Present ideas this way

One of my biggest bugbears is when a brilliant idea is poorly articulated. And by brilliant idea, I mean a solution that solves a critical pain or need and drives commercial outcomes in a simple or novel way.

It’s tough to watch a sub-optimal solution launch into the world, knowing full well there was a better alternative (especially when others also know there was wiggle room for a better idea, too).

So what’s the problem? Simple. We think others know what we know and they can see what’s in our head. Result? See above.

So, how do make sure our ideas don’t get lost on our audience?

T-Bar Concept

The T-Bar Concept was originally introduced to me by one of our Product Designers. It made sense and was simple for anyone, of any role type or seniority to participate in. So what is it?

1. Title

Unless you’re socially awkward, you wouldn’t just go into a room and start blurting out your thoughts and feelings. But often, this is exactly what happens with ideas. Like people, ideas need introductions.

2. User story

Now, we’re not talking about a formal user story here. Rather, something that can be quickly and succinctly produced in a format widely recognised in business. User stories are crucial for articulating the intended use cases of ideas.

3. Visual

Whether this is a crappy stickman drawing or a mid-fidelity visual using your shiny design system, it doesn’t matter. The whole purpose is that the sum of its parts convey the idea in a way that all understand.

Extending the T-Bar Concept

We love using T-Bar Concepts in ideation workshops. We’ve even challenged ourselves to improve the T-Bar Concept. Tick-tock and time goes by, and we’ve stuck with two particular additions.

4. Link chart

Like a detective on your favourite true-crime documentary, we link our proposed ideas back to what props them up. In this case, research or discovery decisions. Why? Because context is everything—right?!

5. Expected outcome

Yes, we have a user story to guide us functionally what this is supposed to do, but what will it achieve? When I say this, I don’t exaggerate, spelling out expected outcomes has saved our skin so many times. Simply put, it aligns thinking.

So, next time you find yourself looking down the barrel of a poorly articulated idea, or even in an ideation workshop, think ‘T-Bar Concept’. Have a crack and give it a go. You’ll find you thank yourself and wish you had known about it sooner.