Takeaways

What one thing, or two (ten? argh) do we want our visitors to leave thinking? Because our takeaways are the actual purpose of our project.

And so, we are in one of three camps right now. Which?

1. Don’t Know
If we don’t know our main takeaways, we might be wasting most of our resources.

2. Do Know, Haven’t Focused
If we do know, good. We might be wasting fewer resources. But we are still wasting some if we haven’t also focused our project, by doing our best to remove everything that doesn’t contribute.

3. Do Know, Have Focused
If we do know, and we have ruthlessly removed everything in our project that does not contribute to the takeaways, we are wasting much closer to none of our resources.

Here’s the thing:
Our projects are spatial experiences just long enough to offload their takeaways into the minds of our visitors.

If they succeed, they live on in thousands, or millions, of souls.

If they don’t, they die every time a visitor leaves.

Do we know our takeaways?

Warmly,
Jonathan

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MtM Word of the Day:
Holdback. A practice in projects for building something, where the owner holds back a small percentage of each payment (i.e. 5-10%) to a builder until the project is finished and approved. A way of mitigating risks like incomplete work or unpaid subcontractors.

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Deadline Coming Up:
Have you worked on a great exhibition or experience design project recently? The SEGD Global Design Awards late deadline is next week, on Friday, 28 February. “Since 1987, the SEGD Global Design Awards have set the standard of excellence for experiential design, honoring work that connects people to place.” (And I’m not just saying that because I’m the Jury Chair this year.)