“What do you mean we’ve been working on different things?”
Or, the importance of defining intentions.
Imagine you have spent a few good hours of work on your own before you realize that you have headed down a tangent that was not really part of your original destination. Exciting, if you’re out to wonder. Frustrating if you’re part of a team and others have done the same: taken various paths, not connected in any way, possibly off subject. Have you ever felt that tingling effect in the back of your skull, while thinking: “Oh f***, I completely missed this”?
Don’t worry — you’re not the only one. And while we all have our bad days, this feeling is not owing to any incompetence or lack of professionalism. There is a chance that the prompt handed to you before you started thinking was not articulated in the best way. You were sent into the wild, unprepared. In this third medium post discussing design from a business perspective we will be focusing on the importance of creating a clear and action-driving definition of the situation at hand.
Having witnessed the frustration coming from an ill-prepared prompt from various roles, as a design team member, a brief-setter, a workshop facilitator, and an educator, I have come to appreciate that creating a short, yet rich way to communicate the direction for a group’s future efforts can be an art form. And the importance of getting it right is paramount. However, it is astonishing how easily brief-setters can disregard the effort of correctly articulating their intentions.
Disclaimer: brief-setters can have various titles in real life: “client”, “creative director”, “project manager”, “product owner”, “parent”, “teacher”, “coach”, “skipper” etc. In this post, we refer to the role of the individual who directs the flow of a group’s energy down a specific path, with the hopes of achieving agreed goals within specific limitations, e.g. to deliver a campaign, a product, raise or educate a child, win a game or safely land on a specific shore.
What is a brief? And what is a challenge statement?
A brief is a description given to you and your team by someone who wants to achieve something — this could even be yourself. It is not necessarily a text, nor is it always very descriptive. In general, it captures the initial intent of the brief-setter, and a possibly limited understanding of the theme at hand, not necessarily put in an inspiring way, i.e.:
“I want to get to Milano”.
On the other hand, a challenge statement is an eloquent and succinct description which defines the area with which a team will occupy their thinking, pointing to a direction towards which thoughts will unravel, and carries and entails the knowledge generated by any research or conversation done by the group up to this point. In design projects, it is a human-centered “agreed contract” of the goal that needs to be achieved, hinting the work that needs delivered, and is a common and shared understanding for what questions need to be answered. A challenge statement is better informed and articulated than a brief, richer and written in a way that invites action, i.e.:
“I want to get to Milano, with my friends, driving through the most scenic route”.
A brief exists to set the stage and help a group identify what the real issues to confront may be, while a challenge statement is there to help focus thoughts and support decision-making as work moves ahead.
Why is defining intentions necessary?
As we all know, being part of a group, such as an organization, a society, a country, a town or a family can be invigorating and challenging, a concurrent thrill and headache! Different individuals, with a mind of their own, co-existing and required to cover common needs, have to find a way to work together. Coordinate, contribute and communally put effort that moves the group towards its desired direction, wherever that may be.
No matter the style with which the direction was put in place, clearly stating it without knowing or detailing how to get there, it is important to instill the values and reasons of the joint effort in the group’s minds — for survival, for wellbeing, for securing assets, for putting a (wo)man on the moon or just for fun.
Defining intentions and communicating them to the group can be the cause that leads to causality, a compass for a voyage or the spark to ignite creative thinking, and this direction can be based on insight, knowledge or intuition. Although one might say that the more objective the reasoning behind the direction, the more chances one has to convince a group about it, as I think of it, there is always the ‘other side’, so don’t take my word for this last point…
Why is the correct articulation of our intentions so important?
TL;DR: it reduces confusion and saves time & effort.
Have you ever been entangled in a long ongoing argument because each party goes on valid tangents, but things do not seem able to converge to a conclusion? Remember how frustrating and energy draining it felt not “getting through”? Remember how much worse it got when there was an overhanging deadline? Not a happy situation — often owing to misunderstandings and misinterpretations, falling into our own biases making us unable to come to a joint conclusion. Though this can have its reasons in empathy — or its ill-practice, a correctly communicated statement of intentions can save a group a lot of time and effort while making its members feel empowered and ready to give their full creative potential to address the challenge at hand.
Minds will find focus, personally and collectively, needs will come at the center of attention and the group will be a step closer to the original intended direction.
Articulated as a challenge statement, the intentions ought to be worded in an exhilarating and intriguing way that invokes thoughts, action and agency, rather than confusion, refusal and immobilization. They should be memorable and easy to spot, since going to where we are going might be a 5-minute trip or a 5-decade effort. And really, an ill-prepared statement of intentions will miss the chance to gather, orchestrate and direct group efforts, like providing a faulty compass and asking sailors to set course to a specific land.
What should the statement of intentions be about?
It ought to include all relevant information that at some level one needs to be reminded of. Have we decided that the experience is more important than the aesthetics, or the functionality? Surely all are important, but it is useful to set the tone.
When the challenge statement is being written, a ton of research will have taken place on the theme of interest, as set from the original brief. A high volume of new findings will have entered the group’s perspective and a wide range of new understandings of the theme will have been generated.
However, all this must be distilled with what is called “sense-making”. What is all this new information? How important and relevant is it? What does it indicate about what we are trying to achieve overall? Sense-making is a painstaking process that requires clustering research findings, getting closer to who the project will serve and how, what the context may be and perhaps offering an indication of the means available for addressing our theme. It uses a number of design tools to model the information gathered, making it understandable and conveyable. The conclusion of sense-making is the development of insights — formerly undiscovered knowledge bites on the theme, possibly hidden from common sight. Put more poetically, insights are bright rays of light in between the dark rain heavy clouds of reality accompanied by a big “WOAH!!”.
The challenge statement ought to be a concise expression of the main insights developed during the preceding research phase, pulling together generated research findings, put in an understandable and action inviting way.
Wait, did you call the statement of intentions an art form?
Yes, I did. Make no mistake that creating a statement that defines intentions is the art of balancing meanings, words, precisely conveying directions for thought, while allowing room for creative practices and offer space for opportunities to arise. It must include relevant information, with no excess. It must not omit important aspects. And nothing is taken for granted. It has to be just right. Weighed, thought-provoking and succinct. Aren’t these attributes that make Art?
How do I know I’ve generated a good enough statement of intentions?
As with any art form, practice makes perfection. Mistakes, iterations and pitfalls, so long as being educational, make you a seasoned brief-setter. However, there are some tricks to check if you’re on the right course with your statement. Eg.:
1. Prototype a statement and ask for feedback from a trusted stranger. Do they get it? Good. Would they require much more info? Are they too confused? This indicates you need to put in some more work.
2. Try answering it yourself. Do you know where to start from or where to end? Do you have enough information on the project and its direction? Here, you are prototyping an ideation section (more on that on a next post) to gauge the effectiveness of your chosen words — your art piece.
3. If the statement stands alone, away from eg. the project notice board, does it make sense? Firstly, as a sentence and then as a challenge statement? It should.
Be it with friends, your spouse, colleagues or comrades, sharing intentions in regards to the direction the group must take, given it is your responsibility to do so, needs an intimate approach to communication. The style you use may vary: you could be writing a text, sharing a song, posting a video or use any other creative way. Up to you.
All you should remember from this post is to develop a habit of turning on indicator lights, just as you do when driving: clearly sharing your intention of making a turn and making it visible to everyone around you, drivers, vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists.
And that may well be the best way to get to Milano*: safe, sound, happy and full of new experiences!
*there is no specific reason for choosing Milano in this post other than I have nice memories from visiting its design festival in the past, along with friends and colleagues.
This text is the third in a series of five articles discussing the design process with a business outlook, focusing on the respective Design Thinking steps. You will find the links to the rest below as they are being created.
Intro: “Thinking Design”
Step 1 — [empathize]: “I empathize therefore I innovate”. Does this hold true?
Step 3 — [ideate]:
Step 4 — [prototype]:
Step 5 — [test]:
Learn how to turn innovation on in any organization or reach out to Found.ation for a tailored solution: thefoundation.gr.
