By Kendal ShoobridgeMarketing Manager| Exa

How To Help A Real-Life

Knight Achieve His Goals

Credit Part 1:

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2013/05/07/how-to-help-a-real-life-knight-achieve-his-goals/

“We want a snappy, simple experience,” or “It should be on brand and should really pop.”

This is about design consultancyLike empty sentences like…

•Clean

•Simple

•Fast

BANNED WORDS

Start your consultation with this list on the whiteboard

•Snappy

•Some

•Most

•Nice

Any whiteboard is a weapon if you hold it right.

1. Set A Vision

“What’s the best thing about our product?” or

“What differentiates our service from the competition?”

DON’T GET DERAILED AT THE START Don’t start by focusing on questions like.

•Real Users have families, jobs and tax bills…

•Real people experience your idea on their terms, not yours.

WHY THIS IS A BAD IDEA

Dumb mass-marketing doesn’t

work any more.

WHY THIS IS A BAD IDEA

THE USER IS DRUNK

Explain needs as a

friend

REMEMBER: Your brand

is what people tell their

friends it is.

Acme Dragon Slaying

Swords

Our audience might say:

2. Narrow It Down

Let’s start with experiential

texture

Better. We’ve textured our knight, with corresponding depth to his reasoning. Experiment with different textures — such as technical nouns, age, income and geography.

Let’s start with experiential

textureIt’s easy to get lost in our idea

and forget how it applies to the

larger stage, so let’s delve

further in time, before and after

our idea:

Dragon-slaying princesses are

DIY champions.

MULTIPLE VIEWPOINTS

3. Stick To Your Vision

Once a scope is defined, remaining within its constraints is important. Thinking back to our banned words, let’s look at the scope-destroyers:

• Some

• Most

• Nice

Remove all but undebatable assumptions:

THAT WAY LEADS TO MADNESS

“Some Users” until you can say

“Every User,”

NARROW DOWN

“Most Times,” remove fuzzy options until they can say “All Of The Time.”

IF A CLIENT SAYS…

“It would be nice” issues if you

can fix a “we absolutely must”

DON’T WASTE TIME ON…

For example:

Earlier we defined our knight as inexperienced.

If anyone starts talking about experienced knights, we’d ask them to rephrase in terms of our defined audience. If we get side-tracked by knights who don’t want to impress kings, we’d jot that down on a “nice to have” list and forget about it entirely.

When performing, stage magicians use props and well-practiced patter to better engage the audience.

SLIGHT OF HAND

FEEDBACK WITHOUT

FRUSTRATION

Credit Part 2: Scott

Berkun

Feedback without

Frustration

http://scottberkun.co

m/2011/feedback-

without-frustration-

THE THREE COMMON

But completely tragic,

kinds of critiques

THE BLOOD BATH

WATER TORTURE

DOG AND PONY SHOW

STEP 1. If it is your own work,

own the critique

5 x THINGS WE SHOULD DO

If you haven’t set up the terms

of the meeting...

Then you have already

IF YOU SET UP A MEETING

2. DESIGNATED

FACILITATOR

FIRST TO THE

WHITEBOARD

HAVE CRITIC GOALS

GOALS

DESIGN

A/ DESIGN

B/ DESIGN

C/

? ? ?

GOALS

DESIGN

A/ DESIGN

B/ DESIGN

C/

? ?PROS

CONS

4. SEPERATE

LIKE/HATE

FROM GOOD/BAD

5. AVOID TOO MANY

COOKS

1. If it is your work, own getting feedback.

2. Have a designated facilitator

3. Have critique goals (and non-goals)

4. Separate Like/Hate from Good/Bad

SUMMARY