Sketch It and Never Forget It: The Power of Visual Thinking

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. But could the act of drawing ideas as part of a problem-solving process ensure the birth of the next best needle-moving solution? Yes, and... here’s why.

For some people, the idea of drawing may trigger an emotional response or feeling of inadequacy. If your art teacher didn’t give you extra encouragement, you might naturally move away from a pencil towards other comfortable methods of communication. But we all know the term “I see what you mean.” The act of seeing, even in a metaphorical sense, is a moment of clarity and enhanced understanding. So why are we so shy about drawing in business?

In his book VisuaLeadership, Todd Cherches explores how visual communication can become a powerful leadership tool to help you tell better stories by simplifying complex ideas and aiding comprehension. Right away he destroys the myth that business professionals who can’t draw can’t be visual thinkers. He explains how he poses the question “Can you draw?” to workshop groups:

“Typically we get only about 10 percent of business people raising their hands. But if you were to ask a group of kindergartners that very same question, almost every single kid would have their hand raised.”

Sadly, the ego that comes with age can diminish confidence. And so we’re stuck with wordy PowerPoint slides and glaze over lengthy reports. Sure, there can be big needle-moving ideas tucked in them. But do we see what we mean? Where’s the art teacher when you need them?

Sophistication isn’t the point. You might have heard about a “back of the napkin” idea; that is, how a simple concept sketched casually during a conversation over drinks or a meal can suddenly spark the beginning of an amazingly successful venture. Cherches recalls this method as part of the founding of Southwest Airlines. Simple triangles and circles illustrated the concept and a regional airline was born. (I wonder if the vodka martini stain from a “Wow - this is awesome!” moment washed out the ink? This is why you should keep some permanent markers on hand if pursuing barstool brainstorming.)

Luckily, my art teacher encouraged me to embark on a career as a designer. And when a client hired me, they naturally were inclined to expect a visual solution that presented as elegant, beautiful, refined, or even pithy. Some solutions might have even seemed confusingly simple. But what my clients didn’t see in the background of these visual solutions were the multiple sketches and versions that had to be created to start the ball rolling. Versioning is a natural iterative component of both the creative process and the process of improvisational comedy. “Yes, and...” builds from the story put in front of you without discrediting or abandoning the idea before it. 

When I switched to workshop design, I discovered that I could deliver something that felt more meaningful than a slick rendering. I could, in real-time, demonstrate the meaty and messy work of a creative process through visual thinking, empowering folks to fearlessly find their next big idea.

Mixing up marker colors, segmenting and simplifying larger systems with sticky notes, changing scale, or adding shapes and connectors suddenly gives dimension to ideas. Patterns would emerge, relationships unveiled, and suddenly we could see a story we could all collectively understand. Going further with the technique of sketch iteration, we could show how that idea, with minor iterations powered by group feedback, could get even stronger.

Jake Knapp’s book, Sprint, highlights his time at Google, where he created a methodology that allowed his team to quickly collaborate to solve product problems. Design Sprint is a multiple-day workshop session that unleashes creativity and collaboration through quick idea generation, drawing, and the testing of prototypes. The methodology has been used in thousands of companies around the world including LEGO, NASA, and GE. More importantly, it’s very low-tech and can transcend sectors to not only develop good software products but also better business practices and systems. And no design degree is required.

Design sprints are low-tech and high-visual creative experiences.

Regardless of whether they use a physical whiteboard or cloud-based tool like Mural, I have seen teams achieve a new level of understanding, innovation, and progress through visual thinking, be it in simple note taking or broader concept development. The power of a simple marker (or sticky note, or any visual tool) creates the opportunity to dislodge and more effectively share strong ideas that are locked in words and looping conversations and empower anyone in your next team meeting to find their creative capacity to design and iterate on a solution to a critical problem. 

What to learn more about Design Sprints or virtual whiteboards? Let’s connect.