Delightful Reveal #4

Unveiling what’s been rumblin’ in Flagrant’s belly. 

What we did

• Met with the CMO of our client to discuss branding timelines and our application’s value proposition
• Discussed an improved Kanban-style workflow for our team using Linear
• Expanded our responsive design/development using mobile ViewComponents.
• Planned for user research. Created a clickable prototype in Balsamiq Cloud. Informed our acceptance criteria via three user research sessions (concept testing)
• Planned for a Flagrant-wide workshop
• Iterated on UI wireframes after a first meeting with users
• Automated the generation, and delivery, of a daily report for a client
• Wireframing out UI for multi tabs and filtering systems that are customizable…very complex system stuff while staying within legacy design patterns.
• Met with freelancer Christine Maggi about possible future collaborations
• Connected with Tanish Singh, Chief of Staff at Mighty Networks, on the power of community focused platforms, difficulties of building an inclusive culture with a fully remote team, and complexities in designing a virtual home base to support member owned co-ops
• Learned how to create issue templates in Github
• Started reaching out to our network to see what other opportunities exist for folks preparing to ramp down on efforts next month
• Built out more process in our sales efforts
• Made peanut butter cookies
• Made a headdress for a Lundi Gras parade costume featuring white beans, fake pearls, giant bubbles, and fake lily pads
• Illustrating a band logo & album cover for the Back Issues (new local Madison Band) and new Madison Reading Project character illustrations for their My First Pages campaign

What we’re reading

• The one thing missing from UX today? Hope by Vivianne Castillo (Fast Company)
• A bunch of stuff about Erlang and Elixir
• The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level by Gay Hendricks (The StoryGraph)
• High Variance Management (sbensu.com)
• Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky (The StoryGraph)
• Killer Mastodon thread on the Netflix login changes: (also available here)
• GROUNDHOG-DAY.com

What we’re listening to

• “King Hokum” and “Gon’ Boogaloo” albums by  C. W. Stoneking
•  “American Utopia” by David Byrne
•  Daft Punk’s Tron Soundtrack for all the deep thoughts
• Christine and the Queens - à la clairefontaine (Lyric Video) 
• Boards of Canada’s “Tomorrow’s Harvest”
• 2000’s Pop Punk
• Janelle Monae
• Music to Calm Your Canine by Through a Dog’s Ear
• 8-bit Dub Step playlist
• Party Dog ft. Ernie thee Corgi (Music Video) - Tom Cardy 
• You’re Wrong About : Karen Carpenter

What we’re interested in

• Videogame: God of War: Ragnarok 
• Videogame: Diablo IV
• Boardgame: Dune
• Boardgame: Twilight Imperium 4th Edition
• A Mindfulness Exercise to Calm Your Emotions
• Zach Bush 4 minute workout
• Aura Bora’s strawberry cursor trails
• Cooking with School of Wok
• Narvik: Hitler’s First Defeat
• Season 4 of The Great Pottery Throwdown

What we’re buying

• King cake
• Banana dog 
• Wool sweaters for dogs. Pit bulls get chilly in Wisconsin in the winter. 
• Supplements to support mental health
• Tiny Tree Houses  - FYI Kelly watercolor’d the surfaces as she built it. Takes around 2-3 hours of build time and helps if you grew up doing lego builds. The instructions are similar. I found this out because I built one with a friend who did not and she super struggled building it. 

What we’re struggling with

• Sleep
• Unlearning feeling guilty about taking care of yourself and shedding our previous hang up on capitalistic values - sharing mental health issues openly to create more empathy cross team and build it as a safe topic in our culture
• Having a beagle/husky mix who doesn’t mind the -10ºF wind chill
• Overhead lighting that makes your face look red
• Making tiny motions that tire out the tiny muscles in our shoulders during physical therapy (ouch)
• Paper forms and mail in process vs online form submitting
• Building UI for Tables/Tabs…and make it usable and look good - shit is HARD
• Balsamiq

What we’re celebrating 

• Balsamiq
• New Tiger Team is assembling!
• My mom, who owns a coffee shop, got a new espresso machine (old one broke). They are now able to froth oat milk
• Warmer weather - in the near future… (Wisconsin optimism)
• Colder weather - starting today (Florida/Louisiana problems)
• Starting up therapy again!

If you’re looking for a team to help you discover the right thing to build and help you build it, get in touch.