"Shooting yourself in the foot"
FootThe Process So Far
Four hand-ins, in the order you make them, worked through one real case.
Workhorse Collective
NameAbraham GarciaEmailabe@wrkhrs.co
ART 418 · Fall 2026
MeetsMon + Wed, 1:30 to 2:50TodaySession 05 · 09.09.2026
meaninglayer.com/course/business-of-design
On paper, discovery is the first third of a project. In reality it never stops.
Design on paper
Design in reality
This semester
After Brown, Fig 1.1, p. 7. Third bar ours: the semester's four milestones.
"It's convenient to think of discovery and execution as two distinct phases in a project. In this view, the end of discovery is the project's bar mitzvah: a semi-arbitrary point that marks the end of the learning process."
Discovery is the yellow block on the left. The thin yellow bars after it are the returns: the brief, the system test, the go-to-market chapter of the book. Every one of them reopens a claim made in discovery.
BROWN, CH. 1, PDF P. 12. THE PICTURE TO KEEP: WHAT DISCOVERY WRITES GETS REVISED.
1 · Find the people
THREE AUDIENCES, A PARAGRAPH EACH, AND THE ONE THE WORK LEANS TO. THE READING: DAVIS CH. 1, HALL CH. 6 AND 9, BROWN CH. 2.
Who is the competition? "No one" is the wrong answer. It is everything the audience does now instead of using the product.
Positive
Negative
Internal
Strengths
- Up-to-date industry data, job postings, events
- Members are logged in when they search
Weaknesses
- Search does not cross the Guild's sites
- Important content trapped in PDF
- Poor content strategy
External
Opportunities
- Members expect search to know their interests and area
Threats
- Members "rely on Google to find content"
- Google is fast, already open, and blind to who is logged in
After Hall, Just Enough Research, Fig 6.1, p. 96, filled with the search case from Brown, p. 18.
The answer: the market leaders, page one of Google, and "everything else anyone has considered or started using that solves the problem you want to solve or helps them avoid it."
The lit cell is the line the audience form asks for. In the search case the competitor was already in the reporter's paragraph: Google. The opening is a search that knows the member.
Then audit it, from its own site and its reviews: how it positions itself, who it targets, what makes it valuable, what it does well and badly, where the opening is.
ON THE AUDIENCE FORM, "WHAT THEY USE TODAY INSTEAD" IS THIS CELL. NAMED EXACTLY: A SPREADSHEET, A VENDOR, A SENIOR COLLEAGUE, DOING NOTHING.
A number only means something once you have said what good is, and it arrives with its denominator.
50%less "pogo-sticking"
The hypothesis from the search case:
"By showing suggested results as users type their search terms, site analytics will show 50% less 'pogo-sticking' between search results and site content."Four questions make the 50 mean something.
Of what
Pogo-sticking: a click on a result, then straight back to the results page.
Out of how many
Every search that returns results, on the Guild's sites. The denominator.
Against what
The current rate, and the category average. "Those are the numbers to beat."
Whose count
Site analytics, which year, read by whom. Every number has two readings: "More pageviews could mean increased engagement, or ... a highly motivated audience who can't find the information."
ON THE AUDIENCE FORM, "WHAT THAT COSTS THEM" IS A NUMBER WITH THESE FOUR PARTS, OR A QUESTION MARK WITH A DATE. NEVER A NUMBER ALONE. THE RULE IS HALL, CH. 9; THE HYPOTHESIS IS BROWN, CH. 2.
1 · The audience.Three audiences, a paragraph each, and the one the work leans to.
The form
Three paragraphs, one per audience, turned in on Blackboard and kept in section 2 of your brief. On top, one line: "I lean to [audience] because [the one fact]."
What each paragraph carries
Who they are, specific enough to name three of them. How you know they exist, with a count. The problem it would solve for them. What they use today instead. What that costs them.
What it feeds
Section 4 of the creative brief and slide 3 of the pitch, carried forward as written.
Read more about it
Davis, Creative Strategy and the Business of Design, chapter 1 (the textbook). Hall, Just Enough Research, chapters 6 and 9 (PDF on Blackboard). The audience form on the class page.
STAGE 1 · FIND THE PEOPLE
Written out: one audience, the way the paragraph should read.Brown's case. Every claim carries its source or a question mark.
The lean
I lean to logged-in members looking for a job posting, because they already expect the site to know who they are.
Audience 1 · Logged-in members looking for a job posting or an event
Members of the Guild who sign in to search for a job posting, an industry event or a piece of industry data: mid-career, in the field already, checking the site a few times a month (analytics, year ?). We know they exist because they complain: to staff, to the executives, and in the survey the association ran (count ?, of how many members ?). The problem it would solve for them is finding the thing on the first try. What they use today instead is Google, open in the next tab, because the Guild's own search shows out-of-date results from a narrow slice of the site. What that costs them is the second search, and the content they never find at all because it is trapped in PDF (share of content in PDF ?, source ?).
Audiences 2 and 3, one line each
New members unfamiliar with how the organization works, who cannot tell which site to search. Staff answering member questions by searching for them, which the search engine was never built for (?).
What makes it work
Every line the form asks for is in the paragraph, in order: who, how we know, the problem, the workaround, the cost.
The workaround is a thing you can open: Google. Not "other search engines."
Every number that is missing is a question mark with what would answer it. Nothing is invented to fill the slot.
The lean is one line, one fact, and it names the audience the problem statement will be written for.
THE FACTS ARE BROWN'S, CHAPTER 2, PP. 17 TO 20. THE PARAGRAPH IS OURS. THE QUESTION MARKS ARE WHERE HIS BOOK STOPS.
2 · Frame the problem
ONE PAGE, WRITTEN FOR THE AUDIENCE THE WORK LEANS TO. THE READING: BROWN CH. 1 AND 2, HALL CH. 9, DAVIS CH. 10, QUESTION 3.
How to get to the statement: report the situation like a reporter, then ask why until the ladder stops.
Problem
The search engine needs to be fixed.
Why?
Members are complaining they can't find anything.
Why?
Basic searches yield meaningless or out-of-date results.
Why?
Content isn't updated regularly, and the search feature doesn't work consistently across different areas of the site.
Why?
Different parts of the organization manage their content in different ways, depending on how important it is to their business.
Why?
The organization is so big, different areas of the organization use different revenue models.
Then the template: "[Users] must have [need] to achieve [objective]." Specific in every slot: not "association members" but "members unfamiliar with the inner workings of the organization." The problem statement page is this slide: the reporter's paragraph on top, the ladder in the middle, one sentence at the bottom.
THE LADDER AND THE TEMPLATE ARE BROWN, CH. 2, VERBATIM. THE REPORTER'S PARAGRAPH IS ALSO QUESTION 3 OF THE BRIEF, THE BACKGROUND.
Six ways a statement fails, and one objective, concrete on purpose so that every noun in it can be argued with.
Anchoring
Stated in terms of a solution you already have. "Healthcare providers need a guide to new regulations."
Wishlisting
A list of features someone wants.
Frankensteining
Two existing products stapled together: "Facebook + SalesForce."
Boiling the ocean
Many problems called one: a calendar, a to-do list, a contact list and an encyclopedia.
Amplifying feedback
A loud comment from a few people becomes the problem.
Being presumptuous
The statement assumes how people will behave. "Nurses will record every check-in immediately."
The objective, an example
"Create a clickable prototype for a responsive web application, using the existing intranet style guide, to help employees track their professional development."A browser prototype, not a document. "Employees," undefined. "Track," a whole system. Held
"as hypotheses to be tested rather than instructions to follow."
THE SIX ARE STEPHEN ANDERSON'S, AS BROWN LISTS THEM IN CH. 2; THE OBJECTIVE IS HIS EXAMPLE. THE OBJECTIVE GOES ON PITCH SLIDE 2 AND IN SECTION 3 OF THE BRIEF, AND NEVER INTO THE PROBLEM STATEMENT: THAT IS ANCHORING.
2 · The problem statement.One page, written for the audience the work leans to.
The form
One page, a PDF on Blackboard. The reporter's paragraph on top, the five-whys ladder or the problem picture in the middle, one sentence at the bottom. Every claim with a source.
The sentence
"[Users] must have [need] to achieve [objective]." From the audience's side, specific in every slot, checked against the six traps. Kept apart from the objective, which is what will be made.
What it feeds
Section 2 of the creative brief, verbatim, and slides 1 and 5 of the pitch.
Read more about it
Brown, Practical Design Discovery, chapters 1 and 2 (PDF on Blackboard). The problem statement form on the class page.
STAGE 2 · FRAME THE PROBLEM
Written out: the problem statement page.The reporter's paragraph, the ladder, one sentence. Brown's words where he gives them.
The situation, as a reporter would write it
The ABC Guild provides up-to-date industry data, job postings, and event information for its members. Members find the Guild's search engine difficult to use and rely on Google to find content. Suffering from poor content strategy and outdated user priorities, the organization's search engine doesn't allow users to search across the range of Guild websites. Since many members are logged in when they use it, they expect the search engine to anticipate their needs, interests, and geographical area. Finally, much of the site's important content is trapped in PDF, making it difficult to index and display in the results.
The ladder
The search engine needs to be fixed. Why? Members can't find anything. Why? Searches return meaningless or out-of-date results. Why? Content isn't updated regularly and search doesn't work across areas of the site. Why? Different parts of the organization manage content in different ways. Why? Different areas use different revenue models.
The statement
Members unfamiliar with the inner workings of the organization must have search results that know who they are and what is current, to find a posting or an event on the first try.
What makes it work
The paragraph is a news story: who the product serves, what they do instead, why, what they expect, the one hard constraint. Five sentences.
The ladder ends on the real problem, which is organizational, and the statement does not pretend to fix that; it names what the audience must have.
The sentence is from the audience's side. "Create a search experience with modern features" would be the objective, and it stays out.
REPORTER'S PARAGRAPH AND LADDER: BROWN, PP. 18 TO 19, VERBATIM. THE CLOSING SENTENCE IS OURS, IN HIS TEMPLATE.
Where we are today
THE AUDIENCE IS DUE NOW. THE PROBLEM STATEMENT IS MONDAY. THEN THE PITCH, THEN THE BRIEF.
3 · Set a direction
TEN SLIDES, RECORDED, ABOUT TEN MINUTES. THE READING: BROWN CH. 3 AND 5, AND THE PITCH TEMPLATE.
3 · The pitch.Ten slides, recorded on video, about ten minutes.
The form
Ten slides in Brown's five sections: objectives and outcomes, the problem elaborated, the direction, supporting details, next steps. Slide 10 carries the proposal: scope, outputs, fidelity, time, priority, what the work would cost. The deck and the video go on Blackboard.
What is new work
Three slides only: the concept, the principles, and two or three boards with no favorite. Made in the pitch studio. Everything else is carried forward from the audience and the problem statement.
What it feeds
The creative brief on Sep 30, and then the explorations. The notes on your recording come back in writing.
Read more about it
Brown, chapters 3 and 5 (PDF on Blackboard): setting direction, and the discovery document whose five sections the deck follows. The pitch deck template and the boards form on the class page.
STAGE 3 · SET A DIRECTION
Written out: pitch slides 1, 3 and 10, as headlines.A pitch slide is a sentence that states the point, then the evidence under it.
Slide 1 · The product, and the problem it answers
Members search the Guild twice, then give up and use Google.
Search across the ABC Guild's sites, for members. "Association members are frustrated with the site's search results, because they display out-of-date information and promote irrelevant matches from a narrow slice of the site's content."
Slide 3 · Who has the problem
Logged-in members looking for a posting or an event, who already expect the site to know them.
How many: ? members, ? searches a month (analytics). What they use instead: Google. What it costs them: a second search, and the content in PDF they never find. Not chosen: new members who cannot tell which site to search; staff searching on members' behalf.
Slide 10 · Next steps, and the ask
Eight weeks of discovery, then a search that knows the member; we will know it worked when pogo-sticking falls by half.
What makes it work
The headline is a sentence with a verb. "The problem" is a label; "Members search twice, then use Google" is a pitch.
Slide 1 is the problem statement verbatim under the headline, and nothing else.
Slide 3 is the audience paragraph, cut to four lines, with the two audiences not chosen named in one line.
Slide 10 carries the number from slide 5, so the ask has a test attached.
HEADLINES ARE OURS. THE QUOTED STATEMENT IS BROWN'S. THE PITCH TEMPLATE ON THE CLASS PAGE GIVES A HEADLINE TO WRITE FOR ALL TEN.
4 · Brief the work
WHAT A BRIEF IS, AHEAD OF SEP 28. YOU WRITE YOURS IN CLASS ON SEP 30, AFTER THE PITCH. THE READING: DAVIS CH. 10, AND FOUR BRIEFS THE INDUSTRY USES.
The brief
A brief exists to make the work better than it would be without one, and it fails without a target.
The story
"I'm supposed to develop a rich media digital campaign for a rheumatoid arthritis drug and there's no target information in the brief."
He built an insight from his grandmother, who said "Ol' Arthur's acting up again" a day before rain. Good work, no target, and the client rejected both agency directions. The textbook's own case.
The three things it has to give
"A realistic view of what their advertising needs to, and is likely to, achieve."
"A clear understanding of the people that their advertising must address."
"Clear direction on the message."
Goal, target, message. Steel's three, as the textbook quotes them.
The one rule of form
"Answer this with prose. Bullet points won't work at all in a brief."
A brief is sentences, because a sentence has to commit to a cause.
What the textbook adds
Eleven questions a brief should answer, numbered. The next slide sorts them by the three, and lights the ones the audience and the problem statement already answer.
The eleven questions a brief answers, sorted by goal, target and message. The lit ones are already answered by the audience, the problem statement and the objective.
Goal
2ObjectivesWhat is the assignment? · Pitch slide 2
11TimingWhat is the timing?
Target
4AudienceWhom are we selling to? · The audience hand-in
7BarrierWhat barriers to purchase do we need to overcome? · The workaround and its cost, from the audience hand-in
Ground
1ProductHow would you describe the product? · What it really sells, from the problem statement
3BackgroundWhat is the background? · The reporter's paragraph
6SupportWhat are the reasons to believe?
9PositionWhat is the brand position?
Message
5MessageWhat is the one main benefit?
8TakeawayWhat is the net takeaway?
10ResponseWhat is the desired response?
THE QUESTIONS AND THEIR NUMBERS ARE DAVIS, CH. 10. THE FOUR GROUPS ARE OURS, FROM STEEL'S GOAL, TARGET AND MESSAGE. THE MESSAGE COLUMN WAITS FOR THE BRAND.
A real brief, one: Goodby, Silverstein and Partners, as Jon Steel wrote it.
Goodby, Silverstein · one page
1BackgroundWhy are we advertising at all?
2ObjectivesWhat is the advertising trying to achieve?
3AudienceWho are we talking to?
4InsightWhat do we know about them that will help?
5MessageWhat is the main idea we need to communicate?
6ChannelsWhat is the best way of planting that idea?
7SupportWhy should they believe it?
Jon Steel, Truth, Lies and Advertising: The Art of Account Planning (Wiley, 1998), the chapter "The Fisherman's Guide." The brief Davis quotes in chapter 10. Template on the class page
Seven questions and one page. Steel's brief is written as questions on purpose: a heading can be left blank and nobody notices, a question cannot.
The lit one is the proposition: the main idea, in one sentence. Everything above it is the reason for it, everything below it is how to make it land.
"What do we know about them that will help" is the insight. Not everything the research found; the one thing that will move the work.
STEEL: THE BRIEF IS "A FISHERMAN'S GUIDE." IT POINTS OUT THE SPOTS AND THE TACKLE; IT DOES NOT FISH.
A real brief, two: the Ogilvy DO brief, one page, eleven questions.
Ogilvy · the DO brief
1BackgroundWhy is this brief here?
2AudienceWho do we need to influence?
3ResponseWhat do they need to do as a result of this communication?
4StrategyHow will the communication achieve this?
5MessageWhat do we need to convey?
6SupportWhat do they need to know?
7ToneWhat do they need to feel?
8InsightWhy should they care?
9MeasurementHow will success be measured?
10MandatoriesMandatories
11ChannelsChannels
The Ogilvy DO brief, as circulated (scribd.com/document/677490621); Ogilvy Namibia, "Great briefs vs. bad briefs," on the same headings. Template on the class page
"Do" is the point: the lit question asks what the audience must do as a result, not what they should think. Ogilvy: a brief that asks for "awareness" is a bad brief.
Know and feel are separate questions. The facts that support the choice, and the emotion that makes it; Ogilvy's line is that emotional campaigns sell harder.
It ends on measurement, mandatories and channels. It starts with the brief and it ends with the brief: the same page judges the work afterward.
OGILVY: A GREAT BRIEF IS "TIGHT, EXACT, CLEAR" AND STILL "OPEN AND INSPIRING."
A real brief, three: the design studio's brief, Terry Lee Stone in Communication Arts.
Communication Arts · ten sections
1BackgroundBackground summary. Who is the client? What is the product or service?
2ProjectOverview. What is the project? What are we creating and why?
3ObjectivesDrivers. What is our goal? What are we trying to achieve?
4AudienceAudience. Who are we talking to? What do they think of the client?
5CompetitionCompetitors. Who is the competition? A SWOT on them?
6ToneTone. How should we be communicating? What adjectives describe the feeling?
7MessageMessage. What are we saying with this piece exactly?
8VisualsVisuals. New images, or existing ones?
9MandatoriesDetails. Mandatory info, deliverables, pre-conceived ideas.
10PeoplePeople. Who are we reporting to? Who approves?
Terry Lee Stone, "Creative Briefs in Shifting Times," Communication Arts (commarts.com/columns). Stone teaches at Art Center. Template on the class page
The version a design studio writes. It has competitors, visuals and people, which the agency briefs leave to other documents.
Her seven questions behind the ten sections: what is this, why are we doing it, who is it really for and why should they care, where and when will it be used, who engages with it, how will it be remembered and retold, what needs doing by whom by when.
Her rule: "an unread creative brief is an unused one." Just enough to be thorough.
STONE: ILLUMINATE CONTEXT AND INSPIRE THINKING "WITH JUST ENOUGH INFORMATION TO BE THOROUGH."
A real brief, four: Workhorse's own, for Resume Place in 2022 and PBS in 2021.
Resume Place · 2022
1ProjectProject overview, and the timeline
2PeopleThe Resume Place team
3BackgroundHistory
4ObjectivesTelling a proper story · Project objective
5DeliverablesBranding and identity: the deliverables
6PositionAspirations: we want to be seen as
7AudienceAudience: who is this project talking to?
8CompetitionCompetitors: who's the competition?
9ToneAdjectives that best describe the feeling or approach
10MessageMessage: what are we trying to say?
11TimingProject milestones
PBS Innovation Team · 2021
1ProjectProject
2PeopleClient contacts
3ObjectivesGoals (top three)
4BackgroundBroader purpose of the project
5AudienceAudience
6CompetitionCompetitive landscape
7PositionDifferentiation
8ToneTone
9MessageMessage: what we're saying · audience takeaway
Workhorse Collective, studio archive. Resume Place creative brief, April 2022, a web page delivered to the client. PBS Innovation Team creative brief, March 2021. Template on the class page
Two real ones, a year apart, and the same spine: the client's story, who it is talking to, who else is talking to them, the feeling, and one sentence of message.
The Resume Place brief names three audiences by number with examples under each, and groups the competition by category: big corporations, small business, non-profit, military, state.
The message is one sentence. Resume Place: "helps people write new chapters in their story of service and commitment to America." PBS: the team is "the next logical step" in what PBS has always done.
THE RESUME PLACE BRIEF IS ON THE CLASS PAGE AS A PDF, THE WHOLE PAGE: MEANINGLAYER.COM/HANDOUTS/ART-418-EXAMPLE-BRIEF-RESUME-PLACE.PDF
The one-line brief. Written last, put first: if its four slots disagree with the pages, the pages are not done.
GET couch-dwellers who keep meaning to work out WHO sink into the sofa after work and let the evening swallow the plan TO get off the sofa and run tonight BY casting the sofa as the villain dragging them down.
GET · the audience
Specific enough to picture. Section 4 of the brief. Not "millennials": the person on the sofa.
WHO · the insight
What they do or believe today, and why. Section 5. The observed truth plus the conclusion.
TO · BY
The one response, and the one idea that earns it. Sections 12 and 7. One of each, or it is two briefs. A problem statement names no solution. This line does: it is the strategy in one sentence.
ON BROWN'S CASE: GET LOGGED-IN MEMBERS WHO NEED A JOB POSTING OR AN EVENT · WHO OPEN GOOGLE IN THE NEXT TAB BECAUSE THE GUILD'S SEARCH IS STALE · TO SEARCH THE GUILD FIRST · BY A SEARCH THAT KNOWS WHO THEY ARE.
THE REEBOK LINE IS SELFSTORMING'S WORKED EXAMPLE, SHORTENED. FORMAT CREDITED TO MARTYN STRAW, BBDO NEW YORK. TEMPLATE ON THE CLASS PAGE
4 · The creative brief.Written in class on Sep 30, after the pitch.
The form
The nineteen sections from the Sep 28 class, with a one-line brief on top: GET the audience WHO the insight TO the response BY the idea. Sentences, not bullets. Every guess marked with a question mark.
What is already answered
Page one, from the audience and the problem statement: overview, why at all, what it must achieve, who it is talking to, what we know about them, the competition.
What it feeds
Every decision in the explorations and the brand, which are measured against it. Turned in on Blackboard.
Read more about it
Davis, chapter 10 (the textbook). Brown, chapter 3 (PDF on Blackboard). The creative brief template on the class page, with its sources. Workhorse's Resume Place brief, the whole page, as a PDF.
STAGE 4 · BRIEF THE WORK
Written out: the brief, the one line and page one.Sections 1 to 3 as they would read. The rest of page one is already written.
The brief in one line
GET logged-in members who need a job posting or an event WHO open Google in the next tab because the Guild's search is stale TO search the Guild first BY a search that knows who they are.
1 · Project overview
A search engine across an industry association's websites. What it really sells: the feeling that the association knows who you are and what you came for (?). Team: the Guild's web team, its executives, the appliance vendor; who decides (?). Timeline: an eight-week discovery, then build.
2 · Why are we doing this at all
The search runs on a vendor's appliance that functioned just fine and satisfied nobody. Different parts of the organization manage content differently because they run on different revenue models. The problem, verbatim: "Association members are frustrated with the site's search results, because they display out-of-date information and promote irrelevant matches from a narrow slice of the site's content."
3 · What the work has to achieve
First, members find the thing on the first try. Second, every Guild site is indexed. Third, results anticipate their needs, interests and geographical area. Broader purpose: the Guild as the place members go first (?).
What makes it work
The one line is written last and put first. If its four slots disagree with the pages under it, the pages are not done.
Sentences, not bullets. Each section is prose a stranger could read in order.
The goals are three, ranked, and only effects the work itself can produce. "Grow membership" is not on the list because search cannot do it alone.
FACTS FROM BROWN, CHAPTER 2. THE BRIEF TEMPLATE ON THE CLASS PAGE CARRIES ALL FOURTEEN SECTIONS SKETCHED THROUGH THIS CASE.
Before you leave
The work between now and Monday.
Tonight
The lean written at the top of section 2. The workaround named. Every number with its four parts or a question mark and a date.
Mon · Sep 14 · the problem statement
One page, from the form on the class page: the reporter's paragraph, the ladder or the picture, one sentence from the audience's side, every claim sourced. A PDF on Blackboard.
Read for Sep 21
Monteiro, Design Is a Job, chapters 1 and 2, and Hall chapter 5 on interviews. Open the pitch template and read its slide headings; that is the shape of the next two weeks.
Then
Sep 14 and 16: two studio days on the pitch. Sep 21: the pitch, recorded. Sep 30: the brief, written in class.