luxstyle

Absolutely. Imagine how much more you can help if you had a team helping to build and grow your website. If you want, don't take a dime for yourself and instead invest it all into growing your business and helping others. If you're delivering something that gives real value to someone's life, and it's priced correctly, they will pay for it.

SB Bay Area (Sunnyvale) | Enterprise, Consumer, Mobile | Mentor in: Design Leadership, Management, UX/UI design, Product Design, Coaching/Growing People, Design Thinking, Innovation, Building, and scaling teams | Seeking Mentoring in High Performance, Leadership | Contact info in profile

So does the check mark next to the item mean it is legit and the others have fake reviews or the opposite?

Product Design, UX/UI Design, Customer Empathy, Design Thinking | Silicon Valley | Jose B | heyitsjoseb gmail

17 years of experience in startups (including my own) and big companies

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jbenavides/

Happy to give feedback and help.

I don't think anyone is necessarily saying what she has done isn't amazing, profound and admirable.

My comment was to the fact that she pretty much gave up everything to accomplish that. Was it necessary? Could she still have achieved what she did if she had friends or took even one day off a week? Maybe, maybe not.

My point was that it shouldn't be all or nothing to create a successful company. Many entrepreneurs, myself included have given up all of these things (at least temporarily) in the single minded pursuit of business success. I still work way more than I probably need to but also make time for other things.

Just because she is doing something lifesaving doesn't mean I shouldn't want her to also enjoy her own life. I would have said the same comment if she made the next WhatsApp instead. Good on her that she's saving lives. Also good on her if she wasn't and just accomplished something big.

To clarify (at least my own point), if you love what you do and don't need friends etc then that's great and I wish you all the best. Whatever makes you happy. If instead you like having friends, dating, a day off etc then don't feel you absolutely need to remove all of that to make a successful business.

Not at all. I've myself been burnt out from focusing too much on work. It sucks to be out of balance. If you feel that work is all that matters and you don't need anything else to be happy then good for you. I have a feeling that others might feel different.

As amazing as her accomplishment is, I feel kind of sad for her.

"Holmes has taken a similar life-hack approach to every aspect of her existence outside of her lab test company, which is at best minimal, given that the 31-year-old works seven days a week. Holmes is a vegan because avoiding animal products allows her to function on less sleep. She says she "doesn't really hang out with anyone anymore," aside from her younger brother, who joined Theranos as a product manager four years ago. She didn't take a vacation during the entire decade of her 20s and doesn't date. "I literally designed my whole life for this,".

She has no life but work. Not even friends or dating. She literally worked away her 20s which is one of the most exciting times of life.

While it's fine to sacrifice for a while to get your business started, it doesn't sound like she has any plans to enjoy any part of her life outside of her work.

I hope other entrepreneurs don't take her plan to heart and give up everything that makes life enjoyable. It should be a balance. Work hard but also enjoy the things that makes life worth living.

Why is "environmentally friendly" an aspect of design here? Maybe industrial design but certainly not a factor in digital design.

Agreed. The devil (and genius) is in the details. It would be great to learn what mistakes they made and how they got over them as well as the successes.

Working 70 hours a week doesn't mean you are productive, just that you are working 70 hours per week. Being productive means getting things done.

Maybe you are crushing it and doing 120 hours work of work in 70 hours. Or maybe you are doing 70 hours of work in 70 hours.

Here are my overall tips

1. when I have a ton of things to do, I schedule or bucket them and then work on one at a time. My giant todo list is in a different doc and I only have a mini one with up to 3 tasks that I look at regularly. When I remove those tasks, I add the next three. Then you only have 3 things to do instead of 300. Small hack but works great to not feel overwhelmed.

2. Practice your focus and willpower so that you can stay on one item at a time and not feel like you need to check FB/email/etc every 5 minutes. For some people this is really hard, but it is a skill you can improve.

3. Figure out the fastest, easiest and most efficient way to do things and then do it that way. This covers everything from the commute to coding and project management.

4. If your office is driving you crazy, schedule "meetings" on your calendar to block out dedicated work times. Put your headphones on. If people still don't get the hint, tell them you are busy working on x right now and can talk to them in an hour.

5. Most importantly, work when you are working and live when you are not. I don't check my email on weekends. People have my phone number and if something is important they will text me. Leave your work at home. Even if you are the CEO most things can wait until you get back in the office.

Why do trolls still try to sue Rackspace? They publicly proclaim their anti-troll policy. If 88% of these cases kill the troll when they go through the courts fully, I would stay well away from them if I was a patent troll.

Why settle for a mediocre designer just because they also know how to write code. The same argument can be said for hiring a programmer.

"Only hire programmers that are good at product and design who can deliver a product that not only works well but looks well." This I'm sure would be ridiculed if I said it seriously.

Programming and design are very different fields and while you can find some people that are solid at both, most of the really good ones will have focused on their respective fields. So odds are you'll get a programmer that designs like crap as well as the designer that can't really code. Demanding that they be great at both seems naive.

Interesting game. I downloaded it and will rate. Good luck!

1 and 2 can be separate, but there are a lot of people whom can do both well. That's not to say that there aren't also a lot of people whom are horrible at one and great at the other. the "look/feel" designers are more of graphic artists then UX/UI people. A good team should be composed of people from each of the 3 elements you described.

No matter whom you decide to go with look at the portfolio first. I can't emphasize this enough. If you don't like what they've done before then chances are you won't like what they'll do for you. If you want a "cool flashy site" find a person that builds great "cool flashy sites". Don't go for the person that loves minimalism.

Whenever I build a UI team I look at the portfolio first. If I like what I see then I look at the credentials and where they've worked. Otherwise I pass.

Richesh, From reading your updates it sounds like you want a graphic designer and not a UI designer. If you have a structure and layout that you like and just need someone to make shiny buttons and give you a good color palette then a graphic designer is what you're looking for.

Are you looking for a designer or a developer? UI folks like myself tend to come in 2 flavors. One is skilled at the wireframes, architecture and look and feel and can do pretty mockups and prototypes. The other is a programmer whom is familiar with the latest AJAX, JSPs etc and implements the design created by the former person.

Also if the company is important to you as it should be you might want to hire someone familiar with branding to do your branding. Having a UI person do your branding is like having a programmer do your UI. They might know a bit about it but are definitely not the expert.

Lastly, if you're looking for someone with recommendations but don't know anyone personally try linkedin.com. Check out some profiles, look at their recommendations and check out their website. You can see my profile as a starting point.

,Jose Benavides