December 19, 2019 — There are countless examples of how simple changes have made a dramatic improvement in website performance. Website owners have found that changing the wording on their “add to cart” buttons can increase sales by 30% or even more. Simply changing the imagery or messaging in your hero area has increased online leads by over 100%. You’ll never “guess” your way into a high performing website, you need to run tests and see what performs better. This may sound hard, but it’s really not. In this talk I’ll show you how to start your first and second A/B test. An A/B test is where you test two different variations of the same page. While this may sound complicated it can be done in minutes and without any custom programming through a free tool called Google Optimize.

April 3, 2019 — Trying to break out of the hourly trap? Love the idea of supplementing your client work with steady, reoccurring revenue? I was in your shoes three years ago when I launched my first successful product. Now we maintain around ten premium WordPress products.

In this talk I’ll discuss how to launch your first product including coming up with ideas, putting together a team, marketing strategy and what to expect.

August 31, 2018 — Ross and Justin recount the stories of how they started their plugin businesses and share many lessons learned along the way.

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January 6, 2017 — Make the logo bigger, move the sidebar to the left, I don’t like that shade of blue, the font is too big… If you’re working on the web and play any part on the design or interface of a project then you know how difficult the design approval process can be. How can you get something approved if everyone has different tastes?

In this talk I describe a process that dramatically reduces approval challenges. I cover the steps I take to establish expertise, squash fights over aesthetic preferences and reduce the amount of effort required to get a design approved.

This process is so effective we rarely have more than one round of revisions and the first round typically takes less than 30 minutes to complete.

November 11, 2016 — For small businesses, one of the biggest and most overwhelming challenges is often the finding, managing and letting go of employees or subcontractors. This panel will consist of experts who’ve experienced first hand the pains of hiring the wrong people as well as the benefits of hiring well. There will be open Q&A on the topics of when to hire, what to hire for, when to fire, finding good talent and getting the most out of existing human resources.

June 20, 2016 — In the ten years of running a design agency I’ve run into countless freelancers, consultants and business owners that dream of breaking free from the pains of client work by selling a product.

Two years ago I started a successful plugin business and learned what it takes to break from the service mindset and produce a product that you can sell and scale.

In this presentation I discuss how to come up with a viable product, finding the time or resources to build it, marketing the product and what challenges you can expect to face.

January 22, 2015 — This talk discusses the lizard brain and how it’s secrets influences our actions and thought. It then covers the framework for emotional reactions and how you can use design to elicit positive reactions to visual stimuli.

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July 16, 2014 — Designing for first impressions is no easy task. 50 milliseconds isn’t enough time to read a single line of copy or even fully comprehend what you’re looking at. So how can you design for good first impressions? The key is understanding human psychology and emotional reactions. Despite our highly evolved state, all humans have a subconscious “lizard brain” that makes lightening fast assessments about what feels good or bad. If you understand the lizard brain, you can use design to illicit positive first impressions. This talk discusses the lizard brain and how it secrets influences our actions and thought. It then covers the framework for emotional reactions and how you can use design to illicit positive reactions to visual stimuli.

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October 18, 2013 — This talk demonstrates how one can design themes and websites that are emotionally engaging and intuitively usable; creating the most compelling user experience possible.

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October 5, 2013 — This talk dives into basic UX methodologies before exploring how WordPress already has the functionality to accommodate core UX needs. With the information provided you can create more usable themes, happier users and a better web for all.

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