TCL

In terms of IDEO, my only project ... It still went very well in terms of the client, but in terms of personal spending two 60 hours weeks working til eight o'clock in the morning, on your birthday. Not ideal. So it's a very personal not so well. I came back from holiday and was relaunched immediately onto this project, and arrived and it's like, "We've got to do this in this amount of time." You're like, "Fuck." You know, when you sort of go, "Oh, shit. Shit." And then I spent the next, what, 11, 12 days working between 14 and 22 hours a day. So by the end of that, I was like. No clue. Because I hadn't been a part of the 15 weeks beforehand, I don't really know what's been going on. You can guess, I can surmise, which I know [inaudible 00:29:28], but it's kinda like it shouldn't be like that. I don't understand why it has to be like that. [7786],[7791]
So it's a very personal not so well. I came back from holiday and was relaunched immediately onto this project, and arrived and it's like, "We've got to do this in this amount of time." You're like, "Fuck." You know, when you sort of go, "Oh, shit. Shit." [7795],[7793],[7794]
But the resourcing didn't really change. It's kind of I was just brought in to help. And I even had to get a third freelancer to help me. [7797]
But the resourcing didn't really change. It's kind of I was just brought in to help. And I even had to get a third freelancer to help me. I [7796]
Unless the brief has changed, and there's a lot more to do in the same amount of time, then yeah I can understand why. But then theoretically [inaudible 00:29:48] points if the brief has changed, then IDEO can ask for more money, and therefore resource more people. But the resourcing didn't really change. It's kind of I was just brought in to help. And I even had to get a third freelancer to help me. I'm not sure the margins but you can see that we probably wasted money, which is a shame because it was a really good project and a really good outcome. So I suppose then you have to balance that. [7781],[7790]
Well, see I'm very much of the [inaudible 00:30:46] where you shouldn't be working 22 hours a day. [7798]
If you do one, fine. Potentially. You then have to come in the next day and work another 12 hours? It's just wrong. It's not ... You're not ... You can't function properly. You can't make decent and clear decisions. [7800],[7799],[7792]
From London to Shanghai, obviously. And the States. So you had these different phases being in different areas of the company. Because that, you've got lots of different people and stakeholders who suddenly need to be shown something. It's like ... Some of that to me is not the best management of understanding in the very beginning that there were these people all sat on the committee that they see every month or easy simple things, rather than waiting right to the end [inaudible 00:33:55] no, this. And you go, "Fuck." [7777]
Some of that to me is not the best management of understanding in the very beginning that there were these people all sat on the committee that they see every month or easy simple things, rather than waiting right to the end [inaudible 00:33:55] no, this. And you go, "Fuck." [7801]
Well, it's more in terms of, from my perspective, I was creating communications and the production side of creating communications, it takes too long for you to bring someone in and say, "Can we change all of this?" It's actually, "No, you can't" should be the answer. [7778]
I don't really know, to be honest. From what my understanding is that they were very ... The Chinese culture is a thing of sort of change from engineering them to becoming a brand is a huge [inaudible 00:34:52]. It's something they're really trying to adjust to. Obviously the work that we were creating was very much a part of that journey for them. And part of my understanding now is to try and learn more and understand how that client actually really thinks, because currently I don't read enough of a grasp of that side of thing. IDEO is one of my sort of initial Shanghai requirements to get very much involved in the understanding of how these sorts of clients are thinking and where they see themselves. How they interact with something like IDEO. Because from my understanding it's completely different. You have to be very careful about somebody with their associates and stuff, and not lose face. All these sort of different nuanced barriers that I have to be very careful of, that I wouldn't have in the Western culture. [7775]
It's something they're really trying to adjust to. Obviously the work that we were creating was very much a part of that journey for them. And part of my understanding now is to try and learn more and understand how that client actually really thinks, because currently I don't read enough of a grasp of that side of thing. [7785]
You have to be very careful about somebody with their associates and stuff, and not lose face. All these sort of different nuanced barriers that I have to be very careful of, that I wouldn't have in the Western culture. [7803],[7802]
I think it's probably not too dissimilar to Western ... When we were describing earlier over the brief. People do that. People write something down and then you do something and then you show them, and they're "That's not what I wanted." It takes them to see something for them to be able to suddenly make a decision. [7782]
Potentially it's management all understanding again of how long it's gonna take you to create the different elements that you need to create at the end. [7805],[7804],[7787]
No, I think just because IDEO allows you to have freedom, it also allows you to then take too long. There's a sort of balance to be had between my outside experience, which is being chained to the desk and told this is how long you've got and get on with it. To this where you almost have ultimate freedom to be anywhere, go off anywhere and do and think and think and think and think. If you take too long, you suddenly run out of time. I'm always thinking, "Oh Christ, I've only got two weeks left to do it. I'm not sure whether it's that simple but it feels like it. [7806],[7807],[7788],[7808]
It has to be really [inaudible 00:39:29] because the production of these things and sitting on a Macintosh and getting three designers to "All right. We need to find these images and pull this together." [7809]
Sometimes the content, especially [inaudible 00:39:07] changing, evolving right up to the 11th hour, and so to produce a deliverable of some description that explains to whoever, to whichever type of audience is almost ... Sometimes it's very difficult to not do it in a sensible time frame. It has to be really [inaudible 00:39:29] because the production of these things and sitting on a Macintosh and getting three designers to "All right. We need to find these images and pull this together." It takes a long while. It doesn't happen quickly and I think sometimes that we either over deliver and make things look really beautiful, and we maybe not necessarily need to because these are intermediate stages of the project. [7789]
And I'm beginning to understand that. Sort of going this is phase four and there's another two phases, so actually what we can do is make a really nice deliverable but it doesn't mean it has to be the [inaudible 00:40:09] deliverable that, say for instance, we just did for Generali or these other elements that we produced. It can be a sort of prototype that can still look very lovely, just doesn't have to be as polished or as finished as sometimes you come into something, "Oh, right. We're gonna make this." Take too long and you don't need to because it's depending on the phase of how we're talking to the client. [7776]
Very much the Chinese orientated ... One of the ... Selena came over from Shanghai. [7810]
I perceive fairly well. I think for this client, interestingly enough, because they had three or four phases with different areas of IDEO, I think what started to happen is we need to have almost one point of contact, which is gonna be Kelly and a couple of others in Shanghai who were now integrated with TCL full time, and then wherever the work goes, which should be now Shanghai because we're setting up the facilities, better do it there. With myself and a few others going over. We should have one coherent voice over and I think what's happened before, they're getting a bit touchy in terms of, we're talking to them and now we're talking to you. Now we're talking to you. And that's fair enough. That's understandable. In their eyes, IDEO is one thing and suddenly you have all these different people. So I think that's been an interesting learning curve for me to change that, and I think they are about to. [7783],[7779]
I think I'm not the sort of person who judges or complains at the time of doing stuff. [7812],[7811],[7813]
We'll have the review and I'll sit down and say what I said to you today, which is we shouldn't be doing that. Why were we doing that? Try and understand it. It's not really anybody's fault, generally. [7814]
Yeah, great. Francis is great. He's a very calm, very relaxed man. No, we get on really well, so that was fun. I think I'm not the sort of person who judges or complains at the time of doing stuff. We'll have the review and I'll sit down and say what I said to you today, which is we shouldn't be doing that. Why were we doing that? Try and understand it. It's not really anybody's fault, generally. Generally these things just occur. I have no idea what happened in the first 15 weeks. You can surmise, people have said things. [7784]
Yeah, Ross and Amy are the communications guys. We had been working on the project full time, and so we had our room of tranquility, we call. The team is obviously split off into different areas, so we had the ID guys working on the ID stuff, and the communication guys working on their stuff. Which I suppose is working for them. If it was me, I would try and pull everyone back together, but that's just me. But yeah, we had a room of tranquility, so it was very nice. Playing radio four and dealing picks at the time. [7780]
Reference Tags
[7786] Planning fallacy,[7791] Unbalanced workload pressure,[7795] Planning fallacy,[7793] Resilience,[7794] Unbalanced workload pressure,[7797] Planning fallacy,[7796] Unbalanced workload pressure,[7781] Lack of resources,[7790] Scope creep,[7798] Unbalanced workload pressure,[7800] Lack of resources,[7799] Unbalanced workload pressure,[7792] Unbalanced workload pressure,[7777] Indecisive leadership,[7801] Internal changes/challenges,[7778] Indecisive leadership,[7775] Cultural differences,[7785] Listening disposition,[7803] Cultural differences,[7802] Internal changes/challenges,[7782] Empathetic disposition,[7805] Communication issues,[7804] Internal changes/challenges,[7787] Planning fallacy,[7806] Believes one has a hopeful path,[7807] Creative Confidence,[7788] Planning fallacy,[7808] Planning fallacy,[7809] Win-win conflict about ideas,[7789] Planning fallacy,[7776] Hindsight bias,[7810] Cultural differences,[7783] Empathetic disposition,[7779] Indecisive leadership,[7812] Believes one has a hopeful path,[7811] Believes one has high agency,[7813] Optimism,[7814] Win-win conflict about relationships,[7784] Empathetic disposition,[7780] Indecisive leadership