Project Documents, Vacation Souvenirs
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Wednesday, Sep 30, 2009 / 5:06pm View more articles
I recently heard the following gem from Jared Spool. In his Userability #10 Podcast, Jared talks about persona documents, relating the documents to vacation souvenirs:
"The document itself is like a vacation souvenir. It really doesn't hold much meaning except to those people who had the experience."
How true.
In an older blog, Jared equated persona docs to souvenir picture albums.
Consider a friend who sends you a link to their vacation photos. Even if you look through every image, you'll have little apperception of their actual experience. The next best thing would be if your friend walked you through each photo, talking about what's important and answering any questions. Better yet, your friend invites you on the vacation. Even if you never browse the souvenir photos, you'll have a solid grasp on the experience because you were part of it.
Going on vacation is fun, but when it comes to document creation, is it still worth it to bring along the entire team? Getting everyone involved requires a meeting... probably lots of meetings.
As the author of specification docs, I sometimes find myself thinking that it's more efficient to work alone with the client. However, by shielding the production team and saving their time, I'm essentially handing them my vacation souvenirs. In this case, a couple meetings would benefit everyone, but mostly the project itself.
This doesn't mean project documents are useless. It just means that their usefulness lies in the process — the document creation — not the end result.
"The document itself is like a vacation souvenir. It really doesn't hold much meaning except to those people who had the experience."
How true.
In an older blog, Jared equated persona docs to souvenir picture albums.
Consider a friend who sends you a link to their vacation photos. Even if you look through every image, you'll have little apperception of their actual experience. The next best thing would be if your friend walked you through each photo, talking about what's important and answering any questions. Better yet, your friend invites you on the vacation. Even if you never browse the souvenir photos, you'll have a solid grasp on the experience because you were part of it.
Going on vacation is fun, but when it comes to document creation, is it still worth it to bring along the entire team? Getting everyone involved requires a meeting... probably lots of meetings.
As the author of specification docs, I sometimes find myself thinking that it's more efficient to work alone with the client. However, by shielding the production team and saving their time, I'm essentially handing them my vacation souvenirs. In this case, a couple meetings would benefit everyone, but mostly the project itself.
This doesn't mean project documents are useless. It just means that their usefulness lies in the process — the document creation — not the end result.
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