I have been working as a project manager for Workbox in our Nizhny Novgorod, Russia office for a few years now, and I have accumulated a lot of hands-on experience communicating with American clients. Additionally, on weekends I teach IT-focused English classes for a group of PHP developers in a medium-sized programming company. My students often ask me to tell them how to work successfully with Americans. That is what inspired me to put together a list of tips for Americans to use in working with Russian IT personnel.

The Soviet Heritage

A lot of Russians still perceive the world through the prism of the so-called Paix Sovietique. Our country was behind an iron curtain for a good 70 years. During that time, Soviet propaganda tried to persuade Russians that their way of life, traditions, humor, culture, food, etc., was accepted everywhere in the world and generally considered a dominating influence. Of course this was and is not true in many cases. So be prepared to hear translations of jokes from Soviet-era movies, or some great recipes for salads with plenty of mayonnaise (often as the main ingredient).

Work Ethic

Weekends and Overtime. Naturally, your Russian employee would be not be delighted to get a work-related call from you during the weekend, but I’d say Russians are more accepting of this than many Americans. Also, an average Russian developer would not invoice you if he has to put in a few overtime hours every once in a while.

Raises. However, if you start hearing complaints about how difficult the work is, technical challenges, lack of personal time and other types of bellyaching, you should immediately think the person wants a raise, so you should expect this question to come and be prepared for it.

Acknowledgements and location. Sometimes Russians do not react to information that you pass onto them. You might expect a simple acknowledgement like “got it” or “cool”, or “great!” It’s not always like that with Russian workers. Also, they might not notify you when they step away from their working place. If this is important for you and your work involves constant attention then you should be clear about this from the start.

Perks and bonuses. Russians adore perks, and even very little tokens can keep your employees or contractors very happy.

Communication

“That is impossible.” Don’t panic when you hear a “this is impossible” type of answer to your technical question or request. The proper thing to do in this case is to spend a little time chatting with the person about the subject to help him accept the inevitability of this work. Typically, a solution will be forthcoming after this.

Curtness. You should not expect your Russian contractor to use polite, US-business type language. For example, words like “must” will occur in speech. Do not be surprised if they ask you (which may sound more like a command) to do something without saying “please” and all the niceties that Americans are accustomed to.

Patience. On the other hand, and you may find this surprising, in general Russians respect foreigners more than their compatriots. They appreciate foreign cultures and are very tolerant.

Focus. One major complaint has been what American business-people would call “focus.” I have seen a lot of talented Russian programmers who are not particularly goal-oriented. They might get pulled away by interesting research or a new technology while assigned to your task, so please be sure to always stress the project goals and timeline.

I hope this information will help you in your work with a Russian IT team.

By Gleb Aksyutchenko

Web design and development is a dynamic and unpredictable industry. To stay up-to-date, meet interesting business folks, and get inspired, I go to a bunch of tech and marketing events and conferences every year.

Recently, I ran across some cool startups and web services, so I thought I’d share some that you might find interesting. These companies caught my eye for some technical, design-related, user interface or (honestly) arbitrary reason – this isn’t a “you should use ‘em” list so much as a “huh, that’s pretty cool” list – they’re services that can provoke you to think about your business in new ways, or come up with something completely new of your own (I think of them as “brain food”). I met the founders of all and, naturally, they were all passionate about their ideas – which is infectious and inspirational, too.

My Next Customer – http://www.mynextcustomer.com

My Next Customer’s service lets you track data from all your marketing channels in one place: SEO, Social, Offline, Paid Search (including calls, etc.). They’re just out of the gate, their founders are great guys (George Revutsky, Dustin Kittelson) and they won 2^nd place at Failcon2010’s “Most Likely to Succeed” contest. If you’ve ever run reporting for large campaigns and multiple channels, you will instantly see the value. And if it works well, marketers will love it and it could disrupt this growing industry. Oh, and it’s priced to move.

LunchTree – http://www.lunchtree.com

Here’s what Jesse Spaulding, the founder, says: “LunchTree is a fun way to automatically schedule lunches with colleagues or people who share your interests. You simply indicate when you’re free for lunch and the site will find you a match in the same area.”

I scheduled a lunch with Jesse recently (through LunchTree, of course). The system sent notifications via SMS. Worked like a charm. Like many social mashup/startups, it will be fascinating to see how this service morphs, how users will perceive it and how, ultimately, it might make money. It’s very, very early days for this service, and only available in San Francisco for now.

ParetoCentral – http://www.paretocentral.com

Clients ask for advice and consultants give advice on this website. Here’s how it works: Clients post questions/issues. Consultants post answers/advice. If the client likes a consultant’s online advice, they can set up a one-hour consultation. If the client is satisfied, they pay $50. Consultants must pay $50 per posted answer/advice after their first one. Ultimately, this could be a lead-gen service for consultants. Joju Michael Mangalam is very smart and a great guy. I’m very interested to see if this idea can work, how they refine it and how they generate users – showing its value and differentiating itself from a service like Quora.

SurfMark – www.surfmark.com

O.K., you can already bookmark and categorize websites, so what’s the big deal? SurfMark lets you track your online research path, add notes to the sites you save, share searches and categories and other groovy stuff. This is a great tool for people who do serious online research. Vivek Agarwal is another one of those smart, passionate folks you meet when you work with new ventures. He’s launched a pretty nifty service.

Near2there – http://www.near2there.com

Personally, I love this service. Here’s the situation: my wife emails me a link to a restaurant review. I read the review, we talk about it and say “hey, let’s check the restaurant out.” A week later, we are walking in our neighborhood, looking for a place to eat and I say, “Wasn’t there some restaurant we wanted to check out?” We’re baffled. But with Near2there, when you get within a certain distance of the restaurant, you get a message on your phone that tells you you’re “near to there!”

You can set the near to there distance, notification distance can change based on your speed, it can be event-driven, work with any type of business … well, it’s pretty cool. Only available on Android so far. Co-founder Peter Olfe assures me they’re working on the other platforms. Coming to Yelp soon?

Check ‘em out and let me know what you think!

Cheers, Eric

The recession made many businesses slash marketing budgets, and websites often suffered. But sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and get up-to-date – or suffer the online consequences.

To show you what we’re talking about, here’s Workbox’s flippant, hyperbolic and possibly tasteless look at web issues we’ve recently encountered. Is your site guilty of one of these sins?

#10 – You have a Telex address on your company’s “Contact Us” page.

Sure, your address is probably up-to-date, but are you showing an accurate driving map or using a new directions feature like Google Maps? Is someone in your office actually receiving and responding to your “info” emails?

#9 – Employees cross out your company’s URL on their business cards and replace it with their LinkedIn addresses.

The real question is whether your website is helping your sales, marketing and hiring teams or not. If your site hasn’t been updated in a while, you might be missing some new tricks and techniques to increase leads.

#8 – Footer: © 1999

A simple script can save you the effort of updating the copyright date every year!

#7 – You call that guy who built your website and get Chico’s Bail Bonds instead.

Apologies to the Bad News Bears …

#6 – Your grandmother calls to say, “I went to your website. Just making sure you’re still alive.”

What isn’t funny is that grandparents are a large and important demographic on sites like Facebook. Have you addressed legibility issues?

#5 – Your active client list includes Lehman Brothers.

Are you sure the links to client websites are still good? Are they still in business? Is the logo current?

#4 – You have a glowing testimonial from Bernie Madoff.

Make sure the folks who wrote your testimonials aren’t doing hard time.

#3 – Your “About Us” page says you’ve been in business for a decade. You started your business in 1990.

We understand that creating content is one of the most difficult parts of your website. Hire an editor if you don’t have time to do it yourself.

#2 – The “Ship To” form shows Czechoslovakia between Cyprus and Denmark.

Although this is unlikely now, contemporary web technologies like AJAX make forms a lot easier to use. Are you taking advantage of the latest and greatest? Have you tested different checkout paths to see what converts best?

#1 – You’re wearing a “Frankie Say Relax” t-shirt in your bio page photo.

Let’s be honest – if your photo is 10 years old, it might be misleading. You might have lost a little hair, gained a little weight since then … oh, forget it – leave that old photo up!

Cheers, Eric

As part of our ongoing, if pointless and probably distasteful, coverage of the recent Russian spy scandal, Workbox has the latest news, insights and career suggestions for people leaving the intelligence industry.

If there’s anything a spy should be good at, it’s spin. Especially one who needs a job. So, to start “spinning” herself into a marketable sex-котенок, accused Russian spy Anna Chapman “leaked” a video and photos of her recent photo session on her Facebook page. The photos from the session are to appear in the Russian magazine Heat, and Heat says they’re suing her for showing the photos and video. But, like the spy business, who can tell whether this is really just a publicity stunt to generate attention, or a real dispute? I vote for stunt.

Notice that the Kremlin is in the background, visible through the window. The photoshoot was done in a hotel room directly across the Moscow river, in the famous Kempinski (officially Hotel Baltschug Kempinski):
> http://www.kempinski.com/en/moscow/Pages/Welcome.aspx.

Here’s the video:

In any event, what is an “exposed” (O.K., that was a cheap one) spy to do for a living once they’re out of the biz? My bet is that she’ll promote Russian vodka!

Why? If there’s one thing Americans (and, in fact, the world) think of when they think of Russia, it’s vodka. Just like Hot For Words’ Marina Orlova, Ms. Chapman can leverage her fame in a similar fashion. In the below video, notice the Stolichnaya placement:

However, Stoli is now bottled in Latvia! So, knowing that Ms. Chapman is a patriot who would do anything for old Mother Rus, I suggest she support a real Russian vodka like:

> Ruskova: http://www.ruskova.com/ (this vodka is actually produced in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, the same city in which our development and support team live and work).

> Beluga: http://www.sygroup.ru/en/brands/beluga/

For your further amusement (and time waste), here are links to the Russian stories:

> http://www.marker.ru/news/1732

> http://lifenews.ru/news/35742

Cheers!

Eric

The Workbox team graciously admits defeat to the hands … er, tentacles, of Paul the Octopus who has correctly chosen all the World Cup game winners this year.

Workbox compared Spain’s and the Netherlands’ websites and decided, after much deliberation and vodka, that Oranje utilized social media much more effectively, which gave the NL site the edge. Unfortunately for Workbox, the quality of the website did not match the quality of the team play, and La Roja took the cup.

Here’s our original post: http://blog.workbox.com/netherlands-spain-world-cup-websites/

Our only consolation is that Workbox will be around for the next World Cup and not have to go up against such a fierce competitor, because Paul the Octopus, at 2 years of age and with a life expectancy of 3, will probably not live to so see the next games. But, what a glorious life he’s had!

Cheers to Spain and best wishes to all!

Eric Weidner, President & CEO, Workbox, Inc.

The World Cup finalists battle on Sunday in South Africa to determine the 2010 world soccer champion. The two teams: Spain, reigning European champions; Netherlands, a powerhouse of young soccer talent – who will win?

But, more importantly, which team has the better website? The world awaits Workbox’s decision.

Spain: http://www.rfef.es – Spanish Football Federation Official Website

Netherlands: http://www.knvb.nl – Netherlands Royal Football Federation Official Website

Gleb: Eric, the first thing I noticed about the Spanish site is it’s written in JSP. That’s a pretty old technology, java server pages. Doesn’t let you do much.

Eric: Yeah, the Netherlands site is in PHP, and I think it’s using Drupal. A lot more contemporary and cost-effective.

Gleb: Another good thing about the NL site is that it’s got user-friendly and SEO-friendly URLs, while the Spanish site has URLs that consist of numbers and ids.

Eric: I see that both of the sites are using Google Analytics. But the Spanish site’s using the old Urchin code.

Gleb: I just clicked on the Netherlands main homepage image and ended up at http://www.onsoranje.nl. This looks like a fans’ site – people register and login here. This is really the main focus of the Netherlands’ site – getting visitors to the fan site so they can see video, register for updates, join community stuff. I also like how Netherlands uses the orange color. Their team’s brand is centered around orange.

Eric: I can see Netherlands built some iPhone apps for the fans too! But if we go back to http://www.knvb.nl…. I don’t like that frame that is fixed on the screen. Makes you have to scroll within the frame to read the content.

Gleb: Yeah, on the Spanish site however, the HTML doesn’t look clean. The indents are off (see the news on the homepage) and things do not always line up (sponsors at the bottom). The Spanish site has social network links, too, but they don’t seem as aggressive about it. What do you think of the logos?

Eric: I think the Spanish logo is better… Although I can’t say I totally love it. The Netherlands logo’s got a lion turned left… This is not a very good practice, but it’s on the right, so it’s O.K. What would you say about content?

Gleb: My knowledge of Dutch and Spanish is very limited. But it’s obvious that both sites contain information about the same things: national teams, different kinds of soccer (indoors, women, junior), news, contact information. But Netherlands’ got that fans website with lot of video and social stuff. So I’m on their side.

Eric: It’s too bad neither site seems to have an English version – it helps make a website more international, and I speak only a tiny bit of Spanish and no Dutch. If it exists, then it’s really hidden somewhere. But maybe that doesn’t really matter since the whole sport is pretty country-oriented.

Gleb: Oh, I just noticed something else. Once you click on a sponsor logo on the Spanish site, it opens in the same window and you leave the site. Not good. So who wins?

Eric: Although my heart is with Spain, I think the Netherlands. Their online presentation appears to be pretty strong and solid, and they are creating a community around the site. Both the “regular/official” sites are pretty similar, but NL’s official fan site gives them a big edge.

Gleb: Yes, and their technology looks more modern too. I guess we made our prediction – Netherlands. We’ll just see whether it matches what Paul The Octopus says (Read more here: http://bit.ly/9gJgR4)

About Gleb and Eric:

Gleb Aksyutchenko, Workbox’s team leader, played semi-pro soccer as a center midfielder in Russia, and won the regional open championship in 2003. He kindly calls the game “soccer” for Eric’s benefit.

Eric Weidner has kicked a soccer ball 9 times in his entire life.

Since all our clients know that Workbox’s development team is in Russia, and I (Eric Weidner) travel to Russia, they might be wondering: “Is Eric a Russian spy?”

Or, since I am American and travel to Russia, maybe the Kremlin is wondering if I am a U.S. spy.

Or maybe our team in Russia are spies – but for the Russians or Americans?

You’ll have to forgive my flippancy, but you can see how confusing “intelligence,” “counter-intelligence,” “counter-counter-intelligence,” etc., can be!

The spy business can seem particularly silly after reading Malcolm Gladwell’s New Yorker review of Ben Macintyre’s book, “Operation Mincemeat” (Harmony; $25.99).

> http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2010/05/10/100510crat_atlarge_gladwell

It seems that everybody is spying on everybody, and everybody’s spies are being lied to by everybody else’s spies. So you have to wonder if it is really worth the time and energy since the spy business seems to get it wrong about as often as they get it right. However, regardless of their effectiveness, the spy agencies command nice bureaucracies and budgets, so we can be sure they won’t be going away any time soon.

And to reassure everyone, Workbox is a regular old web design, development and online marketing company that works with real, solid businesses, and, to my knowledge, neither I nor any of my teammates are working for U.S. or Russian intelligence.

Finally, expect to see Russia expel about a dozen alleged U.S. spies shortly. At least, that’s what my inside sources tell me …

Cheers,

Eric Weidner

This NY Times article clearly shows the value of high-quality content for online marketing purposes:

> http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/09/science/09tier.html

University of Pennsylvania researchers confirm what many online (and offline) marketers know we need to do, but find so difficult to accomplish. Essentially, to get people to engage with and recommend our content, the content has to go beyond the mundane and capture imagination and awe.

Since it’s pretty difficult for us mere mortals to regularly reach the “awe” metric, perhaps “interesting” or “unexpected” is good enough. Maybe a different way at looking at things, or counter-intuitive data or advice would be most effective.

In any event, this article has given me a lot to think about, and I hope you find it useful.

Some specifics, at least for the NY Times’ demographic:

• Be intellectually challenging
• Positive beats negative
• Evoke emotions
• Don’t be afraid to delve deeply into a subject

If you have had success at creating “awesome” content, I (and anyone reading this) would love to learn more about what you did and how you did it.

Cheers, Eric

Client: ABC 6 Action News in NY area.
Goal: Viral goodness
Result: Workbox’s MushyGushy platform rules

Ok, so I used my dog … and notice her head inside the car at the end of the show. Viral advertising goodness.

Play it yourself, and have fun!

Visit ActionNewsMe.Mushygushy.com

Another bit of viral goodness from your friends at Workbox.