This interview, with Paul Chaplin, is like Q&A poetry thanks to Paul's answers, I reckon... enjoy.
Hello Paul. Tell us a bit about yourself...
Someone called me a dilettante, which was sounded dead sophisticated; then I looked it up.
Putting long job titles aside, what I do is reengineer marketing to deliver more for complex B2B organisations.
You've talked about the cards helping overcome hesitation with a project
...can you tell us more about that?
I wrote the answer to this question four times.
For me, it has a lot to do of apprehension of how a project might sound.
Be it a customer event, a podcast, or a new website.
Hesitation is a bit like stage fright.
You dry up, you might be laughed out. Worst of all, found out.
Artefact Cards come with instructions... just start with a mark in the centre of the card.
That helped.
On reflection, maybe the cards became my friends instead of my audience.
What did you mean when you said to me
"My noggin keeps trying to organise categories and words before they are ready"?
Do we think before we speak?
No, I don't think so, at least not in ordinary conversation.
Yet thinking about problems and their solutions seems to tie us in knots, or at least it does me.
There's something pre-emptive about thinking which isn't helpful when it comes to getting the thoughts out.
Why do the cards help you get all those ideas out and structured so quickly do you think?
Because they're in bits. Or at least allow me to throw out fragmented things.
The job then becomes one of reordering and assembly.
And starting with something, a bit of something, is rewarding.
It's easy to become disheartened but Artefact cards are somehow encouraging.
They're a positive move.
Is it a faster way for you to get into the state of 'flow'?
Yes.
This took me completely by surprise.
I didn't realise I'd done it.
How did you share the project with others?
And what was their reaction to the cards as opposed to a document?
Snapped the layout on on my iPhone and emailed the pic to colleagues...
who replied in minutes saying that it looked like what we needed to do.