Q&A with Nicole Wollak
Editor’s note: Nancy Cox is the founder of Research Story Consulting and former CPG corporate researcher. Her work and play include words, sketchpads, cooking (not baking) and the occasional sock puppet
Passions, hobbies, healthy distractions and even guilty pleasures – discover how the research community plays and how that plays out in their work life. In the Venn diagram of work and play, what happens when work and play overlap? Research colleagues share their work and play stories in this interview series by Nancy Cox.
Hello to Nicole Wollak, senior manager, insights and innovation, Imbibe
What is the “play” in your life?
I’m a serial dabbler of hobbies. I have several regular hobbies, and I am constantly trying new ones. I’ve taken music lessons on three different instruments. I’ve tried calligraphy, embroidery and arm knitting. I golf a few times a year. I bake yeast-leavened breads and, like everyone during the pandemic, tried sourdough. Some things I’m never going to be great at. That’s OK.
My craft hobbies tend to be one-and-done creative outlet projects. I feel accomplished going from the materials to a finished, tangible result. I’ve embroidered ornaments. I’ve knitted blankets using jumbo yarn and my arms as the knitting needles. I made four or five blankets, but that craft just didn’t stick.
Two evolved to regular hobbies. Number one is my ukulele. I’ve had a ukulele for eight years and I’ve played on a semi-regular basis for the last three to four years. Throughout school, I played the flute and the piccolo – playing music in a more serious way. The uke is more casual, playing chord progressions and singing along to songs you know. If I wanted to be a really good ukulele instrumentalist there’s a lot more to it, but I was looking for an easy instrument beginners can pick up and sound lovely. I play for five minutes and instantly feel better versus dedicating an hour or whole day to making progress.
Calligraphy is the hobby that surprised me. I didn’t see it becoming a regular hobby. I started with an in-person calligraphy class through my library three years ago. Then I took more classes. I have my brush pens sitting at home where I doodle. I find opportunities to use calligraphy such as greeting cards. Calligraphy infuses a little delight into my day – turning an ordinary task into something artful. Relearning how to write letters I’ve been writing for decades but with a different perspective, appreciating the difficulty of manipulating the pen to meticulously get thinner and thicker lines. It forces me to put other things aside to do something that is normally rushed in a slow and measured way. Calligraphy is my moment of calm.
How has your play influenced your research work?
When you start down a career path or a school major, you’re focused at being very good at one thing. That focus can give you tunnel vision. Hinder you from empathy for people coming from other perspectives. The hobbies I try that don’t stick help me appreciate that what brings moments of joy to my day is never going to be the same as someone else’s moments of joy. For example, sourdough. For me, it was so much work to feed this thing daily. I want to make yeast-leavened bread when I want to make it. For others, the regular schedule of keeping sourdough alive was fulfilling.
It's the same at work. Think of two people who work in the same research department. One might love doing generative research and fuzzy front end, the other might love doing meticulous sensory quality work that’s about maintaining things over time. The things that light you up within a function aren’t going to be the same things that light someone else up.
Being comfortable trying something new makes everything else you try easier. You learn the humility of approaching things with the fresh sense of “I know I’m not going to be perfect at this so let’s dive in and learn.” Since I work in a company that does product and ingredient development, it’s not unusual to put together a research project on a product category I’ve never been involved with before. To feel like I’m starting from scratch. What am I missing? What do I need to learn?
But you might find you know more than you think. With a hobby that isn’t directly linked to your work, you are constantly picking up soft skills. Patience, being comfortable being uncomfortable, courage, meticulous attention to detail. These day-to-day skills are transferable to research jobs.
What would you tell readers who want to know more about your area of play?
Take care of that nagging in the back of your head, “I always wished I had learned to play the piano.” Just start. Fail – or succeed – fast and cheap. You could love it and you’ll have that hobby for the next 50 years or you’ll hate it. But now it’s not the thing that weighs you down, the thing you wished you had tried.
That beginning part of not being good at something deters a lot of people. If you haven’t dabbled in many things, you might not be aware there’s often an emotional hump to get over. Push yourself a little. You will experience that moment when something clicks. When you feel that you’re adept at it. That feels great. This may be the play that energizes you.
I constantly search for classes. Since I like music, I search classes at local music stores. Other sources are local art studios, education centers, online classes and certainly YouTube for a first pass-through DIY video. I’m addicted to my community public library’s in-person programs. My community library even has a separate maker space with sewing machines and a commercial kitchen.
Part of the reason that I sign up for classes, even for things I already know how to do, is that a class signals to your family and work colleagues, this is time I’m setting aside. On music class days, my husband knows the kids’ bedtime is his responsibility. In turn, he has his time for hobbies. While it might not sound fun or spontaneous to have a class or a league, that makes it happen. Even your work colleagues come to know that every Tuesday you need to leave at 4:30 p.m. because at 5 p.m., you do this. Every Tuesday.
