It is always nice when we find our Socials launching something new. And it is doubly satisfying when you find out that that Social, Fredrik Heghammar, who first joined us at CS San Francisco in November 2009, is launching it with a partner you have worked with only recently – Joe Coppard helped us deliver an inspiring day and a half of content in Stockholm for Converse. I had the opportunity earlier this week to speak to Fredrik to find out more:

What’s your That’s Me That is (i.e. the piece of work from your career that best defines you)?

Converse Canvas Experiment.​ I was a part of when I was at Perfect Fools – absolutely one of the best things I’ve ever done. The process of how we prototyped and made it – plus the natural blend from physical to digital – is the key. It also had a lot of impact on sales. A killer project all round.

Or a more recent project I did at Google where we created a school called 3​0 Weeks: A founders program for designers.​

So you have launched a business called Another Tomorrow? Tell us a little more.

We started Another Tomorrow because we believe that we can help people bring bold ideas to life through the process of prototyping.

Why the name Another Tomorrow? We are optimistic individuals, excited about a bright future and we believe we can help people get there.

Why are we here? To make it easier to explain, visualise and bring ideas to life through prototyping.

In today’s world it doesn’t make sense to spend months and millions creating products and services that don’t quite do what you want them to do. Which is why we have developed an agile prototyping process. We call it Sling.

Sling puts experimentation and productive failure at the heart of a rigorous design journey that allows ideas to flourish or to “fail fast”, giving you the chance to maximise creativity whilst minimising time and money.

So you should work with us if you want to prototype the future.

Tell us how you met Joe and how you think your skill sets are complimentary.

We met at Berghs School of Communication when Joe was looking for a place to do the first Protothon. It was with Spotify and was one of the first design + tech hackathons there was. Later on I hired Joe to run the Prototyping course for the Berghs department I ran: Art Director/Copywriter

Joe’s experience bringing tech and creative people together in interdisciplinary environments is super interesting. With Protothon he created some insane hackathon / innovation / PR projects with Absolut, Google, Reach for Change.

My experience in the digital communications world has led me through some incredible companies at interesting times. I’ve come to realise that ‘failing fast’ and working in networks are the best ways to create today. But there’s nowhere that actually works like that, so we set up our own.

If you were to pick one project/piece of work in the last 12 months that typifies to type of work you want to be delivering as a team, what would it be?

Project Sunroof for Google. It’s simple, tech enabled, scaleable. And it solves a real problem.

I personally think it has never been tougher to launch a new independent business in the sphere of advertising/marketing? What do you see as your biggest challenges as a business?

Many industries are going through big changes right now. we wouldn’t place ourselves just within the ad/marketing sphere. We are here to help organisations transition to a new new way of working without having to go all-in with their entire business. Working with us is a great way to inject innovation and the power of perspective into your company. Our independence and agility is really important aspect of how we can help others prototype their future.

In that sense our biggest challenge is helping our clients seeing the future whilst realising their present.

What do you think that businesses can most learn from prototyping and/or the process of the Hackathon?

They can learn that creating mind blowing things doesn’t have to take months and millions to build. Through facilitated interdisciplinary collaboration you can bring in all of the insight, skill and creativity needed to solve real challenges. This allows you to be visionary, ‘fail fast’, test ideas and launch the right ones to the world.

You have worked at a number of businesses over the last five years (Perfect Fools, Anomaly and Google Creative Lab)? What has been your biggest learning during that period?

The bigger the budgets, the more politics and compromises. I have learned how to navigate within different organisations and also how to be humble; I really understand the hard work behind client handling.

Which brands do you think have best adjusted to the speed in technology acceleration?

To me it’s mainly the new services companies like Seamless, Airbnb and Uber that puts human needs and behaviour right in the centre.

If you are sitting there as a business that recognises it needs to change, where do you think they need to start?

They need to start with a fresh perspective. It’s so hard to be critical and creative whilst inside your own company. Our team and our flexible prototyping process provide the tools and support needed to really discover and prototype a new things. Without that perspective, the chances are you’ll stay in that rut for a while to come.

What trend are you most excited by?

Creative Leadership, Service Design, Progressive education & incubation platforms.
Design as Investment in Design: People like John Maeda joining KPCB after running RSID is such a fascinating transition.

What trend do you think has the potential to most disrupt brands?

Hacking the hackers like the Airbnb hotel called S​quare Hotel SOFO.​Airbnb hacked the hotel industry and now Square Hotel hacked Airbnb.

Also see a lot of potential in Beacon technologies combined with services like Google NOW.

Would you consider yourself a Hacker, Maker, Teacher or Thief (or a combination of them all)?

All of them! though I’m too honest to be a thief 🙂

What do you think are the key attributes for a Hacker?

  • Openness to new ideas
  • Curiosity to learn and teach
  • Not being afraid to fail
  • Collaborative mindset

What’s the one business book you would recommend to anyone who wants to get ahead in advertising or marketing?

I don’t have any good Ad books but I do recommend the book Small Giants by Bo Burlingham. The book is about staying true to your vision and and passion as a company.

What’s the best piece of advice you have been given (and from whom)?

“Purple is not your color” – Lina Heghammar (My wife)

Finally as I mentioned Joe helped us make sure that Converse were inspired in the city of Stockholm. If someone is planning to visit Stockholm, what are the three must do’s for someone visiting for the first time (restaurant, attraction, experience?)

A walk in Gamla Stan (Old Town)
Dinner at AG (meat heaven) and drinks at Gondolen with a view over Stockholm.
A boat trip through the archipelago to Vaxholm, my home town.