Analyzing and improving the customer end of the business relationship – or the “user experience” – is Kevin’s particular focus as CEO of Hard Candy Shell. Working with a variety of businesses, he helps each one to design or enhance the online experience of their clients – a process that often begins with figuring out what those consumers would like a specific website, app, or other product to provide.
“Most companies see the Internet as a new way to capture eyeballs,” Kevin finds. “They think, ‘We made this thing, and then we push it out to places.’ They are not thinking that you might want to change a product based on the experience that someone has using it.”
Enter Hard Candy Shell, which Kevin founded with a partner in 2007 after working for eight years at the marketing firm Razorfish. “I got to work with information architects and designers there to create what the experience is all about for the user,” he explains. When Razorfish was acquired by Microsoft, Kevin decided he was ready to head out on his own. “I just felt there was an opportunity for this kind of work,” he says, “and you don’t need an enormous company to accomplish it – just someone who knows how to solve the interface problem and find solutions that are playful, human, sensible, and effective.”
Starting out with just two clients – the Tribune Company and The Wall Street Journal – Hard Candy Shell has grown steadily ever since, helping both fledgling and established companies develop a brand new idea, or advising them about what they are doing right or wrong with their products. “We take a strategic approach by conducting research and taking into account where trends are heading,” Kevin clarifies, “and we’ll say, ‘This is what your vision should be for the kind of digital product you should be making.’ For example, they recommended the kind of editorial that Newsweek should be covering online and helped Foursquare, the location-based social networking site, get established.
With plenty of ideas of his own in mind, Kevin would eventually like Hard Candy Shell to become a company that is “half our products and half other people’s products.” Last April, when they experimented with launching an in-house idea (cuteroulette.com), it was so successful that it crashed the server. “It was a good example of how we tackle things and work together,” he reflects. “We know a good process for how to solve a problem.”
In the meantime, Hard Candy Shell is flourishing, and with nine employees in its New York office, it may soon be time to find larger quarters. “It’s pretty good work for us in the industry,” Kevin affirms. “In a short time, we’ve made a nice name for ourselves.”
Next Alumni Profile: Instinctive CEO Jake Dwyer ’99
