ENGL 2105 : Workplace-Based Writing and Research

Workflow / Thought Process

Books don't have solutions to real-world problems. There are no formulas. But there are thought and research processes that can lead to sound decisions. Part of the task is to identify and properly frame a situation as a problem before seeking and testing possible solutions. No expert exists to solve these problems (otherwise you would just buy the solution, which would make you a purchasing agent rather than a writer/researcher). Even if others have seen and successfully dealt with a similar situation, your situation is your situation. You have to become the expert. You have to convince relevant others that there is a problem and that you have what it takes to solve it.

This workflow is the essence of being an effective member of a community, and it is the means by which you can obtain an invitation to new communities: This is the kind of thinking and writing that gets you paid.

1. Identify a problem (correct a mistake, improve a condition or tool or process, fill a gap) or identify an opportunity (innovate, invent)
   What constitutes a problem? (pain, frustration, ignorance, loss of something valued -- time, money, productivity, efficiency, work/life balance, etc. )
   What constitutes an opportunity? (unmet demand, unidentified demand)
   What kinds of problems are there?
   1. deterministic, cause/effect -- if, then.
   2. probabilistic, stochastic -- an outcome can't be determined but it can be predicted to a percent, a 70% chance of success might be great in a real world situation
      correlation -- as X changes, so does Y but they are independent of each other.
      risk tolerance, enormity of being wrong. If the risk of being wrong is great but the cost minimal, then throw the dice. If the risk and the cost are great, pass.
   3. wicked -- complex, multiple moving and variously inter-related parts. Changing one thing might or might not change others and in not entirely predictable or consistent ways.
      The law of unintended consequences is very much in play.
   4. pseudo -- non-problematic situations that someone frames as a problem in order to profit, or situations where a person's thinking or perception leads them to think they have a problem when they don't
   5. proxy -- a distraction in order to keep people busy so they don't notice what the real problems are
2. Frame the problem
   • who suffers
   • who benefits
   • why does the situation exist
   • what contributes to the situation
   • where is it happening (context: the scene or scenes in which your solution needs to function)
   • when does it happen (interval is this a one-off, an hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, annual intervention?)
   • what solutions can you image
3. Do a competition scan
   • what solutions already exist
   • what's wrong with them
   • is there room for an alternative
   • if no solutions, what are the work-arounds sufferers currently employ

   If the problem doesn't yet have a viable solution --

4. Do the research -- Gather ALL the data
   1. Conduct relevant population survey(s) to develop understanding of the problem and how suffering from it is experienced -- it may be suffered in different ways and of course some people may actually benefit from it
   2. Conduct interviews to refine both your understanding of the problem and other people's perceptions of it
   3. Conduct contextual observations to verify user perception
      users who don't know how to use a product assume it is broken; these kinds of reported "errors" frustrate engineers -- read the fucking manual. Product designers know that the possibility of user error needs to be minimized before the product is released.
5. Design a possible solutions
   What do you need to avoid (too costly, unsustainable, too narrow, unintended consequences, deals with symptom not disease, the effect rather than the cause)
   How will you know if it works?
6. Build a prototype, test it, iterate, launch.

Summaries of books worth reading