadership focuses in on knowing what to do and when, and the real paydirt is not in a product or service offering, but knowing how to really get stuff done. Plain and simple.

9. “Ben, what are your favorite design tools and aesthetics?”

Ben: Wow. Well. Dang. Talk about putting me on the spot. My favorite design tools are Photoshop and Illustrator for production. I LOVE drawing on dry erase boards and most of my initial web comp sketches are done there. There is also something magical about drawing in a Moleskin with a black pen and sharpie. Love that.

My favorite aesthetics can probably best be described in a list, so here we go:

I love graffiti and wheat pasted posters. I love hand pulled, screen printed posters. I love texture. I love big, fully grown trees and the way their branches grow out to grab some light. I love old rusted signs and any elements that have put up a fight against nature and lost. I love old toys and figures that have “seen better days”. I love anything that you can tell has been loved by it’s owners. I love distressed leather, exposed wooden beams, brick and metal with the welds showing. I love the details of guitars and drumsets. I love what CDs look like after spending 4 seconds in a microwave (Careful!!), and I love the look of a fresh tattoo.

10. “Mark, what is the best description for knowing our work will be cared for?”

Mark: Our clients and their willingness to continually turn to us for more support is the best possible description of knowing your work will be cared for. As a trusted expert resource, our clients know their work will be cared for–and that is the same thing you can count on.

Even more than my love for toys and drawing is my love for amazing little web apps. There are so many fun and awesome things on the web and I rarely share what I have found and enjoy. One amazing app I found a long time ago is the Sketch app from Odopod (http://sketch.odopod.com/). It’s a super simple but super complex little tool. You click new sketch and begin your drawing adventure. There is a gallery of what others have drawn, and even more fun, you can watch them redraw in the exact steps the artist took when creating the drawing. It is so revealing to me seeing excatly how they came up with the final piece. Just a little view into all the uglys and happy mistakes that happen when drawing, coding, whatever. These are the things that help me make it through life (and conference calls).

Here is one I drew today while in a meeting. Don’t worry, I was listening. I am just more than a little ADD so this is what oozes out. I hope you enjoy my Big Bad LumberJack.

Our methodology is to lead out in mental sprint sessions, followed by walking-it-out strategy, lots of whiteboard sessions, and more. Of course, lunch is in…and we are working. Afternoon brings more sprints, burn down chart building, walking it out followed by more sprint sessions.

This stuff is addictive. And we love what we get to do, and who we get to do this stuff with…but we never kiss and tell.

2. The co-founders met, literally, on Twitter. The first conversation, beyond DM’s was … instant messaging. The first “real” conversation was … at a tweet up.

3. Three possible company names and six minutes of discussion. First corporate decision: No meetings, ever (thank you 37signals). Second corporate decision: “BigBadCollab”.

4. The name of the company has our favorite core value in it, “Collab”…short for “Collaboration”. The full company name is “Big” as in “Our vision, our pursuit, our calling”; “Bad” as in “The Michael Jackson definition…before he died”; and, “Collab” as in “collaboration”.

5. Between the two co-founders, there are thirty plus years of marriage, four kids (18 to 2), three dogs, and nearly twenty-five years of experience across nearly one-thousand web projects.

6. Ben has his degree in Anthropology. Mark has his degree in Economics and Finance.

7. Over 90% of BigBadCollab’s business is run completely, on the Internet. Code repository, accounting, project management, communications….its all out there.

8. The official sport of BigBadCollab is disc golf (below).

9. Culture is very important to BigBadCollab. Its a fabric and reflection of what we believe, how we behave, why we do what we do.

10. If it were not for God’s grace, we would all be completely lost.

Helping our great friends over at Church IT Roundtable (CITRT) with getting the word out. Love what they do, love what they stand for. The annual national roundtable for CITRT is coming up March 11th and 12th at Saddleback Church. We encourage you to consider registering (a great deal at $75!) and find yourself gathered with this great group of church tech leaders. You can find more at CITRT including their stuff on social media.

His expression on why he does not allow comments on his blog is an interesting perspective:

“…to the extent that comments interfere with the natural expression of the unedited voice of an individual, comments may act to make something not a blog…. The cool thing about blogs is that while they may be quiet, and it may be hard to find what you’re looking for, at least you can say what you think without being shouted down. This makes it possible for unpopular ideas to be expressed. And if you know history, the most important ideas often are the unpopular ones…. That’s what’s important about blogs, not that people can comment on your ideas. As long as they can start their own blog, there will be no shortage of places to comment.”

Dimensional Idea Capture

“We’ve taken all the topics that have come up in all the TEDTalks from the past few years on the website, and by moving your hand above this box you’ll be able to look see the ideas that people are writing about TED as they’re happening from the Twitter feed. You can control the movement and capture ideas in the aerogel as they’re coming back.” — Gilad Lotan

Software-Controlled Art

“This is a piece by the video and new-media artist Lincoln Schatz. It’s a generative portrait. We created this especially for the space here. It started Monday; we plugged it in, and that’s its ‘born-on date.’ That’s when it started collecting memories. … The software makes all the decisions about what it wants to keep and what it wants to discard. It’s a portrait, but the artist surrenders control to the software.” — Nell Taylor

These directions should work for you if you are interested in trying it out. If you do try it out, feel free to drop a comment below and let us all hear what you think–has it helped you? Is Google going the right direction providing all these integrated choices? We’d love to hear your opinions.

1. Activate “Add any gadget by URL” in Gmail Labs — Login into your gmail. Go to the “Settings” menu at the top right. Click on the “Labs” menu choice within Settings. You will find it near the bottom of the list.

2. Now go to Settings –> Gadgets. Here you’ll find a place to add Gadget URLs.

3. Add the TwitterGadget App. Any iGoogle gadget will do actually, but I like TwitterGadget, a fully-functional Twitter service for iGoogle and Gmail. This lets tweet from the sidebar or open up your Twitter with all of your tabs intact. It even supports multiple accounts (cool!)

To add it, copy and paste this URL into Gmail’s Gadget settings: “https://twittergadget.appspot.com/gadget-gmail.xml”

4. Add the Facebook Gadget. In the same way you added TwitterGadget, you can add Facebook to your Gmail. While Google has an official Facebook gadget, it doesn’t play nicely with Gmail, so try out the app Ari Milner uses: Facebook Gadget by iBruno. It will expand into the rest of your Gmail for easy Facebook management (just click the ‘expand’ on the Facebook widget and it will expand into your Gmail pane).

FB integrated

To add it, copy and paste this URL into Gmail’s Gadget settings: “http://hosting.gmodules.com/ig/gadgets/file/104971404861070329537/facebook.xml”

5. Voila! Facebook, Twitter, and Gmail are now all wrapped up into one for your convenience. Simple and doable.

6. Final Step. Add us on Twitter @BigBadCollab, @marksnewton and @benjordan. We would love to connect!

Yesterday I was having an interesting conversation about being a designer and how burnout seems to be a common thing at times. There are days where things just seem hard, weird, out of sync. Your Apple products aren’t as exciting as they usually are, you can’t figure out what music to listen to, you just feel blah. As we talked I shared with him some of my tricks and realized that this might be something worth sharing.

Your environment is something that is super important to how well you work. I have always hated fluorescent lighting and blank white walls, but it goes beyond that. Even if you have great stuff on your desk, the coolest posters on the wall and the best lighting it can still get old. You sit in the same space every day and after time there is nothing more of interest to you. Everything just sort of becomes white noise. That red swingline doesn’t make you laugh anymore and that bobble head Dwight is super dusty. When this happens I have a few little things I do create some interest again. Hope some of these help you out of your funk.

Change your lighting – If you have lamps (and you should) move them around on your desk. Move them to the other side of the desk, set them on the floor, stack some books and put a lamp on top, switch lamps with one in a different room, go buy a new lamp shade, something. Light can dramatically change the feeling of any environment.

Switch Artwork - Move around the stuff on your walls. If there is nothing on your walls go get some cheap posters from http://www.aestheticapparatus.com or  http://www.etsy.com/category/art. Go to Target and get some random wall decorations. Go to a flea market, estate sell, antique store or something and get some random artwork.

Find an Aroma – Design and creativity can be greatly effected through all of your senses. Go to one of those girly stores and get a candle or one of those wall plug-ins. Pick a smell that is different. Something you are not used to smelling but you enjoy. It will trick your brain into thinking there is something new about your place.

Change where you work – Move your chair to the other side of the desk. Trade offices or cubicles with someone else. If you have the flexibility, go find a new environment to work. Crash a community college. See if a local church will let you sit somewhere in their building. I guess you could go to a coffee shop but that rarely works for me. Go find a new environment! I have even been known to go park the car somewhere, roll down the windows and work unplugged for a while.

Switch your desk layout – If you have a ton of stuff on your desk, put it all in a drawer or box and go for a super clean, modern desk for a bit. If you have nothing on your desk go find some interesting things to layout on your desk. Go to the toy store and get some fun little toys, go to http://www.cubeecraft.com/, print off some templates and make a little army of men to celebrate your accomplishments. Do something different than what you have been doing.

I know some of this may seem obvious, or maybe it doesn’t. If you have worked at the same place for years and don’t even think you are blocked try some of these things out. I guarantee you will notice the difference. Your environment where you work greatly impacts how you do it is what you do.

If you have any other great ideas or tricks that you do to get your mojo back I’d love to hear em. Leave a comment below and tell us.