VizThink Challenge: Overview
At VizThink 08, we participated in a challenge to assist Artrain with an organizational challenge. They are transitioning from using trains to specially designed trucks to bring their exhibits around the country.
We didn’t have time to prepare, and there were two other facilitators and techniques working on the same problem. I worked with forty tables of participants, perhaps as many as 350 people. We were presented with a question, and had 30 minutes to respond.
Each table had the same 200 photographs and produced a collective image along with a written description. We have been looking at the data to see what kind of wisdom emerges from a large group of visual thinkers.
About the audience
Artrain wanted input on how to engage individual and corporate sponsors. This was an ideal audience to ask for this sort of feedback. The conference fees were significant enough to discourage those who were not totally committed to attend. The audience was composed of people who were already in visual thinking or were interested in the field. And their were representatives of major corporations there such as: Apple, IBM, Intuit, Microsoft, Wells Fargo.
Where the data comes from
We are looking at four sources of information.
- Which individual images were selected across all groups.
- Analysis of the content of the written descriptions.
- The visual language in the structure of each table’s image.
- The intersection of the words and images, and how they are used together.
Each one of these different data points can offer insight, as well as a big picture view emerging from the patterns running across all four of the information sources.
The question
In the VisualsSpeak process the question is one of the most critical elements. The question used for this experience was created in a few minutes on the spot. Artrain was curious about a particular need, and this question was asked across the three different techniques. This is what was used:
How can we visualize the power of the Artrain experience to engage individual and corporate sponsors?
This isn’t an ideal question structure for VisualsSpeak. People were able to produce a response, but the data we collected was affected by the way the experience was framed. It’s important to keep this in mind as we look at the results. We find we get more innovative thinking with a more open question.
Each individual brings their unique lens to the challenge of assembling photographs in response to a question. In this question, it opens with asking people to visualize. For some people asking them to visualize engages an analytical response (which kind of visualize, what do they mean by visualize?). It can shift the focus from the goal of the question to having the participants focus on what it means to respond. Normally, we just provide the visual tools, and the response is automatically visual .
In addition, there are assumptions built into this question such as the power of the Artrain experience. If I had been working with Artrain individually with more time, I would have questioned how they knew the power of the experience was the most important thing to convey. Particularly to a sponsor audience. As we will discuss later, we will look at the multiple audiences intersecting around Artrain. Each one with very different values . Moving forward it will be important to align the marketing messages with the particular target audiences, and they may differ across segments.
The other factor that may have impacted the quality of the data is there were over 20% international participants, some who did not speak English as a first language. For someone who is not a native English speaker, the way the question is worded may have been particularly confusing. I spoke with one person who was sitting at table with two people who were not native speakers, and they didn’t understand what we were asking. With an international audience, we need to be particularly sensitive to make the English as clear as possible.
A better question for the VisualsSpeak process might have been:
How can Artrain engage sponsors?
This is not to say this data is not valuable, or that the question is not right for Artrain. The organization is not at the beginning of this process. They have been working on their challenges for quite some time. And it may have given them exactly what they needed from David Sibbet’s graphic facilitation group and Jamie Nast’s mind mapping group.
Added perspective
This is a big complex data set. We invited one of our colleagues to help us interpret what we are seeing. He has a unique skill set that is particularly helpful with this challenge.
René-Marc Mangin is a communications and management consultant with over 20 years of experience working on ill-structured or wicked problems.
Dr. Mangin brings a multi-disciplinary background in biological and social sciences to VisualsSpeak. His background includes bachelor’s degrees in anthropology, biology and cultural anthropology, an MBA with emphasis on marketing and strategy implementation, and a multi-disciplinary doctorate that evolved from research in neuroscience to a dissertation on the application of soft systems methodology to ill-structured and wicked problems. His doctoral training included systems science, discourse and conversation analysis, cultural anthropology and public administration.
Dr. Mangin has studied learning theory and sensory-based information processing for the past 15 years. He is an associate with Michael Grinder and Associates, a leading firm specializing in nonverbal communication.
Next up
We’ll look at which images were used most frequently. This can help Artrain identify characteristics they should look for in the images they use for their website, brochure, and other materials.
Other posts on the VizThink Challenge:
- Artrain’s Challenge
- Description of the challenge on the VizThink wiki, complete with video of the session.
- from Jamie Nast, VizThink Re’VIZ’ited and Mindjet Map of the Month
- Mindjet February newsletter featuring Jamie Nast
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