About a month ago I wrote here on The Hot Iron about how Divvy, the extremely popular bike sharing program in Chicago, did not offer helmets. I also discussed several options for them to offer helmets to their riding customers, including people selling them to the idea of a helmet vending machine.

Little did I know such a helmet vending machine had been developed, and last week was introduced in Boston for its bike sharing program. HelmetHub is a vending machine which was born out of MIT, and offers to either sell or rent a helmet. The vending machines have a style similar to the bike rental stations in Boston and Chicago (which are run by the same company) and will fit in well with those stations.

You can read more about HelmetHub on their Web site and see pictures and options for the vending machines.

It’s great to see such a service offered, and nice to know I was not the only one thinking along this line.

Would you buy a helmet from a vending machine? I welcome your thoughts in the comments of this post.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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With all the ideas and events swirling through the Windy City during the recent Chicago Ideas Week, one of those thoughts was what I would like to share here, how I took an idea I had and made it a reality. Though this story took place a few years back, it is still very vivid in my mind.

My idea was to create a piece of marketing collateral for my Web consulting business. In this case, I could leave it would a prospect client, allow it to be downloaded from the Web and simply put it out there in printed format, the last 2 cases would be for anyone who wanted it. Depending on where the prospect was, it could server anywhere from a calling card, functional tool or a call to action to contact me.

Origin of the Idea

In my Web consulting business there were 2 categories for prospects – those who did not have a Web site and those who had one and were looking to possibly redesign and/or rebuild it. Where there were many common elements between the 2 for the sales process, when talking with someone who already had a Web site there was always a level of ambiguity to what exactly they needed or wanted to do and to what extent.

To try to streamline this process in a non-intimidating way, I thought of a form of checklist, where someone could read off the list to see if they had any or all of the items incorporated into their Web site, or at least to pose the questions in the event they didn’t know. In my mind’s eye I had a partial vision of the checklist. I saw it as paper-based, as likely someone would read a question from it then look on their Web site on their computer’s monitor for the answer. I wasn’t sure if there should be a score of some form or not. I was very sure I did not want it to be too technical and I did want it targeted to the business owner.

As for what would be in the checklist I had some ideas, but this was something I wanted to put time into over a period of time, then organize them into the checklist.

Like Rodney Dangerfield’s Joke Bag

The process of collecting the items for the checklist had me recalling a story I once heard about the late-great comedian Rodney Dangerfield. Before he got into comedy, he was a salesman and would write jokes on pieces of paper and put them into a duffle bag. When the bag was full, he had the material he would use on stage.

My approach was similar, yet different, as my duffle bag was digital – consisting of folders on my hard drive and in my email program. The ideas I captured varied from text files to links to other Web sites to email newsletters, where some of these items were direct ideas and others either categories or thoughts. I let this collection come together over a period time (exactly how long I do not remember). Then one day I decided to start the process to build the checklist.

Molding the Ideas into the Finished Product

As the collection process had elapsed some time and I didn’t remember everything I had put together, I decided I would go through them, one-by-one and begin curating a list. This was facilitated with the help of my whiteboard. As I read an item, I checked if it I already had it on the board, and if not I added it in some semblance of order. When all was done, this is what my whiteboard looked like:

At first glance, it is a mess. But it was the first pass at the organization of the items and ideas. Needless to say it was worthy of a picture!

From here, I started typing up the ideas, and in some cases I would combine like or similar ones. As I typed them up, I erased them from the whiteboard. At the end of this process hundreds of files and emails were in a clean list, just as clean as the whiteboard now was.

The next step was to boil the list down to a manageable, 1-page list, with the top, most important items on it. This was done over several days, as I would look at the list for a while, then revisit it later with a fresh brain. In the end, I finalized a list of 34 items and broke them down into 3 categories – business, content and design. I also came up with some copy to describe the checklist to put on the reverse side of it. At this point I felt really good about the checklist. Well, except for the name of it.

(Queen’s) Landing on the Right Name

The original name I had for the check was, and get ready for it:

The Web Site Redesign Self-Assessment Checklist

Yes, it sucked. Here I spent all of this time and produced what I felt was a quality product, yet the name would surely be a turn-off, and in some cases scare off people. I decided to put the completed checklist aside as I needed some more quality time to get the name right.

On a Friday evening after work, I went for a walk along Lake Michigan. Armed with a good cigar, I just needed to clear my head after a busy week and stretch my legs. As I was strolling by Belmont Harbor, the topic of the checklist name came front in center in my head. I recall shaking said head and saying to myself, “why don’t I have a better title for this” and the gears in my head started to crank.

As I headed south along the lakefront path, I started decomposing the goal of the checklist. The thought process went something like, “it’s where your Web site is now… it’s a point in time… it’s the current state your Web site is in… wait, that’s it – it’s the State of your Web Site!”

I stopped where I was, at a place along the lake called Queen’s Landing and called my office line and left myself a voicemail message on the name so I wouldn’t forget my inspiration. When I got back from my walk I edited the Word document with the name and then registered the domain name for it.

The State of the State Then and Now

Upon completing the checklist I setup a download page for it and promoted it here on The Hot Iron and elsewhere. I printed copies of it to give people in person and to bring to events as a leave-behind. Although the list never was mentioned on the cover of the Wall Street Journal, it would get a handful of downloads each week and I got good feedback on it from prospect clients and current clients as well.

Now almost 3 years after I created the checklist, it needs to be updated a bit, which would come probably after a new brainstorming session on it. That being said, there are many core concepts on the checklist that are still very relevant today as-is.

See for yourself – download a copy of The State of Your Web Site here right now!

Ideas, Visited

Ideas are just that, intangible thoughts. Without any action, they will remain in that state, floating out there. I know, as The Hot Iron is full of ideas I have had over the years. Where I have acted on many of ideas over the years, I am very proud of the creative process I have just shared here.

Your thoughts – and ideas – on the checklist and the process which led to it are welcome in the comments.

Editor's Note: This post was updated to correct and replace broken links.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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Following the receipt of the loaner Nokia Lumia 925 mobile device from Nokia Connects and capturing its unboxing and first impressions on video, I now had the opportunity to use it. Where I don’t have a SIM card to use it as a phone, I was only able to use it as a WiFi-enabled device. And despite the chance to use a Windows Phone device for the first time, time was not on my side.

Except for a few hours last Sunday, when I took the Lumia 925 with me at about a couple thousand feet over the US Midwest. My friend Walter is a pilot and offered to take me up with him for a flight. Last Sunday was a clear and cool day in the Chicagoland area, so it was perfect for flying. Departing from the airport in Aurora, Illinois, which is west of Chicago, we flew east over Chicago then headed north to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and then back south to Chicago and west back to Aurora.

During the flight I took almost 200 pictures and a half dozen videos. Where some of the photos were duplicates of just bad shots, just over 150 of them came out pretty good and I offer you a slideshow of the photos on Flickr, and a playlist of the videos on YouTube – embedded below are links to both.

View the photos below or link to the photos here.

View the videos below or link to the videos here.

Thoughts on the Lumia 925 while taking pictures

Overall, I liked the experience of using the Lumia 925 as a camera. The only features of the camera I used was the zoom and shutter – I did not use or play with any other features, namely as I am simply a point-and-shoot guy, so I would rather manipulate a photo on my PC in PhotoShop than on my device. The best feature to me was the transition when a picture is taken, which is much clearer than the camera “upgrade” with iOS7 for the iPhone. The zoom feature of the camera took somewhat blurry pictures. Now I did not use the camera much at all on terra firma, so I don’t know how the zoom would be on fixed objects. The final thing I missed in the Lumia 925 was the holes for a lanyard or wrist strap, which would have made taking some shots easier.

As for some of the pictures being hazy, these photos were taken between 10 am and noon, and in some cases the sun was not behind me and rather to the side or right in front of me. That tells the difference in the photos of the Chicago skyline as we flew over the city and those when looking north after passing the city, which came out amazingly clear as the sun was behind me.

Thanks Walter!

Thanks again to my friend Walter for taking me up on an amazing tour of the area from an awesome vantage point. I welcome your thoughts on the pictures and videos and you can leave them in the comments of this post.

As a final comment, I am returning the Lumia 925 to Nokia Connects as my 2-week evaluation period is over. Nokia lent me the device with no cost or expectation of how I used it, nor did they ask me to take it in an airplane…

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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It’s been a while since I have evaluated a mobile device. As a matter of fact, it has been just over 2 years since I had a loaner Nokia E6 from Nokia Connects. My, how times have changed! Today Nokia’s mobile division is all about Windows Phone, and not to forget soon will be part of Microsoft. So I felt it was time to reconnect with the Nokia crew and they have lent me a Nokia Lumia 925 to evaluate.

View the unboxing of the Nokia Lumia 925 below or on YouTube directly.

As you may have noticed, I am new to the Windows Phone ecosystem, and what is the first thing I do? I deleted an icon! Hopefully my experience will get better as I learn my way around the device over the next couple of weeks, especially using the Carl Zeiss lens on the PureView camera.

Let me know if there’s anything in particular you would like me to try on the 925, as well as any other thoughts on it, and you can add them to the comments to this post.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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There once was a time I traveled so frequently for work that I had no time to think about what to pack. These days I travel so infrequently that I always forget what to pack. Both situations had one common denominator – my travel checklist.

What started out as an on-going list so I wouldn’t realize I forgot something when I got to my destination became an essential tool for every travel excursion, from overnight to weeks at a time. Whether I’d print it or simply reference it after I packed, the checklist has been invaluable to me for years.

Perhaps it will be to you as well, which is why I have decided to share it. You can get your own copy of my time-tested, evolved travel checklist in PDF format here. Go ahead – take it, edit it, adapt it for what you need for yourself or others and use it. You can see it is geared towards an individual male, but you can add whatever categories or accessories you need for yourself, partner, kids, pets, electronics, etc.

If this travel checklist comes in handy for you, please let me know in the comments. If not, any critique is also welcome as well.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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