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Alex Jones

I lead teams at the intersection of strategy and design. Autodidact. Polymath. Barbecue acolyte. I start fires (the good kind).

Technology

Video Call Super Powers

Two apps that boost my effectiveness as a colleague and leader

Illustrated photo showing a laptop screen of people in a video conference next to a mug
Photo by Chris Montgomery on Unsplash, modified by Alex

As a design leader, I know that how I present myself needs to be crafted to the same level of detail as the work I’m responsible for. So, when I come across tools that add to my capabilities, I don’t hesitate to adopt them. Today, I’ll share two tools; one saves me time while ensuring I stay on schedule, and the other helps me look good, literally!

Meeter 

Available for: macOS & iOS

I’m a firm believer that punctuality is a sign of respect, doubly so when you’re a leader. The fact that all of my meetings now occur over video hasn’t changed that. While launching the right URL to join a video conference isn’t hard, I found it often took more steps than I wanted, which is annoying as I would lose little bites of time from my day.

This is where Meeter comes in. One minute before a video meeting, I receive a notification with a simple button to launch the call with the appropriate app or browser. I don’t have to track anything down, and it ensures that I’m on time.

Cost: Free, but the one-time $8 in-app purchase is worth it

Camo Studio 

Available for: macOS, iOS, and Windows (beta)

The external webcam provided by IT is, at best, okay, and often not great when dealing with low lighting situations. But you know what does have a great camera? The iPhone, including the older models that lie around, unused. 

With Camo Studio, I’m able to put my old iPhone 5 to use as an external camera, gaining all of the benefits of Apple’s engineering. Why wouldn’t we want to take advantage of their lenses and sensors, as well as the underlying software that handles lighting, autofocus, and the thousands of adjustments? For meetings where I really want to look my best, I’ll use my current phone (Xs), which truly shines. I’ve lost track of the comments I’ve received about the high-quality stream, even in low light.

Camo can make all the difference if you‘re interviewing for a new role, pitching a prospective client, or presenting a critical idea to the execs.

Cost: Free with a watermark, and limited functionality, $40/year to remove the watermark and gain a lot more control.

$40 a year may sound steep, but it directly impacts how I present myself and ultimately, how I represent my team. Spending on a great camera setup falls in the same category as being selective about the clothes I would wear to the office back in the before times.

I’m happy to support both apps and have bought full licenses. I highly recommend you do the same if you can.

Why Bitcoin is and isn’t like the Internet

The similarity is that Bitcoin is a transportation infrastructure that is decentralized, efficient and based on an open protocol. Instead of transferring packets of data over a dynamic network in contrast to the circuits and leased lines that preceded the Internet, Bitcoin’s protocol, the blockchain, allows trust to be established between mutually distrusting parties in an efficient and decentralized way.

Culture & Mission

no company has a culture; every company is a culture. A startup is a team of people on a mission, and a good culture is just what that looks like on the inside.

Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel, Blake Masters

That statement is easy to dismiss, thinking “yeah, of course”, but few companies truly understand the truth contained in those words. Culture cannot be bolted on, but it can easily fall by the wayside if left unminded or is de-prioritized in times of growth or crisis. The effort to repair it later takes years and culture rarely runs as deep as it did in the early days.

Be mindful of your team, your startup and the internal reflection provided by your culture. If you want to build a great company, you cannot afford to let it slip.

Building a Different Future

Startups operate on the principle that you need to work with other people to get stuff done, but you also need to stay small enough so that you actually can. Positively defined, a startup is the largest group of people you can convince of a plan to build a different future. A new company’s most important strength is new thinking: even more important than nimbleness, small size affords space to think.

Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel, Blake Masters

This passage has been top of mind for me as I search for my next challenge. It highlights the joy and the energy that comes with a startup. It also notes the tremendous pressure that comes with building a different future (much less convincing people that it is the right future to build).

“Nimble” is easy to throw around. It sounds good, but it requires significant energy in practice. Yet, when I think about those teams where I’ve found the most success and felt the greatest reward, nimbleness and agility were core to the team’s foundation. Solving hard problems requires a dogged pursuit of new ideas but it also requires the ability to discard concepts that were once deeply held.

Being nimble requires an elastic mind and a bias toward action, prioritizing progress over process.

It brushes aside the formulaic cycles that can come with some success.

It requires energy and a thoughtful outlook.

And, in the right environment, it returns more energy than it required.

I am actively looking to join a great team who understands this and who in turn are looking for a product leader that is passionate about user experience and building a different future. Here’s my LinkedIn profile if you’re interested in my background. Please reach out if you’d like to talk!