Why are you called Kickass Creative?
Because I help companies kick more ass by being more creative, and I help creatives kick more ass by being better at business.
As a freelance consultant, I help teams and companies combine creativity with insights about human behavior to design elegant solutions to real problems. I apply knowledge about organizational behavior, management, and culture to create more effective and innovative organizations. My approach is collaborative, emphasizing creative problem solving and rapid prototyping. My job is to help frame problems in a way that makes them tractable with the limited resources available.
Social Science meets Design Strategy
As a consultant, I help teams solve problems by creatively leveraging cutting-edge knowledge of human behavior and social psychology:
- Predicting how users will respond to products and experiences
- Developing organizational change initiatives
- Building more innovative teams, more meaningful experiences, more useful products, more effective services
- Helping you to be more insightful and clever than your competition
Rapid Innovation
I have facilitated rapid innovation teams at corporate clients, including Panasonic, Cisco, LAM Research, Walt Disney Corporation, and SunPower as part of the Haas@Work Applied Innovation program. For three weeks, a team of outsiders is charged to work with top executives at a client firm.
Each team researches a competitive challenge faced by the firm and develops potential innovative solutions using a variety of structured brainstorming and idea development techniques lead by a facilitator, which was my role. Ideas are refined, selected, and pitched onsite in a one-day final workshop. The best proposals are selected by senior executives, and a core team is often chosen to implement the strongest solution at the firm.
Strategic Leadership
I have also lead top management teams in organizational change, strategic planning, brainstorming, and leadership development for social innovation organizations such as NetImpact, Big Ideas at Berkeley, and the Energy & Environmental Innovation Competition.
Testimonials
“Caneel did a great job facilitating at SunPower. The group she led was large and she deftly navigated our way through a lot of material. She is clearly a gifted listener and can add structure to an unwieldy brainstorming process, without being heavy-handed. I would definitely hire Caneel again.”
- Executive team member, Josie Taylor Gaillard, SunPower Corporation
“Caneel did a great job leading a brainstorming group for SunPower. Our group was well directed, we knew what we were doing and why, and we understood that it was our responsibility to deliver. The team’s performance was significantly enhanced by her facilitation. We really generated a lot of ideas!”
- Executive team member, Jim Dawe, SunPower Corporation
“Caneel has been an excellent facilitator for our newly established Haas@Work program. She has been very effective at leading groups of Haas students and client employees in generating out of the box solutions to complex opportunities facing our clients.”
- Adam Berman, Executive Director, Curriculum Innovation, Haas School of Business
“As a participant, I experienced Caneel’s innovative brainstorming frameworks and team building skills. Her energy, out-of-the-box thinking and tremendous leadership enabled our team to exploit everyone’s potential in a very short time frame. Her brainstorming techniques were highly effective and I would consider Caneel’s expertise to help on other business issues.”
- Sebastien Trolez, MBA, Product Marketing Manager, Hewlett-Packard Company
