Slow Down to Speed Up
Things are moving fast. Really fast.
But is that the best way to do business? Especially for those of us in the business of creating unique stories and marketing materials? What happens to all those details that we don’t have time to consider?
Your customers don’t care how long an idea was in the making. They care that it works to their satisfaction. So before you jump into the fray, make sure you can deliver what you promise.
The Slow Creative Movement
Churning out products and ideas seems to be the measure of good business these days. We want stuff NOW.
But in reality, it’s when we slow down to consider the ramifications of an idea or an action that we save ourselves time and money. Considering the details early on in the process can not only help you avoid mistakes, but more importantly, they can lead to better ideas and streamlined processes.
It was almost eight months–start to finish–before StoryStudio launched its expanded Words for Work program. Why the wait? We had been running many elements of the program for a couple years, we already had clients and successful engagements. But we had so many good ideas and not enough details on each to make sure they would all be successful.
So like the fiction writers we are, we “murdered our darlings” and culled only the best ideas. Then we took some more time to flesh those out and tested them to ensure excellent student experiences.
That eight-month creative process helped us to deliver a tight package of service offerings and a clear “story” that we can easily share with clients. We’ve managed to cut down our RFP response time by more than 60 percent, and can onboard a new client in a matter of days.
Details are for my staff. I’m the Visionary.
Yes. I like to think this way, too.
But don’t think of “vision” and “detail” as being mutually exclusive. They should be partners, two sides of the same coin. Implementing the details may be left to others on the team, but considering and planning the details should be everyone’s responsibility.
Thinking in small parcels also offers another important benefit: it can help you see an interaction from the customer’s perspective. Website user experience offers reams of evidence of how often we design our marketing communications from our own experience rather from the customer’s. It’s these small details that will cost you.
Just because you know that little blue icon is a link to the product information, doesn’t mean your customer does.
Seriously. Just Tell Me the Three Things I Need to Know.
- Moving fast is great. But while those big thoughts are swirling in your head and making their way on to the ideaboard, remember to also have a column for “details.” You don’t need to have all of them worked out in advance, but the more planning you do, the better off you’ll be.
- Big problems can sometimes be caused by one small detail. When you get stuck on a project or have to deal with an unhappy customer, think small and focus on “the significant” detail that may be buried within the issue. Ask a lot of questions to pull out as much information as you can about this one part of the process until you find what you can alter and make your client happy again.
- Execute. Execute. Execute. Finding the details is necessary. Following through on them, essential.
A version of this article was first published on Huffington Post.
