Topic

First-Principles

A collection of 21 issues

#UnderdogChallenge—my 23-year journey from soloist to agency principal and back in under 500 words

After nearly 23 years, I’m back on the tools, working directly with amazing clients—designing and building beautiful, elegant, highly functional Shopify stores—learning and growing and achieving things I’d forgotten I was capable of.

The paradox of increasingly “powerful” ecommerce tools and realizing ultimate potential

As tools become more powerful, they also become more complex, which means less users are able to take advantage of that power. True power comes from leveraging simpler, more elegant, more pragmatic systems that combined enable outcomes that are greater than the sum of the parts.

Building strong foundations with Shopify based on the fundamental principles of ecommerce success—part 2

If you are not building your business on a foundation of core ecommerce fundamentals, you are wasting time, money, headspace, and resources. You are likely focusing on the minutiae and things that don’t matter now.

You have a vision—what about your objectives, strategy, plans, and goals?

Goal-setting is hard. Where do you start? What’s the difference between an objective and a goal? How do you keep track of goals or measure success or failure?

Is it time for a complexity audit?

If you’re struggling with complexity and are finding yourself endlessly tweaking and fiddling with things—but unsure what’s really going to make a difference—perhaps it’s time to assess the complexity of your business to see where you can rebase to the simplest foundations to build upon.

What is the best Shopify agency—based purely on their positioning statement?

A roundup of the positioning statements of many of the top Shopify agencies. Who would you choose to work with based on positioning alone?

DTC has replaced “the middle-man” with numerous other costs—and it’s arguably more expensive and less effective than traditional distribution channels

Most new (and many well-established) direct-to-consumer brands grossly underestimate how challenging and expensive it is to find and acquire good customers.

Is your ecommerce growth stifled by technical debt and in need of a rebase?

It’s time to rebase when you’re paralyzed by technical debt, your team are frustrated because you can’t make changes you feel should be so easy, you need developers to do the simplest things, and you’re spending more time discussing minutiae than strategizing and implementing impactful initiatives.

Do you really want more features—or, do you actually want to achieve objectives?

If we rephrase “requirements” as goals and objectives, we will see leaner, more nimble projects that move faster, cost less money and headspace, and lead to more impactful and successful outcomes.

Growing faster and more sustainably on Shopify by adopting a “low-code mentality”

Despite all the best intentions, meticulous discovery, thoughtful design, and careful planning, how many ecommerce brands find themselves 6–12 months after launch of a new or refreshed site in a spiraling cycle of technical debt and increasing maintenance overhead?