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MAGAZINE
Did anything go wrong during the
process?
The first difficulty was geographical
distance. Marc lives near Barcelona
in Spain and the rest of the team is
French. Working on such a big project
without spending much time physically
together was a risky bet! Thank you
to Céline who allowed us to meet and
work in her workspace. A second
difficulty was the financial part. Catrina
in Bloom was our first joint project.
Along with the cost of creating Catrina
(a huge thank you to our sponsors),
we first had to travel to meet and work
together. Then we had to transport
the project to Birmingham. Between
our schedules and constraints, it was
impossible to rent a van and a carrier
was too expensive so we used three
cars. Which meant three times more
tolls, petrol, Channel crossings and of
course, renting an appropriate place
once arrived to spend four days and
nights together for repairing, dusting,
airbrushing, assembling... It was a lot
of work! The last difficult moment was
of course, the onsite assembling! We
were extremely stressed, tired from
the previous 72 hours during which
we barely slept. It required us to stay
strong and united until the end!
If you were to do it again, what would
you do differently?
Imposing milestones! A project
drifts quickly and blind trust in your
partners is not always enough. Time
flies too fast and everyone is caught
up in their professional life, family
life and whatever’s unexpected. We
think we have ten months and that
it will be enough. Truth is you can’t
even say ‘whew’ that there’s already
just two months left! If each one of
us has some tasks to do in a given
time, the stress in the final sprint will
decrease considerably. In a team, the
slightest issue puts the whole team
in danger. Everyone must be aware
of their own impact on the rest of the
group. Participating in a project of this
size is a collective challenge in which
everyone must be responsible and give
themselves 200%.