The Worst Lightning Talk in History - Using Antiproblems. Mark Dalgarno

The worst lightning talk in history

Mark Dalgarno SOFTWARE ACUMEN!@MarkDalgarno

Getting Creative

Luke Hohmann Innovation Games: Creating Breakthrough Products Through Collaborative Play Addison-Wesley Professional © 2006

Dave Gray, Sunni Brown, James Macanufo Gamestorming: A Playbook for Innovators, Rulebreakers, and Changemakers O'Reilly Media, Inc. ©2010

Stuck for ideas? - try the anti-problem!

•  Have you ever run out of ideas?

•  Have you ever lost interest or motivation?

•  Then try the anti-problem!

Photo Credit: Mr. Flibble – idrinkleadpaint.com

Using the Anti-Problem

•  Take the problem you're stuck trying to solve,

•  Turn it into its opposite form,

•  Think of ideas to solve that opposite problem,

•  Discuss those ideas to see what new insights emerge.

Trying to solve the anti-problem brings fresh thinking and new insights into your original problem.

Problem - Transforming the business while keeping it running

•  Software team struggling to balance priorities

•  Had tried a few things but nobody completely happy

Anti-Problem - How can we make people in the business really hate us?

Problem - How to deliver a great lightning talk?

Anti-Problem - How to deliver the worst lightning talk in history?

Problem - How to hire a great Personal Assistant (PA)

Credit: http://tinyurl.com/pa-clipart

Anti-Problem - Hire the worst PA in the world.

Other uses for the anti-problem

•  Project kickoff How could we really screw up this project?

•  Conference opening What would make a terrible conference experience?

Benefits I've seen

•  New ideas emerge

•  Can show you haven't solved a problem you thought you had

•  Checks problem understanding, gives alignment

•  Reframes the problem

•  Surfaces differences of opinion & strong feelings

•  It's fun

Recap

•  Take the problem you're stuck trying to solve,

•  Turn it into its opposite form,

•  Think of ideas to solve that opposite problem,

•  Discuss those ideas to see what new insights emerge.

Trying to solve the anti-problem brings fresh thinking and new insights into your original problem.

Stuck for Anti-Problems?

•  Think about your office environment. Is there anything more you could do to stifle your colleague's creativity?

•  How could you change your product support process to make your customers want to burn down your office?

•  Finally, think about your website's checkout process. How could you get visitors to abandon their shopping cart more quickly and in even greater numbers?

The Worst Lightning Talk in History? •  Too many bullet points on one slide:

Yes, this one.

•  Tweeting banned during talk: No, encouraged.

•  Too many different points covered: Probably.

•  Excessive self promotion: Talk to me later!

•  Used a tiny font and weird colours: Yes.

•  Used the same slide more than once: Yes. Did you notice?

•  Digressed: Not too much.

•  Used terrible clip art: Yes.

•  Included a non working software demo: No.

•  Spoke like a cattle auctioneer: Fast, but nowhere near.

•  Drunk and Incoherent: Maybe later.

•  Talk overran: It just has.