Steve Neiderhauser

Making it easy to evangelize usability

Jakob Nielsen provides guidelines and a key word for evangelizing usability within your company.

The key word for early evangelism is to be opportunistic in allocating your scarce resources. You can’t follow the recommended usability process in all its glory because your organization lacks the commitment required. Instead of fighting windmills, go for the easy wins.

And that’s the key, being opportunity driven (and creative) instead of being resource driven.

Proof -- Marketing's Rocket Fuel

Several months ago I read a blog comment from John Zagula that included these hieroglyphics:

P > B > F

At first, I thought the comment might be spam -- What could this strange equation be? Then I realized the referring link pointed to a website for the Marketing Playbook, by John Zagula and Richard Tong. And finally, I discovered the meaning of P > B > F:

“Proof is stronger than Benefits, which are stronger than Features.”

You say you're the cheapest? Prove it. You say you're the easiest to maintain? Show it.

We could talk about how a new product launch might use this formula (and it should), although, at this time, I'd prefer to discuss how this formula can be used in your career. Here's a secret, this formula works well because of another formula:

Features are easier than Benefits, and Benefits are easier than Proof

When I say easier, I mean features are easier to produce (doesn't mean Features will produce results). Let me give you an example. When you first start working for a company you'll notice that most coworkers spend a great deal of time talking about all the wonderful things they can do. And yet, many of your well-intentioned coworkers seldom make anything happen. That's because they're focused on features -- I'm a business analyst; I graduated from this university…

There's so much noise at the feature layer that it's difficult to think, much less make it happen. So people who are looking for results move on to benefits. Still, benefits are just talk. Although, a better kind of talk -- I can make your life easier; I can save you $1.2 million. And because management has been scorched by past promises, even benefits aren't enough to get most projects off the ground.

By now, most people just give up and embrace the belief that some things are impossible to accomplish within an organization -- their genius is turned to gruel.

There are a handful of pioneers, however, who are still asking questions and feeding their genius. Their genius recognizes proof as the rocket fuel that propels projects into the rarified air of success.

Why?

Because proof shows management that a project will work instead of telling management that a project will work. And once you move from telling to showing, management will continue to go to you to get the experience they need to make decisions -- Because you've got the proof; and the proof is the experience. The experience helps management understand complex issues that would otherwise disappear into minds clouded by the voices of people who have lost the courage to prove it.

Yes, it may take more time, tenacity, and talent to create demo stories, product platforms, or samples that demonstrate the value of your ideas. Still, you'll find that as you exercise your proof muscles, it will become easier to press the proof button.

Who else wants a 3D resume

In “Seven Tips for Blogging Your Way to a New Job,” Debbie Weil explains how a blog can help you find a new job.

Because a resume talks about your talent while a blog showcases your talent, you have a better chance of catching a recruiter’s eye and proving your worth.

Proof, that you know what you’re doin’.

Although, you might get scared off by tip four -- Use correct grammar.

Sure, there are plenty of books on grammar. Still, most are so boring it's difficult to trudge past the first chapter. Words Fail Me, by Patricia O'Conner won't bore you or run out on you when you need words most.

One reviewer said that this is the other book Strunk would have written if he had a sense of humor. But don't take some reviewer's word for it. When you read these headlines you'll see this isn't your typical grammar book:

• Grammar Moses
• Verbs that Zing
• Pronoun Pileups

PowerPoint meets Screenwriting

Have you ever sat through a presentation where the speaker displays a series of PowerPoint slides with flowing text, and proceeds to read the text to you? You may have thought to yourself -- as I have -- there has to be a better way to present ideas.

In his new book Beyond Bullet Points, author Cliff Atkinson shows you how to escape the dull, predictable world of bullet points.

Instead of bullet points, Cliff teaches you how to use the classic beginning-middle-end story structure taught by Aristotle more than 2,300 years ago. This hidden structure has been used by Hollywood screenwriters to produce many of the stories we love.

So this is the structure that Cliff suggests you use in your PowerPoint presentations. The classic story structure seems to reflect how our minds construct reality. Reality is that there are several principles from educational psychology that also determine the effectives of your presentation.

Cliff provides a presentation structure (three acts, three layers) that will thrill your audience because it’s built upon the foundation of the ancient teachings of Aristotle and the modern research of Dr. Richard Meyer. Dr. Meyer, professor of psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, is considered the most prolific researcher in the field of educational psychology. During his research, Dr. Meyer has identified six guiding principles for the design of multimedia messages that connect with the wiring of our brains.

To assure that the Beyond Bullets method matches Dr. Meyer’s research and the boundless abilities of your mind, Cliff uses a three-tiered PowerPoint design:

• Headlines
• Visuals
• Text

Truly, this design is focused on how people learn. What’s more, this framework makes it easy for you to improvise or change your presentation.

Consider this scenario: You are asked to create a presentation, however, there are several layers of management that want to review your presentation before the CEO sees it. And because you’re the one doing all the work, the changes management suggests -- no, demands -- could earn you more than one late-night work adventure. So it’s in your best interest to employ a structure that makes it easy for you to simply snap in different visuals or headlines.

As you learn to write headlines and frame visuals, you’ll want to try more advanced and creative communication concepts.

By using a sea metaphor in his example presentation, Cliff shows how to define a motif -- a theme that’s carried through a story in a coherent way. Songwriters, for example, understand the difference between a metaphor and a simile. A simile only works for a verse and the focus stays on the speaker. On the other hand, a metaphor transfers focus to the song, and the metaphor (the relationship between two ideas) can be carried throughout the song.

Think of metaphor as playing in a certain musical key. Cliff’s presentation plays in the key of “sea.” And he shows you how to use visuals and words to compose a presentation that’s in tune with your audience.

Several years ago, as I sat in an audience of new hires, I heard a consultant speak about a job interview:

Upon arriving for his interview, this consultant was handed a piece of paper with three questions, and was told he could answer the questions himself or call another person. While others labored for hours, the consultant emerged with answers in hand after ten minutes -- His contacts and the ability to reach out and touch the right experts helped him ace the interview.

Throughout the book, Cliff gives us the brilliance of both worlds. His diligence, research, and creativity provide page after page of hard-won insights. And he points to the research and books of other experts that will help you add just the right touch. Indeed, with these proven presentation techniques you’ll find that where once there were dull, lifeless PowerPoint slides, there now exist vibrant stories, stunning visuals, and a better way to present ideas.

Benefits of Apple's Core Image

People who have switched to a Mac often gush about their new hardware as if they had just brought in an oil well in East Texas.  True, a PowerBook is beautiful.
 
Still, what many people fail to realize, and yet benefit from, is that the real value resides in OS X -- and its building blocks.
 
Because Apple’s software LEGOs jumpstart development, frameworks like Core Image allow scientific applications, for example, to be built in half the time without violating one building permit.
 
What’s more, after you’ve created a fistful of LEGOs, the innate tendencies of the mind compel you to combine components. And these new combinations cross-pollinate to produce a harvest of ideas and new products.

Meme Crafting

An idea is nothing more nor less than a new combination of old elements.
-- James Webb Young

I was going to write a couple clever sentences and point to an article by Chris O'Leary about Meme Crafting. Unfortunately, I'm unable to find the website where I originally discovered the free article.

So, I'll try to capture the gist of his article. First, you might be wondering, what's a meme? Chris explains:

Basically, a meme is an idea that moves throughout a population of people, much as a cold moves throughout a population of people (another term for meme is Idea Virus).

He says that many good memes are based on what people already know. In this article, Chris doesn't talk about recognition, not recall; however, he has written about it:

The brain is built for recognition, not recall. By this, I mean that the brain is better at recognizing a piece of information that already exists in the world than it is at recalling a piece of information that is stored within the brain. The brain is a true connection machine that is designed to make sense of and draw out patterns from the information that we encounter at every moment of every day.

Want to understand recognition vs. recall? Think of the Windows interface (recognition), not the DOS command prompt (recall).

By combining two familiar concepts, a meme can connect with people quickly because you spend no time teaching people about things they recognize. You see, the mind has only so much energy to expend as it tries to read words or understand concepts. If your customer spends energy cycling through words in an attempt to comprehend an idea, there's less chance she will grasp the idea. You want the delivery of an idea to be smooth and fluid so all of your customer's energy is spent absorbing the idea. Remember, you're not trying to impress people, you're trying to communicate with them.

O'Leary believes that marketing is meme crafting because the most persuasive sales people are ordinary people -- your customers. When a meme infects a customer, she wants to tell her friends about your products.

Because marketers have the ability to influence the transmissibility of their memes, it's important to understand how to create a meme.

First, he provides an example of a weak meme.

Kay Jewelers tagline, “Every kiss begins with Kay,” means and says absolutely nothing. While it may literally be true, it says nothing about the company or its products.

By now, you're probably wondering -- What does a good meme sound like? Wait no more:

"Veggie Tales. Sunday morning values. Saturday morning fun."

Veggie Tales makes children's videos that use cartoon characters to teach biblical lessons and principles. O'Leary loves how the videos solves a problem for him. The videos provide an alternative to Pokeman and other videos that are either neutral or of concern.

Many good memes are based on what people already know (Recall the recognition concept). People already know -- Sunday morning values, Saturday morning fun. The tactic of combining two familiar concepts has helped O'Leary create several memes. And it's a tactic that can be used by you -- to create a meme or to capture your next brilliant idea.

If you remember only one thing that I've said, remember that an idea is a feat of association.
-- Robert Frost