Download - The Back of the Napkin: Solving Design Problems (and Selling Your Solutions) with Pictures
The Back of the Napkin Workshop
Dan RoamMIX08 :: UX03 :: March 5, 2008 :: The Venetian
Solving Problems with Pictures
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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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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