How Reality TV Show Goes From Pitch to Pilot - Hattie Elliot

In Chapter 14 of 16 in her 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, The Grace List founder and entrepreneur Hattie Elliot answers "What Has Developing a Reality TV Show Taught You About How the Entertainment Industry Works?"  As a businessperson, Elliot faces a steep learning curve understanding how things work in television.  She learns to manage expectations, work with a large, talented team, and adapt her business world to the television world as her reality TV show goes from pitch to sizzle to pilot.  Elliot is the founder and CEO of The Grace List, which is redefining the dating world by creating opportunities for singles to revitalize personal interests and find intriguing people who will influence their lives.  Before founding The Grace List, Elliot worked as a social entrepreneur and business development consultant.  Elliott graduated from the University of Cape Town in South Africa, where she studied economics, philosophy, and politics.

Hiring a Talent Agent to Negotiate TV Show Terms - Hattie Elliot

In Chapter 15 of 16 in her 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, The Grace List founder and entrepreneur Hattie Elliot answers "What Value Does an Agent Bring When Pitching a Television Show?"  Elliot notes the invaluable role her agent has played in negotiating talent fee, wardrobe, hair and makeup, travel, hotel, hours worked, etc.  She notes the importance of having someone on her side to ensure she can stay balanced between running her business and filming the show.  Elliot is the founder and CEO of The Grace List, which is redefining the dating world by creating opportunities for singles to revitalize personal interests and find intriguing people who will influence their lives.  Before founding The Grace List, Elliot worked as a social entrepreneur and business development consultant.  Elliott graduated from the University of Cape Town in South Africa, where she studied economics, philosophy, and politics.

Managing Emotions Filming Your Reality TV Show Pilot - Hattie Elliot

In Chapter 16 of 16 in her 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, The Grace List founder and entrepreneur Hattie Elliot answers "How Has Filming Your Own Reality TV Show Pilot Been Different Than You Thought It Would Be?"  Hattie details how she gradually learned to let go and be herself when the cameras rolled.  She credits a supportive and trusting team - agents, stylists, and the production team - for helping get her in the right frame of mind for shooting.  Elliot is the founder and CEO of The Grace List, which is redefining the dating world by creating opportunities for singles to revitalize personal interests and find intriguing people who will influence their lives.  Before founding The Grace List, Elliot worked as a social entrepreneur and business development consultant.  Elliott graduated from the University of Cape Town in South Africa, where she studied economics, philosophy, and politics.

How Crowdfunding Empowers a New Storytelling Generation - Slava Rubin

In Chapter 10 of 12 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, IndieGoGo co-founder and entrepreneur Slava Rubin answers "How is Crowdfunding Empowering a New Generation of Storytellers?" Rubin shares how the rise of online payments and social media sharing have sparked new ways to finance passion projects. From cause supporters to business creators to artists, Rubin finds fulfillment seeing his company, IndieGoGo, provide them means to make dreams come true. Rubin is co-founder and CEO of IndieGoGo.com, a crowdfunding startup whose platform helps individuals and groups finance their passions. Before IndieGoGo, Rubin worked in management consulting for Diamond Consulting, now a PWC company. Rubin founded and manages non-profit Music Against Myeloma to raise funds and awareness to fight cancer. He earned a BBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen:  How is crowd funding empowering a new generation of storytellers?

Slava Rubin:  You know, ten years ago, even five years ago, you have no YouTube; you have no Facebook; you have no MySpace; you have no Twitter.  You barely have attachments in emails.  You don’t really have as much transaction happening via credit card.  You definitely do not have the word ‘Obama’ being used anywhere.  And it’s just incredible that just in a number of years you start taking all these trends and resources, you put them into one place, and you create a platform like IndieGoGo, which allows anybody to raise money for absolutely anything.  And now you find out that if you give them these tools, everybody in the world is passionate.  Everybody in the world wants to create a campaign or fund a campaign.  It’s just not so easy for them to do that.  Now with IndieGoGo, we provide them those tools, and now all of a sudden, all these musicians, video game artists, business creators, cause supporters are making incredible, incredible stuff, and it’s just a world of validation, and now they can follow their dreams.  

We have a great example of that with Elaine Zelker, a mom in Pennsylvania with three kids.  She is a registered nurse and really focused on her day-to-day job, so that she can provide for the family with her husband.  And she’s always wanted to be in photography but never took that risk.  She gets on IndieGoGo, raises money, creates this gallery in a photo book, she gets exposure, and now is on Good Morning, America. Gets on Good Morning, America.  People see it left and right.  She gets a major agent from New York to wanna push out her book.  So now she has gone from, you know, super conservative, registered nurse of Pennsylvania to somebody who has thousands of dollars to do her photography that she loves, turning in to her business, and now has an agent out of New York.  It’s just incredible as you see people following their passions and that IndieGoGo can support those dreams.

Erik Michielsen:  And how did that make you feel to be part of that?

Slava Rubin:  I love it.  The coolest thing about IndieGoGo is different than just a, should we say, ‘search engine’, or maybe a regular e-commerce site, or even some whiz-bang amazing stuff that’s happening here at South-by, people love using IndieGoGo.  It becomes part of them and their fabric.  They get the emails when they get the money and it says you got money, and it’s just so exciting ‘cause it’s just little bricks being added to their foundation of a dream, and it’s awesome.

How Passion Projects Come Alive at South by Southwest - Slava Rubin

In Chapter 12 of 12 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, IndieGoGo co-founder and entrepreneur Slava Rubin answers "How Does the South By Southwest Conference Exemplify Power of Passion Project Crowdfunding?" Rubin gets energy from South by Southwest (SXSW) and the passion and energy at the interaction of film, interactive, and music. Rubin's company IndieGoGo provides crowdfunding project financing to SXSW attendees, including one filmmaker whose "My Sucky Teen Romance" raised its funds on IndieGoGo and was selected for the film festival. Rubin is co-founder and CEO of IndieGoGo.com, a crowdfunding startup whose platform helps individuals and groups finance their passions. Before IndieGoGo, Rubin worked in management consulting for Diamond Consulting, now a PWC company. Rubin founded and manages non-profit Music Against Myeloma to raise funds and awareness to fight cancer. He earned a BBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen:  How does the South by Southwest Conference exemplify the power of passion project crowd funding?

Slava Rubin:  Oh yeah, I mean South-by is such an incredible conference.  It brings together the best in film, the best in interactive, and the best in music, all these incredible ideas of people that are passionate from around the world, all coming together into one place which is in Austin, Texas, during March, which is incredible.  And IndieGoGo is very similar.  It doesn’t happen in Austin, it happens online, and it doesn’t only happen within the three disciplines of interactive, music, and film, it actually happens within anything possible, anything creative, anything entrepreneurial, or anything cause, but at its core it’s the same where people have passion that they’re following, that they wanna make some magic happen.  South-by gives them the tool to expose it to the world here for ten days, and IndieGoGo gives them the opportunity to raise more money for more people faster, get the exposure, and just raise all that cash to make their dreams happen.  So it’s really incredible.  

South-by is really one of the greatest conferences out there.  And the fact, like I said, that we have all these filmmakers using it, and musicians using it, the interactive folks using it, and even the actual fans of South-by coming on road trips and funding their road trips through IndieGoGo is really remarkable.  I mean I’ve had an incredible experience here, and it’s really absolutely amazing to have successful customers from IndieGoGo here at South-by.

Erik Michielsen:  Can you give a couple of examples of some of the amazing things that are happening here using IndieGoGo?

Slava Rubin:  Yeah, I mean the perfect example would be this 18-year-old girl who created a movie called ‘My Sucky Teen Romance’, and she created multiple campaigns on IndieGoGo. First, it was just a campaign around an idea.  She then raised thousands of dollars.  She starts making the movie.  She needs more production money.  She raises thousands more dollars or almost – she raises her entire budget for that movie through IndieGoGo and gets in to South-by, absolutely incredible.

Courtney Spence on How to Use Art Education to Create Social Change

In Chapter 8 of 16 in her 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, non-profit founder and executive Courtney Spence answers "What Do You Enjoy Most About Working at the Intersection of Social Change, Art and Education?" Spence finds the continuing change present at this intersection provides a powerful storytelling platform for individuals looking to do good in the world. She finds telling stories of progress through the lens of the good happening in the world, it is more actionable. Spence is founder and executive director of Students of the World, a non-profit that partners with passionate college students to create new media to highlight global issues and the organizations working to address them. Spence graduated with a BA in History from Duke University.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen:  What do you enjoy most about working at the intersection of social change, art, and education?

Courtney Spence:  What I enjoy most about working in that intersection of art, education, and social change is the fact that it is constantly changing and it’s full of individuals that really have a burning desire to contribute to society through the talents that they have been given and through the talents they wanna develop.  You know, when you’re in the education world it’s all about curiosity, it’s all about learning from others, listening to other stories, and understanding how that is your story also and what do you take from that.  So that’s when we started Students of the World, the concept of let’s go out and be ‘students of the world’ just as we are students at Duke, or at UT, or at UNC, and, you know, listen to other stories and translating that into something that can cause social activism, social change.  It’s really the power of storytelling at its best.  That’s what social media is.  We’re all telling stories.  Y’all are telling stories here. 

Students, you know, are telling stories as they write essays.  Our students are going out and retelling the stories that they have been told, and, you know, social media has really – we all know it has just exploded over the course of the last, you know, seven to ten years, but what’s really exciting is we’re starting to see so much more often that people are using that for good, for, you know, the Do-gooder Awards that YouTube does.  You know, the Ford Foundation just announced a really, you know, 50 million-dollar grant for cause-related social documentaries.  There is really this understanding that the power of storytelling can be best used when it’s a force for good, and it’s telling the stories of those who are doing great work across the world.

I think that there is really so much momentum to use social media for, you know, in a more creative way for the education of others, to really inspire people to take action, and there is this concept that we have always believed in at Students of the World is the importance of telling stories of progress.  Problems paralyze people and they make them feel that, you know, they can’t contribute because it’s war, it’s poverty, it’s famine, it’s all of this.  But when you tell stories of progress when you show problems through the lens of the good that is happening in the world it’s not only inspiring to others but it’s hopefully inspiring to a point of taking action.  And so being in that space you find that you have, you know, people that are able to educate through media, through art, to create change, and that’s – it’s just a really exciting place to be in.

Courtney Spence on Social Documentary Film Production Tips

In Chapter 9 of 16 in her 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, non-profit founder and executive Courtney Spence answers how she applies her media production experience to teach students storytelling. Spence notes the importance of proper planning before the shoot and attention to detail during the shoot to ensure all shots are captured. Spence is founder and executive director of Students of the World, a non-profit that partners with passionate college students to create new media to highlight global issues and the organizations working to address them. Spence graduated with a BA in History from Duke University.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen:  How has your own media production experience impacted how you teach storytelling?

Courtney Spence:  First of all, you can’t tell the stories you don’t have, I think, especially when you work in our model where, you know, you have four weeks, which is a long time, but we’re not going back to Tanzania, we’re not going back to Costano in post, and if I don’t have, you know, the foundation – the foundational pieces of the puzzle to the story, it’s gonna be really hard to go back and recreate that.  So the importance of true planning but also evaluating through the production process and not just ‘oh isn’t this is great, we had a great interview’, but actually going back and listening through it.  And did they actually say what the organization does?  They didn’t. And, you know, we need the executive director saying what the organization does, let’s go back and do a second interview because we have learned the hard way when we weren’t as thorough in sort of the evaluating through production coming back to Austin and not having what we needed to tell the story is quite frustrating.  So, you know, that’s a technical thing, but I think it goes back to being very disciplined in both pre-production planning and also disciplined in the field, and, you know, you’ll sleep later but for now you need to review tape and do that before you go to bed.

Courtney Spence on How Clinton Global Initiative Empowers Young Filmmakers

In Chapter 11 of 16 in her 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, non-profit founder and executive Courtney Spence answers how the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) matches her non-profit student filmmakers to story opportunities in the field. Spence is founder and executive director of Students of the World, a non-profit that partners with passionate college students to create new media to highlight global issues and the organizations working to address them. Spence graduated with a BA in History from Duke University.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen:  How does the Clinton Global Initiative act as a matchmaker connecting your students to stories?

Courtney Spence:  So, the Clinton Global Initiative is so many things, but one of the aspects of the organization is the fact that they have just a wealth of relationships, friendships, organizations, and stories to tell that touch upon everything from climate change to health, to women’s empowerment, to financial inclusion.  I mean the issues that are out there, you name it, it’s discussed, and not just discussed as a problem, it’s discussed as solutions, and you bring in organizations, and thought leaders, and innovators, and social entrepreneurs, and heads of state, and executive directors, and CEOs, and I mean you get this group together and it is a powerful force for change. 

So what happens there is you have all of these individuals and these organizations that, you know, within them have just layers, and layers, and layers of stories that are, you know, that need to be told.  And so, you know, we have been so fortunate in, you know, having CGI as a partner that we can say ‘okay, we want – here is what we offer, here is the service that we offer, here, you know, we have four projects this year, you know, let’s talk about various organizations that you think would be a good fit for this.’  And that’s always a really fun process to go through that with them because there are so many organizations and so much of it is also about timing and approaching people in the right way, but, you know, for us, what has been really exciting is to see organizations that weren’t necessarily on our radar  just sort of pop up and be, you know, end up becoming a lifelong partner, and it’s really – it’s an incredible network, and the stories, you know, that come from that are just absolutely inspiring.

Courtney Spence on How to Manage Non-Profit Client Expectations

In Chapter 12 of 16 in her 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, non-profit founder and executive Courtney Spence answers "How do you balance retaining artistic control over a final story product with client expectations around what they want to see in the post production process?" Spence shares how she balances maintaining artistic - or final cut - control with meeting client storytelling project expectations. She tempers potential hurdles by setting expectations up front, including tone, shots, interviewees, etc. Once her team hits the ground, often the stories or project elements change. This is where continuing communication, coupled with confidence based on experience, help manage and evolve client expectations. Spence is founder and executive director of Students of the World, a non-profit that partners with passionate college students to create new media to highlight global issues and the organizations working to address them. Spence graduated with a BA in History from Duke University.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen:  How do you balance retaining artistic control over a final story product with client expectations around what they want to see in the post production process?

Courtney Spence:  So part of what we really try to do with our partners is do a lot of work upfront.  So it’s a media assessment, it’s a production proposal that is a back and forth, you know, basically, tool or conversation through a proposal that we have with our organizations to outline, here are our final products that we will deliver, here is the tone that we’re taking, here is the shots that we’ll be getting, here are the interviews, I mean we get very detailed in that.  Of course, then you get on the ground and everything changes, and you meet people that you didn’t expect, and all these great stories pop up in ways that you weren’t expecting to see them.  And sometimes the stories that you thought you were going to find that would be great just don’t translate very well through, you know, through film, through photography.  So when we come back, you know, a lot of it is just sort of internally looking at the footage and really seeing where are the strongest stories for this organization, where are the strongest proof points that this organization is making a difference at the human, individual, family, community level, and let’s go after those. 

So we have definitely found times where we present a rough cut to a partner and they’re like ‘but you didn’t talk about the fact that we also do microfinance levels to women over the ages of 60 in this community’ and I’m like ‘we love it, we think it’s great, it’s a great program, but either we didn’t find -- we didn’t have an opportunity to tell those stories or we feel that this one story will elicit an emotional response in the viewer enough to where they will go to your website and read about the program that you have for microfinance for women over the age of 60.  You want them to go read more about your project because you can’t tell everything in a two-minute piece.  And so a lot of what we have been able to do in the last couple of years is really, you know – there has been certainly a desire from organizations, we want a 15-minute piece, we want a 20-minute piece, and there are sometimes when those, you know, documentary films really work well, but more often than not, we specialize in and really, really encourage organizations to tell – let’s tell your story in three minutes or less.  Let’s tell it in 90 seconds or less. We have such a limited amount of time, we’re gonna have to sacrifice certain elements.  So there’s usually a back and forth that happens. We have to internally say ‘okay, we’re gonna fight for this, this, and this; we’ll give them this, this, and this.’  It’s not like a one versus the other, but it’s just, you know, organizations bring us on because this is what we do.

Courtney Spence on How to Teach College Students to Take Criticism

In Chapter 15 of 16 in her 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, non-profit founder and executive Courtney Spence answers "How do you teach your students to embrace feedback without taking it personally?" Spence shares what she has learned about teaching creative college students how not to take criticism and feedback personally. She teaches students to embrace feedback by grounding the work in its fundamental and positive purpose, complementing it with a continuous improvement mindset built on giving back by making art. Spence is founder and executive director of Students of the World, a non-profit that partners with passionate college students to create new media to highlight global issues and the organizations working to address them. Spence graduated with a BA in History from Duke University.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen:  How do you teach your students to embrace feedback without taking it personally?

Courtney Spence:  I think there’s always a challenge of – in any job that you do is taking criticism and feedback without taking it personally, especially if you work at a company or the way that you personally work is to take things personally, is to be emotionally invested in the work that you’re doing.  So, you know, that’s something that I still struggle with myself but that is certainly, you know, as we work with young, creative talent, young, you know, college students that, you know, are used to producing work for a grade or producing it for, you know, creativity for creativity’s sake, there is sort of a process that we have to go through with them, and not all of them. 

Some of them understand it, but some of them don’t, and it is ‘how do you take feedback and criticism on the work that you have done, the artistic work that you have created, and take that feedback, and then refine it to make something better?’  And I think what we always start with is the end goal, so we’re there to give back through media.  Some people build houses, some people teach English, some people provide, you know, aid and service. Our service is through storytelling, it’s through media, and if it’s not the best story it can be if it’s not accurately reflecting the organizations and the individuals that were on the ground, then we’re not doing our job.  And it’s really easy for people to get stuck back in to ‘but it would be so much more cool if we could do this’, or, you know, really getting into the creative element, but you always have to go back to that fundamental question, that fundamental purpose, and that is we are here to make a difference, to make a positive difference through our work, and through really focusing on the positive aspects of things that are going on in this world. 

So if you aren’t interested in telling stories of progress and if you’re more investigative, wanting to uncover what, you know, all the bad in the world, this organization isn’t for you.  And so, what I think we have done through our application process has really found students that do believe in the mission of giving back through art.  And so when we do get, you know, feedback or criticism of the work as we’re going through reviews, you know, we always kind of huddle together, and it’s like okay, listen, we’re here to make these stories to help make a difference for this organization to help them fundraise and they have to play an active role in how those stories shape up.  So it’s just trying to level it up to, you know, what is our greater purpose, and I think that has worked pretty effectively for students to understand okay, this is how – not only this is how the real world works but this is how I can contribute in the most effective way at this organization.

Courtney Spence on How to Teach Creative Students Teamwork

In Chapter 16 of 16 in her 2011 Capture Your Flag, non-profit founder and executive Courtney Spence answers "What do you find most challenging about teaching creative students teamwork?" Spence shares how she teaches her creative student program participants teamwork. In her application process review and interview, teamwork is a top priority. Teams are sent abroad in challenging and often extreme conditions that require collaboration under pressure. Spence creates team leadership opportunities, for example in the producer role, as well as by training students to communicate in emotional and time sensitive environments. Spence is founder and executive director of Students of the World, a non-profit that partners with passionate college students to create new media to highlight global issues and the organizations working to address them. Spence graduated with a BA in History from Duke University.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen:  What do you find most challenging about teaching creative students teamwork?

Courtney Spence:  In our process of application review, interview, we really – I mean it’s all about teamwork.  How do you work with a team?  Tell us about the challenges that you’ve met there because, you know, if they’re not comfortable working with a team, they’re certainly not gonna be comfortable working with a team in the West Bank, like it’s, you know, the stakes are a lot higher, and we have, you know, really, I think, done a very good job of finding the individuals that prefer to work in teams.  I would say overall that my sense of the millennial generation is that they – they do prefer teamwork. 

They’re not as comfortable with hierarchy, and this is a leader, and this not. For a long time we didn’t have specifically designated roles because the feedback we were getting from students is they didn’t wanna feel like there was a hierarchy in the team and they wanted it all, you know, we’re all in this together, which is still more or less how we operate.  We have someone that is the producer that sort of makes sure every – all the trains run on time or at least as close to on-time as we can get them to run, you know, make sure people are, you know, happy, dealing with team dynamics, so they are, you know, in a way of the team leader, but even still we call them the producer, and there’s really, you know, opportunities for leadership in our seven-person teams in various ways.

I think what we offer them in training and as we go through the production and post production is how to anticipate problems that are coming up in the team. How to open lines of communication, you know, among people that might not always be comfortable communicating about how they are reacting on an emotional level.  You know, we really encourage lots of daily meetings and communication, and, you know, when you’re in the places where we work, when you’re seeing the kind of poverty, and disease, and things that, you know, we don’t get exposed to on a daily basis generally here in the U.S., the emotional reactions and the emotional kind of rollercoaster that you go through when you’re on these productions is really dynamic because on one hand you’re working with people that basically will be your friends for life.  You’re working with, you know, individuals that will provide inspiration for you for the rest of your life, I guarantee it, but you’re also seeing, you know, some really severe problems, and some really, you know, things that are wrong in this world.  And so if you’re not working as a team, if you’re not communicating, it’s gonna be ugly.  And so we do a lot of training with them upfront, but I would have to say that they more or less know how to do that, we just sort of give them the tools and the best practices to really maximize their teamwork, and its worked out really well.

How Childhood Passions Lead to Design and Technology Career - Jon Kolko

In Chapter 3 of 17 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, designer and educator Jon Kolko shares the stories behind his childhood interests in art and technology. Early studio art ceramics work pushes Kolko to be creative. As a child, Kolko plays with early Internet computers to call pirate bulletin boards and hack RIT password files. Collectively, these shape Kolko's education, leading him to Carnegie Mellon University and catapulting him into his career. Kolko is the executive director of design strategy at venture accelerator, Thinktiv (www.thinktiv.com). He is the founder and director of the Austin School for Design (www.ac4d.com). Previously, he worked at frog design and was a professor of Interactive and Industrial Design at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). He has authored multiple books on design. Kolko earned his Masters in Human Computer Interaction (MHI) and BFA in Design from Carnegie Mellon University.

Transcription: 

Erik Michielsen:  Where did your passions for technology and art originate?

Jon Kolko:  My passion for art originated through a ceramics – ceramics mentor of mine named Alec Haislip.  He’s one of the premier potters in Upstate New York. He studied with a number of the folks that were responsible for Bauhaus and things like that and – so I studied wheel thrown ceramics for as long as I can remember. 

I think I started when I was 5 or 6 and that was like a thing to do and then it became a release and then it became – now, it is a, ‘Wow!  I wish I had more time on Saturdays to spend in my studio.’  Very much art driven.  It’s functional ceramics but it’s also, let’s make it the way I want to make it.  There’s no constraints.  There’s no clients.  There’s no deadlines. 

On the technology side I’ve spent a great deal of time playing with the early foundations of the internet and I was using dial out remote BBSes on remote voxes at RIT when I was 7 or 8 years old to call you know pirate bulletin boards and stuff like that.  Like, we got a cease and desist, my dad actually still has this letter, we have cease and desist from one of RIT’s heads of technology ‘cause we’ve – we’ve hacked their password file back then.  It was like you run crackerjack overnight and it brute force hits it with anything, what I am gonna do with a bunch of accounts to RIT’s vox but I do remember you know getting my first Magnavox 28612 and going to town on it, also the Apple 2c and all that good stuff so I know both of those – were – were pretty prevalent in my life growing up and then it sounds like it was well designed but it was in fact very arbitrary that I ended up going to Carnegie Mellon. 

I remember I got a brochure to attend pre-college there for design, I thought it was cool.  I went - I went to undergrad there, I continued to do my Masters there and years later, you do some research and you’re like, ‘Wow!  That’s like the epicenter of everything technology leading up into what is now normal culture.’  So, you know I think I got super lucky with all of those things, sort of leading to what is now my – my job, my career, and my passions.

How College Interdisciplinary Studies Shape Design Career - Jon Kolko

In Chapter 4 of 17 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, designer and educator Jon Kolko learns problem solving in a Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) interdisciplinary studies program. Studying Human Computer Interaction, or HCI, Kolko majors in computer science, cognitive psychology, and statistics. These problem solving skills prepare Kolko for his design career. Kolko is the executive director of design strategy at venture accelerator, Thinktiv (www.thinktiv.com). He is the founder and director of the Austin School for Design (www.ac4d.com). Previously, he worked at frog design and was a professor of Interactive and Industrial Design at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). He has authored multiple books on design. Kolko earned his Masters in Human Computer Interaction (MHI) and BFA in Design from Carnegie Mellon University.

Transcription: 

Erik Michielsen:  How did your interdisciplinary studies at Carnegie Mellon impact your career trajectory?

Jon Kolko:  Directly.  I got a Masters in Human Computer Interaction or HCI which traditionally has been a convergence of cognizant psychology, computer science, design and statistics and that – so fundamentally that career is interdisciplinary, that career path and then if you combine that with sort of an under – underlying approach on just in design like with a big D or however you want to frame it. 

I’ve always approached problem solving with those different lenses on, albeit be not nearly as equally weighted.  I always tended toward the computer science design side of things and away from the cognitive psychology and statistics point of view.  It’s only recently that I’ve actually started embracing both of those two. 

Arguably, they are harder for my small little creative brain to understand because those are like real science elements as opposed to these design disciplines.  I say that completely tongue in cheek so – and so I learned an interdisciplinary approach but I don’t think it ever occurred to me that that’s was what it was because it just seems like how else would you approach solving a complex human problem and then – then from multiple perspectives.  That idea of empathy of being able to view it from a different – a different point of view, I think is pretty fundamental to solving any problem.

Why Problem Solving is a Design Process - Jon Kolko

In Chapter 5 of 17 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, designer and educator Jon Kolko shares why problem solving is neither an art nor science. He sees problem solving as a design process. Kolko sees science as a bucket containing things about the natural world. He sees art as a bucket of self-expression. He also sees design as a third bucket, containing things about the culture and the humanization of technology. Kolko is the executive director of design strategy at venture accelerator, Thinktiv (www.thinktiv.com). He is the founder and director of the Austin School for Design (www.ac4d.com). Previously, he worked at frog design and was a professor of Interactive and Industrial Design at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). He has authored multiple books on design. Kolko earned his Masters in Human Computer Interaction (MHI) and BFA in Design from Carnegie Mellon University.

How Culture Impacts Design Problem Solving - Jon Kolko

In Chapter 6 of 17 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, designer and educator Jon Kolko shares why understanding culture is fundamental to understanding design. He notes design is subjective, qualitative, and contingent on larger cultural context. Taking design in a problem solving context, he notes the challenges different cultural settings present using more scientific methods. Culture challenges the problem solving process and a design approach must be flexible enough to incorporate cultural differences. Kolko is the executive director of design strategy at venture accelerator, Thinktiv (www.thinktiv.com). He is the founder and director of the Austin School for Design (www.ac4d.com). Previously, he worked at frog design and was a professor of Interactive and Industrial Design at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). He has authored multiple books on design. Kolko earned his Masters in Human Computer Interaction (MHI) and BFA in Design from Carnegie Mellon University.

How to Use Industrial Design to Develop Software - Jon Kolko

In Chapter 8 of 17 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, designer and educator Jon Kolko shares how he has applied industrial design to develop software products. He finds many top interaction designers have backgrounds in either architecture or product design. Kolko notes the problem solving process - ethnographic research, synthesis, ideation, form giving, and evaluation - developing enterprise software and industrial products is nearly identical. The difference occurs not in the process but the the artifact complexity. Kolko is the executive director of design strategy at venture accelerator, Thinktiv (www.thinktiv.com). He is the founder and director of the Austin School for Design (www.ac4d.com). Previously, he worked at frog design and was a professor of Interactive and Industrial Design at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). He has authored multiple books on design. Kolko earned his Masters in Human Computer Interaction (MHI) and BFA in Design from Carnegie Mellon University.

Finding Purpose in Humanitarian Focused Design - Jon Kolko

In Chapter 9 of 17 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, designer and educator Jon Kolko shares where he finds purpose in humanitarian focused design. He calculates purpose using a comparison between humanitarian efforts to large scale social problems and consumer product design. Kolko is the executive director of design strategy at venture accelerator, Thinktiv (www.thinktiv.com). He is the founder and director of the Austin School for Design (www.ac4d.com). Previously, he worked at frog design and was a professor of Interactive and Industrial Design at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). He has authored multiple books on design. Kolko earned his Masters in Human Computer Interaction (MHI) and BFA in Design from Carnegie Mellon University.

How to Solve Ill-Defined Problems - Jon Kolko

In Chapter 10 of 17 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, designer and educator Jon Kolko shares how he thinks about well-defined, ill-defined, and wicked problems. Kolko sees wicked problems as more likely to be mitigated than solved. Ill-defined problems, however, can be solved, though, as he notes, not algorithmically. Kolko notes the value in bringing interdisciplinary approaches to solve the ill-defined problems and finding satisfaction working on them to the point of exhaustion. Kolko is the executive director of design strategy at venture accelerator, Thinktiv (www.thinktiv.com). He is the founder and director of the Austin School for Design (www.ac4d.com). Previously, he worked at frog design and was a professor of Interactive and Industrial Design at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). He has authored multiple books on design. Kolko earned his Masters in Human Computer Interaction (MHI) and BFA in Design from Carnegie Mellon University.