Experiences and Creative Process (Semih Energin Technology Stream)

Semih Energin Software Engineer, HoloLens

Microsoft

Creative Process and

Prototype Engineering

Who am I? | Creative Process and Prototype Engineering

Columbia University CGUI Lab

Semih Energin Software Engineer, HoloLens

Microsoft

Creative Process and

Prototype Engineering

The Question

Chapter 1

Chapter 1: The Question | Creative Process and Prototype Engineering

“I think VR is really interesting. It has a lot of potential for job simulations.

I would like to build an experience that reduce costs and specialize at certain scenarios.

What do you think is best way to do that?”


Why this question is interesting to me?






“I think <ABC> is really interesting. It has a lot of potential for <XYZ>.

I would like to build <KLM> that <IJK>.



ABC:

XYZ:

KLM:

IJK:

Unknown:

Target Area:

Building:

Goal:

“I think <ABC> is really interesting. It has a lot of potential for <XYZ>.

I would like to build <KLM> that <IJK>.



ABC:

XYZ:

KLM:

IJK:

Unknown:

Target Area:

Building:

Goal:

What is common?

• Formula is misleading

• Common theme: Unknown. Inexact solution. Inexact path to reach there.

• Inexact ~= Creative

The Process

Chapter 2

Chapter 2: The Process | Creative Process and Prototype Engineering

What are we looking for?

We need a plan to:

• Figure out what we are building

• Justify decisions

• Communicate state of the progress

• Understand why we are building

• Distribute and balance work

• Track progress

• Have clear goals

• Create something unique

• Build what we don’t know



We need a plan to:

• Figure out what we are building

• Justify decisions

• Communicate state of the progress

• Understand why we are building

• Distribute and balance work

• Track progress

• Have clear goals



• Manage creativity





• Manage creativity


Problem: We have a rough idea.

Things we don’t have:

• Exact definition of what we are building

• Exact definition of if ideas are legit

• A seed and set of restrictions to grow on

Prototyping

How to go from A to B?


Prototyping


Prototyping


Prototyping


Prototyping


Prototyping


Creative Process

• Creativity and Innovation

• Unknown by nature

• Incubation, V1, traditionally creative, artistic, research

• For certain domains, it is just how things are done

• Game development

• Creative programming

• “I’m writing code, how is that relevant to me?”

• Not only for PMs, Producers, Designers

• Invested ownership by engineering

• Mindset


Creative Process

• Chances are, you are already doing this

• Formalization helps

• Whether they know it or not

• Some are more formalized then the others

• Not only to manage a project, but also to define what you are building

• Scoping; why am I building this?

• Process and users; who am I building this for?

• Communication; what am I building?

• “Is this an agile talk in disguise?”

• …maybe.

• …but I don’t think so. We will be agile, but it is not all there is.

The Plan

Chapter 3

Creative Process and Prototype Engineering | Creative Process and Prototype Engineering

Yes! We are gonna build a prototype!

• Yes, but…

• What are we gonna prototype?

Chapter 3: The Plan | Creative Process and Prototype Engineering

The Genius Idea That I Have!

• Yes, but…

• How well defined it is?

• How much your axioms based on factual knowledge?

• More well defined = More decisions

• How did you make those decisions?

• How many stakeholders are bought in?

• To what extend they can show ownership?

• Don’t you know how many different ways this can blow up?!?


Fine. How do we define what we are prototyping?

• Good. -_-

• Let’s talk about how creative productions usually work and steal their process.


Pitch:

Investigation:

Definition:

Development:

Greenlight:

Wrap-up :

Elevator pitch, OLC, N Pillars, Press release Competition, Differentiated research Blue-sky, Ideation Prototyping Concept approval Vertical-slice, pre-production, production, archiving

Overview


Pitch

• Core principles of what you are building

• Acts as a contract amongst stakeholders + developers

• Expected end result: End user experience Metrics desired

• Expected to change and discussed with passion earlier in the process

• Expected to canonically agreed in later parts of the project


Pitch

• Core principles of what you are building

• Acts as a contract amongst stakeholders + developers

• Expected end result: End user experience Metrics desired

• Expected to change and discussed with passion earlier in the process

• Expected to canonically agreed in later parts of the project

• Usually, it helps to have an owner

• Supreme Leader <-> Council Elder. Point is, a single voice.


Pitch – Comes in many shapes and forms

• Elevator pitch – One line concept

• N Pillars

• Press release

Pitch – What it is not

• Definition of what you are building

• Vision Video

• Neither too abstract to be everything, nor concrete to be one thing


Investigation

• Gathering information + Understanding the domain

• Pitch starts as a hypothesis. As you observe the world, you often need to change it.

• Differentiated Research

• Identify unique aspects of domain + competition

• User needs, lacks, wants, pain points, satisfied needs

• What is there? What do we have? What is the difference?

• Finding opportunities


Investigation

• What to investigate?

• Understanding technological landscape

• User Personas

• Aesthethics and Styles

• Brand placement

• End goal

• Solidify Core

• Come up with real problems on how to deliver it


Definition

• Blue-Sky phase

• Ideation

• At this point, your Core should be solid.

• You are defining what you are going to build.

• Is both most creative and realistic phase

• Divergence

• Convergence


Definition

• Blue-Sky, Ideation

• At this point, your Core should be solid.

• You are defining what you are going to build.

• Is both most creative and realistic phase

• Divergence

• Convergence


Definition - Divergence

• Blue-sky phase

• Stimulating new thinking by diversifying and exploring

• Supposed to be scary for the developers

• If it is not challenging, then there is a good chance that it is a “me too” idea.

• Dare to dream! This is defining the “magic” in your product.

• No bad ideas.

• Your goal here is to search and find golden ideas.

• Seemingly impossible ideas will be refined later, we are not married to them.


Definition – Divergence – Helper Methods: SWAMI

Suppose: Putting yourself in imaginary situations switches on new ways of thinking. Suppose you were from

Mars, what would this problem look like? Suppose you were six years old or three feet tall, what would the

future look like to you? Suppose you could smash all the assumptions around this issue?

Wander: Wandering through new territory with an open mind vacuums up new connections and linkages.

For instance, you can wander through hardware or antique stores, new magazines or conferences, random

images or analogies from nature.

Associate: Deliberately create new linkages between objects, ideas, events, people, or processes. As you link

things together that normally are not connected, you begin to see new relationships and new possibilities.

Morph: Change various aspects of the situation, make the familiar strange and the strange familiar.

Inquire: Questions create openings. A great question can unravel a mystery like a kitten batting a ball of

twine. Finding those great questions that open minds and the secrets of the universe is a learned skill based

on some simple principles and practice.


Definition - Convergence

• Get your shit together phase

• Creative problem solving phase

• Come up with one-pagers, explaining

• How you are solving these problems

• Define user experience and technical solutions

• Practical and realistic


Definition – Convergence – Helper Methods: SOARS

• Sort: In order to make sense of what is often hundreds of possibilities, they need to be grouped into meaningful categories. Categories might be related to time, feasibility, market demand, availability of resources, type of possibility or any other category that would bring order out of the chaos.

• Order: Possibilities within a viable categories can be ranked against pre-established criteria to create an order of preference.

• Adapt: Once likely possibilities have been identified, they can be expanded and adapted to create even better ideas.

• Refine: Likely possibilities need to be bullet proofed to find the weak spots and possible failure points.

• Select: Ideas are only ideas until they are implemented and to be implemented, they need to be “owned.” Getting the right people to take ownership in the idea is a critical piece of the process.


Development

• This is where we are FINALLY prototyping

• At this point, you should have

• A solid, well defined and agreed Core

• Handful of ideas on how you are going to achieve that (new hypotheses)

• You are NOT exploring

• You are prototyping to clearly answer questions

• Clear description

• Scenario

• Specs

• Scope


Development – Prototyping – A Yes or No Question

• NO. Some ideas won’t work out

• How critical it is?

• Do a mini-creative process, a recursion if you will.

• Some No’s are hard No’s.

• Can you solve this problem?

• Be critical of yourself

• YES. Great!

• You have proved the concept, now turn it into a production plan


Greenlight

You have defined what you are building.

You have built prototypes.

How are you measuring them?

• Metrics

• User research

• Development team will be biased. Heavily. A lot.

• Anyone who witnessed the process will be biased.

• If you can, have a gatekeeper team to evaluate and feedback.

• But some answers are just obvious


Wrap-up

• Congratulations. Hopefully, you have built things you are proud of.

• Now go actually build it.

• Usually, process follows as: Vertical slice -> Preproduction -> Production

• End goal of prototyping might as well be have an answer. If so, archive.

Good Luck & Have Fun

Chapter 4

Semih Energin [email protected]

semihenergin.com