Creativity & Efficiency

In our pursuit of efficiency, we look for every opportunity to remove the manual part of the process. The more we automate, the more we standardize, the faster we can create. But at what point does our race toward efficiency go too far?

Whether we're redesigning a client's website or launching a marketing campaign, the objective of efficiency during the creative process is about more than speed. Building efficiency creates more space to be creative. By reducing repetitive work, we gain time to focus on thinking big.

We can:

• Create base templates for brainstorm sessions to spend more time brainstorming
• Design a core set of UI elements for wireframes to spend more time imagining the best user experience
• Automate platform setup & configuration to spend more time building and refining the website

When we become obsessed with efficiency, focusing solely on speed, we risk losing our creative firepower. We go beyond the repetitive work and start standardize what made projects special: our ideas. We remove the brainstorm session, and instead, every project begins with a set of boilerplate concepts based on the client.

We slowly become less connected to our work as it becomes formulaic. We start wondering if we're even needed at all.

When you're looking for opportunities to be more efficient, look for the mindless work that happens every time, not the work that requires creativity and thought, even if sometimes that's what takes the longest.