Tips for getting your ideas heard
This past October, I had the opportunity to participate in a workshop facilitated by Tamsen Webster, author of Find Your Red Thread. Her talk was all about getting your ideas heard. Of course, I was intrigued and all I could think of was how this could apply to you, the creators of many ideas on Esri Community. In her talk and her book, she goes through the process of making an idea delectable by turning it into a story with a process that covers more than the basic elements of having a beginning, middle and end. She discusses a blueprint and a process of defining the goal, problem, truth, change and actions. She makes it easy to create stories from your ideas with her worksheets found here by breaking it down into two parts: the pieces of the story and the case for it to be heard.
I thought it might be nice to help those struggling to get their ideas submitted and see this method in action by taking an existing idea and reframe it using her method. I chose this idea just to reframe it, not because it is good or bad or because it was implemented recently, I just chose it as an example. The original idea captures the concept of sorting by geometry type in the ArcGIS Pro Catalog pane.
First using Tamsen’s Red Thread Worksheet, I created the pieces of the story to reframe the idea as follows:
Audience: Who is this message for?
ArcGIS Pro Catalog Users
Goal: What question does the audience already want answers to?
How can I look at my data based on geometry type (i.e. point, line, polygon, etc…)?
Problem: What pair of words or short phrase captures your AND their perspectives on what’s in the way?
Organization & efficiency
Truth: What truth or provable fact makes the problem impossible to ignore?
When it comes to organization, seeing geometry types allows for confidence in adding the correct feature.
When it comes to efficiency, accessing large amounts of data by the geometry type will allow you to access the specific data quickly thereby creating positive impressions.
Change: What’s the new thinking or behavior?
Viewing data in a different way.
Actions: What’s necessary to create the CHANGE?
Sorting your data in the ArcGIS Pro Catalog pane by geometry type
From here, I moved the story pieces over to Tamsen’s Conversational Case worksheet to get the case to be heard (aka the idea to submit):
ArcGIS Pro Catalog Users often want to look at data based on geometry type (i.e. point, line, polygon, etc…) so users can add data efficiently. Currently, the ArcGIS Pro Catalog pane focuses on names and feature types rather than on geometry types. Yet users believe that seeing geometry types allows for confidence in adding the correct feature and efficiency when dealing with large amounts of data. That’s why it is recommended to sort data in the ArcGIS Pro Catalog pane by geometry type.
Next time you have an idea and are struggling on how best to write your submission, try this method for some assistance. Don’t forget the submission guidelines and include screenshots/images if necessary to enhance clarifying your idea.
Citations
Webster, T. (2021). Find Your Red Thread. Page Two Books.