Beth Ewen:
bewen@upsizemag.com
dev.divistack.com
Get ‘er done
by Beth Ewen
ALLAN HAAG talks eloquently about setting a high standard for the books that I See Me! produces.
“If you send a product out to market and it isn’t the best it can be the first time around, I think you’re risking your reputation. I know personally I don’t want a single book to go out with any imperfection in it,” says Haag, who co-founded the company with his wife, Maia Haag, who is president.
Focus on the product is Maia’s mantra, too. She recalls an experience at General Mills, when she became enamored with the name of a product and the marketing campaign around it, but eventually realized the product itself wasn’t good enough to roll out.
At I See Me! Inc., their Deephaven-based publisher of personalized children’s books, they commission gorgeous oil paintings for illustrations, and are so persnickety about personalization that one recent three-hour coding project turned into a 60-hour ordeal.
That’s what it takes to make the books seem handmade, Allan says: “I want to know when the day is done I don’t have something out there that someone is going to detect, that this isn’t quite what I expect.”
Right about now, in a conversation with business owners like this, a person like me starts to get a little bit antsy. That’s because I live by the lifelong journalist’s motto: “The best you can make it in the time that you have.” Both halves of that goal have to be met or it doesn’t count.
I preach this in all the newsrooms where I work, and now also in the community college classrooms where I teach: There’s no such thing as a great story or a great project after the deadline has passed.
Because of my background and temperament, I embrace a different model of innovation: make it, release it, get feedback, improve it. But I recognize that my way stands in contrast to the Haags’ way. And I know my way can make my two business partners, both analytical people who strive for perfection, a little bit crazy.
At the worst, they might think I’m sloppy and I might think they’re slow. But at the best, my partners’ view pushes me to strive for the best, while my view pushes them to be better, faster.
At I See Me! Inc. they’re working on the balance, too. After going for five years with only one product, they finally produced their second, in 2006. Maia calls that second book a turning point for their company, with national publicity and retailer recognition expanding afterward. Now they produce one new product a quarter, relying on careful planning and a long pipeline to keep the high-quality books coming.
“It’s a matter of balancing time and quality,” Allan says. “Maia and I get into some fairly heated discussions about quality and time to the market.” I feel vindicated to hear that this tension occurs at their company, too, and I expect at every producer of products-this type of pushing and pulling, this conflict between being better and going faster.
While people like me push to “get ‘er done,” people like Allan Haag work to “make it perfect.” In the end the contrasting styles can make a beautiful business.
