Barbara Fontana Ozawa

Got slammed by a focus group? Turn it into a win! First, stay calm—feedback is your path to growth. Break it down: identify patterns and separate subjective opinions from actionable insights. Engage the group if possible, asking follow-up questions like, "What would improve this?" Focus on high-impact changes to clarify your design's purpose. If the feedback highlights confusion, adjust visuals or navigation to enhance user experience. Communicate your vision clearly before the next test. Iterate quickly and test updates. Finally, frame your pivot as a success story: "We transformed based on feedback to create a stronger, more user-friendly design!"

Balancing cost and risk with suppliers is key to sustainable business operations. Diversify your supplier base to reduce dependency, and conduct risk assessments focused on financial stability and capacity. Build strong relationships through collaboration and clear communication. Look beyond price to consider total cost of ownership (TCO), including lead times and quality. Define performance metrics with SLAs and KPIs, and negotiate flexible terms to adapt to market changes. Regular audits and monitoring help maintain quality and mitigate risks. Optimize payment terms and develop joint risk management plans for business continuity.

Establish a Design Bible: I create a centralized document or reference guide that outlines key design principles, including textures, color palettes, proportions, lighting, and file formats. This serves as the single source of truth for all teams. Use Shared Assets and Templates: Standardized 3D assets, shaders, and templates ensure that teams build on a consistent foundation. This minimizes discrepancies between models created by different groups. Frequent Cross-Team Reviews: Regular syncs between team leads help catch inconsistencies early. Peer reviews and milestone presentations also allow for shared feedback, ensuring alignment on design objectives.

When partnering with external agencies for creative projects, I evaluate their performance through a structured yet adaptable approach. Here’s what works well for me: Clear Expectations & KPIs: Right from the start, I set measurable KPIs that reflect the project's creative and business goals, ensuring all parties understand success benchmarks. Frequent Communication & Progress Reviews Stakeholder Feedback: I gather insights from my internal team and end users to assess how well the agency’s output resonates with the audience and aligns with overall project objectives. Feedback on creativity, relevance, and impact is crucial. Creativity vs. Practicality Balance: Creative agencies must innovate, but the solutions must also be actionable.

Facing a material shortage is the best opportunity to leverage creativity for a good designer. That's "force" us to work on shape and cuts, and leads often to the best results ever seen. Innovation is not always about material but about lines.

As I like to control everything, and I do most things by myself, I don't see any other choice than a sleepless hard schedule calendar 😅 plus alpha... getting help from trusted sources and other stakeholders is essential to meet the deadline. Making a collection is always a bet. The funniest thing is that miracles occur just before the finish line 😜