Let's be clear on this point: There would be no Adaptive Path without Peter Merholz. Certainly, after nearly 11 years in business, the company's culture, strategy, and creative direction has been influenced by a lot of folks. But Peter was the one who brought together the original founders to talk about ways we could work together, a conversation that turned into a company.

So it was a momentous day here when Peter let us know he was leaving the company. But in some ways it wasn't a total surprise. As Peter points out in his blog post, the ideas that have most energized him for the last few years are ones that are hard to pursue in the context of design consulting. And when Peter gets energized about an idea, well, it's hard to keep him away from it.

And that's why Peter's departure is bittersweet for us here at Adaptive Path. As much as we will miss his energy, leadership, and sheer chutzpah, we also know that the whole UX community will benefit from the insights that will inevitably come from the next stage of his career. For myself, I will always feel both pride and gratitude that when Peter considered people he might want to work with 11 years ago, my name was on that list. Thank you, Peter, and best of luck.

[photo by Leisa Reichelt, http://www.flickr.com/photos/_leisa/435103046/]