jonnygoldstein.com

Had a fantastic experience at the PhillyChi Design Slam. Here are a few photos and short video clips.

Here is how the slam was described before the event:

"Contestants will participate in a fast-paced race to create the best design solution to a "made-up" real-world problem. Awards will be given to the victors!"

"During the meeting, participants will be teamed and introduced to a full-fledged hypothetical project, including appropriate client-side deliverables. They'll then have an opportunity to interview key players on the client's team. The session will conclude with proposal presentations from each of the groups to the "clients" and the assembled audience.

Then the "clients" team will choose a winner. Members of the winning team will receive a plethora of praise from your peers and an award."

My Experience:

Was put on a team with several other folks, only one of whom I already knew–Ruth Kalinka. The hypothetical project was to create a new strategy for a general retailer "Archer Inc." who competed with Target at the high end and Wal-Mart at the low end. They wanted to build a bunch of new locations that would have higher profit margins than their existing stores. They also wanted to make inroads into two distinct market segments, "Eco-Fashionista" Moms and "Sportscenter" men. They also wanted to lower their costs while going in a greener direction.

After hearing the brief, we had 45 minutes to come up with a presentation. We had no trouble coming up with ideas, but filtering them and synthesizing them was more of challenge. That did not stop us from trying though! We had very diverse group–from mechanical engineer, to information architects, to visual designers, to a graphic facilitator. I pulled out all the stops giving a musical intro when it was our turn to present. We took turns presenting different pieces of our proposal, but unfortunately ran out of time before everything was presented.

Todd Warfel and Kelani Nichole's group gave what I felt like was the most coherent and businesslike sounding proposal, and indeed their team won. I was told over beers later that our group came a close 2nd.

The main thing is it was fun, challenging, and a great way to stretch and meet new people.

Special Bonus: One of the stakeholders in the fictitious company played the part of founding family member, Jake, who had completely different ideas from the company's management team. He went from group to group throwing wrenches in everyone's ideas. I loved this detail.

Thanks to PhillyChi for producing the event and Messagefirst for  hosting it and all the participants and specators. Great stuff.

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