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

2008 © Dan Roam THE BACK OF THE NAPKIN all rights reserved2

Visual thinking: what problems, what pictures, and who is ‘we’?


Rather than draw this:

Let’s draw this:


Rather than focus on this:

Let’s focus on this:


Exercise 1: the Who is ‘We’ self-assessment


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


Now comes the math, I’m afraid…

5-14 15-20 21-30

On a napkin, write your pen COLOR, and then…


Draw a circle and call it “me”…

Napkin exercise, step 1


Step 1b

Now draw another circle (more like a cloud) and give it a name, too…


So, which problems shall we look at…


What’s the business strategy challenge?


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…


How about a napkin map?


Product development: Why are we collecting all these numbers?


What are the three things the CFO does want to look at?

Financial Drivers

Date Cut

Org Unit


So, what might *that* look like…


Or, when executed in Expression Blend…


Step 3

Draw in the last circle, only make this one more of a hotdog…

then add in a + symbol…


Step 3

The universal visual thinking problem solving toolkit…

Draw in the first set of 3 blades…


3 parts or ourselves to improve


Step 4

Draw in the next set of blades, this time 4 of them…


Let’s think about ‘process’ for a moment…

2008 © Dan Roam, all rights reserved33

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?


Step 5

Now draw in a corkscrew, and give it 5 twists…


*whew* Time for a break on the islands…


How about ten apples?


Meet the SQVID… a.k.a ‘The 5 focusing questions’


Two ways to use the SQVID


SQV.. examples:

Simple

Elaborate

Qualitative

Quantitative

Vision

Execution


..ID examples…

Individual

Comparison

Delta(change)

Status-Quo


Step 6

Now draw in the last set of 6 blades…


The 6 ways we see:


<6><6>


Framework 1: “Portraits” for WHO / WHAT problems


Framework 2: “Charts” for HOW MUCH / HOW MANY problems


Framework 3: “Maps” for WHERE problems


Framework 4: “Timelines” for WHEN problems


Framework 5: “Flowcharts” for HOW problems


Framework 6: “Multiple-variable Plots” for WHY problems


Step 7

Done: our very own visual thinking universal problem solving tool kit!


Step 8

Give it to a friend, and help them see the power of visual thinking, too.


Speaking of airplanes…


Dan Roam

[email protected]: 415-695-0231Mobile: 415-823-579439 Romain St.SF, CA 94114

www.digitalroam.typepad.comwww.thebackofthenapkin.com

the back of the napkin: solving design problems (and selling your solutions) with pictures

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