-By Matt Derrick, CEO
This put up is one in a sequence about our rebrand; learn all of them right here:
Introducing Kodeco — the New raywenderlich.com
Why Rebrand? The Backstory of raywenderlich.com
To Infinity and much, Far Past
319 Days to Constructing a New Model – (you’re right here)
47 minutes after sending an e mail to our 300-member raywenderlich.com content material contributors, the next message, succinct and brutally direct, was posted within the company-wide Discord channel:
“Simply acquired the e-mail in regards to the model identify shortlist. I’m fairly speechless at how unhealthy these names are.”
Months of working with a branding company, mood-boarding model attributes, endlessly debating the deserves of literal vs. summary branding, lengthy conversations with committees of inside and contracting workforce members and conducting the legally required due diligence and area availability searches, had all led down to 5 last model identify candidates that we have been fairly enthusiastic about. Till the Discord message above… and those that adopted with comparable sentiments.
Change is tough, and whereas we’d get previous this small blip — and that’s finally what it turned out to be — the journey from begin to launch day was neither quick nor linear.
In actual fact, it goes again nearly a 12 months…
Dec 9, 2021 — The place It All Started
As we started the second day of our two-day Senior Management offsite, everybody knew the large subject on the agenda: rebranding. We had coated numerous floor on the primary day, however all of us knew the choices made in the present day would probably be probably the most far-reaching. The subject alone was laborious to fathom — may we actually change the identify of an eponymous web site so broadly related to cellular improvement?
The explanations not to take action have been quite a few. During the last decade, Ray & Vicki Wenderlich had created a model that was beloved within the trade. There have been 1000’s of items of content material and a whole lot of workforce members that had, fairly actually, grown up with raywenderlich.com. And probably the most basic query: With an bold 12 months of progress for 2022 already deliberate, would there be sufficient time to create a wholly new model with out burning everybody out? Shouldn’t we wait till we have been bigger and extra established?
However as we talked by way of the numerous issues, all of us started to understand the identical factor — this was the time to lastly take it on. Ray had purchased different potential domains years earlier, when he realized that the positioning was quickly rising past a easy weblog, and there have been dozens, after which a whole lot, of individuals contributing to the positioning. It bothered him that individuals on the skin thought he was liable for all of it. But there have been at all times extra urgent issues to work on — extra books and movies, a rising enterprise mannequin.
Inevitably, the dialog paused whereas we waited for Sam Davies, our wry CTO from the UK, to elucidate why he couldn’t merely click on “discover & substitute” with a brand new emblem on the web site. Nonetheless, Sam stunned us when he identified that, as difficult as it will be to replace a web site that has 1000’s of pages of content material, it will solely get tougher the longer we waited. All of us knew this was the precise resolution long-term, however we slowly got here to the conclusion that we couldn’t maintain placing it off for a future date.
The optics have been difficult, in fact. Human nature is that individuals don’t like change, and this was an enormous change. Ray emphasised that if we have been going to do that, the content material contributors particularly needed to perceive that this was his thought, and the end result of years of Ray attempting to mirror the contribution of the broader workforce extra precisely. With out the content material contributors, we wouldn’t have an organization, they usually have been a key stakeholder group in our eyes. It might be an enormous venture that we may rally everybody round within the coming 12 months, and that kindled our pleasure.
One last query remained — we wanted somebody to quarterback the method. Chris Belanger, our CMO who hails from Canada, volunteered to guide the varied groups required.
With the normal firm winter break, it will be over a month till we’d inform the Razeware workforce, and one other month nonetheless till we had a plan collectively to share with the content material workforce, however the race to the rebranding end line started that December morning.
Besides we thought this race can be a five-miler. Little did we all know that we have been in for an ultramarathon occasion.
February 9, 2022 — The Public Reveal
Precisely two months later, to the day, we convened our first City Corridor assembly with our 300-person content material contributors. These persons are the soul of our firm — proficient cellular builders who may need day jobs at Uber or Amazon, however on the facet, create articles, movies and books for raywenderlich.com. As a result of workforce members are distributed all through the world, we held an early-morning assembly, one mid-day, and one within the night, ostensibly to unveil our organizational targets for 2022. As CEO, I unveiled the primary 4 targets, after which turned it over to Ray for the pièce de resistance.
Individuals have been understandably stunned as Ray laid out why he felt we wanted to give you a brand new firm identify, why this was the time to do it, and went over a plan that will contain them within the rebranding. Reassuringly, the questions that got here throughout and after the decision confirmed that the workforce was extremely supportive and, in truth, excited in regards to the change. Some shared how they’d been ready for years for this. There was an extended solution to go, nevertheless it appeared that possibly folks weren’t as change-averse as we had thought.
Or… so we had thought.
February 16, 2022 — The Seek for a Title
Each month, I ship an ‘All-Palms’ e mail out to your entire workforce, and this time, it was chock filled with rebranding information. In any case, we had simply damaged the information in regards to the rebrand the earlier week, and we knew we wanted to maneuver quick. The primary domino that will tip off this marathon dash can be a naming contest. We hoped it will be an effective way to get the workforce excited in regards to the course of, in addition to give you some identify potentialities. With all doable pace and an Eighth-grade-level command of graphic design, “The Nice Renaming Contest” was born:
Whereas not taking ourselves too severely, this contest had a critical intent — to crowdsource some intriguing names, whereas beginning to acclimate the workforce to the idea that there would quickly be a brand new place for everybody to name ‘house’. We gave folks a month to ship in concepts and put aside over $3,000 in prizes for entrants who got here up with the “finest” and “funniest” names.
Issues have been going properly. The workforce was on board, we had money prizes, and selecting a reputation couldn’t be that arduous. May it?
February 24, 2022 – A Committee is Born
With over 300 folks on our content material contributor workforce, there was no simple solution to get actionable suggestions from a bunch that enormous. Nonetheless, 20 workforce members volunteered to take part on the marketing campaign and signify the broader workforce. Two weeks later, we held our first name. We’d go on to have month-to-month calls with this committee, however step one was to manage the competition that will hopefully uncover some intriguing identify potentialities so we may start to work by way of the lengthy strategy of coming to grips with a brand new model.
And slowly, February became March. Ah, the season of spring, the rebirth of nature, and… branding companies?
March 28, 2022 — Enter Vasava
Nearing the top of March, we had an introductory name with our artistic company, concluding greater than a month’s search. We had evaluated almost a dozen companies in complete earlier than choosing Vasava, primarily based out of Madrid. We offered them a whole lot of pages of analysis that we had performed with Honan Technique Group, in addition to web site analytics and branding workouts our inside designers had performed.
Right here’s one instance of an train we did to find out how we felt about our model attributes:
On the decision, it was clear to everybody that it was very bold to launch a brand new model within the fall. We knew that, if we didn’t launch by early November on the newest, when the crush of Thanksgiving/Black Friday hit, we wouldn’t give you the option to take action in 2022. But the timeline working again from a late October launch date necessitated beginning the web site improvement by no later than August, which meant we wanted to start out engaged on designs by mid-June, emblem by mid-Could and a reputation by the top of April.
The clock was ticking! Edgar Allen Poe’s ‘The Telltale Coronary heart’ had nothing on us.
March 31, 2022 — What’s in a Title?
Slightly over a month had handed since we introduced the naming contest, and the outcomes have been spectacular. We acquired properly over 100 completely different submissions, some with dozens of naming concepts. Our winners have been:
- First Place Greatest Title: DevHaven
- Second Place Greatest Title: TechTogether
- First Place Funniest Title: CompileandPray
- Second Place Funniest Title: worldclasseducationalplatformandcommunityfordevelopers.com
It was clear that the workforce favored literal/descriptive names. But we realized that the extra actually our new identify described what we do, the extra that would restrict us if we needed to develop in new instructions sooner or later. It was additionally an indication, but once more, that individuals have been most snug with minor, iterative modifications, versus extra substantive leaps.
But, rebranding was all about leaps — and we have been dealing with an enormous one within the very close to future.
April 27, 2022 — The Nice Naming Showdown
Almost a month had handed since our preliminary name with Vasava, and in that point we had many conferences speaking about literal names, and extra summary names or phrase mixtures. We went by way of dozens of permutations that have been attention-grabbing, however have been both not out there or out of scope from a finances standpoint. One such instance was Fearless.com, which whereas considerably summary, was simple to say and bear in mind. Sadly, it was on the market for $2 million USD.
On this present day, Vasava offered their shortlist suggestions, together with execs & cons of every, to our inside workforce, plotted on a grid of literal vs summary, and sophisticated vs easy. Their general suggestions have been variations of Geckoder or Kodecko.
Oddly, the narrowing of our decisions made it more durable to decide on, in some methods: we have been coming to the purpose the place we had to decide on the proper identify.
Or what we thought can be the precise identify.
Could 11, 2022 — You Can’t Please ‘Em All
Time was operating out. We had hoped to have a last identify by the top of April, and we have been now properly previous that. Despite the fact that we favored the 2 names that Vasava beneficial, there have been inside workforce members and people on the Branding Committee that enjoyed others. In actual fact, nearly everybody had a favourite. None of which helped to slim down the method.
We determined to take our high 5 names and ship out an e mail and survey to your entire workforce, within the hopes that if there was sturdy consensus round one identify, it might be a very good sturdy knowledge level.
- CodeHaven
- CodeVivo
- Kodecko
- Skillivo
- WiseGecko
There have been apparent drawbacks to soliciting suggestions from a big group of individuals on the proverbial 5-yard line of selecting a reputation, particularly when you will have a Branding Committee whose job is to signify the bigger workforce. We knew that individuals reflexively don’t like change, and so it was unlikely to generate an amazing quantity of sentiment alongside the strains of “I like all these names!” In actual fact, it was more likely to generate the other.
However, we determined to forge forward and solicit enter from the workforce. I despatched out an e mail with a survey asking everybody to rank the names, together with why they selected their first alternative. We didn’t have to attend even an hour earlier than a workforce member posted on the company-wide Discord channel.
There have been others echoing in fast succession. Solely 12 folks weighed in, which is a small fragment of our complete content material contributor workforce, however due to the echo chamber of chat, it was alarming. There was even some dialogue about whether or not we must always simply scrap the entire identify course of and begin over.
Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed — despite the fact that it took a while for everybody concerned to seek out these cooler heads. We reminded ourselves that, whatever the names, folks don’t like change. It’s in our DNA. It was inevitable that with none narrative across the names, those we selected wouldn’t resonate; with out the story behind the identify, they have been simply phrases. Nonetheless, as soon as the door had been opened to solicit enter, we couldn’t ignore it. Subsequently, we determined to arrange a sequence of conferences with workforce members to get extra enter on the names. Nonetheless, with the timelines already getting compressed, we knew we couldn’t take lengthy. We gave ourselves one week — till Friday, Could twentieth — to make a dedication on the identify.
But, humorous issues occur while you suppose you’ve nearly reached the end line.
Could 12, 2022 — Cue the Area Pirates
If that wasn’t sufficient drama, the very subsequent day, Ray & I acquired a cryptic message:
Since we have been solely on the thought stage, we hadn’t really bought the domains we have been contemplating. That appeared like overkill, particularly with a few of them solely out there after-market. Nevertheless it appeared that somebody had bought the Kodecko.com area three hours after our e mail was despatched out.
OK… first off, I’m certain it was a timing coincidence. <insert full eyeball roll right here>. There have been additionally fairly a number of issues occurring, so we weren’t ready to drop all the things to struggle a troll or a site pirate. And since there have been a number of spellings of Kodecko that we have been wanting into, it was a minor blip. Nevertheless it was simply one other reminder (as if we wanted any extra) that this was not going to be a simple course of.
I used to be starting to marvel if, in truth, rebranding was definitely worth the aggravation.
Could 20, 2022 — We Have a Title!
One week had handed, and there had been almost 30 conversations with numerous workforce members and teams, attempting to solicit suggestions on the doable names. However within the course of, we found two issues. First, when folks realized extra in regards to the narratives we may probably use for the names, they persistently warmed as much as them in a signifiant vogue. Merely seeing a reputation in an e mail wouldn’t minimize it. And second, by a big margin, folks favored the identify Kodecko.
Internally, Kodecko was on the high of most lists as properly. It had ‘code’ within the pronunciation with out being too on the nostril. It additionally had the sound ‘echo’, which resonated with many, as a result of a core element of our tutorials is basically echoing again an idea step-by-step. The ultimate layer was that lots of the workforce had began out in cellular improvement as readers of raywenderlich.com, and had progressed over time to instructing, and in flip, making a neighborhood of educators that was on the core of all the things we did.
We met as a management workforce on Could twentieth to evaluation the suggestions and decide. The favourite was Kodecko, however due to the obvious unavailability of that spelling, it wasn’t a foregone conclusion. One other risk that had emerged was the identify Razeware, which was already the identify of the corporate behind raywenderlich.com. I imply, it was very ’90s, however all the things previous is new once more, proper?
Finally although, we determined ‘Razeware’ was too limiting with its software program connotation, in addition to some adverse connotation to ‘raze’, i.e. destroy. We additionally discovered a spelling variant, Kodeco, that was shorter and labored simply as properly.
In the long run, on a Friday afternoon three weeks after our authentic objective, the unanimous alternative for our subsequent firm identify was Kodeco.com!
So 5 months later, and we had a reputation. The remaining had to be simple, proper?
Could 30, 2022 — Six Months Into It
We have been now a month delayed. The unique plan by Vasava referred to as for six weeks of design to create temper boards: visible identities that will result in a emblem and new design fashion. That might then lead into designing the net pages themselves.
On a name with Vasava, they felt that they may shave two weeks off of their finish, which might give them 4 weeks for design and put us solely two weeks behind general. The subsequent large step can be the emblem, however with the tumultuous previous couple of weeks of back-and-forth suggestions, we knew that we couldn’t repeat the myriad suggestions rounds if we had any hopes of sticking to an October launch. We needed to discover some solution to transfer quicker, nevertheless it appeared like with every step we took, we have been slowing down.
And that was not what we wanted. Velocity was of the essence. However how have been we going to recuperate our schedule, once we’d already taken 5 months simply to discover a identify?
On reflection, the inflection level was proper across the nook, and got here staggeringly quick.
June 10, 2022 — Was a Branding Company the Proper Transfer?
We have been a bit apprehensive as we logged on to a video name with Vasava Friday morning. We hadn’t heard a lot from them for the final week, and we weren’t certain whether or not we have been supposed to supply suggestions on the temper boards, or discuss technique as a substitute. However time was ticking, and if we weren’t making progress in direction of a emblem on the minimal, the chance of launching on time would shrink.
Vasava began the assembly and proceeded to blow us away — it appeared like they’d packed a month of labor into every week. They walked us by way of a 53-slide presentation, beginning with a easy encapsulation of the model values.
Then they confirmed us this:
The colourful orange. The motion. The attention-catching ‘Ok’. We. Had been. Hooked!
Vasava didn’t cease there; they went on to indicate us 3D renderings of the modular ‘Ok’ parts, which we’d study was a intelligent visible interpretation of the ‘echo’ idea. They confirmed us mock guide covers, social media, advert campaigns and extra.
When the decision wrapped up, the query for me wasn’t whether or not we had discovered our emblem. I knew that we had. The query was, “what do we’ve to do to get this into manufacturing?”
June 13, 2022 — Rubber Meets the Highway of Actuality
In fact, even when an esteemed branding company comes ahead with an incredible piece of labor, it’s inevitable that persons are going to have a few feedback. As a result of not everybody’s a designer, proper?
Nothing, I’d come to study, is ever fairly that straightforward. The next Monday, once we shared the presentation at an organization All-Palms assembly, there was a lot of superb suggestions on typography, accessibility, design system extensibility and extra. After which our Branding Committee, from our content material contributors, additionally weighed in with different suggestions. However as soon as the mud settled, we realized that it was extraordinarily constructive and useful suggestions that allowed us to refine the fashions additional.
We now had the core parts of our new model. We additionally had suggestions from the workforce: the engine that makes all the things doable at raywenderlich.com. However nonetheless, may we get all of this suggestions massaged into, you recognize, an precise concrete web site design?
July 15, 2022 — Perhaps You *Can* Please ‘Em All
In my July All-Palms e mail, we formally confirmed the broader workforce the emblem and the design parts that Vasava had created:
The suggestions — this time — was extremely constructive! Luke Freeman, our Design Crew Lead, was already engaged on taking the parts Vasava had designed and starting to construct out the design system. We needed to take a break close to the top of July, although, for a well-deserved workforce retreat within the Bahamas. The actually laborious work of design was simply starting.
It was nearly this time within the course of once I realized {that a} good design and improvement workforce is price its weight in gold. No, what’s extra priceless than gold? Platinum? Uranium? Unobtanium? One thing like that.
August 26, 2022 – The Grand Reveal
The core inside rebrand workforce, consisting of Chris Belanger, CMO; Sam Davies, CTO; Luke Freeman, Lead Designer; Abby Nanquil, UX Designer; Katie Collins, Video Crew Lead; Sandra Grauschopf, Guide Crew Lead; Lauren Pescarus, Member Expertise Supervisor; Doug Marcoux, Advertising and marketing Supervisor; and myself, met weekly all year long. This present day was out of the atypical although. And that’s as a result of Luke unveiled the very first design of our new Kodeco.com homepage.
[Ed: Chris here. I wish I had a video of this moment. I’ve never seen such broad smiles on everyone’s faces, including mine. It was one of those moments you remember forever.]
We had solely seen glimpses of Luke’s design parts beforehand, akin to the brand new emblem, so numerous issues had left to our creativeness. Luke’s design, although, was a huge departure from our previous raywenderlich.com design, incorporating substantial white house, minimal colours, and lots of the parts that Vasava had constructed for us.
So we had a surprising design. However to take a model as honored as raywenderlich.com, and utterly redesign the positioning that individuals have liked for years — would everybody else prefer it?
September 15, 2022 — Can You *Actually* Please ‘Em All?
I used to be so excited that I had hassle sleeping the evening earlier than. We have been scheduled to have our Q3 City Halls, and the plan was to demo the brand new web site design to the content material contributor workforce. Everybody had already seen the emblem — however that was two months earlier. Now, they have been going to see the positioning coming collectively. I held my breath as Luke labored a masterful presentation, displaying not simply the homepage, however examples of the article pages, the video pages, the ‘triad’ iconography that will assist outline the content material for learners, and extra.
I allowed myself to exhale because the suggestions got here in as overwhelmingly constructive — and this time it was stay suggestions, which made it much more satisfying. Individuals liked the orange, the 3D visible results, and the way in which Luke had included the rounded parts of the ‘Ok’ all through the positioning.
As at all times, we had three city halls at completely different occasions, to accommodate as many time zones as we may, and Luke offered stay at every one among them — even the one which began at 1 AM in his native time zone!
The workforce liked the designs, and the laborious work to date was paying off, however now the toughest work would shift to the engineering workforce. May they really ship on these elaborate designs that Luke had created?
October 13, 2022 — Actuality, Half Deux
“We’re not as far alongside within the web site improvement as I needed to be at this level,” Sam Davies, our CTO, remarked, as he gave his replace on the engineering workforce’s standing. “I needed to have two weeks of bug fixes, testing, and have written a properly thought-out transition plan prematurely of the launch.”
“Okay,” I stated. “So the place are you with these plans?”
“Proper — we’re not going to have any of these issues,” Sam breathed, somewhat uncertainly. “I’m nonetheless, uh, moderately assured that we’ll get all the things achieved.”
“Fairly assured” was yet one more instance of the understated management I’ve seen over time that Sam dropped at the engineering workforce. Sam was a veteran of a number of large-scale launches over the span profession, so I used to be very assured – properly, not less than principally assured — that his workforce would handle to get all the things achieved.
Nonetheless, with lower than two weeks to launch, there was valuable little margin for error.
[Ed: Hi, Chris here again. Sam and I have been working together for many, many years now. And the fact that we haven’t strangled each other is a testament to the fact that Sam and his team are experts at spinning-straw-into-gold engineering miracles. I’ve learned that the best way to get results out of Sam is to let him moan about how much work there is to do, commiserate with him, and then let him rally his team to perform said miracles.]
October 17, 2022 — Advertising and marketing Insanity
I smiled as Chris Belanger, our CMO and e mail advertising guru, confirmed me the drafts of emails and social media he had ready to tease the launch out to subscribers and followers — it was guerrilla advertising at it best. He had embedded Easter eggs within the teaser emails that led to free swag giveaways, even teasing our new identify, Kodeco, in clear print for anybody intelligent sufficient to note and decode it. Whether or not anybody really would discover it was an unanswerable query, however the artistic thought behind it was one other instance of the thought that went into each step of this marathon venture.
[Ed: Yeah, hi, Chris again. I was actually worried that no one would solve the puzzle, but y’all came through and I had a lot of people who wrote in with the solution. Kudos.]
Past the promotional teases to our broader neighborhood, although, the advertising workforce had taken care of a ton of different issues, from transforming social media accounts, to updating all of our advertising supplies, to brokering new Kodeco swag on a shoestring finances, scrambling to seek out movement designers to deliver our new model to life, and on high of that, a social media activation equipment for the 300+ sturdy workforce of content material contributors in order that our complete neighborhood may participate in selling the launch subsequent week.
Whereas the engineering workforce was nonetheless pulling all-nighters, on the advertising facet, issues have been lastly prepared to start out the fanfare that will lead as much as launch on the next Monday.
However as the times ticked down, the query was nonetheless there — would the engineering workforce pull by way of? Would we be capable to really make Kodeco.com stay on our goal date?
October 23, 2022 — Ignoring Builders Is a Legitimate Motivational Method
If you happen to’ve ever labored with a workforce of builders main as much as launch, you recognize that the very best method is to principally go away them alone and simply go away a stack of pizzas and a 24-pack of Jolt Cola on the door. Now, being a 100% distant firm meant we couldn’t adjust to the pizza and soda necessities, however we do know sufficient to depart the engineering workforce alone whereas they’re working miracles.
At 1:15 PM Greenwich Imply Time, Sam Davies muttered the traditional incantations that took Kodeco.com stay, and commenced the method to redirect raywenderlich.com to Kodeco.com. We selected a Sunday deployment, as this allowed the engineering workforce to proceed to seek out and resolve any bugs a day prematurely of the official launch, whereas guaranteeing that most individuals wouldn’t discover till it was introduced the following morning. Apart from, the workforce was threatened with numerous unspeakable punishments in the event that they tried a Friday afternoon deploy ever once more, so it labored out for the very best.
The core rebranding workforce spent a lot of the afternoon and night wanting by way of the positioning, logging Jiras, fixing bugs and logging extra Jiras to repair what they broke whereas fixing different bugs. Whereas there have been some inside pages that also wanted some refining (as per our pragmatic improve plan recognized informally as “Who Would Ever Discover This?”), the positioning was lastly prepared for its large unveiling the following day!
October 24, 2022 — The End Line
At 11 AM EDT, Kodeco Inc introduced its presence to the world: we had rebranded to Kodeco.com from raywenderlich.com!
It had been precisely 319 days because the resolution was made – not that I used to be counting or something. :] What an unbelievable journey, however moreso, what an unbelievable finish end result from our complete workforce!
Epilogue
As I mirror upon this 319-day journey (my phrase, that’s almost an entire 12 months), I can determine many, many issues that would have presumably derailed our rebranding method. I haven’t even spoken of the patent or trademark tussles we went by way of, the emotional realities of attempting to pivot a whole model with a small workforce, and the numerous concepts or initiatives that we jettisoned alongside the way in which — however I wouldn’t change a factor. The Kodeco model that all of us proudly stand behind is the results of an enormous effort from everybody concerned.
In a means, this rebranding effort has been a mirrored image of who we’re as an organization — a whole lot of individuals, with completely different backgrounds and completely different opinions, however all united as one neighborhood with the objective of rising the following era of cellular builders.
Welcome to Kodeco.
— Matt Derrick
