A presentation I made in 2011 to train old and new colleagues in the art of planning and concept design. This is the model I've been using for the last 10 years, and we wanted to share this to everyone.

1. Concept Design 101
Turning ideas into physical plans
October 12th 2012, updated Nov 15th
FWD Helsi nki Oy tel: +358 20 794 0180 Conf identia l We de sign h appy custome rs
Kai saniemenkat u 6 A www.f wd.fi ©2012 FWD Helsinki
00100, Hels ink i Fin land in fo@fwd. fi All r ights re se rve d

2. This presentation was originally done for internal purposes,
teaching planning & concept design. It’s been around for a year
now and we thought to share it with the world.
We hope this can help you in some way.
Markus Sandelin - in Helsinki, October 10th 2012

3. {
1 The world has changed
Intro
The customers haven’t
2 changed
{
Stop pushing problems, The importance of
The point
3
4
start solving them
My First Concept®
5
6
presenting well
The usual end results
{ Support
7 Good tools are necessary

4. 1 The world has changed

5. The world has become more complicated during the last 15
years with the web. This complication does not however mean
that things are any more difficult than they used to be. It just
means that we have to pay attention to more things.

6. The tasks themselves have become simpler, but the amount of
those tasks have multiplied exponentially together with the
unlimited amount of data available to be used in said tasks.

7. It isn’t only about who can produce the best content or visual
design. The winners will be those who can use and filter
already existing information in the right place and at the right
time.

8. The world has also become more measurable. Before we pretty
much just knew the number of site visitors, but now we know
what the users are doing, what they’re buying, where they
came from and where they continued after their action.

9. Business
consultants
Public Relations Event marketing
agencies agencies
Analytics companies
Advertising agencies
Usability
testers
Translation
agencies
Tech vendors
Local agencies
Call centers
Social media
agencies Communications
agencies
Before During After
The world has changed, making it very hard to do everything alone.

10. Most of the large portal building companies have broken to
pieces and are now independent agencies and products. We
have to learn to play together or face extinction.

11. Different browsers, devices and technologies do create
different demands, but they haven’t been limiting or slowing
our progress for years – unless we let them do so.

12. The existing complexity of applications and products has
made the waterfall design model very expensive to work with.
A single person is probably unable to take a project from start
to finish anymore.

13. Users are expecting personal services and why wouldn’t we
serve them? Use cases and use needs have a great importance
when we’re choosing the winners and losers with our projects.

14. The user must have a role in a web service. If it isn’t so, who is
the service designed for?

15. The web is making money and has been for a while. No one
wishing to succeed online can design anything without taking
business facts and figures into consideration and
understanding their implications.

16. The end result is still always the same it ever was, our job is to
solve our client’s problem. Before we can do that, we have to
always do – understand that problem.

17. 2 The customers haven’t
changed

18. Does anyone remember how good customer briefings were 10
years ago?

19. They weren’t very good. Even then, when we were making
much simpler things.

20. Because the general level of customer briefing is the same and
the world has become much more complicated, we are in a
situation where we receive less and less information from
clients in the first phases. This means that we as designers will
have to carry the torch even more than before.

21. As we mentioned earlier, there are a lot more players on the
pitch as well. If we assume that they share our ambition and
goals, we’re sawing our own ladder.

22. We and everyone in the project needs to have a clear picture
and responsibility of the whole if we really want to make a
change and create some positive results.

23. We are the architects of our customers house.

24. This means that we have to be more active, more curious and
even more creative than ever before. Luckily that too is much
easier today.

25. Our customers want stuff. Our job is to help them understand,
reach and love their needs, not just their wants.

26. Good buyers are very rare. Even rarer than our industry dares
to admit. The lure of different channels and pre-made solutions
is strong, and usually the path to the dark side.

27. The more complicated the problem, the simpler our solution
should be.

28. This usually means finding several solutions that have to work
like Lego bricks, joining together when necessary. In order to
do this, we always have to find the lowest common
denominator.

29. 3 Stop pushing problems,
start solving them

30. What comes to project management, it is impossible to be too
thorough, enthusiastic or helpful. Assumption is the capital sin
in any failed project.

31. Often times when the client changes their mind, they are not
even aware they have done that. The change originates from
the difference of our assumption and the client’s thoughts. It’s
easier to blame the client.

32. When someone disagrees with us, especially the client, it
doesn’t automatically mean that we should change our
opinion. It also doesn’t mean that the other person is wrong.
The strongest argument wins.

33. Differences of opinion are just yet another problem waiting to
be solved. Together with our colleagues and our clients. We
have to understand the core of the problem and find a solution
for it, curing the cause, not the symptoms.

34. Blaming, whining, finger pointing or general grumpiness
doesn’t help. These kinds of situations are the most common
stagnation and fail points in projects and failing can begin.

35. And if you didn’t understand it yet, the same rules apply
strongly to internal work as well.

36. You cannot solve a problem before you understand it.

37. 4 My First Concept®

38. When we talk about a concept, we mean an idea opened up
into concrete things. Some kind of angle or solution to a known
problem.

39. The first step in any concept is recognizing that problem.
Without that you cannot succeed.

40. We recognize a problem with the question “why?”

41. Why are you doing a project like this? Why have you created
this kind of brief/suggestion/request for proposal?

42. In order to find the problem, the answer your looking for has to
be concrete, measurable and understandable. Not an abstract
concept that even the client doesn’t believe in. If you can’t
quantify the problem, you haven’t probably found it yet.

43. Very rarely there is a single problem. There are many, in
different shapes, importance and with different business
effects. Prioritization is your main tool in this phase. A simple
problem can be much more important than a complicated one.

44. The moment you really understand the problem, the concept
will reveal itself to you. That is the secret of good concept
design.

45. The second question in forming a concept is “what?”

46. What is being done to solve the problem? What has already
been done? What metrics do we have? What data can we use?
What has the competition done? What can we learn from other
industries? What can we learn from our own clients? What
internal things has the client done before to fix things?

47. By doing this we create a collection of knowledge, data, needs,
wants, experiences, viewpoints and different beginnings.

48. So we have created an image with problems in the center,
surrounded by different solution possibilities.

49. Armed with this information we can begin our work in
thinking, solving and opening up how these problems can be
solved and how our solutions mix together.

50. Dividing the problems, possibilities and concrete solutions into
small enough parts it is much easier to evaluate work amounts,
risks and schedules.

51. We cannot bypass these steps. Without this model and these
questions were are guessing and assuming, which will lead to
failure.

52. Understanding the
Concrete solutions
Recognizing problems, whole, the history and
prioritized and their
finding needs finding possible
presentation
solutions for problems
Why? What? How?

53. 5 The importance of
presenting well

54. When we know the problems, possible solutions and concrete
suggestions, we have to be able to present them simply enough
to others in order to succeed.

55. Most customers don’t give a damn about our brand, visual
mood or pretty much anything else. If those things support the
facts and the presentation, it’s nice, but otherwise pointless.

56. The language has to be understandable by anyone, the base
level should be directed to the customer. However, no one will
complain if your presentation is better and clearer than they
expect. A good presentation makes you look good.

57. The grammar should be faultless.
(or at least as faultless as possible)

58. If you’re adding something to a presentation done by someone
else, take something out as well and let that someone know.
This will help with version control and overall quality. Also
remember to give credit when it’s due.

59. Illustration and visual style should be in harmony with the
whole and especially with the message being presented. All
graphs, prices and schedules have to be understood even by a
third party and their style should be similar throughout the
presentation.

60. The presentation is not just the file or the two hours spent
presenting it, it’s the whole process of invitations, deliveries
and file sharing. Don’t try to send too big files in the mail.

61. Presenting itself is an art of its own which is only learned
through practice. Learning the correct rhythm and breathing
helps a lot in nerve control and gives you the confidence to
focus in the message. They will also focus on your body
language, so rehearse standing up as well.

62. If you don’t have a role in the presentation or the meeting,
think about your participation as well. If you have a point or an
opinion to deliver, do that and do it well. If not, go do some
work instead.

63. Your presentation does not have to be a PowerPoint.

64. 6 The usual end results

65. When our clients expect an offer from us, we have to create a
high level concept before that. With that we can create a cost
and time estimate.

66. In order to create a concept, this process is a good tool to get
started so we can increase our awareness to the required level
and create an internal briefing.

67. A high level concept is good to build directly into a mind map,
presentation or even a textual story. With this it’s easier to stay
with it and focus on the right things.

68. A good concept answers to all three questions with sufficient
accuracy. It answers why the project is being done, pointing out
the problems. It answers the question of what solutions we
have identified and will be proposing after our prioritizing and
it will have an opinion on how these solutions should be
implemented.

69. Anyone should be able to create at least an initial high level
concept from zero or from a client briefing.

70. 7 Good tools are
necessary

71. Good tools are needed in order to work, but even more
important is learning to use those tools properly. This makes
you an efficient concept designer who can teach others as well.

72. There are many tools for many purposes. We use drawing tools
such as OmniGraffle and mind mapping tools such as
MindNode. Understanding numbers is much easier with a
spreadsheet tools like Excel or Numbers and we use Keynote
for our presentations.

73. You can and should be learning your tools constantly, not just
copy other’s materials to your own, creating unusable files for
others.

74. You are sitting next to a person who can probably help you.

75. Finally: The web is full of information and its search engines
are your most important tools. Use them well.

76. Kiitos For further
information:
Tack Markus Sandelin
Designer
+358 44 36 99 887
Thanks markus.sandelin@fwd.fi