Firefox browser mock-up Photoshop file. The Photoshop file is layered and all text is editable. There is also a layer specifically for secure and insecure URLs in the Firefox browser mock-up Photoshop file.

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WWDC is under way to much fanfare and as an Apple Developer something jumped out at me. Just yesterday at the WWDC, Tim Cook CEO of Apple talked about how much Apple has paid out to developers. The number is staggering, matching GDP of some countries. They paid out 10 Billion dollars and 5 billion in the past year which implies amazing growth. Now there is a catch. Just because you launch an app in the app store doesn’t mean you will be featured in the Fortune 500. More than likely you will lose money according to historical market principles. So if you’re good, have a good idea, have access to cost effective development, then you may very well make money. I do. Here are some slides that stand out.

The business of web design is filled with all sorts of characters and personalities. Some of those personalities are strong or weak. This post gets theoretical to propose an idea on how I came to understand the who of web design.

I consult for companies. And within these companies there are many people. There are all sorts of people. The challenge for me is categorizing people on the org chart to better leverage strengths and mitigate weaknesses for their benefit.

How? Well, I thought to myself what types of people do I deal with? Do they have similarities or are they completely different to each other from a business perspective?

While it is true we are all different and wonderfully created and the values from business to business are as individual as a fingerprint, there is overlap in the types of people I deal with.

My ideas about this and using a classification system to help org businesses is mine alone and you certainly do not have to agree. I think though if you try this when you are consulting or try this within your own org it may very well help you leverage the positive over the negative forces in your business.

The Rules

Here’s the theory. Every business person has 2 sides to whatever degree. The sides are 1. Thinker and 2. Tinker. The varying degrees will be Big and Little. Those are my ground rules for this theory of sorts. So every person is a Thinker and a Tinker, but to what degree?

Types of Persons Defined

• Big Thinker
  My first person is a Thinker to a Big degree. Big Thinker is a person that can master high level ideas and is intellectually flexible. He or she is a person that can see horizon issues and master the eagle eye view of a business. This person is a visionary.
• Little Thinker
  My second person is a person not concerned with strategy or concepts leading towards goals and is not flexible, but has a definite supporting role.
• Big Tinker
  This person has a mastership of implementation and subject matter expertise that is admirable within the org.
• Little Tinker
  The last type of person does not know how to implement granular tasks and rather than an expert plays a supporting role.

So to review and as an example, I have a client that is a Big Thinker and a Big Tinker. He is not only able to create strategy and visioneer, but is also able to get granular or down to the code level to implement exactly what it is he would like to accomplish. This type of person is the most rare while the Little Thinker and Little Tinker the most common personality type.

We can’t be perfect or good at everything, this post can help businesses identify who should do what and why. This also is not a judgement on the value of any persons. It’s an imperfect effort to classify business folks for our mutual benefit.

Now the key is getting the Bigs and Littles working at the right time and place, but that’s another post.

Apple planning to build doughnut shaped campus. Mmmm…donuts.

Apple Inc. plans to boost its employee count by 46 percent to 23,400 in its hometown of Cupertino, California, paying out .9 billion in annual wages by the time a massive new headquarters is completed in 2016. Read More