That's too much, man.

Can there be one go-to formula for simplifying something? Probably not, but here's my attempt. Let's say you are faced with an overstuffed piece of communications, that has a kitchen sink of information, needs hierarchy, and is attempting to talk to multiple audiences. How could you quickly clarify? Try this two phase approach:

Phase 1: Simplify
Answer the questions below in a separate, empty document:
  1. Who is this for? Even if you have multiple audiences, pick only one for this exercise.
  2. What do they value? Identify their top 1-3 needs that your product fulfills.
  3. What is it worth to them? Place a measurable value on what your product can do for them (ie., amount of $ saved, amount of time saved per month, etc. This can be conjecture for now.)
  4. Write a value statement based on steps 1-3.
  5. How does it work? Outline a simple step-by-step to walk your audience through your product. Try to keep it to as few steps as possible (3-5).
  6. Identify a call to action--what do you want the person seeing this document to do? Contact you? Sign up for a demo? Etc.
Phase 2: Apply
Take the content you've created in Phase 1, and input it into a new document. You should have the following:
  • Value statement for specific audience (1-2 sentences)
  • Measured value: 1-3 measurable outcomes
  • Step-by-step of how your product works (3-5 steps)
  • Call to action-what should your audience do right then?
In this case, here's how it shook out with a before and after:

Front and back before

Front and back after

How would you systematize simplification?















Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Empathy Matrix

Image
I recently spoke with a designer who has created user experiences for large companies, including Amazon's Alexa. He spoke about the importance of empathy, and how, while we as designers talk about it often, we're not really engaging in it. He described a matrix of feelings, that looks something like this: If someone is fully attached to a situation, but only thinks about themselves, their reaction could be seen as Pity. "Oh, look at those poor people in that situation. I'm so different from them, and I feel so badly that they are stuck there." If they are completely focused on themselves, and utterly detached, their reaction could become Disdain. "I don't really care what happens to those people. I just can't relate. Whatever situation they are in, they probably brought it upon themselves." Being fully attached to a situation, and focused on others brings Compassion. Compassion requires action. "Look at those people! We have to ...
Read more

Goals And Empathy Are Paramount

I'm reading a book called "Getting More" by Stuart Diamond. He's a renowned negotiator, and instructor of a course on negotiation at Wharton Business School. I'm only part way through, but I'm connecting with a lot of his ideas, especially the idea that succeeding in a negotiation doesn't usually look like what we expect it to, or as it might play out in a movie scene. That an effective negotiation isn't usually won by brute force, and dominating the other side. On the contrary, to build sustaining, healthy "wins", vs. short-term, detrimental wins, you have to have empathy. You have to see the other side, and imagine the "pictures in their head" based on who they are and how they are feeling at the time of the negotiation. A win is rarely arrived at without making it "about them", and ensuring that they feel like they have gotten something from the deal. The first strategy he discusses is that "Goals Are Paramount...
Read more

KonMari and the Power of "How Might We?"

I'm still on my Kondo-ing kick, moving slowly through the proper stages--for the uninitiated, the stages are denial, anger, bargaining...wait, no, that's something else. The stages are clothes, books, papers, komono, and sentimental items. So far I've only done clothes and books, but already I can see how some of the rooms in our house have managed to stay clean for longer than a day, so something must be working. A premise of the KonMari method is that you should identify what you love, keep only those items, and create a home for each item. That way, you will always know where to put something back when you are cleaning up. It occurred to me that this is an effective solve for a persistent decluttering problem, and you can imagine it as a "How Might We" question. A "How Might We" (HMW) question helps spark ideas in a brainstorm. If you're met with a design challenge, it helps to ask HMW instead of, "We need something that does X. How do we...
Read more