For Awake’s launch strategy, our team got to play a part in planning and executing the web strategy — so we thought we’d take you behind the scenes and tell you a little bit about the journey to the album launch.

The reality is, in today’s culture, websites aren’t necessarily the place where people find out about album launches. These days, music discovery happens more in social media and music streaming services than anywhere else. Even taking that into consideration, websites are still a key part of launching a new album… and here’s why:

1. Practicality

A strong landing page with all the key relevant information is a cornerstone of every web strategy. Album info, where people can listen to it, tour dates, merchandising and artwork are just a few of the key components that a good album landing page should have. It’s important that when people search for information, they find what they are looking for.

2. Engagement

It’s important to complement your core message (the album’s songs) with strong collateral content that gives people added layers of experience with our brand. For this album we had the Lyrics of all of the songs on our website, plus some blog posts from some of our songwriters and key team.

3. Branding

Our website is 100% designed by us, so it’s the place where we can be creative and really build a strong experience that communicates who we are. This helps us help people connect with who we are and interact with the album in an elevated way.

We considered and applied these three goals in the website strategy for the launch of this album as we believe the message of Awake is inspiring and want to make it available for Christians all over the world.

Let us know what you think!

The post Inside the web launch of Awake, Hillsong Worship’s latest album appeared first on Hillsong Technology.

During his interview he mentioned that he had recently been on a panel with a theologian who had spoken about how the Church had in centuries past led the way when it came to the usage of technology to spread the message of the gospel.

Rob mentioned two particular moments where that was evident:

1. Usage of papyrus

The earliest biblical texts were written on scrolls made from papyrus (a plant-based paper) and it is likely that all biblical books were initially written on scrolls. The exact period where the initial writings occurred is debated by international scholars, but what is certain is that the people of God were among the first communities to utilise and lead the way in the usage of papyrus to communicate and further its cause.

2. Gutenberg press

The Bible was among the first printed works on the Gutenberg press and help lead the way of the printing revolution across Europe and the West from 1450AD onwards. Once again, the Church was among the pioneers of this new, revolutionary technology.

After saying this, Rob paused, and made a bold declaration, referring to pioneering technology:

“We want to put the Church back in that space!”

Rob Beach

It was an inspiring moment, that we believe will bear much fruit in the future.

How do you think the Church can lead a technology/communication revolution in the coming decades?

The post Church, a Technology Leader appeared first on Hillsong Technology.

“Creating good tech products and ideas is about failing forward.”

Rob Beach

Rob demystifies the idea that the process to create anything meaningful is one of no mistakes and no obstacles. He not only recognises that failure is going to be part of the equation when you’re trying to build an impactful tech product but also proposes three keys to harness the power of failure and turn it into a force for progress.

• Fail forward

Failure doesn’t need to hold us back, it can propel us forward. When you think about it this way, failure is just another step in the right direction and not an obstacle you can’t tackle.

Question: What is one recent failure that you can look at as being a step forward?

• Fail fast

The fear of failure holds us back and doesn’t allow us to try new things. By shifting gears and failing fast, you’ll be able to fast-track the feedback loop within your project and organisation and achieve more in less time. Avoiding failure is avoiding growth. 

Question: What’s one risk you haven’t taken because of the fear of failing?

• Fail & learn

Learn from your own mistakes and tweak your process to make it better. When you see every failure as a lesson, you not only move faster — because you no longer fear failure; but also move more effectively — because you’re improving at every step.

Question: What can you learn from your most recent mistake?

We hope this article helps you in your journey of building something of value!

The post Fail Forward (3 Insights to Turn Failure into Progress) appeared first on Hillsong Technology.

Whiteboard, lots of filtered coffee (we have a few coffee lovers), cables & computers and an underlying excitement to give birth to something new, impactful and inspirational.

One of the things we wanted to tackle was to create a brand for our newest tool (a platform to create conference apps) that would inspire people to take their conferences and events to the next level.

Our initial approach was to think as this tool as a “container, carrier or vehicle” so our team started thinking of familiar words, names that could communicate that concept but without necessarily having footing from a narrative standpoint.

We then ventured into greek words that would communicate that idea, latin words, Hebrew words and… got nowhere amazing.

A few hours later, there was a lot of empty coffee cups and no great brand name. 

As we were leaving the house and getting ready for dinner, Adam Smith (our Digital Director) gave a throwaway comment: “we should make up words or compound words”. This comment threw our Creative genius Nic into a new thread of thought. 

But first, dinner!

The excitement of day one morphed into a “this-is-amazing-but-we-kinda-need-a-brand-name-for-this-plataform-we’re-building” feeling in the room. 

At this point, people (who shall remain nameless) suggested we go back and use our internal code name as the official brand name. A few name ideas that were gaining traction were being vetted by domain unavailability and the trademark being taken.

The whiteboard was full of ideas we couldn’t use. Coffee ran out. Or maybe it didn’t, but it might have felt like it.

Ball in Nic’s hands. 5 seconds left on the shot-clock. Lakers down by 2. Game 7 of NBA Finals.

“Hey, Adam’s comment last night got me thinking. We want to partner with organizations to enhance the experience their attendees have at an event. In a profound way, what we are providing is a new way for them to *see* their event. What is ‘to see?’ *Ver*, in Spanish.”

Nic pulls up for three at the top of the key.

• “Veo — I see
• Ves — you see
• Verás — You will see

The nature of our product is to provide a peek into what an end-user can expect to see. Verás was the stronger word choice. What do event organizers want for their attendees? For them to see. See the event in a new way, take a peek into what is coming.

“We started playing with the spelling to ghost the Spanish inflection, Veras, Veris, and Vrrs. This ultimately led to Verris.“

Everyone was nodding in silence, inspired by the story he’s telling. What a moment.

We all leave Stan’s house and the week after, Nic summarizes VERRIS the following way. 

Verris is….

• A play on Verás — “you will see”
• Our own word
• Available in pretty much any domain
• Free & clear of current trademark registrations

Game-winner.

That normal afternoon in mid-September turned into a moment that gave birth to an exciting, vibrant new brand that we hope will impact millions around the world.

The post The Story behind The Name: “VERRIS” appeared first on Hillsong Technology.

The interview was conducted by Meredith Lake and here are 3 quotes from his interview that our team absolutely loved:

1. “We just showed up each weekend and more and more people kept coming.”

As Rob described the growth of Hillsong Church throughout the decades, he gave an incredible insight into how it happened that we believe could help a lot of other teams and organisations.

He described our church as a community who has a vision of building Church and that it was their faithfulness, commitment and longevity throughout the decades that was one of the foundations for the growth that ensued.

Key tip: How would committing long-term to the vision of the organisation you’re a part of impact your effectiveness?

2. “We are always in a space of experimenting and it’s constantly changing.”

Meredith asked Rob a question about live-streaming and its impact on local, physical services and Rob’s answer was very interesting as it revealed his heart for how we approach opportunities and challenges at Hillsong Technology.

As our heart is set in reaching people, we stay flexible when it comes to the way we achieve it. We love to innovate, experiment and try new solutions to reach our goal.

Key tip: How would adopting this approach help your organisation move forward?

3. “We want to create an environment where individuals with technology solutions for the Church can flourish.” (adapted)

One of the goals of Hillsong Tech is to build a community of christians technologists who have a passion for the Church and want to put their hand up to help move the Church forward in its technology needs.

Our heart is to give an opportunity for Christian technologists to have a positive impact on churches around the world.

Key tip: How could you build a community beyond the four walls of your organisation?

To have a listen to the interview, check this link and let us know what you think!

The post 3 QUOTES WE LOVE FROM ROB’S RECENT INTERVIEW AT ABC RADIO appeared first on Hillsong Technology.

Here’s our top 3 tech takeaways from his interview:

1. “To set up a team for success: build culture and work on systems to outwork it.”

One of the things that resonated from this interview was the way Adam thought about the importance of both culture and systems to the achievement of a team or organization’s goal.

As much as tech endeavours tend to focus on systems, procedures and technologies to set themselves apart, one of the core things about the way we lead our teams is culture.

Key tip: Typically people err on the side of either culture or systems; have a go at focusing on both.

2. “Backend platform that can spin-ups app, with a modular backend.”

Adam talked about Verris (the new tool we developed to help churches and ministries engage with attendees in new ways) to explain how we look at a need: build an app for our yearly conferences and approached it from a “platform perspective” rather than just a “solution perspective”.

Our team looked at this need as an opportunity to build a platform that would create apps rather than just creating one-off apps every time one was needed. This tool is now being used by other churches and ministries, empowering them to take their conferences to the next level.

Key tip: When you find a need; build a platform and not just a solution.

3. “There’s a freedom in restriction.”

The example Adam gave was the following: we run our website in WordPress, it’s highly customized but it’s simple enough so that we can send simple training materials around the world and empower local teams to manage their website.

For broad stakeholder engagement it is sometimes better to have a baseline out-of-the-box solution that provides a foundation for people to work with instead of attempting to build custom solutions for every need.

Key tip: What new opportunities would arise if you look at restrictions as opportunities?

To have a listen to the interview, check this link and let us know what you think!

The post 3 🔑 TO BUILD GREAT TECH TEAMS appeared first on Hillsong Technology.

“I see a church that is constantly innovative: A church that leads the communication of a timeless message through media, film, and technology.” – Brian Houston

At Hillsong Technology we endeavour to bring that vision to fruition and have expressed our goal as “Connecting Technology with the Everyday Needs of the Local Church.”

We had a need at Hillsong Church to be able to enrich and enhance the experience of an attendee at our global conferences. In response to this need and the mandate on our church, Hillsong Technology has been hard at work developing a platform allowing us to quickly and dynamically create apps to support our conferences.

Using the brand new platform VERRIS, we have rolled out highly usable, beautiful custom apps at our Colour Conference, Hillsong Conference and Worship & Creative Conference.

Verris is designed and created to help attendees engage your events in a whole new way! With both an iOS and Android version, event organisers can connect this app with Brushfire to provide a seamless registration process for their next event. Verris is managed from an easy-to-use content management platform that allows organisers to make real-time updates to your app without pushing updates to the app store. With high level customizability, event managers can create apps to suit their conferences and events perfectly.

To learn more about Verris check out the website.

The post WHEN INNOVATION MEANS CONNECTION appeared first on Hillsong Technology.

I do think that we have a huge problem around personal value and self-worth though, and according to some studies Instagram stands as the worst social media app for young people’s mental health.

Well, Instagram has announced that they are going to be running a test for users in Canada starting later this week where post likes are hidden. The ability to see likes will still be available to the person posting but will be hidden from everyone else.

Psychologically speaking, there is a significant difference between internal and external validation, or maybe a better way to consider it here; personal versus public validation. Receiving likes that only you see can creates personal validation – a feeling of “I did good and I did it for me”, receiving likes that everyone can see creates public validation. When we start to rely on public validation to find our value and Instagram provides a way of seeking it, we will constantly be measuring ourselves compared to others and asking the question of “am I good enough?”.

In a world where a graceful, loving God has already answered the question for us – I am a total supporter of one of the most influential digital platforms on the planet refocussing what validation looks like.

The post INSTAGRAM IS TESTING REMOVING LIKES appeared first on Hillsong Technology.

In the process, we learned a few things that you might want to consider as you create and design what’s on your plate.

No Cookie Cutter
All too often we look around to brands making a difference, and we want to look and feel like they do: i.e., Google, Slack, Asana, Trello. While it’s enticing to duplicate, I want to encourage you to do something different—be unique. Everyone else is already taken.

I believe the key to creating a successful brand is finding your unique voice and expressing that across the design and brand.

Stay Classy
Find a way to lean into the trends of the day while ignoring the hype. The chances of your brand staying current are substantially higher when you base your trends on specific designs that are timeless. Draw from classic brands who own their space and marry that aesthetic.

Understand the times but aim to outlive them.

Emotional Engagement
Brands can strike a certain emotion and tone. Look past the curves and strokes of design and add virtual depth. Being shallow breeds indifference. Meanings can be portrayed abstractly and not necessarily in a classical nature, as long as it expresses something foundational about the brand.

If you stand for nothing, you’ll fall for everything.

We’d love to encourage you to follow these three principles and verás (a Spanish word that means: “you will see”) the positive impact you’ll create!

Let me know which one of these you needed today and good luck!

The post CREATING A NEW BRAND IN 2019 appeared first on Hillsong Technology.

As we pursue building technology solutions that empower churches to better connect people with Jesus, we can’t afford to be busy and not productive. The following tips on project management are the overflow of our daily effort to create meaningful progress.

Communication – this is the big one! Have a solid communication strategy, so that everyone feels included and has the opportunity to contribute. Technology has made it easier for us to be able to chat face-to-face when we can’t all be in the same room. Make the most of technology and it can help your team collaborate better.

Some of the tools we use: Slack, Zoom, and Google Drive.

Time zones. Understand your time zones and have a plan in place for how and when you need to talk. Make a choice to embrace your time zones and not let it become a dividing or negative factor. Multiple time zones can be really helpful when providing support across continents as you have a broader reach.

How can you turn different time zones into an advantage?

The right tools – keep it simple. Technology and tools have enabled us to manage the workload more efficiently when everyone is involved. Use tools that aren’t over-complicated, so that it’s not a barrier for the team.

It may be enticing to always try new tools, but we’d like to encourage you to focus on outcomes and not necessarily the “brand new thing”.

*BONUS* tip! As we came to the end of the article, we noticed there was an underlying principle at the foundation.

Flexibility. Being flexible to change and understand that not all project management methodologies or tools work in every situation. Being responsive to change is required.

Blessed are the flexible because they shall not break!

Our prayer is that 2019 is the year where you advance where the Lord has called you. Our hope is that these 3 (+1) principles about project managing might help you do that!

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