I've heard it said, "To learn a new truth read an old book." Today I want to tell you about a conversational skill that I learned from an out-of-print book that I absorbed many years ago. What I learned positively impacts my design leadership work to this day.

The skill described in this book is a proven game-changer for me as I face the predictable challenges that occur in leading groups of people on the journey of product and solution design. It also measurably improves my ability to connect with people in my personal life.

Anyone can learn this skill. Mastering it is a lifelong and worthy pursuit. It provides a clearer understanding of issues and what to do about them. As a result, design conversations stay on track when issues occur. They get identified with greater understanding...and they get resolved.

If you want more confidence in how to handle issues when they occur, the life skill taught in an out-of-print book, and that I introduce in this video, will absolutely help you in your work and throughout your life.

Good design conversations don't happen by accident. Facilitators who understand where people are coming from and where they are taking them have a markedly improved chance of getting great contributions and producing good conceptual design work.
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Here are a few ideas to help facilitate learning and discovery design conversations with busy people.

​Getting people to collaborate creatively in meetings is easier and more effective when it is done in a pleasurable, fun and trusting environment.

​I know from experience how hard this can be.

So here are a few tips for leading a creative, collaborative meeting...

Be prepared for the moment in advance by having your co-facilitor serve as a scribe, recording the person’s name on a single sheet of paper or in a note-taking tool like Evernote.

Then your scribe should listen for and record any of the following items that the person mentions:

​Nouns

• Their name
• Their organizational role name
• Workproducts (things they or their organization produce or services they deliver)
• Collaborators (people they work with or interact with to get things done or do things for)
• Systems or applications they use to help them
• Things they respond to

Verbs

• What they do or produce
• ​When they do it
• Triggering business events that they respond to

Pain Points / Opportunities

• ​Problems they describe​

Hold on to them. They will come in handy in the structured conversation that will unfold in the hours and days that lie ahead.

Nearly every one of these nouns are added to a Glossary. Many of them will eventually be placed around a Circle of Interaction (COIN) diagram that clearly summarizes the process, collaborators and deliverables on a single page.

When considering how to get from understanding a problem to designing and delivering a solution, the process is a predictable set of conversations that inform every step along the way from ideation to delivery.

​Getting "from-concept-to-market" faster and more effectively yields competitive advantage as well as a solution more likely to resonate with the people who will ultimately buy or use it.

The concepts described herein apply whether your field of endeavor is operational excellence or product development.

As an organizational leader facilitating efforts to improve a process or product manager engaging your design team, you face predictable challenges when moving from some vague notion of a concept to actually designing the solution.

Here are some aspects that affect your future state design process:

• Clarity
  Why are we doing this?
  ​Why does it matter?
  What problems are we trying to solve for and who will buy/use our solution?
  How do the problems materialize in the quality of life of those affected?
  How else does the problem materialize?
  What are the qualities of the ideal solution?

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• Velocity
  How do we get the design flywheel started?
  What does progress look like in the early stages of the process?
  How do we create a "fast path" to produce high-quality design deliverables that will inform the designers and architects of the envisioned solution?
  
  
• Engagement
  How do we develop trust and confidence within the design team?
  How do we acquire the whole-hearted participation of the people tasked with designing the solution?
  How do we vet the impact of the envisioned solution with potential buyers/users?

​Early conversations focus on Why and What: 

• Understanding what the problem is and why it matters, and designing by describing what the ideal qualities of the solution entail, in just enough essential detail.
• These conversations are enabled via agile design methods that produce specific deliverables intended for decision-makers, stakeholders as well as solutions designers and architects.

Latter conversations focus on How:

• Designing and delivering the solution.
• These conversations are enabled by agile development methods that produce specific deliverables intended for decision-makers as well as solutions developers and delivery channel stakeholders.

This approach lends itself to introducing the right conversation at the right time.

Conversation #1: Learning and Discovery

The scope of this conversation pertains to the understanding of the problem. ​This conversation is in scope of agile design methods.​

Allow the voice of the people who are experiencing the problem(s) to inform this conversation. Listen and learn and document that learning to describe what each problem looks like and summarize them in problem statements in addition to statements of what is working well.

Document this learning and discovery conversation to inform the future state design conversation. Decide whether or not to proceed to a future state design conversation.

Conversation #2: Future State Design

The scope of this conversation pertains to the describing the ideal solution. This conversation is in scope of agile design methods.

Allow a dedicated and accountable group of contributors to inform a conversation around describing "what" the ideal solution looks without describing "how" the solution will be implemented. The descriptive language is free from any implementation jargon and focuses on delivering a clear description of the envisioned solution that may include process definitions, key solution deliverables, user experience criteria, risks, issues and opportunities.

Document this future state design conversation to inform the solution development conversation. Decide whether or not to continue to a solution development conversation.

Conversation #3: Solution Development

The scope of this conversation pertains to designing and developing the solution. This conversation is out of scope of agile design methods. 

Allow a dedicated and accountable group of designers and architects to inform a conversation that describes "how" the ideal solution will be implemented. The descriptive language is rich in implementation detail. It may provide design alternatives that provide varying degrees of cost, risk, time, return on investment, etc. Decisions are made regarding design alternatives and leading to the actual development of a solution.

Document this solutions development to inform the solution delivery conversation. This conversation is out of scope of agile design methods.

Conversation #4: Solution Delivery

The scope of this conversation pertains to the delivery and support of the solution. This conversation is out of scope of agile design methods.

Allow a dedicated and accountable group to inform a conversation that oversees the delivery of the solution. This includes launching and promoting the solution as well as supporting it and providing user experience feedback to inform solution improvement efforts.

Agile design methods are those techniques and leadership skills that enable a future state design process characterized by high velocity, collaborative engagement and clarity of ideation. The resulting design is typically produced at a lower cost than traditional methods with a high degree of precision and improved stakeholder engagement and satisfaction.

The outputs of these conversations intentionally stop short of designing the implementation, They describe what the problems are and what the ideal solution qualities look like. This informs solutions architects and designers who are responsible for determining how to design the solution and the production/development teams that will deliver it.

Agile Design Methods: The What Perspective
Agile design methods, as quickly as practically possible, describe what is envisioned to be an ideal process or solution. They produce ideation deliverables that describe what the problems are and what the ideal solution qualities look like.

Exercising this type of "Design the What" discipline respects a separation of concerns between the market problem definition and the solution design definition. It informs the solution designers and architects who are responsible to "Design the How" of the solution under discussion.

​At the time of this writing, the phrase "agile design methods" is not widely used or understood.

Agile Development Methods: The How Perspective
In contrast, agile development methods, as quickly as practically possible, define how to architect the solution and then proceed in building and delivering that solution. They ​produce deliverables that describe how the solution is to be implemented and they produce the actual solution. ​

At the time of this writing, the phrase "agile software development" is commonplace and is routinely associated with the word "agile".

The purpose of this primer has been to establish a foundation of a conversational framework that provides context as to where agile design methods fit in an overall solution development life cycle.

It sets the stage for further elaboration on topics related to agile design methods, collaborative creativity, product development and user experience.

- Chuck

Subscribe to my free blog updates to receive content that vividly describes the techniques and leadership skills that embody the practice of agile design methods. The blog contains not only my ideas on the topic, but the insight of others who actively work and thrive wholeheartedly in the realms of collaborative creativity.

​I look forward to you joining us. It's going to be quite a journey.

However, in my experience, having a glossary available to collaborators is worth the effort because it serves as an accelerator an work effort accelerator whereas the absence of a glossary causes delays and other negative side-effects.

Here is an approach I use and recommend while facilitating collaborative meetings;  

1. Prepare: Make sure that someone (you or a designated person in the meeting) serves as a scribe to record words and their meanings. When meeting in a room, I suggest having 8" x 6" Post-it Super Sticky Notes and a Sharpie permanent marker available at all times. When meeting virtually online or over the phone, I suggest having the Evernote application open at all times.
   
   
2. Listen: While facilitating the collaborative conversation, listen for concepts or notions that might not be easily understood by others not as invested in the conversation. When the you hear a word or phrase, stop the conversation briefly, "Let's capture that idea as a glossary term."
   
   
3. Record:  Typically there is one person in the conversation who can authoritatively verbalize the glossary term. Have that person state it while the scribe records it.
   
   
4. Confirm: Have the scribe read it back to the group to get confirmation. Record any refinements and then move on with the meeting.
   
   For example, in a recent cross-functional human resources effort, our team came up with these terms. One of them had a single meaning. Another had multiple meanings stated in separate sentenced.
   
   exit interview – A final meeting to collect specific assets from the employee. A survey conducted with an individual who is separating from employment.
   
   involuntary – The condition upon which separation occurs that is not initiated by the employee.
   
   line management – A set of managers in the lower layers of the management hierarchy (e.g., team leader, supervisor) that manage employees who have no supervisory responsibilities.
   
   
5. Publish: Long after the meeting, because you were intentional you now have the corporate memory to reconstruct what was said by publishing the recorded glossary terms in whatever form is appropriate (e.g., appendix in a published document, page on a collaborative website or wiki).

Making your glossary accessible to all stakeholders provides a clarifying reference resource that accelerates understanding and positively affect the progress of your collaborative work effort. I hope this has been a helpful perspective for you.

​- Chuck

Subscribe to my free blog updates to receive content that vividly describes the techniques and leadership skills that embody the practice of agile design methods. The blog contains not only my ideas on the topic, but the insight of others who actively work and thrive wholeheartedly in the realms of collaborative creativity.

​I look forward to you joining us.
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