Opposites Attract: A Three Act Play in Creative Collaboration

Who are we?

Donna Claire and Joanna Burgraf have transformed Enova International’s creative department from a service organization to a 16 person digital agency and strategic partner. We work in harmony and support each other in achieving the vision of this team. What may not be so obvious is just how opposite we are — one is a strategic thinker, the other a doer; one loves ideas, the other loves process; one a mentor, the other an eager student. Rather than change, we support each other in being the best versions of our professional selves. We feel so strongly about our successes that we want to share it with the larger Chicago tech, UX and creative communities by speaking at local Meetups and conferences.

Who Should Attend?

• Creative leaders who want to foster a cross-functional collaborative environment
• PMs who want to maximize the output of creatives and devs
• SE leaders who want to collaborate with creatives, but aren’t quite sure how to approach them in their organization
• Creatives who want to learn “a better way” to get work done

What are the details for the events?

FullStack Fridays
8:30 am – 10 am
Friday August 9, 2019
Devbridge Chicago Office
343 West Erie Street, Suite 600
Chicago, IL 60654

ChiWitCon
9:00 AM – 6:30 PM
Thursday, September 26, 2019
Congress Plaza Hotel
520 South Michigan Avenue
Chicago, IL 60605

Why are we giving these talks?

Based on our unique collaborative approach, we have fundamentally changed the way our team works and dramatically increased the quality of the work that we deliver to our clients. We believe that others (in our industry/sector or not) can benefit by adopting some of the basic principles behind the changes we have implemented. We want to share our successes — and a few missteps — with the greater Chicago tech, UX and creative communities

How did you get connected with Full-Stack Fridays?

We love the Chicago tech and creative communities and attend various events across the city. We connected with one of the Managing Directors at a DayBreaker event. Shortly thereafter we became regular attendees at FullStackFridays and got asked to give a talk.

How did you get connected with ChiWitCon?

ChiWitCon was started at Enova, and we both fully support the group’s mission of empowering, attracting, and supporting the development of women in Chicagoland and beyond. We have been personal supporters of ChiWitCon from its inception, helping to brand, market, and promote the event each year. In fact, if you’ve seen the website or any of the awesome swag from the conference, that’s our work!

What advice would you give to Tech, UX and Creative leaders?

Donna: Embrace ambiguity. People always use the phrase “outside of the box” when talking about creative ideas. I prefer staying inside of an ambiguous box! Establish requirements and goals — and then experiment. Keep an open mind and try several options. Heck, try all of the options. In my experience, many of the best solutions to creative or complex problems are revealed when least expected.

Joanna: Have your house in order. I subscribe to the philosophy that you can’t do your best creative work if you’re making mistakes on the basics. Having templates, style guides and frameworks makes implementing change easy and also ensures quality work across departments.

Follow us on Twitter and connect with us on LinkedIn

@donnaclaire  |  www.linkedin.com/in/donnaclaire/

@burgrafix | https://www.linkedin.com/in/joannaburgraf/