I’ve always been an advocate of failures as a learning experience and that my failures should be public but even so, it’s hard for me to admit this: Bumblebee Labs is not working. I’ve tinkered with a lot of ideas and it’s been a formative catalyst for personal growth for me. But, over the last few months, I’ve found my motivation steadily dropping to zero and I’m spending my time finding ever more elaborate ways of procrastinating. To have a startup peter out is one of the more ignominious reasons for failure and, for a long time, I resisted admitting to myself that this is what had actually happened. After trying several attempts to jumpstart my motivation with various tips and tactics, I think it’s finally time for me to admit to myself that I need a change of pace.

Ever since I started Bumblebee Labs, I had always flirted with the idea of working for a large company and that attraction has waxed & waned with the ups and downs of Bumblebee Labs. While I enjoyed the all encompassing education that founding a startup brings, this forced interlude has made me realize how much I miss the luxury of deep thinking. To be able to focus on my original, abiding passion of social design is something that sounds immensely appealing to me at this stage in my life. As a result, I’m formally placing myself out on the job market and I’ve started to actively look for a role that I feel suits me.

My ideal role is to work for a company building interesting social software and to bring in my philosophy around social design, both to help them clarify how to understand the intersection between social behaviors & design (such as thinking about plausible deniability); and also to be a catalyst for novel social interface elements that improves the success of that product (see Friennuendo & Friendbo). My problem is, the type of job I want is not something you can apply for in a job ad. The role of social designer is one most companies aren’t even aware exists let alone one that they need. I figure, my best strategy is to meet face to face with people so I can convince them that they need to create a job that matches my skillset.

I will be down in San Francisco from March 6th to March 21st and then splitting my time fairly evenly between San Francisco & Seattle until I settle on an opportunity. I am available for:

  • If you want to meet individually, I’m happy to have coffee with you anytime, just shoot me an email at hang@bumblebeelabs.com and we’ll figure something out.
  • If you think your workplace or a group you’re part of might be interested in what I have to say, I have a 20 minute – 1 hour presentation titled “Space & Narratives: Designing for Social Interaction” which I’m happy to give to any audience (even if you have no intention of hiring me, invite me anyway. I’m always happy to talk about my work).
  • If you know someone who might be interested in meeting with me, please forward them a link to this post.
  • If you’ve been a regular reader of this blog & you’re in San Francisco on the dates that I am there, I will cook for you. That’s right, I will cook for you. Details here

I’m excited about this next phase I’m about to embark on and you should really contact me if you want to embark on it together with me.

Related Posts

  1. What is Bumblebee Labs?
  2. Mozilla Presentation on Space & Narrative: Designing for Social Interaction
  3. New Logo
  4. Introducing myself…
  • stevelewis
    Hang,
    We've only met a few times (via Jim Henderson), but I wanted to drop a brief note here. I'm sorry the startup didn't play out the way you had hoped - I've been through the same kind of experience myself. Knowing when to pull the plug and move on is really tough. But now that you've done that, and have set a new direction, I truly hope that you're able to quickly find a great fit with a company, and bring value, creativity, and forward thinking to their vision.

    All the best to you.
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