The Big Post on Selecting Grand Ideas
All about stacks, scales, matrix selection grids & spider diagrams.
Part 1. Introduction
1. Who I am
My name is Ola Möller. Living in Stockholm. Working mostly as researcher, designer and workshop facilitator. This is my first post on Medium. Please be gentle with me. The topic is interesting and important to me, so pushed myself to get my thoughts down in written shape.
I’ve founded MethodKit 2 years ago. That’s been my full time occupation since. I basically make stacks of cards summarizing different fields.
I’m researching and boiling down expert knowledge into best practice checklists. The checklists are made into educational & practical tools. Those are the MethodKits. Each kit got 50-something cards. Each with an aspect, icon and a short presentation on.
The idea is that the cards should act as representations of the real project, not taking too much space but rather spark discussions, help the team align and to get overview. The cards have as little information as possible. They are not books. They only act as a reminder and a representation of a part in a project.
Before co-founded Project of How, a bank for creative methods. Along with doing a few big crowdsourced projects around 2007–2010. All available free online. The Photo Book about Sweden (44 young photographers depict Sweden). This Must Be The Place (43 young contemporary Swedish artists) & Georgia Stories (34 young Georgian Photographers depicting the country Georgia).
2. Why am I writing this post?
Living in the world of digital, I felt the computer became the main mode of work for me. But I felt that the analogue AFK world had been forgotten along with it’s possibilities. This is a post talking about how to select & assess ideas. I’ve made one before that was more specific to MethodKit called How to use. The thought there on grids & selection criteria where less defined though.
Sometimes I will mention MethodKit that I work with because doing the cards and symbols became a way for me to define different fields. This post is general and as long as your ideas are on physical paper the can be used in the same way. One idea per paper though, so it become modular & possible to re-order them.
3. The advantage of a physical & visual work process
Much of the advantage with using stacks, scales, matrix selection grids & spider diagrams is that they give you visual overview to be able to make informed decisions. They allow you to understand and visually compare different ideas and concepts you have been working on. After a brainstorming session, you have many ways to proceed. The ideas change, but what remains constant is physical ideas are easier to touch and manipulate.
I guess that post-its success docked into that need of having things physical. But still with more overview and more accessible than books.
I often have workshops where people have to make a brain dump of their lives. Different aspects of personal development. Employments they’ve had, projects they’ve done. What they are scared of. What energize or drain them. Seeing everything summarized on a big flipchart paper really helps.
4. Pattern language / design patterns
The last two years I have been working with MethodKit. The aim is to create visual cards that give an overview over different fields. If a field can be broken down and understood in parts it becomes possible to work and discuss the project in different ways without losing an overview of the whole.
A field’s pattern language is basically a best practice checklist with things you need to think about.
Each field has its own pattern. A classic project contains eg. goals, vision, team, budget, milestones, target group. Using cards to represent different parts allows an overview without being overly detailed.
These are some of the cards we made to overview general projects. It’s basically a checklist in card format.
Design from MethodKit for Projects.
These are pattern language to show the different parts of mobile app making for you to understand the concept.
Design from MethodKit for App development.
5. Using opposite words
5.1 List of opposite words for mapping of ideas
To be able to create good stacks, scales & selection matrix grids. Opposing words and ends of the scale come greatly in hand.
OPPOSITES
Slow — fast
Complicated — simple
Expensive — affordable
Strengths — weaknesses
Expected — unexpected
Loss — Gain
Boring — fun
Static — adaptive
Violent — peaceful
Draining — energizing
Unstructured — structured
Homogene — diverse
Ugly — beautiful
Within the norms — breaking the norms
DEGREE OF ONE WORD
Project size: Small project — large project
Capacity: Small capacity — large capacity
Impact: Small impact — large impact
Workforce need: Large workforce — small workforce
Expenses: High expenses — low expenses
Revenue: Low revenue — high revenue
Margins: Low margin — high margin
Challenges: Many challenges — Few challenges
Usability: Hard to use — easy to use
Scalability: Not scalable — scalable
Loyalty: soft (choice) or hard (contract)
Profitability: Unprofitable — Profitable
5.2 Combing opposite words into meaning
- Show Incomes minus Expenses = Profitability
- Quality vs Price = Good/Bad Value
- Low Risk & High User Growth = Investment opportunity
Part 2. Five examples
From least to most complex.
A. Two stacks
The two stack is the classic way of selecting ideas. Ideas fall in either one of the stacks, depending on the chosen criteria. It is a binary, black and white way to assessing ideas.
Two Stacks
1.1 Example of stack names
Yes OR no
Fast OR slow
Denied OR approved
Irrelevant OR relevant
For more words and stack names. See the list mention in the section 5.1 in the introduction above.
B. The Top 3 list
As a group or individual making priority lists & top ranking help you to understand where to head next or which ideas you all could agree on.
The Top 3 List.
The cards could represent parts of a project. (eg. team, goals, milestones, vision, stakeholders)
The cards could also represent different ideas and concepts you are choosing from.
Examples:
- Top 3 things that is most urgent
- Top 3 things that will impact most (could be your organisation eg.)
- Top 3 things that are weaknesses
- Top 3 things that are strengths
If you have an overview over the different parts (as cut out pieces of paper / postit notes with topics on. Or a MethodKit for a specific area).
C. A scale or axis
is a one dimensional way to assess ideas and concepts. The scale is more nuanced than the two stack but the still can contain the same opposite words.
A scale, timeline or axis.
Examples
- Is the idea easy/hard to do?
- Would it be boring/fun?
- Or would it be slow/fast?
- Do you need many/few people to realize the idea?
For more words and example what words to put on the axis. See the list mention in the section 5.1 in the introduction above.
D. A Matrix Selection Grid
is a two dimensional way of assessing ideas. A grid consists of two scales combined. Projects, concepts or ideas
Matrix Selection Grid.
How to design selection matrix grids is hard and different combinations of words give different outcome. For more words and example what words to put on the axis. See the list mention in the section 5.1 in the introduction above.
Practical examples:
Which parts of a project are important & not?
Using importance & urgency on the two axis give you a way to understand how what is important to prioritize.
High importance +High urgency = Do ASAP
High importance +Low urgency = Plan execution
Low importance + High urgency = Do after the ASAP tasks or Deligate
Low importance + Low urgency = Wait or ignore
How trends and game-changers affect organisations.
Using impact & preparedness on the two axis give you a way to understand how trends affect your organsation and industry.
Impact (on industry) + (organisation) preparedness.
Organsation Preparedness vs Industry Impact =
Organisation position regarding new trends.
Green cards (strengths):
High impact + High preparedness.
Red cards (weaknesses):
High impact +
Low preparedness.
Gray cards (ignore)
Low impact + Low/high preparedness
High impact +High preparedness = Strengths
High impact +Low preparedness = Weaknesses
Low impact + Low/high preparedness = Ignore
I suggest that you write up different trends that you have researched on different post-its or cards.
We’ve been making MethodKit with Trends, a deck of cards with 100 trends to use in this purpose.
E. A spider diagram
is a multidimensional way of assessing an idea or project.
When selecting ideas, the scales in a spider diagram can consist multiple axis with selection criterias. Each slice of the spider diagram represent one axis. A spider diagram is a way of making a complex situation easily overviewable.
Each in-between area of the diagram represents a different part of a projects. The diagram becomes a way to assess the progress of the project.
The diagram give a frame for discussing a project in a group or assessing it yourself.
Above is an example of how Business Model Canvas would look like as a spider diagram. Each slice show how done you feel with that specific part.
The diagram gives a visual and assessment of the situation. We have been using them as worksheets. PDFs free to download.
Using Spider Diagrams to understand what to focus on
A assessment of how complete different parts of a project is.
.
ON THE RIGHT:
The same mapping as the one to the left analyzed.
Green fields show things that are done & well crafted. = Strengths
Red fields show things that lack completion or that are poorly crafted
= Weaknesses.
Using level of completeness (1–5) can give you a good idea about your strong and weak and points.
Using Spider Diagrams to align groups
The spider diagram give an overview how finalized a certain part of a project is. (If you use completion as the value on the axis).
Parallel mappings
Using individual assessments of a joint project to see where you don’t have the same view.
.
Left and Right show opposing opinions on how complete or well crafted an aspect of a project is.
If you are two people that start of with doing individual mappings of your project the comparison between your mappings show differences in how you perceive the project (Marked in red). Discuss and try to find out why you see it different and end with doing a diagram together.
Using pattern language together with spider diagrams
Pattern language (aka. best practice checklist over a field). Can be used as
Using Opposite Words or
Part 3. Space and Process
1. Creating physical space.
Scotch tape is perfect to mount on walls. Postits. Thick & thin pens. Tack-it/Blu-Tack, plastic tape, colored dots for idea voting.
2. MethodKit
I am quite biased when I think that MethodKit adds a lot to working with different type of projects. To not have to recreate overviews, selection criterias, trends and checklists ALL THE TIME.
MethodKit for… (their are seven decks). All contain checklists over different fields. They can be used in all parts of the fields.
MethodKit with Selection Criteria for designing scales and to have discussions on how ideas should be assessed.
3. Group Process
There are a few ways of working with idea selection.
1-step process
- Work alone or Work in group. With the one step process there is a risk of not getting enough perspective
Somehow that dock into the criticism of Brainstorming.
2-step process
Work alone and then in a group(s).
- Think individually in silence, making your own assessment or overview.
- Collate the group members mappings (these could be any of the selection strategies above) to give you an overview and conversation starters to align the group around the project.
Understanding the differences and discrepancies within a group lets you as a group align your views on what is important and what to prioritize. It gives insight on what members of the group base their decision-making on.
Waging in and discussing position of certain ideas & concept makes it easier to open up important discussions and align yourself in the group.
Part 4. References & Links
We all know it’s better to re-order a prioritized list of sticky notes or re-draw a diagram than to make the same decisions verbally. That’s why there are whiteboards in meeting rooms and why people love agile trackers with sticky notes. War rooms take those tools to the next level.
Your Design Team Needs A War Room. Here’s How To Set One Up
Post by Jake Knapp at Google Ventures
Cards are fast becoming the best design pattern for mobile devices. We are currently witnessing a re-architecture of the web, away from pages and destinations, towards completely personalised experiences built on an aggregation of many individual pieces of content.
Why cards are the future of the Web
My post summarizing 45 card decks for Creativity. It’s the summary of what is happening in the World of Cards at the moment.
What is missing here?
MethodKit
MethodKit consists of nine tools on different topics.
MethodKit for […] (Checklist Cards)
The classic checklist made into a stack of illustrated cards. Each with one important topic, along with an icon and a small description. They are well suited to help you define and develop different types of projects. They can also play an important role in aligning groups around projects and where to head next.
MethodKit for Projects, MethodKit for Personal Development, MethodKit for Startups, MethodKit for App Development, MethodKit for Web Development, MethodKit for Gender Equality, MethodKit for Sustainable Development
MethodKit with […] (Index Cards)
These decks got a different mechanics than MethodKit for […]. The MethodKit with […] are more similar to a library of different things. They are not process based in the same way and the cards are often concepts or things. They are well suited for ideation and brainstorming sessions.
MethodKit with Trends, MethodKit with Tech Building Blocks. Later on MethodKit with Selection Criteria will be released.
Part 5. Your Feedback
I would love to have your feedback! The post is in no way final and I will keep updating this over time. Please send me feedback to my mail or by commenting on this post!
