After starting to paint my way to a new product line and realizing running a business is like tending a snag, it was time to start moving from the visual ideas into words.
Organizing the words visually
I started to see there were layers to my business operations that needed to be in right relationship to each other. I started by putting each idea on a sticky note and putting it in the general vicinity of other ideas like it. I needed to get clearer about the parts and pieces. The process went on for about a week. I’d think of things and jot them down as I walked by the wall.
After I got a lot of the pieces posted, I started to put them into clusters. Things like:
- characteristics of customer groups
- what promises we offer
- what products and services we currently offer
- what products we want to offer
- what problems we solve for our customers
- content we already have developed
As the clusters of ideas formed, it started to become evident where they belonged in relationship to the images.
To visually differentiate the customer characteristics, promises and problems, I entered them into Mindjet Mind Manager and printed them out as mindmaps. The promises we offer our customers are at the top of the snag. The problems we solve are at the very bottom.
Everything we offer
One of the most surprising things about this process was laying out the line of things we offer in the center. It’s not that I didn’t know about all of them, it’s just that I hadn’t realized there were already twelve. And since I wasn’t paying close attention to that and making sure each one of them got their share of attention in our marketing, no one else realized we were doing so many things either.
I didn’t want to make it more confusing for myself or our customers. It became clear that there were two separate sets of things I offer to two different audiences. Using the same marketing channels wasn’t going to work.
Using Shape and Color to Add Clarity
Once I had more clarity about the hierarchy of ideas, I copied the ideas that went together onto similarly sized and colored sticky notes. This also helped with the stick factor, since I had moved the old ones so many times some of them were falling off the wall.
I love sticky notes, so I tend to ‘save’ them. I now make sure I always have plenty, so I freely use what I need to make things clearer. (Ok, except the shaped ones that are harder to find. It’s progress not perfection.)
Visual map guides the words development
I’ve spent the last two months writing and building out website for our new product line. Keeping this map on the wall in front of me has kept me focused. Everytime I look up, I see the vision of what I am creating. Not in a way that makes sense to the world, but in way that makes sense to me.
Finishing up the pieces for release
I’m finishing up the last pieces for release of the new site into the world. I’m always amazed at how many little pieces have to come together to make everything work. Hopefully, it will be live in a few day. I’ll let you know.
