Interview with Jason Putorti: Creative Lead at Mint
posted by
Damian M.
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Interviews on Aug 31st, 2009
31 Aug
How did you get started in this field? Did you always know this was the career for you?
I got started with computers in 1990, and was immediately captivated. I dug into programming, hardware, and a did a lot of heavy reading. That first computer came with a modem and an online service called Prodigy. Over time I got into BBS's, the [BLOCKED], and ultimately learned about web development.
During high school and college I picked up freelance work, and because of that I was recruited as the third founder in a dot.com in Pittsburgh, PA. I was the guy who could execute the vision of the two b-school founders. I later moved on and started my own creative agency, leveraging what I had taught myself. Design was something that was necessary to execute the products and web sites I was developing, and now here I am.
My guidance counselors never mentioned design school as a possibility for me, something I now stress when I talk to high school students. I chose between computer science and engineering, picked the former– but later decided that it was missing a visual component that I craved. I entertained getting into visual effects in film, having met Randy Pausch and playing in the ETC lab at Carnegie Mellon, but I was impatient to get into the real world. I had the web talent, and could use it immediately as an entrepreneur.
On your website you say you moved from small web projects for day spas to major campaigns such as that for a multi-million dollar condo. What did you have to do to gain visibility and leverage above the plethora of design firms out there?
Personality and relationships. I made the decision to launch my small agency in 2003 with zero clients. I had one guy working on the end of my IKEA L desk and another on a dining table. My first corporate client was the phone company that worked out of my building, the second was the building itself.
The condo project was a bit of serendipity. I met a local realtor, and one day we decided to demo something for her that we had done pro bono for our apartment building, just for some feedback. She was very excited about it, and some time later became attached to the project and got me in the door with the developer.
I was 22 with little experience and I had to out hustle the best web shop in town. I did a ton of spec work, such as logo concepts and demoed the 3D touring technology. I showed my realtor and I also paid an animator from the Art Institute to do some renderings. In the end this focus on real estate and tantalizing them with what was possible, I believe was what won us the gig. Clients don't often have big imaginations so you need to really show and sell a clear vision. The other firm probably did a standard dog and pony show.
You've reiterated on your blog that there's no such thing as a neutral brand experience. How relative do you think Mint.com's branding has been to its overall success? Do you think that users 'feel' what was intended for them to feel through the company's personality?
It's played a huge part. The Mint.com brand is feelings our customers have, and if they're not positive through most of the interactions they have with us, from the source that recommended us, to the home page, to the sign up experience, to using the product, and beyond, then we're not going to grow and be successful.
I've heard that the homepage design, from the colors to the graphical treatments, makes people feel comfortable, and makes us feel like an approachable product. But then we follow it up with an easy-to-use product once you get inside– a big difference from the finance packages of the past.
Engineers play a role here too, because things need to work as expected or your brand value drops. I believe, from reading the tweets and talking to people, that the brand that our customers are preaching, is pretty close to what we want it to be, but we still have a lot of work to do. We want to help people much more than we do today, and make mint.com a profitable and enjoyable part of people's lives.
I'm certain many readers are wondering, what's a day in the life of Jason Putorti, lead designer at Mint.com like. So can you give us an overview as to what your daily activities at such a successful start-up is like?
That's a tough one. There's always a lot happening, but Mint has grown to the point now, with over 35 people, that I don't handle as much as I used to when there were 5 of us. Mornings are coffee time at Mint, everyone tweaks out on their espresso of choice, and then we get to work on our projects.
My usual day when we're not nearing a release is in various phases of the design process (see below). At mint we always get lunch out on Castro street and bring it back to the office to eat in the game room, where ping-pong is pretty competitive.
I usually spend a bit of time every day on bug fixes or improvements in the product, sometimes tweet with customers (^JP on @mint) and learn about what works and doesn't work. Lots of days there will be projects that spring up out of nowhere from marketing or business development that we need to tackle, sometimes meetings and spec reviews, and sometimes we have burrito day in the park and play soccer.
Have you ever been in a situation where you strongly believed in a design you conceptualized, only to have it shot down by a stubborn client?
All the time. The industry anecdote is that the concept you like the least, is the one the client will always choose– usually because it's the safest option. This happened to us a lot at Novaurora with logo design, a healthy piece of my portfolio are mockups that didn't make the cut.
Every designer has their own process so can you tell us about yours from conception to creation and execution?
It's probably not the best process out there, but I try to gather information first, from users and from the product manager who handles requirements and goals. Then it's a combination of graph paper / ruler sketching and an outliner software to organize my interface data and tasks. I'll do a lot of ideas on paper, then combine the best into a wireframe using Adobe Illustrator.
Once the illustrator mockup works for everyone, then I get the green light to do high fidelity mockups in Photoshop. Once that passes then I code the HTML/CSS with Espresso and CSSedit. I used Coda before Espresso, still pretty good, and also use Textmate for a few things on occasion. I use Versions for SVN, all on Mac.
Today there are many internet companies like buildabrand.com and 99designs.com which have a non-traditional approach toward design and branding. How important of a role do you think design plays in the success of a start-up?
Well again, branding is a lot more than the logo design. A logo is something that sets the tone and influences people, but it's just the beginning. For that reason alone, the elevator pitch on buildabrand bothers me, but the concept fills a need out there. Entrepreneurs are busy and strapped for cash, and if people out there want to design logos for the chance of getting paid, then great. If the designs lend credibility and make a good first impression on people, then that's a good thing.
I happen to think that logos require a lot more thought than what typically comes out of a contest. Most people don't know how to make good design, or what makes good design, but they know it when they see it, it's in our DNA. Good design will get prospects in the door, but it's the overall experience that will turn them into customers, make them happy, and make you money, whether it's a restaurant or a web site. The design of the original iMac captivated and drew people in, but it would have been a flop if it wasn't as easy to use as the friendly design implied.
How do you make decisions on user interface at Mint.com? Is it through research, user feedback, using the site yourself?
It's a lot of those things. The earlier pages of Mint that I did were mostly intuitive. The user needed to be able to X,Y,Z, and I designed an interface to make it as easy as I could. I built what I felt worked well, and out it went. However as the user base has grown, we have a lot of input on our forums, on twitter, we can talk to customers on the phone, it's easy with 1.5 million users, many of them engaged on social media, to gather information and understand how people are using the product. It's a myth that what I was doing originally will work out, because no designer can intuit how other people will use things, we're just wired a certain way.
That's why now we build prototypes and have test servers so we can take our best shot, and then validate, and iterate. In our latest release, we improved a lot of things, but also changed a lot and didn't quite take into consideration how people have come to rely on the older tools. Lesson learned. Once you have a lot of dedicated every day users, every adjustment you make can't be taken lightly. However one important note is that you should not take advice verbatim. People are wired to simply throw out solutions at you, or say they need something, when really, once you get to the root of the problem, there's a much better way. That's our job as designers, to interpret that input and ultimately solve the problem as simply as possible.
Your Linkedin profile says you have experience in business. Do you think this gives you any leverage in design?
I think it's important in the broader sense of your career, especially in startups, to know how business works, and appreciate the priorities of different people and teams. If you're going to freelance or run an agency, it's absolutely crucial. You need to be a lifelong learner, and keep reading. However you do learn on the job. At this point I feel I have an MBA from the college of hard knocks– I've learned by doing, and making mistakes.
On a design level, a big part of what I do is fulfill objectives coming down from business development, meaning not only do I need to make the user happy, but ultimately we need to make money to eat. Knowing business and marketing help you to understand and tackle these problems. A slogan thrown around liberal arts colleges is that specialization is for insects, and in some ways, it's true. Marketing especially is an important discipline for designers, because communication is fundamentally what we're doing.
I was reading the article "Excellence in Advertising" on your blog. It ended with, "In short, “think different,” connect with your customers, understand them, and talk to them like you’d like someone to talk to you." If you wrote an article on "Excellence in Web Design" (assuming you haven't already), what would be your closing advice or remark?
Web design isn't about learning the tools like Photoshop or an HTML editor, web design is about having an eye. If you're going to be great, you need to first know what great design looks like, and then you need to know why it's great.
Thanks for taking the time and answering our questions Jason. It was nice having you. For those interested in knowing more about Jason Putorti visit his studio novaurora or follow him on Twitter @novaurora
