How many times have you been in a meeting where people seem to talk past each other? Everyone is smart and well-intentioned, but you don’t seem to be making any progress.

Here’s the likely problem, you don’t have a tangible thing to anchor your discussions around. You need something real (a doc, a sketch, a prototype) to create a focal point for the team’s attention, collaboration, and energy.

This thing doesn’t need to be polished, it just needs to exist. Actually, it’s better if it’s a little rough because humans are natural correction machines. We love smoothing out the wrinkles. A rough whiteboard sketch sparks discussion, a “perfect” blueprint in your head doesn’t.

When you work with hypotheticals, there’s a huge risk of spinning in circles. This is because everyone’s mental model is slightly different. Moreover, we don’t have access to each other’s internal states. We need to externalize it on a whiteboard, a piece of paper, or a clay model to kick off the alignment process.

A few years ago I read an excerpt from Ken Kocienda’s book “Creative Selection: Inside Apple's Design Process During the Golden Age of Steve Jobs,” that spoke to me. In it, he walks through the imaginary scenario of deciding which breed of puppy is cuter.

Consider the scenario. Two people have imagined two cute puppies. I assert mine is cuter. What do we do now? Do we have a cuteness argument? How can we? We have nothing to go on. Do I try to describe the puppy in my mind and attempt to sway you that my vision of a golden retriever puppy is superlatively cute—because everyone knows that golden retrievers are the cutest of all dog breeds—and therefore, my conjured mental picture is unbeatably cute. […] Let’s say you’re my manager. What do you do now . . . pull rank?

The scenario is ridiculous. There’s no way to resolve this conflict. Without a concrete and specific example of a cute puppy, there’s no way to make progress. Now, I can make this easier. Here are pictures of two cute puppies. Now we can talk about the merits of these options.

Without tangible examples, brainstorming is harder than it needs to be.

So, be the antidote to unstructured discussions. Be the person that makes everyone’s lives easier. Share your screen, grab the whiteboard marker, and give people something to react to. It's that simple.

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Thank you for reading :)

Rahul