Marie Poulin (@MariePoulin) is a Digital Strategist and Web Designer based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Following her early work in a small Toronto-based studio, Marie set out on her own and established a solo web design practice before making a more recent transition to strategy.
Marie has taken on more self-initiated projects, launching Digital Strategy School, powered by Doki, the online teaching platform she helped build. Along the way she’s become resourceful and has had to teach herself a host of new skills.
Marie can be seen on her site, MariePoulin.com
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Show Notes & Links
- Marie formerly called herself a “Digital Craftswoman” (because it’s more than just craft these days)
- Lately, Marie does 60% her work; 40% client work
- Oki-Doki
- Digital Strategy School, for designers - 10–12 beta testers
- “To teach is to learn twice”
- York-Sheridan joint program in Design
- Thinkhouse Design
- Getting Things Done by David Allen on Amazon and on Audible
- Work The System by Sam Carpenter on Amazon
- Erica Heinz & Niki Brown, web designer guests on The Busy Creator
- Joel Duggan & Laura Thomas, Canadian guests on The Busy Creator
- Marie is not a morning person, so she’s set up her workflows around this
Tools
- Basecamp, for client management
- RescueTime, tracks what you’re working on
- Systematic Success
- Get Stuff Done Like A Boss: Design Your Workflow and Double Your Productivity in 21 Days, on Skillshare
- Amazon, for lawn-care equipment
- SASS
- Flow app
- IFTTT
- Evernote
- Google Docs/Drive
- Wishlist, WordPress plugin
- TextExpander
- ClipMenu
- TextMate or Sublime Text, text editors for web design
- Timely app
- Pillow Fight
- Squamish, BC
- Gaelic Football
- Fitbit, which nags me during the day
Techniques
- Be mindful of different working styles and personalities in a multi-disciplinary team
- Facebook groups for professional insight
- Share your behind-the-scenes process will help your peers and the industry
- Use Wishlist to have your clients become “members”, with on-boarding and training built in
- Set up a secret Pinterest board to collaborate with clients
- Record your screen to teach staff necessary tasks
- Number tasks and task components for easy organization
- No meetings on Mondays
- Use a Vision Board — a place to list goals for the month or year, big plans and project.
Habits
- Take it upon yourself to learn new skills
- Pick up good habits from the jobs you have; leave the bad ones
- Learn best practices [for programming] from a true developer
- Design your morning routine, even if it’s a later morning
- Share your processes with people, even if it’s imperfect
- Keep a “praise” folder in Evernote, email, etc.
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Prescott Perez-Fox is a graphic designer, brand developer, and educator with 18+ years experience in branding, packaging, graphic design, and web design. He runs The Busy Creator.
