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The Busy Creator Podcast with Prescott Perez-Fox


The Busy Creator Podcast is a discussion program where creative professionals from across the spectrum share tools, techniques, and habits they use in their practice. Listeners are introduced to strategies and pro tips to be their most creative, productive selves.

Full website available at http://busycreator.com and http://busycreator.com/podcast/ for the show specifically.

Aug 8, 2016

Andrew Berkowitz (@TheWitzCarlton) is the Head of Product for Tradeversity, a buying-and-selling platform for university students. After gaining experience in a large corporate setting, Andrew has jumped in to startup life, enjoying the struggles along the way.

In this conversation, Andrew shares some of the workflows required in a young, small, and nimble company, as well as his experiences testing personal productivity methods and morning routines.

Catch up with Andrew on his own show, The Global Startup Movement

 

Show Notes & Links

  • Andrew is “Head of Product” for Tradeversity
  • Early stage startups require the wearing of many hats 

"Design is the question of taking what's in the mind and manifesting them into reality."

—Andrew Berkowitz

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  • Tradeversity is exclusive to higher education students
  • Andrew graduated from Virginia Tech
  • .edu, .ac.uk — educational TLDs
  • Sharepoint, and other internal marketplaces within corporations are rather outdated 

"Product Design is more like being an inventor than a designer."

—Prescott Perez-Fox

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"The most important aspect of building a product is gaining empathy for users."

—Andrew Berkowitz

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  • Ideo
  • Design Thinking can mean different things
  • 5 elements of D-Thinking: gain empathy → define problem → ideation → prototype → test & iterate
  • Andrew worked at a large bank before joining a startup
  • Scrum Master (in Agile Project Management) 

"The speed at which a project is moving is directly proportional to the energy involved."

—Prescott Perez-Fox

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"Innovation comes from failure; Having the freedom to fail allows us to innovate."

—Andrew Berkowitz

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"The culture and the habits are more important than the tools."

—Andrew Berkowitz

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"The tool you use should reflect the system you've set up, and the mindset behind that."

—Prescott Perez-Fox

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  • The 1800 Exercise
  • Tradeversity was launched from a content award — $20k and a year’s worth of office space
  • Think And Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill on Amazon and on Audible
    Think And Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
  • Conspiracy, from the Latin conspiratare, meaning “to breathe the same air”
  • Virtually Reality, and opportunities for collaboration
  • Ready Player One by Ernest Cline on Amazon and on Audible
    Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

"A Virtual Reality device is an empathy machine."

—Andrew Berkowitz

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Tools

Techniques

  • Understand the emotions of your users. This will bring insight.
  • Employ Design Thinking; bring in real people and get your hands dirty
  • Experiment with “packaged services”
  • From a corporate setting, the thing you can learn most is working with diverse teams
  • The 1800 Exercise: describe how projects get done in the year 1800 (using only parchment & quill) 

Habits

  • Keep Trello tidy; not started → in-progress → done
  • Have regular Sprint-planning and Retrospective meetings
  • Wake up around 6:00am for yoga, weightlifting, or running
  • Feed your subsconscious mind until it takes over

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