February 14, 2006

A valentine from (for?) Adaptive Path!

A few weeks before our 5th anniversary, the news is metastasizing across the blogosphere -- Google has acquired Measure Map. And with it, one of my business partners for the last 5 years, Jeffrey Veen. So, this is definitely a bittersweet moment.

I'm remarkably excited about the acquisition. It's validation for the work we did, and, importantly, for the philosophy underlying our inaugural attempt at a product -- that good design redefines categories and opens opportunities that hadn't been realized. It's what we saw Google do with Maps -- people had pretty much considered the map space finished before then. I discussed this a bit back when I talked about enterprise apps being eaten from below - there was definitely an opportunity to approach analytics in a new, user-centered way, which is what Measure Map did.

Jeff's departure will take a long time to sink in. Over 5 years ago, when I first was talking up the idea of a "user experience" company, Jeff was one of the first people I got in touch with. We had spoken at conferences together, and he had even brought me in to do some work at Hotwired, so I knew we had similar notions. Jeff has been instrumental in the evolution of Adaptive Path -- his efforts lead directly to our events line of business, and then, two years later, to our first product. He has been probably our most public face (though Jesse is gaining fast), speaking around the world to a variety of audiences. He developed some of our best speaking material -- his knack for storytelling helped communicate the value of user experience, whereas my overly analytical approach tends to leave people scratching their heads.

And within the office, day-in and day-out, we won't have him to lead the charge for burritos, coffee, or beers at (House of Shields, Nova, _insert bar here_), to cut through the bullshit we occasionally find ourselves getting worked up over, to, well, to be so tall.

That said, this is clearly a remarkable opportunity for him, and I'm thrilled I could help make it happen. Jeff isn't someone you can replace, and Google is getting a remarkable person to join their ranks.

I'm eager to see what's next, and looking forward to him doing great things there.

Posted by peterme at 04:25 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
Search


Travels

See Me Travel
Archives
December 2006
November 2006
October 2006
September 2006
August 2006
July 2006
June 2006
May 2006
April 2006
March 2006
February 2006
January 2006
December 2005
November 2005
October 2005
September 2005
August 2005
July 2005
June 2005
May 2005
April 2005
March 2005
February 2005
January 2005
December 2004
November 2004
October 2004
September 2004
August 2004
July 2004
June 2004
May 2004
April 2004
March 2004
February 2004
January 2004
December 2003
November 2003
October 2003
September 2003
August 2003
July 2003
June 2003
May 2003
April 2003
March 2003
Archives from June 13, 2001 to January 2003
Archives from before June 13, 2001
Recent Entries
A valentine from (for?) Adaptive Path!
Subscribe to my feed:
Powered by
Movable Type 3.2