The power of sparring: Pain is temporary, suck is forever
We put a piece of our soul into everything we do, the hard part is sharing that with the world. Receiving feedback is hard and it can be a painful experience. But shipping something to your customers that sucks, lasts forever (Well a long time!).
The critique (crit) is alive and well in the art world. Companies like Pixar use similar methods to produce great animated movies. Their creative process is well honed and documented. At Atlassian we aim to create amazing experiences within our products. Harnessing the power of great feedback while in this process is hard. Feedback like, "it just doesn't pop" doesn't provide any value, and often feedback focusses on micro UI details. It stops us from getting to the heart of the problem.
The ‘pitch-and-critique’ sparing model to refine ideas is hard to get right. We spar at Atlassian to enhance our design process, from hand drawn sketches through to finished code. We haven’t always got this right and as a designer I have suffered along the way. But we have iterated on our process to create improved feedback loops. We now include representatives from the engineering, design, product and QA teams. With everyone involved, early and often, in the design process we are able to move much quicker.
This talk will cover the history of sparring, why it is so important and how to get it right. Find out how to successfully share your work (and your soul) with your peers.
