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Dear everyone,
Welcome to our new website. Let’s talk about this, as the team had a very interesting discussion on writing and working with the garage door open.
First, writing. This is reflected through our choice of web builder. Since the beginning of JAR, we hosted our website using one of the most popular Content Management Systems. The problem was: traditional CMSs need to be managed by key people to update the website. That limitation in speed and the tech barrier didn’t really help our busy team of six—whether we wanted to update the site or add new writings.
As we started to grow writing as a culture within the team, we found Blot to be a huge help. But why?
Blot defines itself in three points, as stated on their website:
• A tool that turns a folder into a website.
• A simple way to publish to the internet—just drag and drop your files.
• Designed to work with the tools you already use, like your favorite text editor.
If I may add: Blot is a tool that allows the team to write whatever we want and publish it in just seconds through a simple text file. Even this text is written in Markdown format.
The choice of Blot reflects our team’s aspiration to write and think more. Because to write is to think.
Next, working with the garage door open.
A few years back I stumbled upon Andy Matuschak’s note on this. Working in a place where people can see your progress may seem absurd at first. After all, we—as consumer research practitioners—have to practice confidentiality.
But working in this environment, I humbly believe, promotes a sense of accountability. That’s why we started maintaining Weekly Updates that can be published at the start of each week. We’ve created a guideline so we don’t spill the tea too much, while still embracing the core idea: process as a catalyst for reflection.
We think that’s a good way to humble ourselves—by owning both our successes and failures in our updates.
Reiza
