How to Improve Design School Education and Teaching - Jon Kolko

In Chapter 15 of 17 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, designer and educator Jon Kolko shares how design schools can improve how they teach. He notes that most design professors teach what they have learned which is rooted in traditional design theory such as Bauhaus form giving, meaning color theory, typography, 2D design and 3D design. He highlights these are relevant for manufactured product design and not necessarily for social problem solving design. Kolko notes how innovative design thinking and doing programs are coming from abroad, including KAOSPILOT and CIID in Denmark and Malmo University in Sweden. These programs are focusing more on social problem solving design and less on mass-produced 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 Teacher Mentors Advance Art and Design Career - Jon Kolko

In Chapter 16 of 17 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, designer and educator Jon Kolko shares how three teachers have been great mentors in his life, shaping his personal and professional approach. The first, his ceramics teacher, teaches him a Buddhist approach to living. The second mentor, Richard Buchanan, founded the Carnegie Mellon design school and influences Kolko in his writings. The third mentor, Robert Fee, mentors Kolko while he teaches at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). There Kolko learns to treat teaching challenges as design problems. 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.

Learning by Teaching - Jon Kolko

In Chapter 17 of 17 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, designer and educator Jon Kolko shares why he teaches. He finds teaching an incredible learning process. Kolko does not see teaching as purely altruistic; rather, he finds balance between making a contribution and selfishly learning from his students. 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.

Learning by Using Left and Right Brain Thinking - Hammans Stallings

In Chapter 1 of 12 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, innovation strategist Hammans Stallings shares how he defines success by blending left and right brain thinking in his professional pursuits. Early in his career, Stallings, educated in studio art, psychology, and economics, focuses on analytical left brain pursuits. Over time, Stallings transitions more toward emotional and intuitive right brain exercises. He learns the most complex decisions are best made minimizing time spent thinking about them. Stallings is currently a Senior Strategist at frog design. Previously he worked in business strategy at Dell and investment banking at Stephens. He earned an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, a MS in Technology Commercialization from the University of Texas McCombs School of Business and a BA in Economics and Psychology from the University of Virginia.

How to Balance Personal and Social Relationships - Hammans Stallings

In Chapter 2 of 12 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, innovation strategist Hammans Stallings shares how he learned to build relationships. He learns more outgoing socialized relationship building through his mother and her community activities. Learning from a physician father, Stallings develops skills around personalized one-on-one relationship building. Stallings is currently a Senior Strategist at frog design. Previously he worked in business strategy at Dell and investment banking at Stephens. He earned an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, a MS in Technology Commercialization from the University of Texas McCombs School of Business and a BA in Economics and Psychology from the University of Virginia.

How Passion for Studying People Develops - Hammans Stallings

In Chapter 3 of 12 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, innovation strategist Hammans Stallings shares what keeps him curious about learning new things. Stallings constantly looks for gaps and sees them as opportunities to improve. Always comfortable as an outsider, Stallings embraces studying human behavior and learning from it. Stallings is currently a Senior Strategist at frog design. Previously he worked in business strategy at Dell and investment banking at Stephens. He earned an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, a MS in Technology Commercialization from the University of Texas McCombs School of Business and a BA in Economics and Psychology from the University of Virginia.

How Interdisciplinary Studies Develop Career Path - Hammans Stallings

In Chapter 4 of 12 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, innovation strategist Hammans Stallings shares how blending social science and arts studies at University of Virginia (UVA) shaped his career. Stallings first focuses on economics and, having the luxury of not having area requirements, then focuses on psychology. He channels his passion trying to understand people and their behavior. Over the years, Stallings works in business trying to understand personal decision making and then in creative roles understanding how market mechanisms work.

Hammans Stallings is currently a Senior Strategist at frog design. Previously he worked in business strategy at Dell and investment banking at Stephens. He earned an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, a MS in Technology Commercialization from the University of Texas McCombs School of Business and a BA in Economics and Psychology from the University of Virginia.

Transcription: 

Erik Michielsen:  How did blending your studies of social sciences and the arts at the University of Virginia impact your career development?

Hammans Stallings:  I was pretty spoiled in that I was allowed to be in a program that at UVA where we didn’t have any area requirements and so I’d spent the first two years really knocking out the economics and that allowed me to really explore and move into a much more an interdisciplinary academic approach, more so than I think most people are able to do, we didn’t have any area requirements so I came in, was able to take graduate classes pretty quickly and work in labs, in psychology and – and for whatever reason, the – this contrast of economics and psychology really was this – this kind of an annoying bug.  They had so many assumptions about people and behavior and how things work that are in contrast that drove me nuts for years and so I kind of in a lot of ways, there’s this –that has actually kind of come through with me throughout all of my – all of my jobs since.  I spent time in – in business, thinking about how poorly understood people are. 

I spent time - a little bit now - in the creative world where there isn’t a really sharp understanding of how market mechanisms work and why businesses are sort of strange in a way that people are too.  Organizations are made of people and they have their own kind of strange psychology and so I think that early experience in academics really prepared me for studying in my later career across functional areas and so I’ve been much more of a generalist than I have been a specialist.  You know I’ve – maybe it taught me the value of it and as well it gave me something to always kind of be struggling with in terms of like reconciling things and it’s that letting your subconscious kind of reconcile things and being able to live and sleep with that – you know that –that stress that I think you’re able to come out with interesting solutions that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise if you just so deeply believed any one thing. 

So, I think that’s kind of, I love more than anything bringing kind of an interdisciplinary approach and seeing how all these different areas, different people, and different perspectives in their own contexts see this elephant differently and I think that’s kind of a neat future is you know reconciling all these things and see kind of at the intersection, what do you learn.

How Quant Models Help Understand Human Behavior - Hammans Stallings

In Chapter 5 of 12 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, innovation strategist Hammans Stallings shares how quantitative decisions tools can help understand human behavior. He notes how both economics and psychology have gone through arcs thinking about people independently in their respective models. Stallings notes that analytic models that capture base assumptions allow you to capture differences to compare and contrast behavior against the model. Stallings is currently a Senior Strategist at frog design. Previously he worked in business strategy at Dell and investment banking at Stephens. He earned an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, a MS in Technology Commercialization from the University of Texas McCombs School of Business and a BA in Economics and Psychology from the University of Virginia.

Why to Aspire to Solve Big Problems - Hammans Stallings

In Chapter 6 of 12 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, innovation strategist Hammans Stallings shares how he channels his ambition and aspiration toward solving big, strange problems. By solving problems, Stallings sees problem solving as the means to pioneer a personal leadership. He looks at large media as well as small relationship based means to channel his efforts for the greater good. Stallings is currently a Senior Strategist at frog design. Previously he worked in business strategy at Dell and investment banking at Stephens. He earned an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, a MS in Technology Commercialization from the University of Texas McCombs School of Business and a BA in Economics and Psychology from the University of Virginia.

Why to Personalize the Problem Solving Process - Hammans Stallings

In Chapter 7 of 12 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, innovation strategist Hammans Stallings details what he enjoys most about assessing and solving complex problems. Stallings sees this as a process, starting with a base cathartic experience confronting and tackling the problem. Stallings sees the process as a relationship that becomes very personal. He notes his struggle leaving work at the office when the personalization occurs. Stallings is currently a Senior Strategist at frog design. Previously he worked in business strategy at Dell and investment banking at Stephens. He earned an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, a MS in Technology Commercialization from the University of Texas McCombs School of Business and a BA in Economics and Psychology from the University of Virginia.

How Investment Banking Shapes Strategic Thinking - Hammans Stallings

In Chapter 8 of 12 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, innovation strategist Hammans Stallings shares how working in investment banking has helped him become a more strategic thinker. Bankers have limited industry insight, so it becomes more challenging to assess and understand value using limited information, assumptions, and models. Now having worked in industry roles, including at Dell and now, frog design, Stallings learns to blend the modeling learned in banking with the additional industry knowledge available in his work. Stallings is currently a Senior Strategist at frog design. Previously he worked in business strategy at Dell and investment banking at Stephens. He earned an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, a MS in Technology Commercialization from the University of Texas McCombs School of Business and a BA in Economics and Psychology from the University of Virginia.

How to Create Jobs Using Technology Transfer - Hammans Stallings

In Chapter 9 of 13 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, innovation strategist Hammans Stallings connects his interest in economic development to earn a Masters Degree in Technology Transfer. As a problem solver, Stallings sees a gap between academic research innovating and business markets implementing. He learns about mutual motivations and structuring contracts to facilitate technology transfer. Stallings is currently a Senior Strategist at frog design. Previously he worked in business strategy at Dell and investment banking at Stephens. He earned an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, a MS in Technology Commercialization from the University of Texas McCombs School of Business and a BA in Economics and Psychology from the University of Virginia.

How Mentor Relationships Develop Career - Hammans Stallings

In Chapter 10 of 13 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, innovation strategist Hammans Stallings shares how mentors have helped him most in career transitions. In each transition, mentors play the role of passing along the sociocultural meaning in an organization. This not only helps Stallings assimilate into new roles and organizations, but also produces very close friendships and professional relationships between mentor and mentee. Stallings is currently a Senior Strategist at frog design. Previously he worked in business strategy at Dell and investment banking at Stephens. He earned an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, a MS in Technology Commercialization from the University of Texas McCombs School of Business and a BA in Economics and Psychology from the University of Virginia.

How Kellogg MBA Leads to Design Career - Hammans Stallings

In Chapter 11 of 13 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, innovation strategist Hammans Stallings shares why he left a strategy job at Dell to earn a Kellog MBA at Northwestern University. He chooses to study consumer marketing and build upon his psychology education. This focus leads Stallings to discover designers and their passion for psychology, including ethnographic research, heuristics, and schema. Stallings is currently a Senior Strategist at frog design. Previously he worked in business strategy at Dell and investment banking at Stephens. He earned an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, a MS in Technology Commercialization from the University of Texas McCombs School of Business and a BA in Economics and Psychology from the University of Virginia.

How Kellogg MBA Sets Job Search Priorities - Hammans Stallings

In Chapter 12 of 13 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, innovation strategist Hammans Stallings shares how he sets job search priorities before graduating from Northwestern with a Kellogg MBA. Stallings finds an venture capital internship too similar to investment banking. He learns that top venture capitalists often have deep operations experience. Stallings chooses to find work where he can gain operations experience working across industry verticals. Stallings is currently a Senior Strategist at frog design. Previously he worked in business strategy at Dell and investment banking at Stephens. He earned an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, a MS in Technology Commercialization from the University of Texas McCombs School of Business and a BA in Economics and Psychology from the University of Virginia.

How to Apply Design Passion in Business Career - Hammans Stallings

In Chapter 13 of 13 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, innovation strategist Hammans Stallings shares how he came to blend business and design in his career. Growing up around the arts and studying studio art at the University of Virginia, Stallings then spends years working in business solving problems. He connects the problem solving back into design problems and consumer experiences, ultimately building a bridge between his business and design interests. Stallings is currently a Senior Strategist at frog design. Previously he worked in business strategy at Dell and investment banking at Stephens. He earned an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, a MS in Technology Commercialization from the University of Texas McCombs School of Business and a BA in Economics and Psychology from the University of Virginia.

How Educator Plans Career Aspirations - Lauren Serota

In Chapter 1 of 18 in her 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, interaction designer and researcher Lauren Serota shares her aspirations. She always wanted to live in Austin and be an educator, but learns that to be a great educator it is critical to be a practitioner as well. She pursues her goals that then allow her to move to Austin to work and teach in design. Serota is an interaction designer at frog design - http://frogdesign.com - and a professor at the Austin Center for Design - http://ac4d.com . She earned her bachelors degree in industrial design from the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD).

How to Balance Being Challenged and Nurtured - Lauren Serota

In Chapter 2 of 18 in her 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, interaction designer and researcher Lauren Serota shares when she is at her best. She believes this occurs when she balances being challenged and nurtured. Serota is an interaction designer at frog design - http://frogdesign.com - and a professor at the Austin Center for Design - http://ac4d.com . She earned her bachelors degree in industrial design from the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD).