Guess I Was Wrong About the ‘Slowly’ Part

Speaking of AOL/TechCrunch, here’s Dave Feldman on the process behind their new branding and website design:

As Michael Arrington posted on Friday I’m Dave Feldman, and I’ve been acting as product manager for the TechCrunch redesign since the beginning of 2011. The project began last fall before AOL’s acquisition of TechCrunch. By December it needed product management — providing feedback and direction to the design agency (Code & Theory), defining product requirements, understanding TechCrunch’s unusually collaborative editorial process, determining information architecture, and ultimately coordinating the development and launch. Mike asked AOL’s Brad Garlinghouse for a product manager & project lead. He turned to AOL’s head of Consumer Experience, Matte Scheinker (my manager). Matte’s team specializes in “strategic projects” where additional product, design, and/or process expertise is needed. He agreed to take on the project and put me on the case.

After Arrington sold TechCrunch to AOL, I expected AOL to slowly but surely saddle them with a bunch of “biz-dev” jerkoffs and institutional bureaucracy.

★ Wednesday, 13 July 2011