-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’re right here)
47 minutes after sending an electronic 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 concerning the model title shortlist. I’m fairly speechless at how dangerous 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 ultimate model title 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 brief 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 massive subject on the agenda: rebranding. We had coated loads of floor on the primary day, however all of us knew the selections made immediately would probably be essentially the most far-reaching. The subject alone was laborious to fathom — may we actually change the title of an eponymous web site so broadly related to cell improvement?
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 trade. There have been 1000’s of items of content material and tons of of workforce members that had, fairly actually, grown up with raywenderlich.com. And essentially the most elementary query: With an formidable yr of development 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 various 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 tons of, of individuals contributing to the location. It bothered him that folks on the surface thought he was answerable 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 clarify why he couldn’t merely click on “discover & change” with a brand new emblem on the web site. Nevertheless, 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 more difficult the longer we waited. All of us knew this was the proper resolution 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 difficult, in fact. 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 concept, and the fruits 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 will be a giant challenge that we may rally everybody round within the coming yr, and that kindled our pleasure.
One ultimate query remained — we wanted somebody to quarterback the method. Chris Belanger, our CMO who hails from Canada, volunteered to steer the assorted groups required.
With the standard firm winter break, it will 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 could 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 cell builders who might need day jobs at Uber or Amazon, however on the aspect, 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 aims for 2022. As CEO, I unveiled the primary 4 aims, 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 provide you with a brand new firm title, 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, the truth is, excited concerning the change. Some shared how that they had been ready for years for this. There was a protracted technique to go, nevertheless it appeared that perhaps folks weren’t as change-averse as we had thought.
Or… so we had thought.
February 16, 2022 — The Seek for a Identify
Each month, I ship an ‘All-Palms’ electronic mail out to your complete workforce, and this time, it was chock filled with rebranding information. In spite of everything, we had simply damaged the information concerning the rebrand the earlier week, and we knew we wanted to maneuver quick. The primary domino that will tip off this marathon dash could be a naming contest. We hoped it will be a good way to get the workforce excited concerning the course of, in addition to provide you with some title prospects. With all potential velocity and an Eighth-grade-level command of graphic design, “The Nice Renaming Contest” was born:
Whereas not taking ourselves too critically, 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 ‘dwelling’. 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 “greatest” 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 onerous. Might it?
February 24, 2022 – A Committee is Born
With over 300 folks on our content material contributor workforce, there was no straightforward technique to get actionable suggestions from a bunch that enormous. Nevertheless, 20 workforce members volunteered to take part on the marketing campaign and characterize 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 will hopefully uncover some intriguing title prospects so we may start to work by way of the lengthy means of coming to grips with a brand new model.
And slowly, February changed into 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 inventive company, concluding greater than a month’s search. We had evaluated practically a dozen companies in complete earlier than choosing Vasava, based mostly out of Madrid. We offered them tons of of pages of analysis that we had performed with Honan Technique Group, in addition to web site analytics and branding workout routines 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 formidable 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 find a way 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 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 Identify?
Slightly over a month had handed since we introduced the naming contest, and the outcomes have been spectacular. We acquired properly over 100 totally different submissions, some with dozens of naming concepts. Our winners have been:
- First Place Finest Identify: DevHaven
- Second Place Finest Identify: TechTogether
- First Place Funniest Identify: CompileandPray
- Second Place Funniest Identify: worldclasseducationalplatformandcommunityfordevelopers.com
It was clear that the workforce favored literal/descriptive names. But we realized that the extra actually our new title described what we do, the extra that might restrict us if we needed 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 modifications, 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 combos. We went by way of dozens of permutations that have been fascinating, however have been both not out there 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 at the present time, Vasava offered their shortlist suggestions, together with professionals & cons of every, to our inside workforce, plotted on a grid of literal vs summary, and complicated vs easy. Their general suggestions have been variations of Geckoder or Kodecko.
Oddly, the narrowing of our selections made it tougher to decide on, in some methods: we have been coming to the purpose the place we had to decide on the proper title.
Or what we thought could be the proper title.
Could 11, 2022 — You Can’t Please ‘Em All
Time was operating out. We had hoped to have a ultimate title by the tip of April, and we have been now properly previous that. Although we appreciated the 2 names that Vasava really helpful, 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 slim down the method.
We determined to take our high 5 names and ship out an electronic mail and survey to your complete workforce, within the hopes that if there was sturdy consensus round one title, it may very well be a very good 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 have got a Branding Committee whose job is to characterize the bigger workforce. We knew that folks reflexively don’t like change, and so it was unlikely to generate an amazing quantity of sentiment alongside the strains of “I really like all these names!” In actual fact, it was more likely to generate the alternative.
Nonetheless, we determined to forge forward and solicit enter from the workforce. I despatched out an electronic 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 title course of and begin over.
Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed — regardless 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 title, 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. Nevertheless, 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 willpower on the title.
But, humorous issues occur if 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 concept stage, we hadn’t truly bought the domains we have been contemplating. That appeared like overkill, particularly with a few of them solely out there after-market. But it surely appeared that somebody had bought the Kodecko.com area three hours after our electronic 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 just a few issues occurring, so we weren’t ready to drop every thing to combat a troll or a website pirate. And since there have been a number of spellings of Kodecko that we have been trying into, it was a minor blip. But it surely 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, the truth is, rebranding was well worth the aggravation.
Could 20, 2022 — We Have a Identify!
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 folks discovered extra concerning 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 electronic mail wouldn’t minimize it. And second, by a big margin, folks appreciated the title 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 most of the workforce had began out in cell improvement 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 thing 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 chance that had emerged was the title Razeware, which was already the title of the corporate behind raywenderlich.com. I imply, it was very ’90s, however every thing outdated is new once more, proper?
Finally although, we determined ‘Razeware’ was too limiting with its software program connotation, in addition to some unfavourable 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 purpose, the unanimous alternative for our subsequent firm title 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 will result in a emblem and new design fashion. That might then lead into designing the online 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 following huge step could be the brand, however with the tumultuous previous few 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 wanted. Pace was of the essence. However how have been we going to get better our schedule, after we’d already taken 5 months simply to discover a title?
Looking back, 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 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 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 indicate 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 Highway of Actuality
After all, even when an esteemed branding company comes ahead with a tremendous 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, after we shared the presentation at an organization All-Palms assembly, there was a lot of excellent 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 thing potential at raywenderlich.com. However nonetheless, may we get all of this suggestions massaged into, you understand, an precise concrete website design?
July 15, 2022 — Perhaps You *Can* Please ‘Em All
In my July All-Palms electronic mail, we formally confirmed the broader workforce the brand and the design parts that Vasava had created:
The suggestions — this time — was extremely constructive! Luke Freeman, our Design Group Lead, was already engaged on taking the elements 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 improvement workforce is value its weight in gold. No, what’s extra invaluable 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 Group Lead; Sandra Grauschopf, E-book Group Lead; Lauren Pescarus, Member Expertise Supervisor; Doug Marcoux, Advertising Supervisor; and myself, met weekly all year long. At the present time was out of the extraordinary 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, reminiscent of the brand new emblem, so loads 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 shocking design. However to take a model as commemorated as raywenderlich.com, and utterly redesign the location that folks have beloved 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 night time 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 brand — 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, 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 dwell suggestions, which made it much more satisfying. Individuals beloved the orange, the 3D visible results, and the best way Luke had included the rounded parts of the ‘Okay’ all through the location.
As at all times, we had three city halls at totally different instances, to accommodate as many time zones as we may, and Luke offered dwell at every certainly one of them — even the one which began at 1 AM in his native time zone!
The workforce beloved the designs, and the laborious work up to now 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 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 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 thing carried out.”
“Fairly assured” was yet one more instance of the understated management I’ve seen through the years 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, no less than principally assured — that his workforce would handle to get every thing carried out.
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 Insanity
I smiled as Chris Belanger, our CMO and electronic mail advertising and marketing 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 and marketing at it most interesting. He had embedded Easter eggs within the teaser emails that led to free swag giveaways, even teasing our new title, Kodeco, in clear print for anybody intelligent sufficient to note and decode it. Whether or not anybody truly would discover it was an unanswerable query, however the inventive thought behind it was one other instance of the thought that went into each step of this marathon challenge.
[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 and marketing workforce had taken care of a ton of different issues, from remodeling social media accounts, to updating all of our advertising and marketing 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 high of that, a social media activation equipment for the 300+ sturdy workforce of content material contributors in order that our complete group may participate in selling the launch subsequent week.
Whereas the engineering workforce was nonetheless pulling all-nighters, on the advertising and marketing aspect, 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 of truly make Kodeco.com dwell on our goal date?
October 23, 2022 — Ignoring Builders Is a Legitimate Motivational Approach
For those who’ve ever labored with a workforce of builders main as much as launch, you understand 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 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 dwell, 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 making certain that most individuals wouldn’t discover till it was introduced the following 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 a lot of the afternoon and night trying 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 huge 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 consequence from our complete workforce!
Epilogue
As I mirror upon this 319-day journey (my phrase, that’s practically an entire yr), I can establish many, many issues that might have probably 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 various 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 a large effort from everybody concerned.
In a method, this rebranding effort has been a mirrored image of who we’re as an organization — tons of of individuals, with totally different backgrounds and totally different opinions, however all united as one group with the purpose of rising the following era of cell builders.
Welcome to Kodeco.
— Matt Derrick
