Halli

It started as a pretty standard call. I had been working with Upperquad and their founder, my friend Phil, on a number of projects, many of them for Google. This time around, the Google Maps team wanted a way for kids to follow Santa on Christmas Eve. /2

I was one of a number of designers on the call. We all got the same brief. It was a Thursday and we were going to meet again on the following Monday to share some ideas. I remember thinking that this was a special chance. I decided I had to take it. /3

The Santa on a map thing was cool but I didn't think it was enough. I wanted to build excitement with kids leading up to the 24th. I wanted it to be a unique experience. I wanted to create a world. And I only had a few days to prove I should be the person to do it.

I had an idea but I needed some help. So I reached out to an illustrator I found on Dribbble. I asked him if he could work with me to create Santa's Village. Since I didn't have a budget I offered him $1000 of my own money. It was all the money I had at the time. /5

We worked non-stop over the weekend. On Monday morning I presented a protype I had built in Flash. It had all the bells and whistles, literally (we had sound effects). The other designers had rough sketches. We had leapfrogged everyone else. Our idea was picked. /6

Next up was a review with some of the Google development team. We showed them the idea. They said they would need 6-9 months to build it. It was late September. Christmas was 3 months away. We were told it couldn't happen. /7

It was a Thursday. Again. I called around and found a developer. I offered him another $1000. Money I didn't have. Over 3 days we built a proof of concept. A fully functional prototype. On Monday we shared it with Google and I said, this can be done. /8

Their devs were not happy but I didn't care. All my life people had told me I couldn't do something and I was finally getting the confidence to tell them yes I could. I told them I could get this done. I didn't tell them I had no idea how and that I was scared shitless. /9

To my surprise they said ok and handed me control over the project. Over the next 2,5 months I worked harder than I had ever worked. I played multiple roles. I cut assets, I created budgets, I wrote scripts, created video games. I honestly went a little crazy. /10

On top of all of this I was handling constant feedback from the client. After a while I realized that the timeline was my biggest asset. If I waited to show what we were working on it would be too late to change anything. Approval was the only option. /11

As December came we started to launch. Luckily we had a staggered launch, one experience a day. We would launch one thing at midnight and move on to the next day's delivery. I don't remember sleeping that month. /12

I knew the work was good but the reception blew me away. Kids all over the world lived it. We had millions and millions of visitors every day. It was magical. /13

Looking back, that experience gave me the confidence to start my own agency. One year later Ueno was created. Santa Tracker is still a thing. Every Christmas it goes back online with new additions and every year I'm excited to see it. /14