Flying Solo Newsletter
To:peggy@sterlingcooper.com
From:hello@keirwhitaker.com
Subject:✈️ Flying Solo #04 — May 22, 2025

#04Subscribe

Hello!

Consistency beats creativity — sadly, I’ve been lacking both. This newsletter has been shamefully neglected since April 8th. Let’s blame it on conference season kicking off.

It started off in Manchester with Craig at the Bulletproof Agency Conference. It was my first time attending, but definitely not my last. This was swiftly followed by a visit to Düsseldorf for the always inspiring beyond tellerrand and culminated with a quick trip on the train to Paris for this year’s Wide Event — complete with pyrotechnics and champagne!

Of course, it’s not all planes, trains, and conferences. Most days, I’m chasing the kids to empty the dishwasher, arguing over post-dinner cleanup, and accidentally feeding the cat twice. Still, it was fun to be out and about!

I’m rounding out the month with a few days in Toronto for Techtonic by Mantle and Editions.Dev by Shopify — and if my ageing bones cooperate, a few side events too. If you're around, say hi. I’ll be the one NOT drinking a Caesar!

As always, thanks for reading. Let’s dig in.

In Issue #04

  • Craft+Work 2025 announcement
  • New interview with Shopify app developers Optizio
  • Can we add more delight to our work?
  • 3 links from The Vault

Craft+Work 2025

The short version

Craft+Work 2025 locations and dates are confirmed, and you can buy your tickets right now!

The longer version

Craft+Work is a small, curated event series I started in 2023 for soloists, founders, and leaders in and around the Shopify Partner ecosystem.

It's for people who care about their craft and are serious about building better businesses, but don’t always want to talk about it in front of a few hundred people.

With space for just 50 attendees, a Craft+Work event is your chance to step away from the noise and spend a day having honest conversations, hearing real stories, and leaving with new perspectives — and maybe even a few new friends.

No pitches, no panels, no slide decks — just real talk in a room full of thoughtful and insightful people.

This year we’ll be back in London for our third event and Toronto for our second.

  • Location & Dates
  • Limited space — Just 50 tickets per event!
  • Fully catered — Coffee, snacks, communal hot lunch, and post-event drinks included in your ticket price

Want to know what our London cohort thought of our 2024 event? Watch our recap video to hear all about it.

See you there?

Register Today: https://keirwhitaker.com/craftandwork/#upcoming-events

9 Questions For … Optizio

"9 Questions For…" is an interview series in which I ask soloists, founders and leaders working in the Shopify ecosystem, ecommerce, and adjacent industries to share their experiences of doing "their thing, their way". The questions might be the same, but the insights certainly aren't! If you’d like to be featured, then hit reply and let me know.

In the latest edition, we hear from co-founders Dave Spanton and Sammy Isseyegh of Optiz.io, who you might know from apps such as Discount Kit, Stackable, and Code Bulk.

You can read the full interview on my blog.

Hidden Delighters

Years ago, back in my web design days, I went to a talk about "delighters". You know the thing — those little design touches that on first sighting make you go, "Ooh, that's nice". Moments of surprise. Tiny bits of, well, delight.

You don't see as many of them these days. What could ever top the first time you pulled down to refresh a page (Twitterrific if memory serves) or the sweet parallax scroll on the Silverback App site back in 2008?

I was reminded of that talk while reading a recent post by Nick Parter. He shared a hidden delighter from early Paynter jackets.

If you don’t know them, Paynter makes limited-edition jackets and shirts — designed in London, made in Portugal, and yes, very nice. I had one once, but outgrew it (middle age comes at you fast). Also, they're on Shopify.

Anyway — back to the point. Each jacket came with two care labels. On the back were the the usual washing and drying instructions, but on the front you'd find a care label for yourself. You might not agree with every suggestion (Coco Pops?!), but it was clever, memorable, and widely shared. They even turned it into a screenprint. The label was quietly retired in 2020, but people still talk about it — like I am now.

It made me think — how often are we building small, delightful moments into our marketing, onboarding, or products? Got a good example? I'd love to hear it.

From the Vault

Each week, I share links to resources, articles, and tools in my bookmarks Vault. Here are three recent additions:

  • Minimis — The pitch says, “Minimis Launcher brings your phone back to basics. You control your phone. Not the other way around.” Sounds appealing, but how do I access the five parking apps I need for my hometown?
  • Real Favicon Generator — Often forgotten but so easy to do. Upload an image and generate the icons and HTML needed to quickly add Favicons to your website.
  • Screely — Upgrade your screenshots with backgrounds, window frames and subtle shadows. Runs 100% locally in your browser.

Thanks for reading,
Keir

PS: If you fancy reading any back issues I created a little archive over on my site!

This is Flying Solo issue #04 by Keir Whitaker. Why not connect on LinkedIn and follow me on Bluesky? Subscribe for future updates.