deeplocal: Design and Development for Humans and Machines

So this costume has a long history.

It’s a little kids homemade bunny outfit.

With some alteration I was able to fit into it. I never wore it out though due to the potential embarrassment of those with me. I am attending Chemistry’s Halloween party. So I recently expanded my kid costume collection last weekend by buying a heavily used kid’s homemade Tigger costume. I altered that costume last night for Heather here but she refuses to allow me to share those pictures online (come to the studio and I will show you though).

So here is my question, while we are likely not going to both go dressed in these costumes as we resemble “furries”, I am debating whether I should stick it out and wear my bunny costume. I am attaching a photo and I also want to list some of the costume highlights:

1. a Genital Sack (not sure what to call this but as the costume zips up the front it needed a lot of extension to cover my 6′3″ frame so I added pink fabric in the crotch area. that fabric looks pretty odd and allows for extensive creative interpretation of what it is supposed to be)

2. bunny ears (luckily my small(er) head fits the bunny head but one ear is sort of broken but it still looks ok)

3. bunny tail (sits at my lower back, nowhere near my ass)

So my question is… should I wear this thing or is it too embarrassing? Comment below please.

Nathan

The advice I’m about to give isn’t earth shattering. But it’ll help you to get hired.

Many other people have written about how to get a cool job. So this is clearly not an original topic. There are two reasons you should listen to my opinion. First, I’ve headed up the marketing departments at two awesome start-up companies in Pittsburgh (Currently Deeplocal and formerly College Prowler)- both of which rarely hire and receive a lot of interest when they do; so, the advice has worked for me (I’m sitting in an enormous purple “Ultimate Sack” bean bag chair, eating Reese’s Cups, and listening to “Do the Panic” as I write this from the Deeplocal office- clearly no complaints here.) Second, I’ve hired interns and full-time employees for both companies I’ve worked for and I know what we want in job candidates. Consider these “rules” to be the icing on the cake. Clearly, if you’re applying for a job you aren’t remotely qualified for, it’s likely that you won’t get it. If you have the base qualifications, these ideas will help you to stand out.

Don’t underestimate the importance of cover letters…and don’t be generic.

A really specific, well-written, honest cover letter can make up for a so-so resume; a generic, poorly-written, boring cover letter downgrades a great resume. The worst thing you can do is to send the same cover letter to every company you apply to. It’s crystal-clear when you’ve changed one or two sentences to “customize” a cover letter. Cite specific reasons you want the position and why you’re qualified for it. Be professional but remember it’s ok to show you have a personality.

Prepare. for. the. interview.

This advice is so unoriginal that I hate giving it. Unfortunately, it’s the #1 thing that interviewees rarely do. If you can’t answer, “why do you want to work for (company x),” then you might as well skip the interview and get a Pumpkin Spice latte at Starbucks instead…it would be a better use of everyone’s time. When you do come up with that answer, be honest.

Also, either be prepared to show your online portfolio, or bring a physical portfolio of your best work. Almost no one does this; the people who do show that they’re organized and that they care. Oh, and ask questions at the end of the interview…if you don’t ask questions, you don’t really want the job.

Look at the company’s website, products, and (if possible) the interviewer’s bio.

Be passionate, energetic, and positive.

In an interview, it isn’t just about what you say, but how you say it. Want to get a job at Deeplocal or any other forward-thinking organization? Convince your interviewers that you’re not just looking for a 9-5 job. You want to be a part of something that you’re passionate about; you want to love your job so much that you continue thinking about it after hours. Also, don’t say anything negative- about your former job, former boss, hatred of exercise, distrust of vegetarians, whatever. You’ll end up looking like an ass.

Say that you want the job.

Never leave an interview without telling your interviewer that you truly want to work for their company and why. Be heartfelt. Say that if they hire you, you’ll work hard to help the company to succeed. Say you’re willing to do any project you’re assigned. Again, show passion. Don’t be stone-faced. Smile, be confident, and be sincere.

Send a hand-written thank you note and mail it immediately after the interview.

Buy a really nice thank you card, do a rough draft of your note (and spell-check it), and use your best printing to thank your interviewers. Don’t write something lame and generic…cite specific things that happened in your interview and specific reasons you’d love to work for their company. Include your contact info.

It all boils down to this…showing that you care.

Yeah, I sound like a sappy Hallmark card. But showing that you care is really what it’s all about.
While I can’t guarentee that my advice will land you your dream job, it worked for me (working for Deeplocal really is as great as it seems). Good luck, and if all else fails, buy yourself an Ultimate Sack.

We are sort of like the living dead zombi (pittsburgh born band reference) company. We were supposed to have died two years ago according to most of those that know business. We are over three years old now and have seen a lot of change and growth. We have survived and in fact grown into what we are now – a crazy product/service hybrid business. I’ve never been great at working for other people and although they may not admit it, many of my co-workers are of the same breed. I am essentially doing the same thing now as I have done since I was fifteen, whatever I feel like. It sounds strange but really everyone here I respect deeply because they are people that don’t settle and want to be great. We  have many failures but we keep trying and we learn to fail quickly.

So lets move on to something more entertaining. Our artists in residence have been really working it lately. I can’t believe I said working it. What I mean to say is they are making us look damn good. T. Foley and LocallyToned has just returned from Spain and immediately landed herself at the G20 and recorded some amazing tones including one of some sound cannon used here. Allen Hahn also has been active and took is alternate reality game over to City Theatre for their season opener Jekyll & Hyde. Working with the cast and the playwright the team created a game played on the streets of the South Side of Pittsburgh. You get calls, texts, and hunt for Hyde! You can even when real prizes like hotel stays, tickets, and free dinner. Text JEKYLL to 79649. Learn more at PlayJekyll.com.

PlayJekyll ends this weekend. Try it out!

nathan

Last post I spent an inordinate amount of time writing about the people in the office, but if you’re like me you’re thinking “Yes Dave, sure, but what are the THINGS that are in the office?” – ok maybe not, but its easy blog post fodder! Honestly I don’t have a tech post ready, so I’m killing time with fluff (its an old-media trick).

I’ll start by saying that this is the office from my current vantage point. I am sitting in our super startupy “Ultimate Sack” which is the generic version of the “Love Sack” beanbag chair. It is not filled with beans of either the pinto or styrofoam type, it is full of a very comfortable foam not unlike a pillow top mattress.

Note that my feet are on the coffee table and this is primarily due to the fact that beanbag chairs are not made for the tall. I tend to sit in it and feel a brief “ahhh” moment and then realize that I’m sort of half standing because my feet are on the floor. Its grey and puffy and you can sit in it if you want. Anyway, I am in what is known as the living room. This is where we have our big TV, couch, 8bit Nintendo that you may have heard about on twitter, computer for big Hulu watching, and DVD player. These things are mostly for show because we’re rarely bored enough to actually watch DVDs or play Nintendo. Contra is mostly for weekends. We also have a nice IKEA couch.

The shelves under the TV are where we keep our various piles of print materials that are either current or very outdated. Stacks of Follow booklets, SPOT booklets, Children’s Museum maps, BikePGH maps, and the famous “sort of witty” business cards live here. Its actually kind of impressive to think about how much non-software stuff we’ve produced in the last few years, and how much of it is really neat looking. Come visit, we’ll load you up with this stuff while you sit in the bean bag chair.

Moving on. To my right is a full wall of whiteboards. Truthfully, they are bathroom wall panels that are mounted to regular walls. This way we have huge space for big timelines, drawings of user interactions, system architecture diagrams, lists of things that no one labels so that later you cant tell what they’re for, and messages to people to return phone calls. We clean them as we need them. There are three, and the one in the middle gets the most traffic. Its got a haze of various “hard to wipe off” colors on it, and in certain sections you can still sort of see a bus or a little person icon from who knows when.

Counterclockwise (back right of photo) is our electronics tinkering area where we build little electronic whatsits and generally solder things for the fun of it.

Our seating arrangement is a big open line of desks all facing the windows because everyone loves looking out the window (especially when it snows), and no one really liked my “ONLY I MAY LOOK OUT THE WINDOW” policy. We all learn with time.

From there we have our set of shelving that contains our snacks (almost out of fig Newtons *hint hint*), printer, fax machine, coffee supply, and paper supply. Following on is our kitchen table that is that one from IKEA where you can tuck the chairs in an it looks like rounded corner box. Its a nice table. The chairs are basically unusable. Kitchen has dishes (which I hate washing), general use garbage can, recycling, water cooler where we discuss sitcoms and goings-on, and a fridge that is always mysteriously jam packed with food that no one claims. Next to the fridge is our Bathroom/Video Conference Room. Its not as dirty as it sounds. Our bathroom, to be clear, is huge. It has a shower, sink, toilet, & paper towel dispenser sure, but it ALSO has a file cabinet, coffee table with a bunch of magazines, a monitor, a rolled up quilted map of a town in sweeden, and a mop. I’m pretty sure our trademark certificate is in there too. Since our office is echo-y its one of the better places to have a phone call and the best place to brush your teeth if youre like me and feel like brushing your teeth at a kitchen sink is just a strange feeling. (Note: The best place to make a phone call is the wiring closet in the hallway.)

Anyone still reading gets the following gem: we have a foosball table. If you are in the software world you’re very likely saying to yourself “Awesome, I’d love that” and if you’re not you may be thinking the same thing. The fact of the matter is that the foosball table is primarily for show. We never have time to play (I actually don’t like playing with the uber-competitive people here that shall remain nameless). It kind of makes me feel like one of those “software startup” people. The most use its seen in its entire life here was when we hosted 24 high school kids for a session on leadership. They were way more interested in playing foosball than breaking off into groups to design mini-business plans, so we decided it was in our best interest to let them foos it up. They liked it.

…and thats what leadership is.

Nathan’s post from last week shall be posted this week instead, and this should be the last “time-killer-free-form-post” from me. I just didn’t want to be that company that blogs once and runs away.

We’ve thus far avoided the blogging world as a company, although I have in the past been known to have the occasional run of blogging. Why did we do that and why are we blogging now? The answer is sort of complex – many corporate blogs are highly controlled or sort of bland  or are just boring rehashes of press releases without much more to say. We’re all actual people with interests that are varied and sometimes surprising, so while we’ll probably spend a lot of time “talking shop” I think it would be safe to say that we’ll likely cover any topic we feel like covering.

We have also stayed away because frankly, we’re busy. Its hard to set yourself a weekly deadline even if there are a handful of people you can round-robin the responsibility to. Its even harder to make it interesting. You, as a blog reader, know this.

Who are we?

Since you are reading our blog, its probably true that you arrived here via our homepage (http://www.deeplocal.com) where you’d see that “We are an innovation studio that helps companies rapidly develop and implement new ideas and technology. We apply the ingenuity of art to the challenges of business.” which is all well and good, but here in the blog we can tell you a little more. As you can see from our webpage, we’ve got a lot of products and services that we get up to. This blog will be a great place to get to know us and the kinds of things we do.

Who writes here?

Since the opening section largely covers the first two goals of this post, I think I’ll take this opportunity to go quickly over who does what here outside of what you see in our bios here (http://www.deeplocal.com/about/people), and what a day here is like.

I’ll start with our newest member, Eamae Mirkin. In addition to being our only physical interaction designer, he’s also our shortest, red-headdedest, vegetarianist member. He is also an amazing designer, bikes to work, and generally laughs at my jokes without pointing out that they’re almost all mean-spirited. He drew the Squid attached to this post and has interned at Apple (yes, the real one in Cupertino, not the one in Oakland). Right now he’s getting ramped up on our frenetic schedule and culture here.

Moving in reverse-chronological arrival order, there’s Heather Estes our Director of Product Evolution. It is true, she is the only woman in the office and also the first person who brought the idea of, you know, actually promoting what we do to the table. This was revolutionary. She assigns special ringtones on her phone to different people, so on Sunday mornings the churches in my neighborhood make it seem like her parents are calling me all the time. This has made for more than one awkward “WHY ARE YOU CALLING ME” yelled into my phone (at no one).

Matthew Pegula is sort of our systems assassin. He sits back, absorbs a situation, processes it, thinks about it, and then cools out. Approximately 15 seconds after everyone else has said whatever the first thing to come to their mind was, he says the clearest, best thing. This guy can make a prototype that is well thought out, clean, with graphics, fully functional, and ready to be pitched – and shrug at it. He’s a testament to modesty and makes me feel like everything I say is braggadocio sometimes – and thats a great thing!

Dimitry Bentsionov comes to us by way of Yahoo. Also Ukraine, but his formative years in the North Hills always stick out in my mind. He is what is colloquially known online as a “CSS Ninja” but to people who are not internet meme freaks or who are actually normal people he is simply one of the best visual design implementers and creators in the game. He has the rare ability to think straight back from a button or a checkbox into a server that is hundreds of miles away. He’s also got a knack for accidentally breaking his iPhone in increasingly strange ways. Because he spent his formative years in a foreign country, he never gets any of my (obviously hilarious) 80’s movies references.

David Evans (Me). I am basically the “rainy day” of the crew. Quick with a snarky comment, I am known mainly for my distaste for anything that exists outdoors. I loathe having my picture taken, stay in the office late most days, and am obsessed with Squids. I also run our twitter account. I will be writing at least one post here a week – this is important later. To cope with stress, I bake pies.  I have a love/hate relationship with the internet and am not active on Facebook at all. This isn’t to suggest that I don’t pay very close attention to most things happening around the web of course, I’m just intensely private and can only think of three pictures of myself that I ever actually liked. Most of the time I have earbuds in even when I’m not listening to anything.

Nathan Martin, our artist in permanent residence and captain. What can I say (that won’t get me fired)? Nathan’s bio on the site says a whole lot, except doesn’t really cover his love of the everything hiking. Nor does it mention his love of tailored shirts from United Colors of Benetton. Nathan and I both grew up in Westmoreland county within about 20 miles of one another. We actually went to rival high schools. Nathan’s constant stream of ideas is what drives our innovation. He manages to be our lead designer as well as most recognizable public face, all while being the guy that makes Quick Books happen. You’ve most likely seen him speaking somewhere or met him at an event that he spoke at.

How this is going to work.

We’ve got a system in our office dictating who does the dishes. This system works (generally) so we’re co-opting it for the blog. Every week you’ll get a post from one of the above people and also me. On my week to do dishes (which I can’t stand) I’ll probably write two posts and blame the dishes not being done on the blog. I like this setup.

Wrapping this up, I’d like to simply fire off some links to our product pages and API:

http://www.routeshout.com
http://www.tinyblast.com
http://www.gumband.com

Expect us to talk about our products and projects in detail, there are (not unexpectedly) some interesting stories to be told about the things we’ve done. This blog exists not only to let our (extremely) strong personalities to see the light of day, but also to make it easier for people coming here to get to know what we’re about.

Welcome. I’ll be seeing you again soon.