My college friend, professional paint ball player (you read correctly) Alexander Schneider, once described to me the way his mind works:

“I’m a king; I sit on my throne surrounded by millions of my royal subjects, each holding a sign. One-by-one, my subjects approach the throne and present to me their sign—each of which contains an idea, a thought, or an action. I review each sign, then dismiss or acknowledge the sign. This whole process never stops and the presentations happen in milliseconds.”

 
I was stunned. I had never encountered someone who so eloquently (and hilariously) explained the process of thought and decision so well.
 
In one sense, we are the king (or queen) of our mind; we make the decisions and have to deal with the consequences. These decisions may not lead to an extra close hair cut like Louis XVI, but not listening to the right “royal subjects” might results in headaches, heartaches, or belly aches.
 
I differ from Alex’s point of view—but only slightly. While I do agree with the metaphor of a constant stream of sign-bearers bombarding you with their own agenda, I find myself not being able to make such snap decisions on many thoughts or ideas. For a while, I would make snap decisions and I’d usually regret them. One day I decided to take on a different strategy: I’m going to take my ideas out on a date.

Call Me Maybe
 
To expand on Alex's metaphor, rather than immediately dismiss the 'subjects', I put them into a special "Maybe Later" queue. Using a process called "Getting Things Done"—which was made popular by David Allen's book of the same name—I add these ideas to a massive "To-Do" list in my organizational program of choice, Things by Cultured Code. The combination of my shorthand and the speed in which I copy these down must make reading it a hilarious nightmare for others. I imagine it's a lot like Charlie Kelly's Dream Book from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. When enough ideas have collected, I bust out my sketch book and start doodling. The goal is to give each idea roughly 5–10 minutes of my time and see if the idea is worth exploring on a deeper level.

This is the part of the process where you want to go "speed dating". For those who are unaware, speed dating is a social function where single people gather together and pair up for 5–10 minutes. Since the interactions are timed, it discourages small talk and encourages asking questions that will help you determine the value in your date. 

In speed dating, you wouldn't ask your potential mate questions like: "What color are the majority of your clothes?", "What's your ten-year plan for employment and living arrangements?", or "Does your family have any genetic diseases I should know about?". Similarly, it would be weird to ask your potential project questions about color and font treatments, profit margins, and any potential coding bugs—at this stage, at least.

Each idea is going to yield a different level of "getting to know you". Websites may call for quick wireframes or a basic site map, posters: some layout sketches or a mind map, logos: line marks, mind maps, and shapes. The point is, do just enough to gauge your major interests and see if the idea meets them. You may decide that a project may interest you later, but doesn't meet your needs right now—set these aside and reintroduce them in the next pool—I'm sure that many speed dating events have their own regulars.

Is This Love?

Now that phase one is over, you should have a sketch book full of doodles (or a pocket full of phone numbers). The question now is which ideas should you court and which ideas should you give the old "Dear John" letter. While you should still be casual, it's time to start thinking more seriously about a long-term commitment. Some aspects or your potential project may be exciting, but now it's time to start considering the whole picture. The sultry redhead you met in speed dating may have really got your motor running, but she spent all 10 minutes talking about her cat, Mittens. Similarly, a logo that has a super interesting mark may really get you excited, but if there's no client or no product, the project is most likely not going to be successful.

Now that you've picked out your ideas, it's time for a "first date". Since you're a classy person, you don't go on more than one date with one person a day, right? Right—the same rule applies to dating your ideas. Jamming in two "dates" into one day may not allow you to fully experience the idea for what it is—really give your ideas room to breathe and be themselves. It's also important to have fun with it; instead of your usual working space, why not go out to a coffee shop, restaurant, or the park? I've found that going to my favorite coffee shop makes the session feel less like "work" and more like a fun treat—it mimics the feeling of a real date to me.

Start asking the questions and exploring the topics that weren't appropriate during the "speed dating" session. Now is the time to start worrying about things like color treatments, profit margins, and any potential long-term pitfalls. In a real life situation, you may find out through that your date hopes to move to Saskatchewan in the next 5 years. If you don't like the cold (or Tim Horton's), then it's probably not going to work out. Better to find out now than when you're heavily invested and it's harder to separate. 

You'll know when it feels right and when it's time to say "good bye". Remember: the goals of dating (both ideas and people) are to figure out if your date's goals are similar to yours and to have fun.

By the way: It's perfectly normal to have a feeling similar to "first date jitters". May I suggest another article of mine, Blank Paper Syndrome, to help you out?

At Last

At this point, you've gone on several dates with all your potential ideas. You should start to notice that you're enjoying your time with one more than the others. It will become easier and easier to work on your idea—and to not work on the others. In real dating scenarios, this would be the point where you start smiling just by thinking about the other person. The sound of your phone alerting you of a text message makes your heart flutter because it might be them.

Eventually, it'll be time to make a commitment to one project. When the moment hits you, you'll know: you won't be able to stop thinking about it, every minute detail runs through your mind and you cannot wait to work on it. Congratulations, you have found a project you really care about. The length and depth of your relationship is entirely up to you, as no two relationships are similar. You may even be able to convince your project to let you see other ideas on the side.

There will undoubtedly be rough times ahead—you may even decide the project isn't right for you. Let's face it, couples break up all the time and the creator-idea relationship is no different. In both cases, it's important to remember that you can always repeat this process until you find a match that truly fits with your ideals, wants, and needs.

Now grab your sketch book, put on your fancy clothes, pour some whiskey, and get to dating!

Originally posted on MITX's FutureM blog series to add insight to the question that most marketing teams ask themselves on a regular basis; "What is it going to take for marketers to catch up to consumers?"

Keeping up with consumers is challenging for any marketing team. Whether it’s a team of 50 or as the Hangover character, Alan Garner put it, “a one-man wolf pack,” there are a few things I have learned during my time as a Marketing Specialist at Mad*Pow that are necessary to help us stay in the hearts of our clients, and most importantly in their minds.

As the months have turned into years, and the “one-man wolf pack” that was Mad*Pow’s marketing team grew by two, some things have stayed the same. One of those is our appetite for being a little quirky. It’s that quirkiness that’s kept us front and center in the hearts of our clients. You might be saying, “Isn’t that the design team’s job? You know – the people who actually make the product?” Well, partly.

Whether conscious of it or not, all good marketing teams are constantly asking themselves: what are we doing to set our company apart? Make no mistake: a client’s perception of your company is just as important as their perception of your product. So how do you enhance that perception? You sweat the small stuff. Start by spicing up your leave-behinds, holiday cards and anything else you’re planning to leave with a client or prospect. Here’s how to do it:

Straight up, get “OG"

No, I don’t mean sending them your company’s brand via bandana or gang initiation requirements. I’m saying leave your fingerprints on whatever you give your customers. Dust off those pens. Pull out that pad of paper. And put your penmanship to practice. Give a person who spends eight hours a day looking at a screen something handwritten, and their fingers will tremble.

GASP! SOMETHING HAND-WRITTEN!?

Trust me, this sounds like ancient history to us too. It’s rarely done in today’s digital realm – but that’s exactly why you should do it. Face it – would you rather get an e-vite – essentially 1 of 50 other e-mails you’re going to get today – or a cute, hand-crafted card with a witty message included?

Mix up your Marketing Materials – Mystery (Brown Paper) Bag Style

That’s right, we’re talking goody bags – like the kind you gave out at your eighth birthday party (circa 1994). Send them out after an event, or just leave them behind. It’s another idea that requires you to do work, instead of a computer. Who wouldn’t love that? Plus, it will give a glimpse of your inner child’s imagination (we all still have one, no matter how old we are). Don’t make it fancy; it should just be a little something that says, “Wanted to let you know we were thinking about you”. Sounds ridiculous! Who has that kind of time?! Many clients, speakers or prospects can’t even accept gifts!

I get it, BUT…!

You bring marketing materials to give out and display in your booth during events, right? And you tend to leave with less materials than when you got there, right? If you think about it, goody bags are just consolidated marketing materials with a few extra surprises. And why not be the company with a few extra surprises? Chances are it will keep you top of mind, instead of the other guy.

Just-make-someone-SMILE

Okay, so you may not get the whole goody bag thing, and you have no idea how you’re going to get your niece/nephew to handwrite all those thank you cards (at this point in your digitally driven career your handwriting is barely legible). Fear not! You can still make them smile.  As long as you make sure you “know” your client’s personality and prove it to them.

Don’t send the same thing to every client. Find out what makes them laugh, and sprinkle a little of your personality into it.  They should want to rip off the front of your card and hang it above their mantel (aka monitor), providing a humorous break from a dreary day. When a client is deciding on their next project, sometimes that’s all the difference it takes.

Check out this blog and others on MITX!

The summer is flying by and already my time at Mad*Pow is more than half over. The experience continues to exceed my expectations, providing a wide variety of opportunities to learn and contribute. One of the particularly satisfying aspects of my internship at Mad*Pow, and with the field of experience design in general, is that my skills and experiences in other fields are relevant and often transferable to my work as ux-er.  One of my goals while working at Mad*Pow has been to integrate the disparate knowledge and skills I have acquired in other fields into a meaningful set of UX tools.  Both of the projects I have been working on this summer have given me an opportunity to work towards this goal.

Before I heard of User Experience Design, or Interaction Design (or whatever you kids are calling it these days), I was deeply involved in exploring new models for sustainable international development. Looking back, many of the experiences that were key stepping-stones in my path to discovering interaction design were in this field. For this reason it has been particularly interesting to me to work on the second phase of the SimIndia project for GE Healthcare. The first phase of this project were presented at Mad*Pow’s annual Healthcare Experience Design conference last spring.  Mitch Higashi, Chief Economist at GE Healthcare, shared a prototype of an interactive modeling tool that GE Healthcare is developing in partnership with Mad*Pow to use the vast amounts of Indian health and population data for India that GE has collected allowing policy makers to explore the public health ramification of creating hospitals equipped to provide specialized screening and treatment for various health conditions. (A video of this presentation is available and is highly worth watching for anyone interested in healthcare, big data, data visualization or international development.) At the heart of the development issues in which I have been most interested are the questions of how to allocate scarce resources to their maximum effect and how to share know-how with the people who could most benefit from it. SimIndia addresses both of these questions, as well as offering the fascinating challenge of creating insightful visualizations from a huge quantity of complex data and intuitive interactions for a heterogeneous, cross-cultural group of users. It is a treat to work on the further development of this potentially life saving tool.

The other project on which I am working, kicked off at the beginning of my internship and has given me the opportunity to see a concept take shape from a Scope of Work document, through sketches, journey maps and strategy outlines. It has been a fascinating process and has filled in some of the gaps in my understanding of the UX process. In particular, I have had the opportunity to listen to and participate in creating actionable-insights from, interviews with stakeholders and users. This is my first experience with this type of interview. However, as an undergrad, I did socio-economic research in Ecuador to investigate the production process and financial tools used by local artisans, which consisted mainly of interviews. Many of the challenges I faced in Ecuador are the same as those I observed this summer.  In both cases the ability to surface the interviewee’s knowledge and understanding of the situation, particularly the things he or she takes for granted, is what makes the difference between a good and great interview. It was a pleasure to see a great interviewer at work.

On each of these projects I have benefited greatly from feedback from members of the Mad*Pow team, whether it be a better way to create flow-arrows in Illustrator, or a more succinct way to articulate a complex user interaction.  I have also had the opportunity to learn about the diverse set of outside experiences and skills that inform the work of other Mad*Pow-ers.  My co-workers bring experiences from the world of music, new media and academia, they create world class French onion soup (from what I hear) and interactive sculpture and have worked in law firms, government research facilities and everything in between.