Human Centered Design at Pixar

More inspiration from Pixar.

This comes to me through an excellent Groucho Reviews interview with Pixar's VP Creative, Andrew Stanton.

What really strikes me is Andrew and team are masters of "human centered design" yet they apply none of the usual methods suspects. Now I know Entertainment and Experience Design are diverse ventures, however they do typically share the practice of audience (user) testing. Pixar never does testing, instead they trust their gut.

Going with your gut sounds enviable, perhaps even easy, however what this means to Pixar is nothing short of hitting or raising their quality bar.

Pixar's principles encourage Creative people to earn permission to go with their gut. What this takes is vision, talent and commitment represented through a consistently excellent portfolio. Consistent is a key word here as it displays reliability which most clients and audiences demand and desire.

Fostering Creativity at Pixar

HBR's current issue has a great article on fostering collective creativity by Pixar's Ed Catmull.

Two of Pixar's principles really jump out at me.

First they don't fall into the trap of seeking business results through predicable behaviour. Mr. Catmull discusses the need to constantly resist the temptation to follow formula. I'd say they have succeeded to date, as I have not seen Pixar make the same movie twice.

Second their communication protocol is wide open. They do not demand that communication follow reporting or accountability lines. This is very powerful as many top executives are "too busy" so they set inputs to reporting lines. (which I regard as tragic)

Pixar's Operating Principles:

1. Everyone must have the freedom to communicate with anyone.
2. It must be safe for everyone to offer ideas.
3. We must stay close to innovations happening in the academic community.

I really encourage you to buy a copy of the mag or you can acquire the article here: HBR

Technique revisited

More on a Technique for Getting Ideas

I’ve had some great feedback on the previous post (unfortunately they didn’t come through comments on this blog)

I recently revisited Paul Ardens amazing book “It’s Not How Good You Are It’s How Good You Want to Be.” and it turns out this is where I first learned of “Technique”.
Arden’s book is a must read for anyone driven by originality.
Here is a quote from Arden on Young’s book.
“It doesn’t give you ideas, but it helps you sort out what you want to say and helps you arrive at an original and relevant solution.”
My first encounter with this quote led me to search out the book and create the previous post. (Here I thought I needed to improve my del.icio.us habits when in fact it is my old school bookmarking that failed me.)

Here is a great post from Shawn at Anecdote summarizing Young’s 5 steps. Amazon has the book as well. I’ve ordered a copy as I’m curious to see the differences between it and the PDF linked to in the previous post.
For CM readers, I'll be adding this book and Arden's to our company library.

In my mind this is the essence of creative process. Would you agree?

A Technique for Getting Ideas

In my post Creativity or Ideas Have Two Forms, I ask; "How do you manufacture ideas and concepts?" Well I found someone who is bold enough to answer and share the principles of his creative process. I'll be damned if I can recall where I found, James Wood Young (need to improve my del.icio.us habits), so I'm forced to introduce him somewhat out of context.
Suffice it to say he is an 1940's era "Ad Man".

Young wrote a text titled: "A Technique for Getting Ideas" and I'm going to share it with you, but first some encouragement, questions and affirmations,

Young's text is quirky and it took me sometime to relate to his voice, but he does an excellent job of delivering his 5 steps in a fun and unknowingly historic manner. I strongly encourage you to digest the whole thing by following the principle of his first step, disciplined gathering of specific material.

Young describes an individual approach to ideation.
As you review his methods ask yourself, "can we apply these principles in team or group environment?" Future posts will explore this further.

Young's text is affirming for me in many ways as he stresses the need to see relationships, constantly fill your mind and "submit ideas to the criticism of the judicious".

You can find a PDF of A Techique for Getting Ideas here.

Enjoy

Creativity or Ideas Have Two Forms

This pillar focuses on core competencies within a field or discipline applied to solve the problem and deliver the solution. Both the concept and the execution are established within this pillar. The Pareto (wikipedia) principle works well when describing the weight of effort required within the Creativity pillar. 20% of a project or individuals effort would be required to establish the idea or concept, with the remaining 80% used to assemble the manifest deliverables.
This recalls Edison’s famous quote, “Success is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration”.

Idea form #1 _ the holy shit moment, or for some the "oh my blog" moment ;)
Ideas start out as intangible thought.
How do we manufacture ideas and concepts?
First off creative people don't accept things as they are, they identify problems and apply themselves to conceive possible solutions and improvements.
This fits with a fundamental tenet of human behaviour; people seek the path of least resistance. For some, thinking is resistance, for creative people, thinking is a proven means to a smoother path.
Creative professionals are called upon by their clients to generate ideas and innovations in a reliable manner.
This is no small feat and requires mastery of brainstorming and ideation techniques.
As ideas move from thought to material they are often expressed in words and or sketches. (Critical Mass is a digital shop, but we burn through sketchpads and post it notes).

Future posts will explore ideation methods and stories with the aim of sharing and inspiring.
How do you manufacture ideas and concepts?

Idea Form #2 _ the prototype and the product
Once the concept is established the next order of business is to do it justice through excellence in execution. Anyone who is producing work based on personal ideas can dive right in and get to work. The general problem with solo executions is the final work is limited to ones mastery of tools, formats, platforms and materials.
Engaging a team permits multiple experts to apply a host of disciplines to achieve excellence. The keys to effectively engaging a team of creative professionals to do their best work is communication and ownership.
One of the most effective communication tools is a prototype. Prototypes take many forms and strive to represent the concept well enough to solicit more refined contributions of form and function. Precison of final work is highly dependent on how well the concept is shared with and understood by the development team.
My point on ownership is simple. If a creative professional or team is truly vested in realizing the concept, they will fully apply themselves in solving all related development issues and deliver a portfolio worthy product.

In addition to prototypes what effective concept communication methods have you experienced?

The 4 Pillars themselves are a concept.
I have a solid understanding of them in my mind.
This blog is one of my tangible executions of the concept.
I look forward to continuing to express this concept; your thoughts and ideas are welcome.