Seeing is believing

Artists are in a unique position to develop consensus and prove, or disprove, ideas. Why? Because a picture is worth a 1,000 words. 

Put a group of people in a room to discuss a visual solution to something and I guarantee they will all leave the room with different pictures in the heads. Here's the example I use in my classes and workshops; ask 10 people in a room to imagine a blue ball. Seems simple enough. They should all visualize a similar image, right? Nope. Here's what happens when you ask them to describe the image. The type of ball, the size of ball, and the background image will all be different. Some balls on are the ground and some are floating in space. Sometimes people are in the scene.

The point is that even a simple visualization will produce very different results unless you describe all the details or, better yet, just show an image of ball you want them to visualize. Have that same group reacting to something visual and the conversation will be more focused, shorter and the picture in everyone's heads will be more similar.

If visuals haven’t been prepped in advance, use a whiteboard or a scrap of paper. It doesn’t need to be a work of art, it just needs to communicate an idea. When I'm in a meeting and the conversation is going in a circles with everyone is championing their own idea I'll sometimes suggest a meeting be rescheduled so I’ll have time to make some visuals that can refocus the discussion.

Use images to get gut checks on an idea in it’s early stage and use them to help set agendas for conversations.

Take a breath

Whether you’re facing oncoming opponent, a difficult meeting or a big project you’ll be stronger, more nimble and better able to improvise strategies if you're relaxed. Breathe, trust your training and preparation, and accept that there is no situation you can control 100%. 

Be prepared to take some hits but don’t hold onto those bruises emotionally. Acknowledge them and move on. You'll have time later to review where you went wrong.

Before your next meeting pause to take a few long, slow breaths. Slow yourself down and review what you know in your head. If you’re prepared and relaxed your ideas will come more quickly. We’ve all been in situations where we’re underprepared and out of breath. It sucks. 

If someone surprises you with an unexpected, stressful, conversation, take control - tell them to give you a few minutes or take a deep breath before diving in. Either way, it’s up to you to set the tone and pace of conversation.

People won't read your documents

Have you ever sent an email packed with details and been frustrated because someone didn’t digest and retain all the information? Or maybe you drafted a comprehensive design doc that no one read. There are countless scenarios where we expect colleagues to dig into our documents like they’re the next Brandon Sanderson volume. It’s disappointing when we realize our efforts aren’t appreciated but here's thing...people don’t read, they skim. Don’t blame them. Chances are you do the same thing.

Writing consumable and clear documentation requires strong editing skills. Prepare to spend as much time paring down your text as you did writing the first draft. And be prepared to talk through your ideas.

Keep documents short

Time is valuable. Show your colleagues you value their time by keeping emails and documentation clear and brief. Want to show off your writing skills, your knack for narrative and snappy dialog? Awesome, start a blog featuring your short fiction or become a contributor to Medium. You can still have some flavor in you work documentation but keep it tight. Clarity is great. So is brevity. 

Format your documents

Some things, like technical documents, just need to be long. Regardless of size, think about formatting. There's nothing worse than reading an enormous block of text and wondering where is the nugget that's relevant to your job. Yes, maybe this means catering to people's decreasing attention spans and isn't that a horrible side effect of all this technology. Oh, dread. Roll with it.

Use headers, highlighted text, space between paragraphs, narrow widths and bulleted lists to help your reader.

Email sucks for conversation

Email sucks for brainstorming and the exchange of abstract ideas. If you want your emails to be read, keep them short. If you want creative exchange, talk to your collaborators, take notes and send a compact summary of decisions resulting from the conversation.

Fake a commute

This advice came from Mark Smith, a friend and talented computer engineer who has been successfully self-employed for as long as I’ve know him. It’s the greatest advice anyone has ever given me regarding working from home. Over the years, and as I developed the discipline to work without (too much), distraction my routine has changed but I still have a routine.

How I started

Initially my fake commute routine looked like this: Wake up, shower, stretch, get dressed and leave the house. No email or TV and no lounging in underwear all day. When you’re moving, your blood is flowing and that gets oxygen to your brain and the ol' endorphins flow. Ever wonder why you get great ideas while you’re walking? Bingo.

My fake commute had three parts. 1) Walk to a cafe while thinking about, and prioritizing, projects. 2) Drink coffee and identify questions and areas of interest for the day’s project. 3) Walk home, start making connections between ideas and visualizing solutions.

The five part routine

These days my day looks a little different. 1) Wake up and make coffee, 2) Drink coffee while writing all email and correspondence. Email is my least favorite task of the day so I get it done early to clear my brain. If any research is needed for the work I'll be doing that day I'll do it now. 3) Workout. Again, this gets the blood flowing and creates some distance between my monkey chatter and actual priorities. 4) Lunch. 5) Work. Having cleared my brain, loosened up my body and eaten, I'm ready to sit down for a few hours of solid work. I like to work in short bursts, an hour or two, then take a break.

Is this routine perfect? No. Is it guaranteed to help get shit done. No. Will I still be doing this routine a year from now? Probably not. But at the moment this pattern helps me ease into my day, feel good about what I'm doing and, ultimately, end the day satisfied that work got done and I took care of myself along the way. As project change, as my needs change, so will my routine.

For me, the key components are:

• Clear the brain
• Feed the brain
• Take care of the body
• Create space to work undistracted for short bursts of time

There can be only one (piece of reference material)

When exploring look and feel there can be only one. Okay, maybe there can be more than one but the point is this: Less is more. It’s more selective, it’s more empowering and it’s more efficient. Using fewer references forces you to select the most valuable starting point.

Try this next time you're exploring aesthetics for a design: collect a bunch reference material as you might normally then select the top three, maybe four. One of these is your primary visual reference and the other two or three might have elements you'd like to incorporate. Then begin designing using the primary reference as a base.

This doesn’t mean you should copy directly or be a clone. Just have a simple statement of your aesthetic goals and trust that the process of creation will result in something unique. Your project likely has different content, goals, etc. It will become something different in your hands.

For years everyone one of my projects had folders of reference material for character design, UI, typography, environments, etc. I wasted a lot of time trying to synthesize all those diverse elements. Now I force myself to be selective and choose the fewest reference points I need to get started. While working I allow myself to follow tangents so each piece can find its own identity.

Mastery is not an accident

Even though Luke had a natural gift for the Force he still needed to learn the ways of a Jedi Master. He had to travel across the galaxy to find a mentor and train hard to meet his goals. If he hadn't been committed to learning and growing he probably would've gone back to Tatooine and wasted away in the bars of Mos Eisley.

Through mythology we learn, over and over, that a hero needs to overcome trials before they can succeed but this is something we all face every day if we're taking steps towards growth. We're not all fighting Sith Lords but we do wrestle with the demons that supply excuses and limit the loftiness of our goals. Smite them. Practice your craft daily. Five minutes is better than nothing. So what if you don't have all that time that you'd like? Make the most of the time you have.

Wishes and fantasies are great but they need action to make them happen. What do you want to master and does your effort match your expectations?

Consult experts

I know you're probably amazing at whatever it is you do but I'm sure there are areas that are outside your depth of knowledge - areas where maybe you aren't so amazing. No problem, that's why you have experts as friends, colleagues, and mentors. If you have the budget, hire them. If you don't have a budget, offer an exchange, or buy them dinner and drinks. I've picked many brains over a beer.

Consulting experts will get you to solutions faster and shorten your conversations with clients. That's more upside for you if you're working on a project or flat rate. If you work hourly it means moving to your next project sooner. 

I'm consistently surprised how often people are willing to offer advice or insight around their area of expertise. Don't abuse this. Show appreciation, give them credit when possible and just be gracious. Show willingness to give back. The interviews on ools not Rules are an example of this. Some of the people are my friends and colleagues but some of them are people I've never met, or barely know, but whose work I admire. For a little bit of their time I try to spread the word about their talent. It's not much, maybe, but it's genuine.  

Where do you lack expertise? Now, which of your friends and colleagues have the skills you lack? Reach out to them. Don't worry about being a pain in the ass, you'll return the favor at some point and that's cheaper than going to school or learning the hard way.

You'll make bad decisions

A friend once told me that he didn’t consider it a successful night of drinking unless he blacked out. He claimed to enjoy the game of piecing together what happened in the days following the blackout. This is extreme and suggests deeper issues but most of us have enjoyed a scaled back version of this scenario where a drink or two has led us to decisions and scenarios that we wouldn’t normally consider: the ill-advised trip to Taco Bell, the Walk of Shame and the hangovers.

At some point you're going to make a mistake and you're first instinct may be to run and hide. Say, to Canada.  Its worth taking some time to reflect, to track down the reason the mistake was made, but don't that become the thing that keeps you from dealing with the mistake itself. If you care, if you're committed to contributing to something larger than yourself, you won't run. You'll take a stand, claim your mistake (big or small) and commit to fixing it.

We all have our stories and we all have had to deal with the consequences. That’s the lesson: Drunk or sober, you will make bad decisions in life and you need to deal with them. You’ll need to claim your mistakes, personal and professional, and continue moving forward. It’s counter-intuitive but embracing the bad calls will earn you respect and it's the only way to learn from your mistakes.

The four horsemen of the creative apocalypse

Stress doesn’t come in a sudden rush. It creeps up, easing into the subconscious and slowly strangling creative flow. Learn to recognise these four obstacles to creativity and stop them in their tracks.

1. Fear: Usually the fear of judgement or rejection. The desire for perfection probably kills more great ideas than anything else. Give yourself space to make some mistakes. The fail fast movement was the development mantra a few years ago and while the excitement around the phrase has waned there's still value in giving yourself permission to take risks. Ideas are made better when tested. This approach might result in critique and that's cool, feedback will test the strength of your ideas and help you refine your concept. Remember: you won’t be judged for accepting feedback but you will be judged for shutting down input. 

2. Time: It's painful when you haven’t budgeted enough time or underestimated a project. You'll resist critique and new ideas regardless of whether they're good for your project because every change means lost time and revenue. Develop the ability to estimate accurately. How? Start doing it now. The only way to improve is to try something over and over and over. Eventually you'll learn how to estimate time and you can more effectively budget time for dialog and revisions. Don't short yourself in this regard. If you've accounted for the time you won't resist change nearly as much.

3. Tools: If you can't use the tools needed to complete an idea or project you have three choices: propose a new tool (one that you can use), learn the tool thats requires or find someone to fill the gap in your skills. The tools we use to make stuff are constantly changing and it isn't easy to stay on top of all the options. I've seen countless projects stall because the maker busy themselves with distractions to avoid dealing with the elephant in the room: they don't know how to make whatever it is they're proposing. Talk to experts, pad your time and manage your teams expectations.

4. Distractions: Email, SMS, TV, Facebook, personal hobbies, etc. These are your enemies when you're trying to get something done. At a roadblock in your project? Resist the quick dopamine rush of collecting Likes, tuck your chin and work through the difficulty. Nothing worth doing is easy so don't chicken out when things get tough. Block out time to focus, close your email/Facebook/Instagram/IM/etc and let yourself be productive. Your distractions can always be a reward for getting something done. 

Kill your babies

I can’t take credit for this wonderfully grim phrase. I can’t even remember where I first heard it but it stuck with me and that’s what counts. Our babies are the ideas we are attached to that prevent us from shifting gears and letting our concepts evolve.

Babies usually contain the seed of a good idea, which makes them hard to release. They consume your time and distract you from alternatives. They are the ideas that no ones else seems to 'get'. They are the amazing ideas that you can't seem to finish. They are the things you defend emotionally but can't describe their quantitative value.

Recognize when you're defending a time sink. If you feel overly defensive when an idea is criticized there's a good chance it's one of your babies. Step back and shift gears.

Anticipate Needs

There are few things worse than then doing a review with your client or PO and getting clobbered with questions you didn’t anticipate. Ideally you would have interviewed them about their goals before you started any actual work but inevitably something slips by.

Think like your client. Internalize their goals as your own. If you work with the same people regularly write down the feedback you anticipate and compare it to the feedback you receive. Do this enough and you’ll see patterns emerge. Most of us have a limited set of scripted needs and we express them over and over. You boss/client/PO is no different.

Regularly step away from your work and anticipate your client's needs. Write them down. Developing this empathy will focus your work, reduce revisions, save time in reviews and your boss or client will trust you more.

Horstman’s Law: How You Feel Is Your Fault

It's so easy to blame circumstances, and other people, for our frustrations but that's just offloading responsibility. Don't let other people turn you into something, or someone, you don't want to be. If other people determine the conditions of your happiness you're giving them too much power. Your feelings are your responsibility.

“If you find yourself saying, “that guy/situation/boss makes me mad,” you’re wrong. They did something, and then you decided how to respond. Think about the word responsibility. (Response-ability) You’re able to choose your response.”

“Choose the right response. Choose not to get angry. Choose to understand why they behave the way they do. Your response will be more powerful.”

Find more great ideas and information at Manager Tools.

Horstman’s Law: It’s All About People

“This is actually a hard-nosed, scientific and financial reality. Any hour you spend on people is a better investment than an hour spent on systems, processes, or policies. Great people can overcome average systems; average people won’t live up to great systems.”

Surround yourself with talented people and get to know what makes them tick. Conversation about work is great but that will only give you a shallow understanding of who they are and, if you're working with someone, do you really want to settle for partial understanding? You can invest in technology and great ideas but without reliable, talented and communicative people to execute ideas you'll be stuck cleaning up other people's messes and that's just not a good use of your time. 

“Spend time with your folks every week. Learn their strengths and weaknesses. Learn their projects. Learn their children’s names.”

Find more great ideas and information at Manager Tools.

Horstman’s Law: The “Other” Way Often Works Just Fine

One of the great things about working in teams is that everyone approaches their work differently. If someone makes a suggestion that doesn't jive with your process or philosophy give their idea it's due. Especially if this is a person whom you respect. It worked for them well enough to earn your respect so there must be value. 

“There’s someone else out there who has succeeded to the same level you have with exactly the opposite intuitions you have. (They wonder how you got where you are too.) Your idea that your way is the right way is routinely controverted. You just think it’s right because it’s yours.”

“Try the opposite every once in a while. After your first thought, wait for a second then try a different one.”

Find more great ideas and information at Manager Tools.

Horstman’s Law: The River Is Wide, The Currents Are Messy, But All The Water Ends Up In The Ocean

If you haven't yet discovered Manager Tools I highly recommend you spend some time with their podcasts. The focus is on becoming an effective manager but I found their content is just as applicable to the lone wolf or freelancer.

“Watch water flow down river sometime. It doesn’t march in nice straight lines. It meanders. It’s messy. Scientists say 20% of it is actually going up river. Your organization is organic–it’s made up of people–just like a river. Your projects and timelines are going to be messy and defy control. Stop fighting it.”

“Don’t worry about or punish every missed deadline–wait for a pattern. Think about a chinese finger puzzle. Sometimes a light touch is the way out. Let go–flow–to get ahead.”

Find more great ideas and information at Manager Tools.

Fear the Pie in the Sky

Creativity is fueled by constraints. The challenge is finding the right amount of information to get you started but not so much that you have no room to explore. 

Here's the example I use with my students:

1. imagine sitting down with a client who's commissioned you do do a painting but they don't know what they want. First of all, send up some red flags. You either need to start asking questions or prepare for heavy revisions and budget accordingly. They are not okay with you doing anything - they just didn’t know what they wanted until they had something to react to.
2. Next imagine that same client specifying they want a painting of a duck. Ah, your life just became easier. You have subject matter, a host of questions you can ask them (Why a duck? Male or female? Just one?) and a clear path for collecting reference material.
3. Finally, what if the client asks for a blue duck. Awesome. You have all the same questions from above plus - why blue? What does blue represent? 

Learn how to interview clients, and yourself, to establish the right amount of enabling constraints. Too many and you'll find yourself boxed in by all the conditions. Example: the client wants a beautiful painting, in the style of Cy Twombly, of a blue duck walking east to west across the street she grew up on, while a group of children are playing kick-the-can next to a large fir tree that represents age and the bittersweet loss of memory as it relates to past relationships, specifically this one person from college who the client thought was the 'one' but the person ended up joining a monastery after knocking up the client's best friend. 

You'll either want to walk away from that project or have a long conversation with the client about their priorities. It'll save you time down the road.

Embrace the bad ideas

Seeing is believing. Sometimes the path to resolution, and evolution, of an idea means embracing the bad ideas. Yours and the clients. Sharing the good and bad, and soliciting responses, will tune your understanding of what is important to someone. Its great to hear what works but sometimes, painful as it is, it's helpful to react to something that doesn't work so well.

At some point a client will ask you to do something that you think is a bad idea and, despite your genius, the best thing to do is to show them what they ask for. Scenario #1: their idea works (or leads you to an idea that does work) and you discover that you’re not the genius you thought you were. Scenario #2: the client sees first-hand that their idea doesn’t work and they trust you more. In either case you’ll learn a little more about the project by embracing the request and trying it out.

When I'm working in photoshop, mocking up UI or doing concept work, I save some of the ideas that I anticipate the client would want to see. This is key: I can't archive every idea so I put myself in their shoes and imagine their requests. This is usually pretty easy because they've been vocal about their ideas or I've grilled them for a creative brief before I started working. I can't count the number of times a client has asked to see something that I tried and dismissed it but failed to show them. Now I save myself time and just do what they ask to see (its been budgeted for, anyway) so we can all move along happily.

This doesn’t need to be a source of stress. If you’re working with a new client and you don't know if they're an I-know-what-I-like-when-I-see-it kind of person make sure you budget for iteration. It'll improve the quality of your work and make your clients happier because they'll feel like they've been heard.

Find a mentor

I learned this one from Tony Robbins: find a mentor, or a model, and put yourself in their shoes. Whatever it is that you do there's going to be someone you can learn from. Find that person and connect with them.

In the movies the mentor always seems to find their pupil but that doesn't mean you have to wait around for Obi Wan to show up. For the past couple years I've made it a practice of reaching out to people whom I admire and letting them know I appreciate the things they're doing. I try to be specific and, here's a key bit, I don't ask for anything in return. I've emailed, Facebooked, engaged people in conversation after seeing them speak at events. Recently I've started having my students do this at the beginning of each semester and everyone is amazed that they get a response. It's funny, really, that in this world of hyper-connectedness that we don't think to reach out to our role-models.

Make a list of 10 people whose work you admire and write them a sincere, specific message (email, Facebook, Instagram, etc.) describing how their work has inspired you and don't expect them to all get back to you. Some will and some won't but you're training yourself to communicate appreciation and that practice will eventually reward you.

You don’t need to become a stalker but figure out what it is about them that allows them to do what they do. Is it a state of mind? A natural gift? Do they have some practice that you can adopt to improve your game?

This relationship can take any number of shapes: an actual teacher, a friendship, an email correspondence, an internship, etc. The point is to interact with people who inspire you, people who push you to excel. If you're the best person in the room it’s really easy to plateau but if you hang with people who have the thing(s) you want you’re much more likely to figure out how to get what they have.

Cool ain't the cool it used to be

At some point someone is going to ask you to make something cool. When that happens ask them what ‘cool’ means then watch them mumble and say things like, “You know...cool. Like (fill in the name of a product/band/book/designer/illustrator/etc).”

It’s a ridiculously broad, and bland, term that actually defies meaning unless you know the audience and in whose voice you should be judging cool. It means different things to different people. It's so bland that it substitutes for 'okay' in conversation. What is cool to a gun nut might be very different from what is cool to an 8-year old girl. But you can get more nuanced: What is cool to a gun nut might be different from what is cool to someone into cars. Until you know the audience you won’t understand the term.

And it’s not just ‘cool’. Words like cool, weird, sexy, dark, vintage, etc all need deeper explanation. When a client, partner, collaborator says something needs to be cool (or any other vague descriptor) pause the conversation and drill deeper to find out what they really mean. What does cool mean to them? Cool for what audience? What emotions are embedded in their concept of cool? Can they point to similarly cool projects? Can they use other adjectives that have more specific meaning (daring, provocative, ugly, sleek, dirty, etc)?

Feedback: Liz Lerman’s Critical Response Process

Giving and receiving feedback is one of those things that's easy to recognize when it’s done well but few of us have a structure to make the process easier.

Much of the writing about feedback is directing towards managers but, as a designer, you can't control how your manager delivers critique. Some people are good at it but most, frankly, suck when it comes to providing clear, goal-based, feedback that gives their artist the freedom to solve problems and recognize when those problems are solved. Crazy since it's something we do every day.

As an artist the thing you can control is how you receive feedback and what clarifying questions you ask to better understand your clients goals. Liz Lerman’s is the first of a few feedback models that I’m going to feature. Try it out.

Each participant has a role (the Artist, the Respondees and the Facilitator) and the process has four steps:

1. Statement of meaning by the group. Each Respondee shares what is meaningful, evocative or interesting about the work being critiqued.
2. Questions by the artist for the group. The Artist asks specific questions of the Respondees.
3. Questions by the group for the artist. Respondees ask the Artist neutral questions about the work.
4. Opinions. Respondees offer opinions about the work.

It isn't practical to run through this whole script every time feedback is required but do it a few times and positive patterns for communication will emerge. The process can be truncated for shorter conversations once the group has a shared sense values and the ability to recognize helpful vs. unhelpful feedback.