Politifact just won the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for its coverage of the 2008 election. The board cited PolitiFact’s use of “probing reporters and the power of the World Wide Web to examine more than 750 political claims, separating rhetoric from truth to enlighten voters.”
Matt Waite, one of the site’s founders, posted about the big win and the key lesson he learned building PolitiFact: Demos, not memos. [thx JB]
Demos, not memos.
To be clear, my bosses thought PolitiFact was a good idea from the start. But there was a material difference between how they reacted to memos and how they reacted to seeing it working.
The sales job got easier. The abstract became concrete. The conversations changed from “what do you mean by” to “what if we did this.”
Some of the Getting Real-ish reasons Waite gives for this “demos, not memos” approach: 1. Ideas are cheap and plentiful. Execution is hard. 2. Meetings suck. 3. Requirements documents suck.
(Waite also links to “Why requirements stink” which offers this great example: “Here’s a requirements list: Make a $5 car that goes 500 miles per hour, weighs 10 lbs, and is invisible.”)
Think about how much time you would waste trying to explain the screen shown above. Just build the damn thing and then everyone gets it. Create instead of debate. That’s how you get from “huh?” to “aha.”
Jason Zimdars
on 29 Apr 09I love this: “Demos, not memos”
It reminds me of a bit of advice I’ve always taken to heart: “It’s better to beg forgiveness than ask permission”. I’ve always thought this was an excellent quote and fantastic idea, and it has proven itself time and again in both my personal and professional life.
It’s more effective to show something than explain it. And it is often more effective to demonstrate a solution than get an idea approved. It’s easy for a stakeholder to quickly say no to an idea based on misunderstanding, fear, resources, etc.; but it’s harder to dismiss when it becomes more tangible.
Happy
on 29 Apr 09I love this! Thanks for sharing this concrete example of the huge benefits of doing vs. planning. A timely reminder that I put to use today.
Mark Bottita
on 29 Apr 09The new Backpack marketing site perfectly illustrates this concept by featuring a functional flash which shows the viewer how easily a Backpack page is created, and how quickly it can be leveraged to their advantage. Superb.
Happy
on 29 Apr 0937signals: What tools did you use to create the flash tour on the new Backpack marketing site?
daniel palacio
on 29 Apr 09How come you have no way of contacting you ? I searched everywhere for a contact us page or somewhat an e-mail where one can ask you something. I’ve been having real trouble buying a hard-copy of getting real, I bought it from lulupress but had to cancelled after 10 days when they had not even ship it, and had an estimate of 1 month for delivery. Where can I get this book within reasonable time ? hard-copy I mean. Why is it not sold through amazon ?
Mark
on 30 Apr 09@daniel
The customer service link is on the main page about half-way down:
Anonymous Coward
on 30 Apr 09t
Jonno
on 01 May 09A great development methodology. We’re tying to put it into practice.
Unless I misunderstand, at the risk of stating the obvious … this all has to happen AFTER the requirements have been agreed on.
In other words, you can’t “demo” until a “memo” is approved and a budget is set.
So, it’s an approach that addresses just part of the whole development process right?
This discussion is closed.