There is no lack of creativity at Marxent. Creative thinking and talents are respected and revered here. Being surrounded by creative folks in an environment that values creativity is not only inspiring but it also comes with benefits. Recently, I hit a creative bump (it happens). Luckily for me, there was a team of curious co-workers waiting to help me rethink, reinvent and reimagine my direction.

Kinect and the practice of collective creativity

We have frequent requests for Microsoft Kinect technology integrations. If you are not familiar with Kinect, it is a brilliant piece of Augmented Reality technology. Using cameras, sensors and depth detection hardware, Kinect can recognize skeletons, gestures and movements. It uses this data to immerse participants in virtual worlds.

As the resident expert, spending time on Kinect gets my creative juices flowing. Even if I think that I should be able to solve difficult challenges related to Kinect on my own, Marxent encourages creative collaboration when it comes to solving big problems. One recent roadblock turned out to be figuring out how to ‘connect Kinect’ with a wide range of devices and platforms. Here’s how it all played out.

Step 1: The Kinect developer challenge

My boss came to me and asked if I could bring a client’s Kinect development idea to life within three weeks. My natural response, of course, was that it should be easy. We have the technology, we know how to use it and I’m experienced in working with Kinect. The one big challenge would be figuring out how to best integrate Kinect and Vuforia into an iPhone app given the timeline. Holy smokes! Time to get creative.

Step 2: Try, try again

After attempting several different methods, nothing was working. Even my best friend Google was of no help. I found myself at a dead end, on a tight timeline and wondering what to do.

Step 3: Creative mindmeld

After trying to solve the problem independently and failing, I knew that it was a good time to go beyond my own mind. You know all those creative people I was talking up earlier? They come in handy. I gathered the troops and started picking their brains.

Step 4: A creative Kinect solution

After discussing the problem and possible solutions, we came up with a few viable options worth testing. One of those solutions ended up solving the problem. The conversation sparked ideas which sparked more ideas and so on, eventually leading to a solution that worked.

As creative as any single mind might be, many creative minds working together can provide necessary perspective that helps Marxent to innovate and build better products more quickly. Immerse yourself in crafting solutions with other creative minds and you’ll be surprised at what you come up with.

What is it like to work at Marxent?

We value team-oriented contributors who have personality, gumption and the ability to get things done. If you’re curious about our company culture, you can learn more here.