a dessert by Jordi Roca My introduction to the execution side of creativity was in my mother's catering business that she ran out of our home when I was a kid. She called the business Gorgeous Food and the vision for the business was true to its name. The focus was on presenting fresh, seasonal ingredients in … Continue reading Creativity and Mise en Place – Pastry Edition
Category: creativity
How to Run a Process Critique
A process critique is a short meeting in which you present your work-in-progress with the goal of gathering feedback. It's a tricky thing to navigate because many of us feel more comfortable presenting finished work where we sell every decision we've made with confidence. But a process crit requires us to be vulnerable. And that's … Continue reading How to Run a Process Critique
Too Many Lamps
I used to teach industrial design. A standard industrial design assignment is to ask students to design a lamp. It's a great assignment because lamps aren't just art--they need to function--but they are technically simple enough to give students room and freedom to explore interesting concepts. (We have a silly joke in design education, "Practice … Continue reading Too Many Lamps
Our Lives Are Full – Martin Short’s 9 Categories
Our brains are wired to focus on negative thoughts. This is why we wake up in the middle of the night and ruminate on that awkward conversation that happened months ago. It's why we zoom in on that one bad grade or that one negative comment.While this wiring used to serve us when we were … Continue reading Our Lives Are Full – Martin Short’s 9 Categories
Businesses and Complex Adaptive Systems
trillium in an old-growth forest Can businesses be designed like complex adaptive systems? This is the question that Roger L. Martin explores in his new book When More Isn't Better: Overcoming America's Obsession with Economic Efficiency. The book opens much like Mariana Mazzucato's The Value of Everything--it opens with a long critique of our current … Continue reading Businesses and Complex Adaptive Systems
Solving the Wrong Problem
I once had a figure drawing instructor who would playfully swat my drawing hand if I were working on a detail of a figure without first mapping out the entire body. Zoom in too soon and you might be drawing a perfect hand but in the wrong place. I love it that she did that.
Coda: The TUNING Toolkit
The TUNING Toolkit is a set of tools that helps people turn their ideas into B.Corps, NonProfits, and DIY/Open Source projects that make the world better. It’s designed specifically for projects sparked by a desire to help people. The TUNING Toolkit is kicked off with a Prelude and ends in a Coda. In between the … Continue reading Coda: The TUNING Toolkit
ORGANIZE: The Expansion
This post is part of a series on creativity and project management. REVIEW You started this workbook by articulating a high-level goal of helping a group of people solve a specific problem using a specific set of tools.Then you developed an idea for a project that could help realize that goal. You gathered feedback from … Continue reading ORGANIZE: The Expansion
ORGANIZE: The Launch
This post is part of a series on creativity and project management. REVIEW We’ve made prototypes and have tested them with a small group of customers. We’ve set a deadline for when we will launch our project to the public. Hitting this goal is something to celebrate. But it’s also a point where the work … Continue reading ORGANIZE: The Launch
ORGANIZE: from Prototype to Knowledge
REVIEW The TUNING Toolkit has three sections: BELIEVE, CREATE, and ORGANIZE. In the BELIEVE section, we set goals. In the CREATE section, we collaborated and brainstormed. ORGANIZE is the third and last section of the toolkit. In this section, we will think strategically about what to create and how to launch what you create into … Continue reading ORGANIZE: from Prototype to Knowledge
TUNING Design Co. 