Greetings from Zeitspace

Zeitspace Logo

Starting a new company can be a scary proposition, as it’s never certain that things will work as planned. So given that today is Hallowe’en, the scariest day of the year, what better time to formally announce Zeitspace, a new software product design and development consultancy.

Why start a consultancy? Well, in this case there’s a pretty specific reason: Boltmade, where I worked, was acquired by Shopify earlier this month. I loved the work that we did at Boltmade — it was great to engage with a diverse range of clients on a variety of projects. The design and technical challenges were invigorating, the people were passionate about the projects that they brought us, and there was plenty of learning along the way. It felt to me that, as much as we had achieved and as far as we had come with Boltmade, there remained so much more to do.

As well, Boltmade’s departure leaves a noticeable gap in Waterloo Region’s tech ecosystem. There’s a real need for a company that can reliably deliver design and development services to a range clients. Zeitspace is an opportunity to pick up where Boltmade left off and continue the journey. We’re excited and looking forward to helping our clients create great products.

There’ll be more details to share in the coming days and weeks and months — about the team, how we work, what we’re looking to accomplish, and much more. In the meantime, drop by and say hello!

This post originally appeared on the Zeitspace blog.

Meet my new company, Zeitspace

Zeitspace Logo

Starting a new company can be a scary proposition, as it’s never certain that things will work as planned. So given that today is Hallowe’en, the scariest day of the year, what better time to formally announce Zeitspace, a new software product design and development consultancy.

Why start a consultancy? Well, in this case there’s a pretty specific reason: Boltmade, where I worked, was acquired by Shopify earlier this month. I loved the work that we did at Boltmade — it was great to engage with a diverse range of clients on a variety of projects. The design and technical challenges were invigorating, the people were passionate about the projects that they brought us, and there was plenty of learning along the way. It felt to me that, as much as we had achieved and as far as we had come with Boltmade, there remained so much more to do.

As well, Boltmade’s departure leaves a noticeable gap in Waterloo Region’s tech ecosystem. There’s a real need for a company that can reliably deliver design and development services to a range clients. Zeitspace is an opportunity to pick up where Boltmade left off and continue the journey. We’re excited and looking forward to helping our clients create great products.

There’ll be more details to share in the coming days and weeks and months — about the team, how we work, what we’re looking to accomplish, and much more. In the meantime, drop by and say hello!

This post also appears on the Zeitspace blog under the title Greetings from Zeitspace. Go check it out and follow the company’s adventures!

Facilitating and presenting at events this week

I’ve got a pair of events coming up that promise to be fun.

First up, I’ll be heading to Edmonton this week to facilitate a user story making workshop at the annual gathering of the Canadian Digital Media Network. It’s a workshop that I’ve delivered multiple times in the past, and in this instance I’m delighted to be joined by Bob Barlow-Busch. It should be a great experience, and I’m looking forward to meeting everyone and seeing a little of Edmonton.

Then on Friday Bob and I will deliver a presentation at Go North 2016 in Toronto. It’s an updated version of a presentation that we delivered in May at Comunitech. There are some impressive names in the list of keynote & fireside speakers and panelists, so it’s pretty cool to be delivering our “tech talk” at the event.

Update: Instead of presenting at Go North, it looks like I’ll be doing some startup mentoring instead. After running five successful editions of Fluxible, I certainly know at this point how challenging it can be to finalize the details of a conference program!

Farewell to Boltmade

Logo: Boltmade

Boltmade was an amazing group of people that designed and built amazing software products for amazing companies. That’s a lot of “amazing” — but it’s all true! As of today, though, Boltmade is no more, as the company has been bought by Shopify, the Ottawa-based success story that just keeps on growing and that has an office right here in Waterloo. It’s an exciting time for everyone involved.

I won’t be making the trip down the road to Shopify, and neither will my long-time collaborator and conspirator Bob Barlow-Busch. But I’m busily cooking up my next thing, and am excited to see where it goes.