Classic American Buffalo Wings are a favorite at our house. We order Franks’s Red Hot sauce from the states so I can make wings just like The Wing Dome - my favorite joint back in Seattle. Last Tuesday, I loaded up a tray, and when they were half done I flipped them and popped them back in. I set the oven timer at 20 minutes and decided we’ll run off to the gym real quick. I think you already know what happened.

Shoulders hunched down, I put the chicken charcoal bricks in the trash can one by one while every window in our house is wide open on a winter night. That’s when Thinn Thinn grabbed my shoulder, smiled and said “Let’s fry up some eggs like we used to”. The Bible says “a prudent wife is from the Lord.” If it wasn’t for that quick and precise act of grace by Thinn Thinn, I may never make wings again for us. At the very least it’ll take me a while before I touch the oven again.

Dearly Depreciated Designer, Have you ever had a failure deter you from keeping at something? I’ve had a student who hasn’t drawn anything for 11 years because when he was 8 his dad laughed at a post card he made for him. David Kelly, the founder of IDEO says his life’s biggest challenge is restoring the creative confidence that people have lost growing up.

I hate to say this to you, but things will fail. A part will not fit, a page will not load properly, a script will crash, a shot will be out of focus, a product will not sell and I’m sad to report, a patient will die. Projects fail and they will cost … sometimes dearly. At Liftport, we worked on an aerial communication platform and an operator robot for years. We sank thousands upon thousands. On the first field test, nothing worked.

Sometimes, it won’t even be failure that gets to you but the prediction of failure. When I was young, my mother and her sisters went to see a fortune teller. He told my mom that she should worry about my future because I will be an astounding failure. I got in trouble that night. My mom and my aunts got on my case because of a fortune teller. Side note - that experience is one of the major reasons why I became a Christian. The Bible, in contrast says I am fearfully and wonderfully made, and made for a purpose. We’ll touch on that subject in the future. I only have 60 or so words left.

Dear reader, you and I are in the business of creating things never before seen, and talking about ideas never before heard of. You can’t be afraid of failure. When things fail, not “if”, but “when” they fail, it will be discouraging. And that’s when the girl who smiled and thoroughly enjoyed sunny side up eggs and sausages for dinner in a freezing room makes all the difference.

Dearly Departed Designers,
Do people ever ask you questions like “so how do you get you ideas?” Or perhaps a simple question like “so what do you draw?” which can all be devastatingly difficult questions for the creative types to answer.

I was a chunky kid. I still am. Except for the few years during college, I’ve been extra loving my whole life. When I was young, people would ask me what I’ve been eating to get so fat and laugh. I’m serious - its part of why I left Burma and did not care to look back for 9+ years. Perhaps you think it’s unfair that I’m working up to compare the “inspiration” question to the “why so fat” question but the truth is, for me, they’re both equally uncomfortable to answer. When answering both questions, I feel as though I’m explaining why I am the way I am to help them find me less strange. But perhaps why I feel uncomfortable with answering the “ideas” question is because ideas are actually not, and has never been the building blocks of my career. Productivity is.

Now, I’m not denying the importance of ideas. Friends, I assure you - concept is king but it’s productivity that wins the battle at the end of the day. I meet people all the time that perhaps because I’m in the business of innovation, like to tell me about the brilliant ideas they’ve had. Yet I assure you less then half will make that idea happen and only a fraction of those who do will survive to profit from it. I’m sorry but your ideas are not worth much by themselves. You can’t even protect an idea, only an expression of an idea. And that expression is where the proof is.

When my managers came to me and asked me to plan out the product development work flow some time ago, I revamped the traditional models. I felt they spend a lot of time in concept and the process is far too linear. So I made shipping the deliverable on time the ultimate victory and productivity, prototyping, and refinement, the key players. At the beginning of each development phase, we think very diversely. However, we must refine all ideas to be functional at the end of each phase as well. We do this multiple times and at the last phase, something interesting happens. The development team takes the lead over the general managers, and they run for the finish line, focusing on making it work rather then new concepts.

At this point you may ask; What’s you beef with ideas man, don’t we need them to do our jobs? And I answer; I don’t have any problems with ideation. It’s just that I believe, ideas may or may not lead to productivity but productivity definitely lead to ideas. At the end of the day, Concept is king. and that’s exactly why I emphasize productivity.

Off course this isn’t the rule of the land in my team. The job dictates the approach but this one seem to be our favorite game plan without a doubt.

- Nyein