The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures
A bold new way to tackle tough business problems—even if you draw like a second graderWhen Herb Kelleher was brainstorming about how to beat the traditional hub-and- spoke airlines, he grabbed a bar napkin and a pen. Three dots to represent Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. Three arrows to show direct flights. Problem solved, and the picture made it easy to sell Southwest Airlines to investors and customers.
Used properly, a simple drawing on a humble napkin is more powerful than Excel or PowerPoint. It can help crystallize ideas, think outside the box, and communicate in a way that people simply “get”. In this book Dan Roam argues that everyone is born with a talent for visual thinking, even those who swear they can’t draw.
Drawing on twenty years of visual problem solving combined with the recent discoveries of vision science, this book shows anyone how to clarify a problem or sell an idea by visually breaking it down using a simple set of visual thinking tools – tools that take advantage of everyone’s innate ability to look, see, imagine, and show.
THE BACK OF THE NAPKIN proves that thinking with pictures can help anyone discover and develop new ideas, solve problems in unexpected ways, and dramatically improve their ability to share their insights. This book will help readers literally see the world in a new way.
Product Details
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
The premise behind Roam's book is simple: anybody with a pen and a scrap of paper can use visual thinking to work through complex business ideas. Management consultant and lecturer Roam begins with a watershed moment: asked, at the last minute, to give a talk to top government officials, he sketched a diagram on a napkin. The clarity and power of that image allowed him to communicate directly with his audience. From this starting point, Roam has developed a remarkably comprehensive system of ideas. Everything in the book is broken down into steps, providing the reader with tools and rules to facilitate picture making. There are the four steps of visual thinking, the six ways of seeing and the SQVID– a clumsy acronym for a full brain visual work out designed to focus ideas. Roam occasionally overcomplicates; an extended case study takes up a full third of the book and contains an overload of images that belie the book's central message of simplicity. Nonetheless, for forward-thinking management types, there is enough content in these pages to drive many a brainstorming session. Illus. (Mar 13)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
aThe premise behind Roam's book is simple: anybody with a pen and a scrap of paper can use visual thinking to work through complex business ideas. Management consultant and lecturer Roam begins with a awatershed momenta: asked, at the last minute, to give a talk to top government officials, he sketched a diagram on a napkin. The clarity and power of that image allowed him to communicate directly with his audience. From this starting point, Roam has developed a remarkably comprehensive system of ideas. Everything in the book is broken down into steps, providing the reader with atools and rulesa to facilitate picture making. There are the four steps of visual thinking, the six ways of seeing and the aSQVIDaa a clumsy acronym for a afull brain visual work outa designed to focus ideas. Roam occasionally overcomplicates; an extended case study takes up a full third of the book and contains an overload of images that belie the book's central message of simplicity. Nonetheless, for forward-thinking management types, there is enough content in these pages to drive many a brainstorming session. Illus.a
a"Publisheras Weekly"
aAs painful as it is for any writer to admit, a picture *is* sometimes worth a thousand words. That's why I learned so much from this book. With style and wit, Dan Roam has provided a smart, practical primer on the power of visual thinking.a
aDaniel H. Pink, author of "A Whole New Mind"
aInspiring! It teaches you a new way of thinking in a few hours -- what more could you ask from a book?a
aDan Heath, author of "Made to Stick"
aThis book is a must read for managers and business leaders. Visual thinking frees your mind to solve problems in unique andeffective ways.a
aTemple Grandin, author of "Thinking in Pictures"
aIf you observe the way people read or listen to things in the early 21st century, you realize that there aren't many of us left with a linear attention span. Visual information is much more interesting than verbal information. So if you want to make a point, do it with images, pictures or graphics. . . . Dan Roam is the first visual consultant for businesses that I've worked with. His approach is faster for the customer. And the message sticks.a
aRoger Black, Media design leader, Author of "Websites That Work"
aSimplicity. This is Dan Roam's message in The Back Of The Napkin. We all dread business meetings with their mountains of documents and the endless bulleted power points. Roam cuts through all that to demonstrate how the use of simple drawings -- executed while the audience watches -- communicate infinitely better than those complex presentations. Is a picture truly worth a thousand words? Having told us how to communicate with pictures, Roam rounds out his message by explaining that aWe don't show an insight-inspiring picture because it saves a thousand words; we show it because it elicits the thousand words that make the greatest difference.a And that is communication that works.a
aBill Yenne, author of "Guinness: The 250 Year Quest for the Perfect Pint"
Review
“The premise behind Roam's book is simple: anybody with a pen and a scrap of paper can use visual thinking to work through complex business ideas. Management consultant and lecturer Roam begins with a “watershed moment”: asked, at the last minute, to give a talk to top government officials, he sketched a diagram on a napkin. The clarity and power of that image allowed him to communicate directly with his audience. From this starting point, Roam has developed a remarkably comprehensive system of ideas. Everything in the book is broken down into steps, providing the reader with “tools and rules” to facilitate picture making. There are the four steps of visual thinking, the six ways of seeing and the “SQVID”– a clumsy acronym for a “full brain visual work out” designed to focus ideas. Roam occasionally overcomplicates; an extended case study takes up a full third of the book and contains an overload of images that belie the book's central message of simplicity. Nonetheless, for forward-thinking management types, there is enough content in these pages to drive many a brainstorming session. Illus.”
—Publisher’s Weekly
“As painful as it is for any writer to admit, a picture *is* sometimes worth a thousand words. That's why I learned so much from this book. With style and wit, Dan Roam has provided a smart, practical primer on the power of visual thinking.”
—Daniel H. Pink, author of A Whole New Mind
“Inspiring! It teaches you a new way of thinking in a few hours -- what more could you ask from a book?”
—Dan Heath, author of Made to Stick
“This book is a must read for managers and business leaders. Visual thinking frees your mind to solve problems in unique and effective ways.”
—Temple Grandin, author of Thinking in Pictures
“If you observe the way people read or listen to things in the early 21st century, you realize that there aren't many of us left with a linear attention span. Visual information is much more interesting than verbal information. So if you want to make a point, do it with images, pictures or graphics. . . . Dan Roam is the first visual consultant for businesses that I've worked with. His approach is faster for the customer. And the message sticks.”
—Roger Black, Media design leader, Author of Websites That Work
“Simplicity. This is Dan Roam's message in The Back Of The Napkin. We all dread business meetings with their mountains of documents and the endless bulleted power points. Roam cuts through all that to demonstrate how the use of simple drawings -- executed while the audience watches -- communicate infinitely better than those complex presentations. Is a picture truly worth a thousand words? Having told us how to communicate with pictures, Roam rounds out his message by explaining that “We don't show an insight-inspiring picture because it saves a thousand words; we show it because it elicits the thousand words that make the greatest difference.” And that is communication that works.”
—Bill Yenne, author of Guinness: The 250 Year Quest for the Perfect Pint
Customer Reviews
VisualMind
The Back of the Napkin is one of the very few really practical books about visual thinking. It describes the process and explains the tools effectively in the lay man's terms. This book is a must for everybody who would like to learn not only visual thinking but creative thinking in general. I recommend this for everybody. It's essential part of the visual literacy.
Nice idea, just too pedestrian...
The idea of using more visual elements to communicate is a good one and this book encourages everyone to discover their innate ability to create communicative images. Unfortunately, the book uses too many pages to communicate the point and seems to be written at too low an intellectual level. The author is taking simple but powerful concepts and trying to expand them rather than make the point and move one. For me, this lost my attention and interest. Shame because the concept is great. I don't care how many pages a book has but how many ideas and insights it delivers....
The Modern Thumbnail, Whiteboard & White Paper in One.
Being in the advertising, graphic design, and web design industry, you might assume that there is nothing "new" in this square book. Yet I'd like to persuade you to read this book, as it is actually incredibly applicable to this industry! Whether you are in Marketing, PR, Advertising, Graphic Design, Web Design, or even Accounts or New Business, you will gain some new knowledge and thinking processes from this book.
From the graphic perspective, it's always a joy to see a different way to thumbnail out a concept... and come on, there is this incredibly joy from doodling on napkins. The "stock" just lends itself to fun hand-rendering. This book, from your perspective, will help in coming up with new ways to thumbnail and think through it. SQVID and its depictions is just one small example (see page 107).
From an advertising perspective on the creative side, you may need to comp out some rough ideas while meeting with a client. This will help you to do so with confidence. From a marketing perspective, even if you can't draw a stick figure, this will help you, too. Really. Pick it up. From an accounts and new business perspective, my husband is brilliant, but not an artist which he readily admits, but this book has helped him when meeting with clients in his industry of finance. This book is great for meetings and getting ideas down on paper... er, napkin.
From a teaching perspective, this book is extremely helpful, as well. If you have a Wacom or tablet, this is applicable and easy to implement. And hey... from a tactile and visual perspective, this book is great fun to touch- really. The napkin design you see around this square book in the front is actually embossed on the front so it "feels" like a napkin.
If you are a student, a professional, an artist or a teacher, this book truly will offer at least a couple of new insights or techniques that you will find applicable to what you do. Mind-mapping, inspiration, thumbnail, whiteboard, and white paper enthusiasts rejoice- this book is for you, too. It has a little something for everyone who seeks to communicate even better than they do now.
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