Encouragement is the purest source of motivational energy there is

If you read job applications for software engineers, a qualifying question companies often ask is this.

Does seeing a software product take shape and come to life make you happy? If the answer is no, then the person is clearly not the right candidate for the position.

This question, however, isn’t limited to computer nerds. Just because you can’t write code doesn’t mean you can’t get energized by the process.

In my own experience, watching any product come to life, digital or otherwise, is creatively invigorating. Seeing an idea evolve with changing business needs and personal preferences is wildly energizing. It gives you the necessary momentum to keep moving the project forward towards launch.

During development of my personal creativity management software, every few weeks my engineer would send me short screen capture videos with his voice over describing the latest updates to our tech. Not only did these videos help me understand how an engineer approaches shaping a digital environment, which is very different than mine, but they literally demonstrated the process of my ideas being brought to form.

Suggestions from our previous conversations about functionality and design changes were implemented, and now all I had to do was sit back and watch the progress get personified.

And let me tell you, seeing your dream take form before your very eyes, it gives you the chills. Unlocking a new piece of your creative vision with each passing day, hell, a shot of espresso won’t jack you up as much as that will.

That’s the joy of making things. Particularly when it comes to the product development process. With each new iteration, you solve new problems and unlock new pieces of the puzzle. And you keep repeating that cycle until the damn thing is good enough go live.

All the while reminding yourself, wow, look how far we’ve come since version one.

That’s not an insignificant observation. Reminding yourself and your team how far you’ve come, that’s exactly what makes you feel proud, satisfied and confident to go even farther in the future.

This is a form of macro oxygenation, which is a powerful personal creativity management tool.

Macro oxygenation means giving your large projects a chance to grow on your team by nurturing them with encouragement, freedom and affirmation. It’s quite useful in sustaining difficult projects over a long period of time.

In my case, seeing videos helped build creative stamina so we could make progress on our work incrementally without getting overly discouraged. Coming back around to our original question from the job application.

Does seeing a product take shape and come to life make you happy?

Most creative people would say yes. And so, let’s do each other a favor and remind each other how far we’ve come together.

Encouragement is the purest source of motivational energy there is, and there’s an infinite supply of it.

How are you breathing oxygen into your team’s creative process?