HOW Design Conference: Austin: 1st Day

We got off to a rousing start to the morning with "Overcoming Creative Roadblocks". This was an interactive workshop. The "takeaway" was that creative folks need to anticipate requisite questions from the non-creative people in our processes who can be our "roadblocks". Several rounds of brainstorming from each table's respective "roadblocks" garnered a small list of "roles" that could suck the life out of a project. Some of the identified roles were: CEO, VP of marketing, Product Manager and Creative Director. The ultimate exercise of the morning was to put ourselves into the "shoes" of the trouble-maker and counter any of the expected questions from the roles' various perspectives. Our group had a lot of fun with this one. Kudos to the presenters Marcus Hewitt and Eric Zeitoun. They kept the session moving while wrapping up the key points to each drill. I wish they had interjected a little more of their experiences in the workshop. Overall, I give the session a B+.