It was 20 years ago today...

...that Adaptive Path launched. The website (from archive.org):

Worth repeating the language on that homepage, as, 20 years later, it's still an animating principle for me:

We believe that design is a strategic business issue, and that effective user-centered design improves profitability. We view success not only as launching an effective design, but also developing stronger organizations that can make wise decisions about design long after we've gone. That's why we make sharing our knowledge and experience part of everything we do.

Through consulting, publishing, and speaking engagements, we develop high-quality user experiences, and educate people and organizations to do the same.

Adaptive Path accounts for both the highest highs and lowest lows of my professional career (I'm guessing this is true for any company founder). I'm deeply appreciative for the partnership of my co-founders who enabled me to be part of something I could have never done on my own. I'm grateful for the community that embraced us, and, more importantly, for the deep human connections I made with so many people in that community, who I consider close friends to this day (even if we haven't talked for a while!).

A brief sidebar

As my announcement on peterme.com demonstrates (you'll need to scroll down), we enjoyed the "countdown" aspect of the date. We were also taking a dig at marchFIRST , a reference doubtless lost on anyone today.