CCS Talk slideshow
Added 2021-04-16 17:27:11 +0000 UTCI did a talk for students at the Center for Cartoon Studies last week, and thought I'd share the slides with you! The talk was on long-term comic projects, and was about an hour long-- some of the stuff on the slides came with verbal explanation and isn't written down, so if anyone wants some clarification on any points in particular I'm happy to answer if you leave a comment~
Also I just got my first COVID shot yesterday! woo. Working on comics today, if the next page isn't today, then will be up on the weekend instead.
Comments
There exist indeed some good cooperation tools by now, and the "new normal" of work processes will definitely lead to further improved tools.
Ute Recklies
2021-04-16 20:45:16 +0000 UTCyeah, that's def a way to go if you're working with a physical team, or a team you can talk to 1:1 frequently... with this project a lot of the "overexplainy" parts were in group emails that needed to be sent to everyone, which is like, yeah, a little spammy. There's ways to calibrate for sure but since this team was mostly antho newbies it was def a better over than under kinda thing. For the next antho I run, might switch it up depending on the makeup of the final team. Also maybe using a different tool since mostly we were communicating over email vs in a chatroom or something like that, since I didn't know about Discord at the time.
Der-shing Helmer
2021-04-16 20:40:00 +0000 UTCIn the initial project team meetings, I often openly admitted: "I might be overexplaining, but then just tell me to stop." I'm definitely no team leader material, but learned to address possible annoyances and conflict points beforehand. It seemed to work - though I never found out whether it was because it was good strategy, because the team members were intimidated, or because they just played nice out of pity 😅
Ute Recklies
2021-04-16 20:36:44 +0000 UTClol yeah, I went with over obviously XD I had (/have) so many spreadsheets when I do groupwork, I find it cuts out most of the misunderstandings at the outset, which saves a ton of headache. But in the talk I also mentioned it can make one seem micromanagey and condescending as well (one anon from the Electrum group did give me feedback that I gave too much info and it felt like I was talking down to them, but they were also much more experienced than most of the contributors, so I understand their pov)
Der-shing Helmer
2021-04-16 20:27:58 +0000 UTCThanks! The clarification there is that on this project, my pre-set definition of success was for me to treat all my artists and collaborators with a high degree of respect and open communication, for the book to be high quality work that would speak deeply to its intended audience, for the project to fund to the point where it covered the cost of the project, and that it would be received/ reviewed well by people who read it. Everything was actually successful except for the funding, as I ended up putting in about 4k of my own money to cover the eventual "actual" costs, since we were able to fund past the original goal/ estimates for the production, and also because shipping ended up being $0.30 higher than I had calculated per book, which added several hundo as well. So that was the no, but the other stuff (which was very important to me) was a yes.
Der-shing Helmer
2021-04-16 20:26:11 +0000 UTCDefinitely would underline that "overinform vs. underinform" in collaborations👍 When I was responsible for several external colleagues hired temporarily from different companies, who worked at the same product documentation, it always went much better when I managed to "overinform" them. Learned this at my 1st job when doing customer support: If something goes wrong, explain the "why" so that the customers feel respected. Explain the background for the "how" so that they feel empowered, and respected. When customers or colleagues feel respected because you take enough time to (over)explain things, they are more willing to use their own braincells, look at the bigger picture, and give feedback before something turns nasty 😅
Ute Recklies
2021-04-16 19:31:56 +0000 UTCI'm interested in what you said about "was Electrum a success? Yes and no" in what ways was it not successful? It seemed pretty successful to me???
Berit Johnson
2021-04-16 18:00:57 +0000 UTC
