Toolbox: A Workshop for Startups

Tony Zanders

If you live in San Diego, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Cincinnati, or Salt Lake City, you were probably watching team USA draw with England in the World Cup. But if you live in Silicon Valley, and you wanted to learn how pick up the Sharpie to sketch out product designs, you should’ve joined me in attending Startup Toolbox, a hands-on workshop for small teams in Product Development, Marketing, and Design.

Led by Al Abut (@alabut), this one day hands-on workshop was a success, especially for the event’s debut. It gave marketing folks like me an opportunity to learn the basics of product development and user interface design, and did the same for product and design folks to learn about areas they may not have as much experience in, like marketing. Held at the beautiful offices of DLA Piper in Palo Alto, CA, there couldn’t have been a better venue than being a hop skip and a jump away from the Four Seasons hotel.

Daniel Brusilovsky (of Teens in Tech) and Dan Olsen (of YourVersion.com)

Interaction Design

Al presented on Interaction Design, and actually had one of the more engaging presentations that I’ve seen in the tech community, due in large part to the references he made to the Navy Seals (Okay, I admit. It’s probably one of those “you had to be there to get it” types of experiences). None the less, I took away some great tips that small departments can use for team work, knowing your role, how each role within the design process works with one another, and how good design affects the entire company, including sales. Here’s Al’s presentation called, Interaction Design:

Product Management

Another presenter was Dan Olsen (@danolsen), founder at YourVersion.com. Dan’s a product guy who talked a lot about lean startup metrics, and how to look at products by making clear distinctions between the problem you’re trying to solve, and the possible solutions to that problem. While I may be oversimplifying Dan’s approach to product development, the full presentation can be seen below. It’s titled, Product Management 101 for Startups:

Marketing and Communications

In marketing and communications, Jesse Taggert (@jtag) spent some time educating the number of options available to us as marketers to manage our company’s brand, develop an identity for our company, and accomplish other marketing goals using social media. Her presentation was hands down the BEST overview of marketing with social media I’ve seen in a long time, because rather than neglecting the traditional aspects of brand and identity that most social media “gurus” do today, she shares wealth of experience from helping clients develop their identity before the dawn of social media.