Helping Businesses Grow

Aaron Humphreys is a specialist when it comes to product strategy and creating great user experiences. As the co-founder and design director of Intrface, a strategic digital product consultancy, he helps businesses and fast-moving startups build the right product that engages with their clients. Today Aaron is here with us to talk about his daily work and his company.

Aaron, it’s great having you here today! We always start our interviews with the famous „Fill in the blank“ questions.

The first thing I do in the morning before I start working is?

I have two small children, so I’d like to say I check my emails and calendar and prepare for the day ahead but in reality, it’s a quick strong coffee followed by an onslaught of kiddie requests from reruns of Blaze The Monster Machines to episodes of Steve and Maggie on repeat at 6 am!

I am a total morning person/night owl because?

I’m a night owl, it’s when I’m most productive (when the kids are in bed). I tend to have some of my best ideas during out-of-work hours. It also gives me an edge knowing my competition is sleeping!

The most flattering thing a client has ever said to me was?

Unrelated to work, my client complimented me on a shirt I was wearing, a white shirt with blue flecks. Quite unexpected and flattering!

One thing I can do better than anyone else is?

My ability to design exceptional user experiences coupled with a rock-solid product strategy.

What I like/ dislike the most about working in London is?‍

The commute to London from where I’m located is long, although you can get a lot of work done on the train I feel like it’s an absolute waste of time traveling to a location. We are in favour of a remote-only business model, so we all tend to WFH or co-work spaces and meet up once a few times a month to discuss new business.

Thanks a lot for those answers! Now that we have a slight idea of who Aaron Humphreys is, we’d like to know more about your job!

You’re the co-founder and design director of Intrface, a digital product consultancy. People who work in the online business can of course imagine what this means, but how would you explain what your company does to someone who was beamed from 1980 to now?

• We help businesses build software for their customers to use.

I read that one of the services that you offer is helping your clients create an MLP, a minimal loving product. What is this all about?

Many businesses (particularly startups) spend too much time and money building feature-rich products that fail to achieve product-market fit the product flops and fails to gain enough traction to become viable. This causes unnecessary spend and lengthens the time it takes to get the product to market. The Minimum Incredible Product (now MIP) is a lean package that helps businesses cut through the politics to concentrate on the core features users care about. We do this whilst not compromising on the design and UX.

MIP = build the best possible version of your product in half the time and budget. It’s a win-win for all parties involved.

You say that your consultancy focuses on outcomes, not outputs. What does that mean?

We’re all about building partnerships by helping our partners long-term past the point of launch. By focusing on the things that matter we’re able to help our clients build products poised for growth, instead of building something they want by checking off to-do lists.

Is there a special part of your job that you enjoy the most? Let’s say, do you have a passion for mobile apps or websites.

Honestly, I enjoy the whole process; from running discovery workshops with clients and facilitating collaborative design sprints to getting in the trenches and designing user interfaces. My job is to ensure we’ve thought about the holistic view of the product from the commercials down to the gritty details. I love it all.

Can you tell us 3 easy criteria that are crucial for a good online presence?

1. Consistency of brand - your brand needs to permeate across everything you do, whether that’s telling your story or the visual design style you use on your website to your social media content.
2. Tone-of-voice (TOV) - consider your brand message, your tone, your personality, and the words you use (or don’t use).
3. Design - never underestimate the impact of clean, minimal design. Uncluttered websites will outperform busy and confusing ones.

Thanks for the tips! Tell us, is there a client history that you will always remember? Maybe because it was super successful, funny, both or exactly the opposite?

The team at Tickr was exceptionally great to work with. After many successful feature launches on their mobile app, they are currently dominating the impact-driven investment space.

An absolutely different question: You’re London-based. How much do you already notice the effects of the approaching Brexit?

Nothing drastic, for most we’re returning to work as normal. We’re not going to see the repercussions of leaving the EU for years to come.

Last question Aaron: You’re a long-term Mailbutler user! How does Mailbutler help you organize your work?

I use Mailbutler to help me track my emails and create follow-up tasks. I can see when clients have opened a particular email at a certain time/day, for me that’s invaluable as it helps me decide where to spend my time and when to follow up.

Thanks so much for taking the time for the interview. we wish you all the best for the future!