I must say it took me a while to finish this impressive book: "The back of the napkin", but hey I am a busy woman. I strongly recommend this book to both the visual enthusiasts and to those who might see its cover and be skeptical about it.
It is really hard to think that a book might help you develop a visual thinking approach, but if you already are that curious about it that you actually bought it: there's definitely hope for you.
The book defines steps and frameworks of good thinking, that happens to be visual. The ease of application of the tips I read in this book is stunning. I myself already applied a couple of them in my daily job and with quite some satisfaction. The most interesting discovery I made by reading this book is the "Why" explanation. There are indeed basic questions you need to address when you solve a problem and those are the typical story-telling ones: "What/who" "When", "How much", "Where", and of course "Why". As Dan Roam puts it, the "Why" and "How" answers should be the punchline of your presentation, the answers to those questions need to be convincing enough for any executive to approve your project. Your audience will get the "Why" not because you say it, but because you show them the same logic and research path you engaged while solving the problem.
Showing doesn't mean displaying the finished explanation, but accompanying the audience through the same steps, doubts and discoveries you did along the way to the final phase.
The "Back of the Napkin" is a great book to get you started on visual business problem solving, because it gives you some basic framework to work with, but also encourages you to come up with your ways of expressing a concept, and who knows... you may end up inventing the new, awesome, illuminating business visual framework.
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| from core77 |
The book defines steps and frameworks of good thinking, that happens to be visual. The ease of application of the tips I read in this book is stunning. I myself already applied a couple of them in my daily job and with quite some satisfaction. The most interesting discovery I made by reading this book is the "Why" explanation. There are indeed basic questions you need to address when you solve a problem and those are the typical story-telling ones: "What/who" "When", "How much", "Where", and of course "Why". As Dan Roam puts it, the "Why" and "How" answers should be the punchline of your presentation, the answers to those questions need to be convincing enough for any executive to approve your project. Your audience will get the "Why" not because you say it, but because you show them the same logic and research path you engaged while solving the problem.
Showing doesn't mean displaying the finished explanation, but accompanying the audience through the same steps, doubts and discoveries you did along the way to the final phase.
The "Back of the Napkin" is a great book to get you started on visual business problem solving, because it gives you some basic framework to work with, but also encourages you to come up with your ways of expressing a concept, and who knows... you may end up inventing the new, awesome, illuminating business visual framework.
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