Last week Involution Studios celebrated seven years in business. We've had a bunch of highs, a handful of lows, and a whole lot of fun in that time. We've had amazing employees, partners and clients, and even as another recession seems to be looming we are going strong and showing no signs of slowing down. Here are the seven most important moments for the company, one for each year, even if not evenly distributed, in chronological order.
1. Involution Studios LLC is incorporated in Menlo Park, California
In 2003, Involution's founding partners Dirk Knemeyer and Andrei Herasimchuk came together through an online argument about digital design. Less than a year later they founded Involution Studios with the simple, but audacious goal of designing world class software, to be the best choice for companies committed to the quality of their digital products and systems. And so, in the heart of Silicon Valley where, at the time, the Web 2.0 revolution was just beginning to grow and take shape, Involution helped lead that charge.
2. Jim Clark and Lou Montulli hand-pick Involution to lead a Shutterfly skunkworks
For half a year Involution cruised along as, essentially, two freelance designers working as a unit. That all changed with Involution’s first major client: Shutterfly, the online photo destination for sharing and printing. Shutterfly wanted a new, powerful photo management tool. Founder and Silicon Valley legend Jim Clark decided that the best way to get a great application in a rapid timeframe was to start a new company to operate as a skunkworks, outside corporate channels. The skunkworks company was led by engineer Lou Montulli - the man who invented browser cookies - and Involution joined that lean team to provide the user interface design and engineering.
Early on it was clear this nascent skunkworks project would be a success, and Shutterfly absorbed the project into their core development organization. Branded Shutterfly Studio, the app was integrated into the stable of Shutterfly products and remains a key product years later. More than that, it helped provide the fuel and credibility for Involution to continue and prepare for the next stage.
3. Agile Software helps Team Invo "make it real"
Agile holds a special place in our hearts: they trusted us to put together a big team of people - spanning strategy, design and engineering - to help lead their metamorphosis of their Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) suite. More than being a huge contract, this moved us out of our garages into a cool studio space in Santa Clara, and allowed us to hire our first awesome employees: Ben Listwon (who would go on to become a co-founder), Donna Driscoll and Tiffany Altieri. We were a small, mean team.
Over the next two years Involution deeply engaged the Oracle Agile PLM team, from the top executive levels down to the junior contributors. We worked with their executive and management teams to lead organizational change and create transparency. We contributed to the replacement of their waterfall process with agile methodologies. We helped them build a best-of-breed 20 person user experience team from scratch. And of course we also completely re-designed the application.
4. Booming growth and a call from McAfee
Agile was just the first big client, and by 2006 we were buying our own building and pimping out our studio, bringing on more great people, and working for many of the best-known companies in Silicon Valley. Things were growing, fun and full of opportunity.
As the Involution studio continued to grow rapidly in Silicon Valley, we began work on our biggest project to date: redesigning the McAfee Total Protection 2010 suite, their flagship consumer product. McAfee was losing market share and getting scorched by the press. PC Magazine had given them a 2 1/2-star rating and their criticisms of the design were so harsh the McAfee team pinned the review to the wall for inspiration. Involution redesigned the software completely and the new version got a 4-star rating, with the UI design getting glowing remarks.
5. Boston bound
With significant success in Silicon Valley, Involution turned its attention to expanding the company to the East Coast. To helm the Boston studio, Involution brought on board Juhan Sonin as a principal and creative director, giving him the latitude to craft his own vision and culture on the east coast.
For the Boston studio, Juhan wanted to create a unique and inspiring environment. Juhan's vision was of a studio culture built on openness and trust; a place that was both fun and beautiful to work in, where designers and engineers could learn and evolve their own skills and discipline. And while we may not have achieved everything in Juhan's vision so far, at Involution Boston, we're certainly on our way.
6. President Obama comes calling
During Involution's first year in Boston, we were given the opportunity to redesign the online and offline voter registration experience for BarackObama.com. Contributing to democracy, regardless of the party affiliation, was exciting. We needed to solve across the entire voter registration experience, not just designing the web forms but considering every user demographic and interface. We engaged the Democratic National Committee in an agile design process, pushing through quick sprints and leading their re-imagining of online voter registration as a service. In just a matter of weeks we went from initial user research and review of existing services to a fully designed service, customized for rapid deployment by the DNC’s internal crew. And while it’s true that we are politically open-minded as a company there is certainly a special thrill to seeing your app included on the President’s website.
7. On the rise
In 2010 the Boston studio really got its groove, working with dozens of interesting customers including crucial work on PTC's flagship app Pro/ENGINEER. Jon Follett joined the team as a principal to upgrade our operational capacity, and now midway through 2011 the team is growing and we're in the midst of another heyday. Life is good.
Over the past seven years, Involution has worked for over 150 clients include Apple, Microsoft, and Oracle. Our work has received numerous industry awards, including Webby's and PC Magazine Editor’s Choice Awards. Our start-up clients have raised over $250 million in funding and been purchased by companies like Oracle, Shutterfly and Yahoo. We've made software that is enjoyed by over 200 million users worldwide. And we're doing as well now as we ever have.
This is only the beginning. Thanks to everyone who has touched us and contributed to our success. We're looking forward to the next seven years.