I’ll be honest, in times gone by, we’ve made some mistakes with the hiring process.

Numerous no-no’s!

For one, we haven’t been very good checking references – we’ve too often put faith in how the person has presented and their confidence in their skills.

We’re guilty of leading during interviews – indicating our ideas instead of testing candidate’s thinking.

We even gave a second interview to someone who showed up with a hangover! (Unsurprisingly, that didn’t really work out).

A lot of the issues we’ve faced are commonplace in small companies.

Attracting the right candidates and being good at performance monitoring has always been a little difficult. We’ve often hired around the demand of needing the position, instead of waiting to grow our business based on finding the cream of the crop. Where we’ve rushed the appointment, it hasn’t worked out.

We’ve too-often invested heavily in roles on good-faith alone instead of patience and persistence in the hiring process.

All of that changed this year. We had a couple of big wake-up calls that prompted us to action. We’ve changed our attitude towards hiring; diligence and patience is the new motto.

Our fundamental attitude has shifted – we now accept having to deal with the situation while we wait to find the right person – even if this means we have increased pressure in certain areas.

We’ve honed our interviewing process – ensuring we’re more thorough so that everyone is better off; The team is happier with the placement, the candidate more comfortable in the organisation, and Flint Interactive can grow on the back of a happy team in which everyone is doing a great job.

As I said, where we made these mistakes, it didn’t work out – but the team that we have at the moment is amazing and I have extreme confidence in their skills and abilities to deliver awesome sites.

This is about the team we have and a brand that is built on a healthy balance of hard work and team culture.

Here is a quick overview of some of the things to include:

• Use large product photography
• Include a “look book” or “shop by look”
• Provide decent filtering options
• Use drop-down listings of category/sub-categories
• Provide the option to list many products at once
• Tell the client how to care for their product
• Invest in good sizing information
• Describe the material used
• Provide a decent returns policy
• The power of free shipping

1. Use large product photography
Really show the product, include back, close ups on designs or featured sections of the design. Consider shooting the model walking into the scene with the garment, show off the garment and leave the scene. Time it so that there isn’t a lot of editing to be able to put this on a loop and get it up on your site. Video is great for showing off how something hangs and looks on. Include a hover option for the user that zooms the product, or allow the user to click on the image to show a full screen close up of the product with options to go to the next photo or close.

2. Include a look book to increase shopping “by look”
Use Look Books for suggesting styles, with good cross linking between the look/style and the products. Also use ‘complete the look’ if you have complete styles available to buy online (think accessories etc). These form great inspiration for users and can increase the number of items purchased on the site. You could also consider suggesting recommended similar products based

3. Provide decent filtering options
If you have lots of products think about allowing the person to search by a colour, price range or newest or best selling. Accommodate the first time browser and the returning browser that is looking for some new clothes. Maybe the user has a colour preference or a price range for something they are searching specifically for, so make it easy to browse the way they want. Don’t overly complicate the filtering so it returns no products though!

4. Use drop-down listings of category/sub-categories
Allow the user to jump quickly to the major/sub-categories of your products by using large drop down menus that reduce the number of clicks to get to the section users want. The is no point having them jump through various screens to get to what they want quickly. Even jump to “Just arrived” and other common user searches. You might want to consider a strategy for iPhone/iPad users also though – these can be a little fiddly for your mobile users.

5. Option to list many products at once
Instead of only showing 20 products per page, allow the visitor the option of showing up to 200 (or maybe all depending?) at a time. It’s nice to browse through lots of product shots easily by scrolling down the page. It makes it easy and convenient to shop for clothes AND watch TV! Also, consider having all the styles shown in the listing, not just the hero colour-way of that product.

6. Tell the client how to care for their product
Give decent product care guides so that the clothes aren’t wrecked. Encourage the users to take care of the clothes and treat them with some respect!

7. Invest in good sizing information
Invest into getting the sizing/fit information understandable and easily accessible. Place the sizing button prominently beside the sizing selection and launch in a pop-up. Consider including how to measure tips and potentially how they can obtain their measurements (encourage them to go to a tailor, alterations shop etc to obtain their sizes for future online shopping endeavours). Also, try and indicate on each photo information about what the model is wearing (such as height, weight and the product size). You really want the visitor to know what they are buying will fit (consider it an investment to reduce returns!)

8. Describe the materials used
Try to be descriptive about the material near the product so that they will know how the pieces will feel or how long they will last.

9. Provide a decent returns policy
I have heard some large online fashion retailers have up to a 30% returns rate which has a big shock to them launching online. The bigger sites have learnt to embrace this process and make it easier to return products. Give customers the confidence to order the clothes from your site and don’t hide it away. Take a positive attitude and make it easy to understand, even consider showing it on the product page.

10. The power of free shipping
Calculate the cost of shipping as early as possible (place delivery estimates on the product page) and give the user decent estimates on how long to expect their good to arrive. One of the other largest attractive feature for me personally shopping online if the use of Free Shipping. I think it makes the online shopping option a really viable alternative to existing shopping in the physical world. Some of the most successful stores offers free shipping worldwide with an option to decrease the delivery time by paying. Commercially consider how this would work for the company, but exploring the model seriously should be considered.

And something extra for those of you who have read through to here -

10 + 1. Consider promoting good customer service scenarios
Another way of boosting customers confidence is demonstrating just how well you have handled the customer service issue. Consider being open about how you have handled the complaint and encourage an avenue where you can allow them voice their issue and show how you resolved the issue.

Of course, I would still recommend all the standard e-commerce practices that help boost confidence in the shopper.

About the author

Cameron is a founding member of Flint Interactive, a Melbourne based digital agency. Cameron has been involved in hundreds of web projects and currently holds the position of Technical/Managing Director. Follow him on twitter @cammanderson or view his profile on LinkedIn

In the early days, everyone knew exactly what was going on with projects. We could hear the clients call, we could sense if something needed attention or if there was pressure someone was facing we all shared it as a team. The teams roles were very well defined, and everyone knew exactly what their involvement was.

WIP’s were run by our Accounts Director. She knew exactly which clients needed to be dealt with in which order for the given priorities. She has full control of our ’schedule’ which honestly could remain fairly lightly planned and we were turning around things fast.

On Friday mornings, our studio developers used to come in an hour before work and we cooked breaky out on the deck before someone would have planned a training topic for that week and took us through a skill or technology they have been working with or looking at.

Friday arvo’s were a real wind down. We all worked really hard through-out the week, but the wind down was full of action. We did things that were really about working hard and playing hard as a team. We didn’t even have time to work on our website, which, ended up taking us 2.5 years to get up.

We also could very quickly implement new procedures, often overnight. Someone would suggest we try out a job bag system, did it work? It didn’t matter, we could quickly prototype and try out things to improve our team work. Everyone had input and crafted how we want to work. We knew if estimates were getting blown because we knew if pressures were being felt for projects.

All along the while we were starting to develop some amazing stuff at a great rate. With that success started to mean we were filling capacity. We also were really affected by annual leave or sickness of each of our team members. It was something that we knew we had to improve and hiring was the answer.

We decided at around the start of a financial year – where we were first thinking about how to plan for the new year – we would try and double each of our roles to try and make the organisation more robust.

Enter the world of hiring and team structures. Something that has been the biggest roller-coaster of learning ever.

With hiring and expanding the team we started to find some issues. Suddenly, planning, incredibly more important, and a lot harder. Quoting, who was quoting and doing the work? Priorities? Who decides what gets dealt with first? Communication? Who sits next to who? Space in our studio? Breakfast for 8 developers (that’s a lot of eggs!)? Choosing activities that everyone wants to do? Did you quote this?

At one stage we were getting so large we had chose to pause our morning WIP. Running through a WIP on what individuals were working on with 10 people was causing a lot of people to lose interest. Fundamentally though – communication is so important so people could interject and get involved in certain parts of the process.

We also naturally expanded to a point where project/account management broke off a little to be able to plan together and use their own space. The scheduling suddenly became a lot larger and would need meetings to sit down and discuss. Large whiteboards where scribbled on, excel spreadsheets created, we also looked to software solutions.

We also got the teams together into groups based on their skill-sets. We started devising roles that would coordinate and traffic jobs. There were obvious spaces that occurred and people were starting to complain about documentation of requirements. We undertook a large aspect of process mapping to try to best manage the project implementation, change management processes, prioritisation boards. We would be trying to get people talking. Accountability was becoming a big issue and a fair bit of interaction between the team was getting formalised where it shouldn’t have needed to be.

Something needed to fundamentally change, not a new process or role.

We decided to approach the issue by massively simplifying the structure. We decided to split into small groups of 6. This split broke apart the double up of roles we had, and each team named themselves for fun. We bought back the agility and benefit of being a small team.

Instantly we found that a lot of the conflict disappeared. People were instead focusing on interaction and working again hard as a team for the client. I can’t stress how beneficial this process has been for us so far. Teams have redeveloped some of their culture (morning breakies), simplified WIP’s, rallied people to step and champion their role in a project and share the process. It has been a great step forward in the organisation and has lead to much easier management, and done away with a number of processes.

We have always been about trying to be agile and team focused. I am really happy that we were able to experience it first hand and maybe it has been a little bit of a rocky road – but one I think has strengthened us and one I have gained much experience and learning from. Everyone has a direct contribution to their team, and their effort and quality is easily recognised.

We are again focusing on our strengthening our team and culture, which really a core of our brand.

About the author

Cameron is a founding member of Flint Interactive, a Melbourne based digital agency. Cameron has been involved in hundreds of web projects and currently holds the position of Technical/Managing Director. Follow him on twitter @cammanderson or view his profile on LinkedIn

Flint could not be more excited to be working on the development of Lake House’s new website. In preparation of the work over the coming months on the website, some lucky Flintsters were treated to a personal tour and delicious lunch while brainstorming ideas to make the website truly reflective of this amazing destination. We will keep you informed of when this website launches.

However, this blog will not be shutting down by any means. Instead, it will be a platform for news on our latest projects in the studio as well as a place for us to provide an insight on what it is like to be a boutique digital agency in Melbourne, muse about all things digital and give you our two cents on what trends are running hot on the web (and what are merely gimmicks). Make sure you stay tuned!!!!

Matthieu, our new team member, had his first run of Flint Friday and together with Sacha, they pulled off a French-themed Flint Friday inspired by his homeland. Matthieu brought in some homemade crepes (made with the help of his lovely girlfriend) which we covered with lemon juice and sugar or Nutella, although Sam was the only one brave enough to try both combinations at once. With a couple bottles of sparkling wine, cheese and “French Fries” in the mix, we certainly had a feast to be remembered.

Miranda and Queenie decided to go the way of the Country Women’s Association and held a high tea with cucumber sandwiches, scones and Pimms. It went down well with everyone and the Pimms was a nice way to welcome in the warmer days ahead.

We’ve added some more happy snaps on Flickr so you can see how they pulled it off.

With big, tall ceilings in the studio, our walls at Flint were a big blank canvas when we first arrived at Easey Street in Collingwood but with a splash of blackboard paint and contrasting feature walls, things were starting to come together.

Last week, we put on a few of the finishing touches to the studio with the decals that we purchased from Blik. Paying homage to classic video games, our walls were adorned with decals of classic games like Pong and Space Invaders. Have a peek at the results on our flickr page.

Living and working in fitzroy/collingwood area is just awesome as a web developer – it just suits the ideal lifestyle of a coder. There are just so many areas to get decent coffee, pop into one of dozens of drinking holes around the area or have some amazing places for breakfast, like proud mary, rosamond, arcadia, cavallero etc. I would have to say that when summer comes around it is just awesome – most people either walk or ride into work, and the streets get busy out onto the streets from pubs.

Flint currently uses a different PHP framework which it has developed its’ CMS on. Aloi project will eventually be the engine behind the CMS.

For those of you interested, you can follow the development through @AloiProject and following @CamManderson. Maybe you want to get involved?

Aloi Project – PHP5 Framework