Recently I’ve spent a lot of my time on the content creation side of the marketing world. This is sometimes the hardest thing for an engineering mind to handle, because creativity in programming or design is not the same as creativity for explaining something to the masses. And 9 times out of 10, that’s what you’re doing when you’re being creative in marketing — trying to find a way to communicate something so that people will understand it and retain it.
Over the next month I’ll be talking specifics about what I call “structured creativity.” It’s some techniques I prefer to use for repurposing the no-nonsense, bits and bytes engineering mental approach in a way that can produce results on the creative side of things.
- How to use a creative brief, with some practical examples and on-your-own exercises
- How to talk with aliens, also known as the creative people. They don’t speak your engineering language at all
- How to collaborate and give feedback on subjective topics that don’t necessarily have a right answer
- How to write a script, whether for a live product demo, an animated flash or video, or any not-in-person presentation, like a webinar.
- Tips and tricks for getting your brain into creative gear when it wants to be in analytical “do” mode
By the end of this series of posts, whether you’re on the engineering side or the marketing side, you’ll be better equipped to tap into your creative side without losing the engineering mind that probably got you where you are in the first place.
But first… I may need another trip to Starbucks so I can sit down with my laptop and churn out another script, without being connected to the Internet, without alt-tabbing to email, without people walking into my office or calling…
