I had a discussion recently about the way managers should address designers and artists.

This is my opinion as someone who was brought up in a neighborhood designed for artists with an arts university, cartoon studio, embassies, and a wide selection of historic buildings, etc.

buckleup

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Designers are very creative persons. Creativity requires that the brain is stimulated to focus, and it also has time to collect and process information to generate ideas.

I believe that designers who are partners should be undermanaged. This allows them to adjust their performance for better outcome analyzing more ideas. Time constraints limit the power of brainstorming.

Designers who are competitors or vendors, should be overmanaged providing meaningful feedback to get better products with lower prices.

Look at the market of augmented and virtual reality headsets for example. As a disclosure, Schmied Enterprises does not engage in either of these markets for the following reason.

Designers of Microsoft's HoloLens, Meta Quest, and Apple Vision Pro happened to miss my first use case for such applications.

You either want to have a studio like experience, in which case you need to build out your own room. Large screens, projectors, and studio quality audio are already available at the price ranges of $1000-$5000 of these devices and their auxiliary products. You can enjoy static content and simulatics defined as interactive content in your own room.

The other use case is when you share the same space with others. Movements, the lack of audio headphones limit the use cases of such devices, when it should address many engineers and customers to brainstorm for applications.

The author thinks that the main use case of such devices would require an entire helmet with headphones and augmented or virtual screens built in already. The external design of the helmet can promote individual games, or applications without leveraging and sacrificing the Big Tech brand image. You can just walk in a shopping mall Christmas time and choose from the brands on the shelf. Choice generates customers just like music and app stores did a decade ago.

Moreover, the enclosed design allows people to carry such devices without disturbing others with noise and talk. The different designs of helmets may allow people to be recognized by artificial intelligence as different characters in a game of the same room. The helmet design may sell more devices to spread the technology. Lightweight cases may even replace the external designs.

The funny futuristic design, brings a little bit of distance to me as a potential buyer. Helmets with professional looks, Pikachu style, or race driver shape would sell better.

Have fun!

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Disclosure. The author or his equity may own shares or funds of shares of the corporations mentioned in this article.