More is not always better

People like the idea of having options but when faced with too many they shut down. It’s almost always better to present people with fewer, higher quality, options than to overload them.

Remember the last time you tried to make a selection from an ten page Chinese restaurant menu? You probably chose something from memory. Back when Blockbuster was in business I had to decide what movie to rent before I arrived because, if I didn't, I'd just wander the aisles in a state of information overload.

Whether you’re sending a client mockups or designing an interface keep the options focused and few. Of course there are exceptions. A power Photoshop user want an array of tools at their fingertips, a pilot wants all their instruments in view. But if you’re designing for the mainstream and want to facilitate decision-making present fewer options that represent your recommendations.

People won't read your documents

Have you ever sent an email packed with details and been frustrated because someone didn’t digest and retain all the information? Or maybe you drafted a comprehensive design doc that no one read. There are countless scenarios where we expect colleagues to dig into our documents like they’re the next Brandon Sanderson volume. It’s disappointing when we realize our efforts aren’t appreciated but here's thing...people don’t read, they skim. Don’t blame them. Chances are you do the same thing.

Writing consumable and clear documentation requires strong editing skills. Prepare to spend as much time paring down your text as you did writing the first draft. And be prepared to talk through your ideas.

Keep documents short

Time is valuable. Show your colleagues you value their time by keeping emails and documentation clear and brief. Want to show off your writing skills, your knack for narrative and snappy dialog? Awesome, start a blog featuring your short fiction or become a contributor to Medium. You can still have some flavor in you work documentation but keep it tight. Clarity is great. So is brevity. 

Format your documents

Some things, like technical documents, just need to be long. Regardless of size, think about formatting. There's nothing worse than reading an enormous block of text and wondering where is the nugget that's relevant to your job. Yes, maybe this means catering to people's decreasing attention spans and isn't that a horrible side effect of all this technology. Oh, dread. Roll with it.

Use headers, highlighted text, space between paragraphs, narrow widths and bulleted lists to help your reader.

Email sucks for conversation

Email sucks for brainstorming and the exchange of abstract ideas. If you want your emails to be read, keep them short. If you want creative exchange, talk to your collaborators, take notes and send a compact summary of decisions resulting from the conversation.

Anticipate Needs

There are few things worse than then doing a review with your client or PO and getting clobbered with questions you didn’t anticipate. Ideally you would have interviewed them about their goals before you started any actual work but inevitably something slips by.

Think like your client. Internalize their goals as your own. If you work with the same people regularly write down the feedback you anticipate and compare it to the feedback you receive. Do this enough and you’ll see patterns emerge. Most of us have a limited set of scripted needs and we express them over and over. You boss/client/PO is no different.

Regularly step away from your work and anticipate your client's needs. Write them down. Developing this empathy will focus your work, reduce revisions, save time in reviews and your boss or client will trust you more.

Horstman’s Law: Control is an Illusion

This is so true. As a manager there's a strong temptation to over-validate our presence by controlling the conditions and people around us. However you can't control everything. Ultimately you, and your team, will be happier and more productive if you learn to step back. 

“There is not a single person whom you think you “control” who would agree with you. If you really think you’re so good as to control another, then who in your organization thinks that way about you? Stop trying to control. You’re wasting your time. Build relationships that allow you to influence.”

“Build relationships based on trust. Say, “I trust you.” Let your team choose their path at times, even when you disagree.”

Find more great ideas and information at Manager Tools.

Horstman’s Law: It’s All About People

“This is actually a hard-nosed, scientific and financial reality. Any hour you spend on people is a better investment than an hour spent on systems, processes, or policies. Great people can overcome average systems; average people won’t live up to great systems.”

Surround yourself with talented people and get to know what makes them tick. Conversation about work is great but that will only give you a shallow understanding of who they are and, if you're working with someone, do you really want to settle for partial understanding? You can invest in technology and great ideas but without reliable, talented and communicative people to execute ideas you'll be stuck cleaning up other people's messes and that's just not a good use of your time. 

“Spend time with your folks every week. Learn their strengths and weaknesses. Learn their projects. Learn their children’s names.”

Find more great ideas and information at Manager Tools.

Horstman’s Law: The River Is Wide, The Currents Are Messy, But All The Water Ends Up In The Ocean

If you haven't yet discovered Manager Tools I highly recommend you spend some time with their podcasts. The focus is on becoming an effective manager but I found their content is just as applicable to the lone wolf or freelancer.

“Watch water flow down river sometime. It doesn’t march in nice straight lines. It meanders. It’s messy. Scientists say 20% of it is actually going up river. Your organization is organic–it’s made up of people–just like a river. Your projects and timelines are going to be messy and defy control. Stop fighting it.”

“Don’t worry about or punish every missed deadline–wait for a pattern. Think about a chinese finger puzzle. Sometimes a light touch is the way out. Let go–flow–to get ahead.”

Find more great ideas and information at Manager Tools.

Fear the Pie in the Sky

Creativity is fueled by constraints. The challenge is finding the right amount of information to get you started but not so much that you have no room to explore. 

Here's the example I use with my students:

1. imagine sitting down with a client who's commissioned you do do a painting but they don't know what they want. First of all, send up some red flags. You either need to start asking questions or prepare for heavy revisions and budget accordingly. They are not okay with you doing anything - they just didn’t know what they wanted until they had something to react to.
2. Next imagine that same client specifying they want a painting of a duck. Ah, your life just became easier. You have subject matter, a host of questions you can ask them (Why a duck? Male or female? Just one?) and a clear path for collecting reference material.
3. Finally, what if the client asks for a blue duck. Awesome. You have all the same questions from above plus - why blue? What does blue represent? 

Learn how to interview clients, and yourself, to establish the right amount of enabling constraints. Too many and you'll find yourself boxed in by all the conditions. Example: the client wants a beautiful painting, in the style of Cy Twombly, of a blue duck walking east to west across the street she grew up on, while a group of children are playing kick-the-can next to a large fir tree that represents age and the bittersweet loss of memory as it relates to past relationships, specifically this one person from college who the client thought was the 'one' but the person ended up joining a monastery after knocking up the client's best friend. 

You'll either want to walk away from that project or have a long conversation with the client about their priorities. It'll save you time down the road.

The Ninety-Ninety Rule

The Ninety-Ninety Rule is attributed to Tom Cargill of Bell Labs and states the following: "The first 90% of the code accounts for the first 90% of the development time. The remaining 10% of the code accounts for the other 90% of the development time."

The quote was made in relation to computer programming but one of the underlying themes of Tools not Rules is that the concepts translate across disciplines. These ideas work for illustrators, designers, bakers, musicians, dancers and more. The Ninety rule is no exception.

Don't underestimate the amount of work it will take to bring a project to a close. That first big push, coming up with the ideas and laying the groundwork is the easy part. Wrapping up everything (bug fixing, prepping marketing material, getting approval, adding audio, clarifying the UX, etc) so your project is ready for world is the hardest part. If you're an experienced project manager you might have accounted for all of this but if you're just getting started, or working in a new domain, it can't hurt to plan for the final 10% of a project to half, or more, of your production time.

Get things rolling with a creative brief

A creative brief is the first attempt to articulate the goals of a project, define its perimeters, audience, and competition. It serves to focus your conversations with team-members, stakeholders and clients. Throughout production you can refer back to this document to make sure you’re still on message. Note: the contents of the brief will likely change as, in the process of development, you learn more about what you're making. 

I've used creative briefs in the development of video games, theatrical shows, branding, book projects and more. I even led a workshop where someone applied these ideas to her baking.

Here are some things to keep in mind:

• Collaborate. Interview your stakeholders so you can internalize their goals. Be sure to include anyone who is in the approval pipeline. You don’t want nasty surprises once production is in swing.
• Keep it brief. It’s okay to do a brain dump at first but whittle it down to the essentials before your share the document. People won’t read it unless it’s succinct and if people don’t read it the value is limited.
• Focus on meaningful descriptors. Words like ‘cool’ and ‘interesting’ are useless. Dig deeper. What does ‘cool’ mean to you?
• Describe your features. What makes your product/project distinct?

Get started

All projects have unique needs and I've tried to develop a brief that's broadly applicable and editable so you can adapt it to your needs. The template is 100% free and I hope you find it useful. You can get the document here. 

How to use it

Okay, you downloaded the template. Now what? Simple. Answer the questions in the document. You want to replace the supplied questions with brief, descriptive and declarative copy. Start with what you know then fill in the rest, tracking down answers through research and conversations with team-members, clients, stakeholders, etc. Some of the questions may seem obvious and you may not want to write a response. Try answering them anyway and share this document with your collaborators and clients. Very often the things we assume to be true aren’t the truths of the people around us and writing them down helps expose these differences. 

Does your brief describe the project clearly enough that is makes sense to a reader who has no familiarity with your concept?

When to use it

Try it on a few different projects. You'll learn what's helpful and what doesn't apply to your work then you can customize the brief to suit your needs. Sometimes you just need to follow someone else's process but it's good to learn what works best for you.

I use creative briefs on team projects to help consolidate ideas and focus the vision. When working on solo/personal projects I'm less worried about outside expectations and tend to dive into the process however I have used them on especially large or complex projects that I'm developing on my own. For example: both Tools Not Rules and the book I'm currently writing began with creative briefs (and both of them have evolved away from the brief over time).

Sometimes its fun to reread a brief after a project is done just to see how much your thinking has changed from your initial assumptions. If your project changes from the initial intent that's fine as long as those changes are deliberate. Editing the brief during development helps you keep your team up-to-date on shifts in goals.

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