Playground

Introducing Facelr: The Tumblr Timeline

Tell Your Story on Tumblr

Tumblr done Facebook Timeline style.

Sharing on the Internet is getting easier and easier. Social networks and blogging platforms have led the way by helping people all around the world create a home for the content of their lives. We share moments and memories, pictures, thoughts and things that inspire us. We share funny things, sad things and, sometimes, embarrassing things. Today, Playground wants to share something fun.

Imagine if there was an easier way to Tumble. Introducing Facelr: a new kind of theme.

Launching today for your Tumblog Facelr for Tumblr.

Check out our blogs for a preview.

Ryan’s Tumblog
Dave’s Tumblog
Sami’s Tumblog

Steve Jobs is Dead. Long Live Steve Jobs.

This week the world lost a visionary, a philosopher, a great leader and an inspiration to millions. To fully understand the impact Steve Jobs has had on the world is a daunting task, but I suppose that’s the thing with paradigm shifts. He took computing from something that was only accessible and enjoyable for the technologically savvy and simplified it to a point where toddlers, 90 year old grandmothers and even cats could innately understand. He invented a device that changed the way we communicate and at the same time a $3 billion industry for independent software developers. His clairvoyance has guided the technology industry for years, he often developed products for which there was no demand, until he created it. He invented the tools that empower our livelihoods here at Playground. While he will be missed dearly, his spirit will live on in the company he created and his legacy will forever be on our desks, in our backpacks and pockets. Steve Jobs was a man who changed everything, forever.

Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish.

-Sent from my iPhone

Mapitat: Pin Down Your Next Place

Playground’s Latest Internal Product.

At Playground, we live inside web applications, but when we go home at night, we live inside our apartments. Being renters in a big city like Toronto can be daunting sometimes. Searching for an apartment on current websites, in multiple tabs just doesn’t work. Fragmentation and complacency plague the apartment listing market. Understanding all of these issues, we decided to scratch our own itch and build Mapitat. Mapitat is the easiest way to find a place to live.

We strive to make interfaces intuitive and simple.

Lean and Mean

With multiple employees searching for shelter themselves, our wheels started turning. We analyzed the problems with the current workflow and saw an opportunity to make it better. After a brainstorm we narrowed in on the absolute essential tools to help renters with this task. We threw out as much as possible and we were left with an amazing opportunity in a great space.

Identify a problem, analyze the size of the opportunity, propose a solution and build.

Identifying the MVP: Be Useful

Minimum Viable Product is a turn of phrase that gets used a lot in our space. We knew that a real estate rental application could quickly grow in scope so we actively worked to keep it simple and let data drive the rest of our decisions. We wanted to show relevant results in a way that made sense and allow the renter to filter based on their needs. We worked as a team and combined our spare resources to create something that we think is useful.

Wireframes don’t have to be complicated.

Launch Early, Iterate Often

We wanted to eat the Google mantra dog food: launch early and iterate often. After a two-week development and design sprint, we decided we liked what we built enough to release it. We’re not worried about adding a million features, instead, we just want to put this in the hands of as many people as possible and let user behaviour drive our feature roadmap.

Check it out and pin down your next place on Mapitat.
Launching today in Toronto and San Francisco.

Brought to you by Playground

Looking Up To An Intern.

Meet our Junior Engineer: David Bartholomew.

If you’re one of the lucky ones, you’ll look around your office right now and realize you’re surrounded by people who make you proud to show up to work every morning. For us, the lucky ones, you’ll look around and see a diverse group of minds all extremely talented, made cohesive through their passion to create.

This is the culture you reward. The one you foster. The one that fuels growth.

It’s for that very reason we’d like to take this opportunity to introduce a man we look up to, whose tireless effort and quality of character make this company great.

There is no wrong way to hold a ferret.

It’s hard not to look up to David, who towers almost a full head over iMacs and everyone at an open bar.

Harder still not to look up to him if you’ve ever played a game of Star Craft, where he is ranked at the Mid-Masters level. Watching him play is astounding, his 140 APM is matched only by his mouth. A mouth that never stops talking trash. It becomes impossible not to look up and on in a stunned sense of wonder when he playfully completes a Rubik’s cube with the habitual ease that most people have when finding the light switch in their own darkened house.

Yet these are not the reasons we’ve come to cherish David’s membership as part of the Playground family. As a small company we need talent. We can only afford to take on incredible people who bring exceptional analytical or creative skill to the table. There are simply not enough desks here to support mediocrity, which is why as a partner I’ve had to relinquish my desk and work from the couch in the kitchen.

We’ve found a lot of great talent.

What makes David unique? Simply put his mind works in a unique way.

David won’t stop smiling. 

When he arrived here as a computer system’s analyst with a desire to learn web development, he took on every task we could throw at him. He asked for guidance with a smile, found bugs grinning ear to ear, then programmed and polished everything with a smirk that can’t be denied. I’m proud to say that as I type this, I can hear him laughing with the dev team in the next room. It’s a flat room, it’s a team, and it’s a team because of the laughter, because the work is not easy but the smiles are.

This is the culture you reward.
The one you foster.
The one that fuels growth.

5 Things Every Startup Should Have

Every week, we meet many up-and-coming companies here at Playground. A large portion of these teams seek our advice on a variety of topics that range from how to build a product, raise funds, and develop future strategies. The majority of these companies are in an early prototype or a pre-product stage. While some have seed funding, others get by through bootstrapping. But at the end of the day, they all share a few commonalities. Most lack a critical know-how of the basic pillars associated with starting a new venture. Not every start-up requires the same advice, but there are definitely some similar threads that apply to almost every company attempting to build a new digital product. Outlined below are five essential points, that I have tried and tested with numerous emerging companies.

 
1. Have the right partners for the job 
It’s definitely not a new idea, but perhaps, a start-up company’s biggest asset are its people. It’s important for an entrepreneur to have a partner. This not only comes in handy for business and technical reasons, it  is also helpful in maintaining one’s sanity. It’s also pivotal to know that you and your partner are ‘right for the job.’ A recurring mistake that we at Playground have noticed is when companies try to make a technical product without the presence of a technical co-founder. The explanation for this recurring mistake a the belief held by many young entrepreneurs. They have little technical skills, but believe that a freelance developer or an offshore development company will build their product. This leads nowhere, and quiet simply, it won’t work. On the flip side, if your business is sales-focused, as the owner, you should have sales skills. Having the right skills and domain knowledge are not only critical to your ability to execute your vision, but they are possibly the most important factors in raising capital. It’s not enough to just have the right skills. It’s a type of a ‘do-or-die’ situation when you undertake such enormous responsibilities. This is precisely why the owner and partners need to work full-time for a product, because very few companies have succeeded with ‘part-time’ co-founders. Having a dedicated attitude helps one understand the difficulties of embarking on a start-up. I’ve been in partnerships that have excelled tremendously, and others, that failed miserably because of a personality clash. Rule of thumb is,  if you can’t picture yourself living in the same space as your partner, then it’s probably not a good idea to start a business with him/her either. 
 
 2. Have enough runway
Most entrepreneurs falsely believe that their business can be revenue-positive in under a year. Some even go as far as believing it will take off in less than six months. It’s an implausible mentality that many entrepreneurs have when many don’t have a a monetization plan. Building a new product takes time. Getting people to use that product takes longer. More importantly, getting people to pay for that product might never even occur. Generally speaking, building a new product can take at least three months to get it to the prototype stage. Then it will take another three months to get it market-ready and then another six months to polish it. From this point, you and your team will most likely have a few months to gain traction and raise capital in order to move forward. It’s crucial to be financially and entrepreneurially savvy as a start-up. Understanding your burn rate, having enough capital to stay operational for at least 14-16 months are important, because they help you in staying lean.

3. Know your product/market fit
Many new products aren’t made to solve world issues. But what’s worse is when these products create new problems. Y Combinator co-founder, Paul Graham brilliantly says it best, “make things people want” — advice every entrepreneur should heed. The idea of a product/market fit means a particular product’s value to the larger market. And once this product is built, its users/customers would feel a void if it was taken away. Before even building a product, hiring your team or raising funds, it’s always good practice to validate your idea. In order to execute this, an entrepreneur needs to reach out to the product’s target users and try to learn more about enhancing the product. A working prototype or detailed mock-up isn’t necessarily required to do preliminary research. Often, the simplest thing you can do is highlight compelling attributes of your products to these users in order to get feedback. After the research is completed, there is a chance that your original concept requires considerable revision, or, in some cases, even a complete overhaul of your vision.

4.  Minimum viable product
Nearly every start-up that comes through Playground’s doors,  knows where it wants to be in the next five years. However, they have no idea of what to focus on in the present. Disorganization, lack of priority (that leads to burnout for many team-members), and missed opportunities are some of the leading causes or start-up failures. Understanding your company’s priorities is crucial to getting any task completed. Once you know your product/market fit, it’s important to comprehend your minimum viable product. Rather than build every feature imaginable, build as little as possible. Understand the priorities and aggressively reduce the scope of your product. Once your product is in the market, you can roll out additional features and test new concepts more effectively — all with an understanding of what your customer really wants.

5. Understand your metrics
You have to know about which numbers drive your business and how to track them in an aggressive and organized fashion. A good example of understanding metrics is Dave McClure’s AARRR system of metrics. It dictates five numbers that you should focus on: Acquisition is the cost of acquiring a new lead. Activation is the number of times you can make customers do something. Retention is the number of users who come back. Referral is how those users spread the word. Revenue is the amount made from each user. Focusing on these numbers allows you to understand the costs of acquiring a new user, versus the amount of money made per user. These numbers allow you to create a feedback loop between your product’s features and profitability.

This list is certainly not meant to be exhaustive of all things related to start-up companies. But, I think, it’s an accurate reflection of the major points to keep in mind when starting a new company. There is a lot more to comment about these issues, but I’ll explore that in another entry. 

Welcome to Our Blog!

Welcome to our freshly-built Playground portfolio, site and blog. At Playground, we build products, platforms and designs experiences for the digital space. Every day, we come together to make the Internet a more vibrant, and dare we say, an awesomer place! We do this by focusing on informed strategy, human-centric UX and modern engineering practices. One of our passions has to do with tech start-ups, and often we find ourselves investing and accelerating these companies. Other than that, we build platforms and products for great clients. This blog will explore the insights and emerging trends that power the decision-making at Playground. We will have the opportunity to experiment and question ideas that we encounter everyday. We hope you’ll join our discussions, add to our insights and challenge our ideas.