Courtney Spence on How to Make Student Filmmakers Non-Profit Advocates

In Chapter 13 of 16 in her 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, non-profit founder and executive Courtney Spence shares how to leverage the passion of college student program participants to help non-profits non-governmental organizations (NGOs) thrive. Spence notes how student energy and enthusiasm complements a sense of mission and purpose working with the NGOs, ultimately becoming a champion or advocate of the cause. 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 the college student perspective advanced the cause of your NGO program partners?

Courtney Spence:  I think one of the really wonderful things about working with college students is this ‘can do’ spirit and this sense of optimism and a real desire to contribute. You know, college is a time where you are being inspired consistently through courses, through new friendships, through professors, through internships.  At its best college is, you know, it’s four years of incredible inspiration and stimulation in ways that – and challenging you to think in ways that you haven’t thought before. 

So when you take people that are in this moment in time, in their growth as a person that we’re they’re, you know, they’re able to apply things that they learned in theater class to what they’re, you know, learning in their public policy class, in ways that they wouldn’t have seen overlap, they’re seeing it, and when you apply that kind of person and throw them into a program where their whole purpose is to go listen, partake in stories, and then kind of regurgitate those in ways that can make a difference.  It’s a perfect match because what happens is these students come in, they are willing to rough it.  Will sleep in barns.  Will sleep on floors.  I wanna work with the family.  I wanna plant beans.  Just throw me, I will do anything.  I wanna learn.  I wanna be a part of this.  And there is just this sheer enthusiasm and energy, and then yet, there’s a real sense of like mission and purpose, and here is what we’re here to do. 

But what happens is, you know, the relationships that I have seen that our students have forged with the organizations and the individuals on the ground are really, really profound because, you know, they’re not worried about a gazillion other things that they have to do.  More often than not, they know more about the organizations than a lot of the volunteers and staff that they’ll meet on the ground because, for three months, they have been so excited in preparing and reading everything that they can get their hands on. 

So what we’re able to do for our organization is to say we’re not just sending you a team to come in for a week and do, you know, a five-minute video for you, we’re sending you seven, very optimistic, very energetic, very talented creative young people that wanna come in and more or less dedicate a year of their life to your organization, to understanding it, to telling your stories, and then being a champion and advocate for your cause, and that’s not found many other places, and, you know, we’re lucky that we’re able to do that because, you know, this is how Students of the World started.  It has been a very organic growth as an organization, but that, I think, is something that we’re able to give to our organizations that I really only in the past year have started to really appreciate.

Courtney Spence on How to Improve College Internship Programs

In Chapter 14 of 16 in her 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, non-profit founder and executive Courtney Spence answers "What have you learned about designing a more impactful college internship program?" Spence shares what she has learned about designing more impactful college internship programs. Using training, benchmarks, deliverables, and feedback interviews, she creates a more structured and measurable 10-week internship program. 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 have you learned about designing a more impactful college internship program?

Courtney Spence:  I have learned a lot.  So you know, this year we went, you know, and formalized the Students of the World experience to be a ten-week internship and really formalized it more so in the spring and in the fall, so in the spring our students have deliverables and benchmarks, both research and creative that they have to hit every month. You know, last year was the first year we did, you know, three-, four-day trainings with each team, and that was tremendous. You know, we invested so much more in the student experience last year because we made that hard decision to go from seven to three teams and really had to trim down, but, you know, by doing less we were able to do so much more.  And we were able to do exit interviews with our students when they left at the end of the summer, and it was – it was really incredible because I think, you know, our students, the feedback that we got was overwhelmingly positive, the work that we got was overwhelmingly positive.  Problems that we would have encountered every year prior to last year in the field weren’t there as frequently.  There were still problems but they weren’t there as frequently.  

And I think one of the important things that we have learned is really, you know, at the very beginning, the way that you communicate with students is extremely important and understanding that you need to set goals and benchmarks, and here are our values, and here is what we do, and here is what we don’t do, and communicating that all up front, and being able to say this is what we – at minimum, this is our best hope for you guys in terms of the work that you’ll produce, but we know you’re gonna, you know, shoot for the moon.

And, you know, one of the things that we did this last year, which was sort of a learning year for us was, you know, we had all of these expectations of what we could do in post production and, you know, you hear six weeks of work, and our students were like ‘what are we gonna do for six weeks?’  You know, and then what happened was – at like, you know, five-and-a-half weeks, they’re like ‘I can’t believe we only have three days left,’ you know, because there was just so much more work that they wanted to do and that we could have done, but really kind of setting those goals from the beginning and being able to be realistic in what we can achieve but also giving students the flexibility and creativity to work within sort of some broader frameworks means that they’ll come back with really creative products that are very effective for the organization.  You know, we had students do stop-motion animation, which was not even anything I knew anything about until last year, but because, you know, we were able to give our students some creative freedom, an expression of how they wanted to tell the stories, we got some really, really great work out of that.  

And then I just think really constantly, you know, checking in with the individuals as well as the team, and what we did last year is we had each -- the producer of each team wrote us a weekly report of here’s where the team is at and we wanted both in terms of the work that they were doing but also in terms of the emotional, where is the team at, and it was really nice to empower our producers to take on that role and then come with us, and, you know, and talk with us as they were having, you know, issues and problems throughout post production.  I think it’s important when you work with college students to empower them to take leadership within projects that they’re, you know, they’re involved in, and not just talking down to them, but actually saying we’re all in this together, so let’s find a way to work in effective ways.

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 Family Business Shapes Work Ethic and Aspiration - Jon Kolko

In Chapter 1 of 17 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, designer and educator Jon Kolko answers "To What Do You Aspire?" Kolko shares how his aspirations have progressively become defined in the process of hard work. Kolko shares how he learned work ethic from his parents, who taught him by working in the family eyeglass business. Kolko finds motivation in this process, learning Internet by playing with PC Plus while at the office on weekends. 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 Define Success as State of Productive Completion - Jon Kolko

In Chapter 2 of 17 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, designer and educator Jon Kolko shares how he defines and measures success. He defines it as a feeling of productive completion. It is about getting the inbox to zero, closing out the to-do list, and opening time to be proactive and not reactive. This then opens doors to daily writing and other creative pursuits. 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 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 Decision and Ideation Skills Apply in Software and Design - Jon Kolko

In Chapter 7 of 17 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, designer and educator Jon Kolko shares the importance of and how he has developed rapid ideation and quick decision making skills. Upon graduating Carnegie Mellon, Kolko works at Austin startup, Trilogy Software, where he learns decision-making in a sink or swim environment. As his design career develops, he learns to balance rapidly creating new ideas with letting them marinate and develop. 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.

How Design Thinking Problem Solving Can Improve - Jon Kolko

In Chapter 11 of 17 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, designer and educator Jon Kolko interprets design thinking. He talks about the rise of "Design Thinking" philosophy, specifically using design methods to solve strategic business and organizational problems. He notes its shortcomings, specifically how design "doing" must complement design "thinking". He notes the "doing" part is often thought of as menial - commoditizing and offshoring product design for mass production overseas. Kolko argues against this, noting overseas designers will solve local design problems. Because design is connected to culture, problems must be locally solved, or at least locally engaged. 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 Design to Improve Organizational Culture - Jon Kolko

In Chapter 12 of 17 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, designer and educator Jon Kolko shares how his corporate interaction design client work has taught him how to build organizational culture. In his current role at venture accelerator Thinktiv, Kolko learns to structure organizational values while structuring service or product values. At frog design, he learns design artifacts such as websites or iPhone apps would become political tools in an organization. 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 Startups Benefit by Using Interaction Design - Jon Kolko

In Chapter 13 of 17 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, designer and educator Jon Kolko notes where interaction design approaches benefit startup businesses. Working at a venture accelerator, Kolko notes that startups are built on iterations and interaction design too is rooted in understanding behavior over time and how this overlap can work to a startup's advantage. 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.

The Cathartic Power of Epic Failure - Jon Kolko

In Chapter 14 of 17 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, designer and educator Jon Kolko shares how failure has been fundamental to advancing and refining his career. Kolko notes how the greatest moments in his professional life have come after epic failures. For example, after being part of a failed startup, Kolko waits tables at a restaurant, where he decides to apply to the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) to teach. 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.