My Stellar Team

As I basked in the compliments and admiration from our non-profit folks it was hard for me to properly help them understand how my efforts at the event paled in comparison to what the others on my team produced…

Project Managers often get the glory from project customers because they’re the “people person”, the customer-facing person. The customer seldom understands all the moving parts and skills involved in the technical and content portion of their project. Sure, I corralled everyone for check-ins and stand ups, I assigned work, wrote up a shit-load of post-it notes, made sure everyone was busy, took care of the customers, kept the team as motivated as possible… but it was the developers and the design team that did the real work, dealt with real frustration and used their amazing talents to produce a quality product in record time. They are just freakin’ amazing. The whole team. Freakin’ amazing.

Ken & Leon – these guys did so much work to set up staging environments, drupal sandbox, making sure everything is installed, updated, released, etc. What they do is like surgery, I don’t understand it all, but trust it will be done right and no one will cut into the wrong body part.

Leon — Leon had back-up plans for his back-up plans.

Jessica — Kitchen-freakin’-sink, man. Seriously, the woman does it all and thinks faster than anyone I’ve ever met in my entire life. I am in awe of her – constantly.

Kjrsten — this girl works hard and makes it look easy. Kjr works quietly, independently, naps like a kitten AND still produces a volume of quality work every time.

Dan, Jeremy & Kris — OMG! These guys are the greatest! Simply put, these guys get it done. Always in a good moods, easy to work with and, seriously, gets the shit done. More importantly, when they’re done with something they actually come asking for more… if Jessica wasn’t hugging them, I would have. I still might…

Ken — Ken rocked the CSS — until he hit the wall. And when he hit the wall, he admitted it. Admitting that you’re fried is hard for some people, but Ken thought more about the team and the customer, than about his pride.

Greg — Happy, hardworking and extremely creative. Another guy who just gets his work done, then pitches in to get more work done… The Sarcoma 101 interactive was amazing, factual and added that educational element the site required.

Luke & Jessica – a match made in web design heaven. Yeppers, these two think with the same brain and what comes from that team is always gorgeous, useful and not just what the customer needed, but what they wanted.

Our non-profit customer appreciated everyone on the team, but they’ll never really know what an amazing group of professionals they had the good fortune to work with at this event.

This awesome team should be cloned or put in a time capsule or something. No shit.

-smi

We’re Done.

It is over… we just presented to the room after having presented to the judges alreaady and it was, well, it is done. Once again, even without coffee, I was still a bit unfocused and scattered in my presentation. It was not awful, but not what I intended.

Oh shut up, Susan, it’s not about YOU, it’s about our cool non-profit and their needs. Anywho, it’s over. Yay!

Um, we have a lot of clean up, some post-event work to do and training for the non-profit folks left, but we’re good and done – mostly.

I’m tired and my tummy hurts.

Final 2 Hours

My productivity has become 1/4 of what it usually is. The sun is coming up, I just saw a lizard walk behind my computer. Can’t wait for sleep… All worth it for Rein in Sarcoma.

Only 4 Hours Left. Holy Crap.

We in our 7th iteration with 4 hours to go… Jessica says we’re fine and further ahead than we were last year, but I feel like time is slipping by so fast and we’ve still go so much to do.

I won a 32″ HDTV. I thought they were punking me or something, but they were serious.

Even though, I’m not sure I’d do this again next year… it’s so hard, stressful. Wait, I think I said that same thing last year.

I wonder why they aren’t giving us chocolate or cake or anything. Just sayin’

-smi

Overwhelmed No Longer

Just finished the 3rd iteration Stand Up… A couple of hours ago I felt so overwhelmed I was tense — very tense. I figured I would totally use the chair massage folks they brought in I was so tense. However, now we’re progressing along pretty well and I feel better…

1. Leon and I connected, then reconnected on the plan and are in-sync. That is good.

2. Jessica and Luke created a kick-ass design approved including a solid content map.

3. Kjrsten rocked the… oops! I almost divulged some of our key content objects! Damn, I better be careful

4. Ken, Kris and Leon are knee deep in one of the biggest features for the site — totally worth the effort as it’s key to the non-profits online strategy.

5. Dan, Jeremy and Greg are silent, but deadly at knocking off tasks and goin’ back for more

Now if we had cake, bear claws or something sweet that would make everything better.

-smi

Dinner has Arrived!

The nice thing about iPhones are nobody knows your taking their picture.

Oh My gosh…

As always, in the beginning the job at hand feels so overwhelming… I believe, as time flies by, it will start to feel more manageable. I’m so thrilled to be working with the Karen Wyckoff Rein In Sarcoma Foundation. These folks are so cool, kind and are so dedicated… it’s just heartwarming. I’m so glad we’re doing this — it’s the only thing getting me into some kind of heaven!

-smi

Our Non Profit

We are thrilled to be working with Rein in Sarcoma for the next 24 hours!  Here is there currnet site I think we will be able to help!

Some photos

And I’m Here

Guess I could have timed the commute a little better. 6:49am and I’m the first one here. This is the building (holding cell) TeamIB will be spending the next 36 hours together in.