-By Matt Derrick, CEO
This submit is one in a collection 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 might be 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 obtained the e-mail concerning 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 related sentiments.
Change is tough, and whereas we might 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 yr…
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 matter on the agenda: rebranding. We had lined a number of floor on the primary day, however all of us knew the choices made right now would doubtlessly be probably the most far-reaching. The subject alone was laborious to fathom — might we actually change the identify of an eponymous web site so broadly related to cellular growth?
The explanations not to take action have been quite a few. Over the past decade, Ray & Vicki Wenderlich had created a model that was beloved within the business. There have been hundreds of items of content material and lots of of workforce members that had, fairly actually, grown up with raywenderlich.com. And probably the most basic query: With an bold yr of progress for 2022 already deliberate, would there be sufficient time to create a completely 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 location was quickly rising past a easy weblog, and there have been dozens, after which lots of, of individuals contributing to the location. It bothered him that folks on the surface thought he was chargeable for all of it. But there have been all the time 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 clarify why he couldn’t merely click on “discover & exchange” with a brand new emblem on the web site. Nonetheless, Sam shocked us when he identified that, as difficult as it could be to replace a web site that has hundreds of pages of content material, it could solely get tougher the longer we waited. All of us knew this was the correct choice long-term, however we slowly got here to the belief that we couldn’t hold placing it off for a future date.
The optics have been tough, after all. Human nature is that folks don’t like change, and this was a giant 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, and so they have been a key stakeholder group in our eyes. It could be a giant undertaking that we might rally everybody round within the coming yr, and that kindled our pleasure.
One last query remained — we would have liked somebody to quarterback the method. Chris Belanger, our CMO who hails from Canada, volunteered to guide the assorted groups required.
With the standard firm winter break, it could be over a month till we might 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 individuals are the soul of our firm — proficient cellular builders who might 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.
Folks have been understandably shocked as Ray laid out why he felt we would have liked to provide you with a brand new firm identify, why this was the time to do it, and went over a plan that might 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 reality, excited concerning the change. Some shared how that they had been ready for years for this. There was an extended technique to go, nevertheless it appeared that perhaps individuals 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-Arms’ e mail out to your complete workforce, and this time, it was chock stuffed with rebranding information. In any case, we had simply damaged the information concerning the rebrand the earlier week, and we knew we would have liked to maneuver quick. The primary domino that might tip off this marathon dash can be a naming contest. We hoped it could be a good way to get the workforce excited concerning the course of, in addition to provide you with some identify potentialities. With all potential velocity 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 severe 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 ‘dwelling’. We gave individuals a month to ship in concepts and put aside over $3,000 in prizes for entrants who got here up with the “greatest” and “funniest” names.
Issues have been going nicely. The workforce was on board, we had money prizes, and selecting a reputation couldn’t be that onerous. Might it?
February 24, 2022 – A Committee is Born
With over 300 individuals on our content material contributor workforce, there was no straightforward technique 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 might go on to have month-to-month calls with this committee, however step one was to manage the competition that might hopefully uncover some intriguing identify potentialities so we might start to work by way of the lengthy technique of coming to grips with a brand new model.
And slowly, February was March. Ah, the season of spring, the rebirth of nature, and… branding companies?
March 28, 2022 — Enter Vasava
Nearing the tip of March, we had an introductory name with our artistic company, concluding greater than a month’s search. We had evaluated practically a dozen companies in whole earlier than deciding on Vasava, based mostly out of Madrid. We offered them lots of of pages of analysis that we had carried out with Honan Technique Group, in addition to web site analytics and branding workout routines our inside designers had carried out.
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 have the opportunity to take action in 2022. But the timeline working again from a late October launch date necessitated beginning the web site growth by no later than August, which meant we would have liked to start out engaged on designs by mid-June, emblem by mid-Could and a reputation by the tip 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 obtained nicely over 100 totally 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 might restrict us if we wished to develop in new instructions sooner or later. It was additionally an indication, but once more, that folks have been most snug with minor, iterative adjustments, versus extra substantive leaps.
But, rebranding was all about leaps — and we have been dealing with a giant one within the very close to future.
April 27, 2022 — The Nice Naming Showdown
Practically 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 fascinating, however have been both not obtainable or out of scope from a price range standpoint. One such instance was Fearless.com, which whereas considerably summary, was straightforward to say and keep 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 selections 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 correct identify.
Could 11, 2022 — You Can’t Please ‘Em All
Time was working out. We had hoped to have a last identify by the tip of April, and we have been now nicely previous that. Regardless that we preferred the 2 names that Vasava advisable, there have been inside workforce members and people on the Branding Committee that loved others. In actual fact, nearly everybody had a favourite. None of which helped to slender down the method.
We determined to take our prime 5 names and ship out an e mail and survey to your complete workforce, within the hopes that if there was sturdy consensus round one identify, it may very well be sturdy information 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’ve a Branding Committee whose job is to signify the bigger workforce. We knew that folks reflexively don’t like change, and so it was unlikely to generate an awesome 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 selection. 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 individuals weighed in, which is a small fragment of our total 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 — although it took a while for everybody concerned to seek out these cooler heads. We reminded ourselves that, whatever the names, individuals 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. Due to this fact, we determined to arrange a collection 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 assume 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 obtained 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 obtainable after-market. But it surely 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 couple of issues happening, so we weren’t ready to drop every part 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. But it surely was simply one other reminder (as if we would have liked any extra) that this was not going to be a straightforward course of.
I used to be starting to marvel if, in reality, rebranding was well worth the aggravation.
Could 20, 2022 — We Have a Title!
One week had handed, and there had been practically 30 conversations with varied workforce members and teams, attempting to solicit suggestions on the potential names. However within the course of, we found two issues. First, when individuals discovered extra concerning the narratives we might doubtlessly use for the names, they constantly warmed as much as them in a signifiant style. Merely seeing a reputation in an e mail wouldn’t lower it. And second, by a big margin, individuals preferred the identify Kodecko.
Internally, Kodecko was on the prime of most lists as nicely. 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 part of our tutorials is actually echoing again an idea step-by-step. The ultimate layer was that most of the workforce had began out in cellular growth as readers of raywenderlich.com, and had progressed over time to educating, and in flip, making a group of educators that was on the core of every part we did.
We met as a management workforce on Could twentieth to assessment 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 chance 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 every part outdated is new once more, proper?
In the end although, we determined ‘Razeware’ was too limiting with its software program connotation, in addition to some unfavorable connotation to ‘raze’, i.e. destroy. We additionally discovered a spelling variant, Kodeco, that was shorter and labored simply as nicely.
In the long run, on a Friday afternoon three weeks after our unique objective, the unanimous selection for our subsequent firm identify was Kodeco.com!
So 5 months later, and we had a reputation. The remainder had to be straightforward, proper?
Could 30, 2022 — Six Months Into It
We have been now a month delayed. The unique plan by Vasava known as for six weeks of design to create temper boards: visible identities that might 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 might 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 technique to transfer quicker, nevertheless it appeared like with every step we took, we have been slowing down.
And that was not what we would have liked. Pace was of the essence. However how have been we going to get better 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 speak technique as an alternative. However time was ticking, and if we weren’t making progress in the direction of a emblem on the minimal, the probability of launching on time would shrink.
Vasava began the assembly and proceeded to blow us away — it appeared like that they had packed a month of labor into per 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 ‘Okay’. We. Had been. Hooked!
Vasava didn’t cease there; they went on to point out us 3D renderings of the modular ‘Okay’ parts, which we might be taught was a intelligent visible interpretation of the ‘echo’ idea. They confirmed us mock e-book 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 now we have to do to get this into manufacturing?”
June 13, 2022 — Rubber Meets the Street of Actuality
After all, even when an esteemed branding company comes ahead with an incredible piece of labor, it’s inevitable that individuals are going to have a few feedback. As a result of not everybody’s a designer, proper?
Nothing, I’d come to be taught, is ever fairly that straightforward. The next Monday, once we shared the presentation at an organization All-Arms 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 every part potential at raywenderlich.com. However nonetheless, might we get all of this suggestions massaged into, you realize, an precise concrete website design?
July 15, 2022 — Possibly You *Can* Please ‘Em All
In my July All-Arms 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 tip 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 after I discovered {that a} good design and growth workforce is price its weight in gold. No, what’s extra precious 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, E-book Crew Lead; Lauren Pescarus, Member Expertise Supervisor; Doug Marcoux, Advertising Supervisor; and myself, met weekly all year long. This present day was out of the bizarre 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, corresponding to the brand new emblem, so a number of issues had left to our creativeness. Luke’s design, although, was a huge departure from our outdated raywenderlich.com design, incorporating substantial white area, minimal colours, and most of the parts that Vasava had constructed for us.
So we had a surprising design. However to take a model as commemorated as raywenderlich.com, and utterly redesign the location that folks 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 bother sleeping the evening earlier than. We have been scheduled to have our Q3 City Halls, and the plan was to demo the brand new website 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 location coming collectively. I held my breath as Luke labored a masterful presentation, exhibiting not simply the homepage, however examples of the article pages, the video pages, the ‘triad’ iconography that might 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. Folks liked the orange, the 3D visible results, and the best way Luke had integrated the rounded parts of the ‘Okay’ all through the location.
As all the time, we had three city halls at totally different instances, to accommodate as many time zones as we might, and Luke offered stay at every considered one of them — even the one which began at 1 AM in his native time zone!
The workforce liked the designs, and the laborious work thus far was paying off, however now the toughest work would shift to the engineering workforce. Might 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 website growth as I wished to be at this level,” Sam Davies, our CTO, remarked, as he gave his replace on the engineering workforce’s standing. “I wished to have two weeks of bug fixes, testing, and have written a nicely thought-out transition plan upfront of the launch.”
“Okay,” I mentioned. “So the place are you with these plans?”
“Proper — we’re not going to have any of these issues,” Sam breathed, a bit of uncertainly. “I’m nonetheless, uh, fairly assured that we’ll get every part carried out.”
“Moderately assured” was 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 – nicely, at the least principally assured — that his workforce would handle to get every part carried out.
Nonetheless, with lower than two weeks to launch, there was treasured 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 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 most interesting. 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 undertaking.
[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 group, although, the advertising workforce had taken care of a ton of different issues, from remodeling social media accounts, to updating all of our advertising supplies, to brokering new Kodeco swag on a shoestring price range, scrambling to seek out movement designers to convey our new model to life, and on prime of that, a social media activation package for the 300+ sturdy workforce of content material contributors in order that our total group might 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 might 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 of really make Kodeco.com stay on our goal date?
October 23, 2022 — Ignoring Builders Is a Legitimate Motivational Method
For those who’ve ever labored with a workforce of builders main as much as launch, you realize that the most effective strategy 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 go away 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 started 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 upfront of the official launch, whereas guaranteeing that most individuals wouldn’t discover till it was introduced the subsequent morning. In addition to, the workforce was threatened with varied unspeakable punishments in the event that they tried a Friday afternoon deploy ever once more, so it labored out for the most effective.
The core rebranding workforce spent many of the afternoon and night wanting by way of the location, 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 location was lastly prepared for its large unveiling the subsequent 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 for the reason that choice was made – not that I used to be counting or something. :] What an unbelievable journey, however moreso, what an unbelievable finish consequence from our total workforce!
Epilogue
As I mirror upon this 319-day journey (my phrase, that’s practically a complete yr), I can establish many, many issues that might have presumably derailed our rebranding strategy. 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 best way — 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 manner, this rebranding effort has been a mirrored image of who we’re as an organization — lots of of individuals, with totally different backgrounds and totally different opinions, however all united as one group with the objective of rising the subsequent technology of cellular builders.
Welcome to Kodeco.
— Matt Derrick
