the back of the napkin: solving design problems (and selling your solutions) with pictures
DESCRIPTION
Let's face it: describing user experience is hard... unless we use pictures. This session demonstrates step-by-step how anyone, regardless of artistic talent or training, can use simple pictures to describe complex design and technical concepts, solve fuzzy problems, and sell others on breakthrough ideas.TRANSCRIPT
The Back of the Napkin Workshop
Dan RoamMIX08 :: UX03 :: March 5, 2008 :: The Venetian
Solving Problems with Pictures
2008 © Dan Roam THE BACK OF THE NAPKIN all rights reserved2
Visual thinking: what problems, what pictures, and who is ‘we’?
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Rather than draw this:
Let’s draw this:
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Rather than focus on this:
Let’s focus on this:
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Exercise 1: the Who is ‘We’ self-assessment
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a) I’m in a brainstorming session in a conference room that has a big whiteboard. I want to:
1. Go to the board, pick up a pen and start drawing circles and boxes.
2. Try to decipher whatever is already written on the board.3. Go to the board and start writing categorized lists.4. Add a little clarification to what’s already up there – you
know, to make it clearer.5. Forget the whiteboard – come on here, people, we’ve got
work to do!6. I hate brainstorming sessions.
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b) Someone hands me a pen and asks me to sketch out a particular idea. I:
1. Ask for more pens, preferably in at least three colors.2. Just start sketching and see what emerges.3. Say, “I can’t draw, but…” and then make a horrible stick
figure.4. Start by writing a few words, then putting boxes around
them.5. Put the pen on the table and start talking.6. Say, “No thanks, I can’t draw”, and leave it at that.
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c) Someone hands me a complicated spreadsheet and asks me to look it over. I first:
1. Glaze over and hope it will go away.2. Flip through the pages and see if something – I dunno, whatever –
pops up.3. Read across the top of the columns or down each row in order, to
identify the categories.4. Select a row and column at random and follow them to the data
cell, then look for similar (or different) data results in other cells.5. Look for the largest or smallest values I can find, then trace them
back to identify them.
6. Notice that OPEX variance to budget is down for the second
quarter in a row.
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d) On my way home from a conference, I see a cute fellow attendee at the airport cafe, and he or she asks me what I do. I:
1. Grab a napkin and ask the waiter if I can borrow a pen.2. Pick up three packs of Sweet-n-Low, lay them on the bar, point to
one and say, “Okay, this is me over here, and this is the customer over here…”
3. Pull out a page from my PowerPoint deck – a really good page – and start walking through it.
4. Start to recite my original job description: “There are three things that I do…”.
5. “What I do? Well, better buy another round, because we’re going to be talking a while.”
6. Say it’s too complicated to explain well, but ask him/her the same question.
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f) I’m an astronaut floating in space. The first thing I do is:
1. Take a deep breath, relax, and take in the whole view.2. Pull out my camera.3. Try to spot my house… or at least my continent.4. Start describing what I see.5. Close my eyes.6. Find a way to get back into my spacecraft.
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Now comes the math, I’m afraid…
5-14 15-20 21-30
On a napkin, write your pen COLOR, and then…
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Draw a circle and call it “me”…
Napkin exercise, step 1
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Step 1b
Now draw another circle (more like a cloud) and give it a name, too…
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So, which problems shall we look at…
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What’s the business strategy challenge?
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Put into words…
The challenge:A new strategic
visionA refined company
missionA new operating
philosophyNew retail
fundamentalsNew store standardsNew customer
practicesNew training
materials
+
100 new staff every month…
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How about a napkin map?
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Product development: Why are we collecting all these numbers?
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2008 © Dan Roam THE BACK OF THE NAPKIN all rights reserved22
2008 © Dan Roam THE BACK OF THE NAPKIN all rights reserved23
2008 © Dan Roam THE BACK OF THE NAPKIN all rights reserved24
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What are the three things the CFO does want to look at?
Financial Drivers
Date Cut
Org Unit
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So, what might *that* look like…
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Or, when executed in Expression Blend…
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Step 3
Draw in the last circle, only make this one more of a hotdog…
then add in a + symbol…
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Step 3
The universal visual thinking problem solving toolkit…
Draw in the first set of 3 blades…
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3 parts or ourselves to improve
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Step 4
Draw in the next set of blades, this time 4 of them…
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Let’s think about ‘process’ for a moment…
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The 4 steps of visual thinking:
What is out there?
What am I looking
at?
What are the limits?
Which way is up?
What do I see?
Have I seen this
before?
What patterns
emerge?
What stands out?
What seems to be
missing?
How can I manipulate these patterns?
Can I fill in the gaps?
Have I seen enough – or do I need to go back and look at more?
This is what I saw, and this is what I think it means.
Is this what I expected… or not?
When you look at this, do you see the same things?
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Step 5
Now draw in a corkscrew, and give it 5 twists…
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*whew* Time for a break on the islands…
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How about ten apples?
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Meet the SQVID… a.k.a ‘The 5 focusing questions’
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Two ways to use the SQVID
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SQV.. examples:
Simple
Elaborate
Qualitative
Quantitative
Vision
Execution
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..ID examples…
Individual
Comparison
Delta(change)
Status-Quo
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Step 6
Now draw in the last set of 6 blades…
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The 6 ways we see:
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<6><6>
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Framework 1: “Portraits” for WHO / WHAT problems
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Framework 2: “Charts” for HOW MUCH / HOW MANY problems
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Framework 3: “Maps” for WHERE problems
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Framework 4: “Timelines” for WHEN problems
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Framework 5: “Flowcharts” for HOW problems
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Framework 6: “Multiple-variable Plots” for WHY problems
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Step 7
Done: our very own visual thinking universal problem solving tool kit!
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Step 8
Give it to a friend, and help them see the power of visual thinking, too.
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Speaking of airplanes…
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Dan Roam
[email protected]: 415-695-0231Mobile: 415-823-579439 Romain St.SF, CA 94114
www.digitalroam.typepad.comwww.thebackofthenapkin.com