Living and working out of San Francisco for the last 15 years we have seen constant change. A steady flow of opportunities, projects leading to contracts, leading to employment. That adds up to lots of accumulated skill sets, co-workers, and a rather eclectic and impressive collection of projects and clients.
A designer by training Chris started his career at INTERVAL RESEARCH, Paul Allens Palo Alto think tank, in 1996. The goal was to create companies of value, and to do something that had not been done before. Chris has been founding companies and growing businesses ever since. Zowie, Lego, Leapfrog, Method, Pixt, LafLife have been some of the journeys along the way. Perhaps we will start the next journey together.
To create is to fill emptiness with inspiration, and to then follow that inspiration with craftsmanship
Below are examples of work Chris Schmidt has been responsible for as team leader, either as CEO, CPO, or Director.
Pixt
Social Content Company
CNN
News To Me
Do What You Do
Social Calendar
Diageo
Rosenblum Cellars
LafLife
Sense of Humor Analysis
Building, whether with Lego, or some wood, building a house, a studio, or now with the team building an idea into a product that people find enjoyment in, that is what gets us out of bed in the morning. For fun lets talk about ideas, and for work lets make them real.
Trained in both the IDEO and Innovation Focus divergent > convergent processes. Lets have some fun together and collaborate on an idea.
Having built platforms, systems and sites we can quickly block and tackle the functional bits, and focus efforts on the CORE to get users to value quickly.
Take time to be fast. Once implementation starts you want it to run as quickly and seamlessly as possible. To do this you need to have answered all the questions beforehand and cleared the decks for the new questions that are bound to come up.
When all is said and done the only thing that matters is what you can get done in the limited time you have. To succeed you need to get people in motion, following a process, and communicating with users.
At Occo we do this, then do it again.
Chris’s last few gigs have been as Sr. Strategist at Method, Founder and CEO of Pixt, and Chief Product Officer of LafLife.
Check out a video below of the innovation and interface of Pixt.
It's hard to make enjoyable products if you are not having fun making them. Having worked at both Lego and LeapFrog I have learned that you happy workers make delightful products.
Related to fun work is hard work. To be an entrepreneur means you will work hard. That is partly what makes work fun.
