If you’re not familiar with Amazon's "Working Backwards" method, you’re likely familiar with the press release exercise portion of it. It's writing a press release of what you’re planning to launch with the goal of evaluating if the desired outcome is compelling enough to do. This press release includes the product's name, the intended customer, the problem it solves, customer benefits, and an inspirational quote. This exercise is helpful, but it’s often written by product managers or people in the business. I reflected this weekend about what exercise might build on this concept but be more design-oriented…the case study.

As designers perpetually fight for a seat at the table like Sisyphus pushing the boulder uphill for eternity, they forget what their superpower is. We can cook, and boy, we can cook great stuff. The power of a designer in leadership, is first and foremost, the ability to design. I've seen this happen so many times in senior leadership and executive meetings. There are hours wasted in aligning on what a doc or metric means. The moment a design is shown of what the concept could be, it cuts right through the noise. Instead of everyone trying to chime in on their own perspective, they’re providing perspective on what is being presented.

The case study exercise is putting together an aspirational look back at the outcome. Some core elements to include in the exercise:

• Customer problems to solve

• What progression of metrics would be signals to achieve the desired outcome?

• Incentives it sets up for the business

• Technological limitations that you need to work through (no blue sky!)

• Are there any platform or technical limits to your product that are realistically considered?

• High-fidelity storyboards or prototypes of what the experience should feel like

I haven't run exercises precisely like this. The closest thing I've done with this was working with our CTO and VP of Product at One Medical. In 2018, we created a vision deck printed out as books to share with the board on what the technology and experience would look like in the following years. Many of the ideas that came out of this were actually worked on. Vision work is always a risk because you don't want to fall into the realm of vaporware. However, it's often easier to fall short than to be too imaginative.

Develop a few high-fidelity storyboards to get people to experience the moment. As designers, we’ve created so many artifacts throughout our careers that we forget the power of an inspiring artifact—even one that takes a few minutes to create. Visual stories help people imagine what the future could be.

Tracking progress

Now that you’ve done the case study exercise, document progress along the way. Don’t ever wait until months (or years) later to remember what you did. I have a few docs I use to track progress and reflection along the way.

The project doc

This doc isn’t what you use with coworkers. It’s your personal knowledge management for the project. The way I gather my point of view is completely different than that of how the company organizes work, and that’s okay. Keep a project doc of key decisions, considerations, and progress.

The company journal doc

The company journal doc is something I use to write free-form thoughts during my tenure at a company. This includes a list of wins and challenges.

• What I learned from my manager

• Lessons learned

• Free-form weekly reflections

The impact doc

This is different from the Hype Doc, and yes, I have a lot of docs. The impact doc is where I catalog results whereas the hype doc and company journal are more open-ended thoughts. I like to think of the impact doc as the box score or what people will remember.

Some examples of what goes in my impact doc

• % of revenue increased (hopefully increased!) during my time at the company—list projects that led to that

• Team growth

If you don't remember some of these metrics, I'll give you a pro hack—look at LinkedIn profiles of executives put in their LinkedIn as their career highlights. Write down the impact they list because you contributed to it during your tenure. Don't copy/paste the exact content. Think about how you played a role to contribute to it. Listen to podcasts and read blogs that impact when you were there. Be mindful of not sharing metrics or information that should remain confidential.

Your case study is pre-built

Create the aspirational case study to guide the outcomes of the real one! Building the case study as you progress a few minutes a day will save you hours and days after the fact. Next time you build case studies for your portfolio, they’ll be about 90% done already.

Idea to software, fast

I walked around San Francisco this weekend to hunt down our billboards. It was really fun to kick off this messaging campaign. If you see them in the Bay Area, please take a photo and send it to me!

Hype links

Collection of what I read and related to this week's post

• Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon

• How An Indian Experiential Design Studio Is Redefining Architecture Through Technology

• A history of Apple making us buy new cables

• ChatGPT Isn't Coming for Your Coding Job

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