Explain it Short...

The challenge for many companies is to explain their projects in the first few seconds of a conversation... a few seconds that only occasionally extends to minutes. AOL reportedly calls it the "one-beat test"... the time between clapping your hands twice; the time you have to command someone's attention on an AOL screen.

So you have a great project, a new-better way. If it's really new, then you have to explain it; if the user picks it up immediately than either: 1) it's not that new, or 2) you did a great job of explaining it.

User Scenarios...

For defining new projects, I always propose user- scenarios. Scenarios are the backbone of explaining a project concept and documenting the interaction between a person and product. A handful of scenarios provide great insight for the development of requirements and designs. They also provide a clear means for customer-partners to understand the intent and use of your product.

A powerful way to move beyond user-scenarios is using metaphors for both defining and explaining new products. Back when distributed digital process control was invented, Renzo Dallimonti was the master of describing the old 30 foot long analog instrument panel and the manner in which operators interacted with it, and then defining how that same operator would do the same job by interacting with a computer display and specialized keyboard. The metaphor defined the displays, the display hierarchy, the keyboard, response times, and set the stage for making thousands of design choices. More importantly, explaining the metaphor explained the product.
 

Metaphors...

Developing a metaphor for collaborative solutions is straightforward. Put people in a room, watch what they do and how they do it, and build a product that allows those people to do the same thing when they are miles apart. Better yet, do it better faster cheaper. Developing the metaphor is not simple, yet that exercise would show many collaborative products lack a complete or coherent solution for the customers' work.

The challenge is to explain new concepts. What better way than to relate it back to what the customers do now and how they do it, focusing on how the new product provides a faster, lower cost, and more satisfying solution to every interaction. And then there is the customer pitch, the one where your web site or presenter has one-beat to captivate... start with the familiarity of what they have done and draw them metaphorically into the present of your product and then into the future of your business.

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