Are You Letting Customers Scratch A Creative Itch?

Human beings are driven by a desire to create.

To contribute to the world’s intellectual and artistic
commons, to express their individuality and vibrancy, to come alive through the
pursuit of their ideas, to satisfy the biological compulsion to render their
feelings and to use their imaginative endowments to make cool stuff.

The question companies should be asking is, how can we help people
use our products to scratch that creative itch?

Earlier this year, I was a passenger on the maiden voyage of
the Disney Fantasy. And without a doubt, the highlight of the trip was dinner
in the Animator’s Lounge. At our tables, the placemats doubled as drawing
templates. And servers instructed us to use markers to draw faces and bodies inside
the pattern.

One hour later, after we’d handed in our drawings to the
staff, our table’s artwork showed up on the big screen and started dancing
across the wall. We were spellbound. The experience of seeing our own drawings come
to life, right in front of our eyes, was the most satisfying creative feeling
anyone could imagine. We went from amateur doodlers to professional animators
in a matter of minutes, and we would remember that experience for the rest of
our lives.

Consider my creative itch scratched.

The point is, at the heart
of what it means to be a person is the act of dreaming, doing and finishing.

If your organization’s products can help facilitate that process, everybody
wins.