I struggled with this book. It has some great ideas, but it reminds me of the last hour of the film version of The Return of the King or the entire King Kong by Peter Jackson. Where's the editor?

The good and the bad:
1. He gives concrete examples of how to use visual thinking and gives you tools to figure out what to do.
2.It's a 300 pages book talking about visual thinking. Okay. I read it on the Kindle, so I don't know really how big the pictures are. But the point remains - it is overly long. A full third of the book is taken up by a case study on selling B2B software.
3. Which, by the way, made no sense whatsoever. He starts by saying, "Let's map our customers." And then proceeds to put them all in a single company. It's quite possibly the worst case of profiling a customer base I've seen.

All in all, it's a good book. But focus on the SKIMMING, not the reading.

I'm not good at drawing, but that doesn't stop me from occasionally using a whiteboard to visually communicate ideas. Communicating ideas isn't about creating a Picasso or a Rembrandt. Stick figures are welcome!

The visual process contains four phases:

* Look: Orient yourself and know which way is up, where you are, and identify.
* See: Explore the five W's (who, what, when, where, and why) plus how many.
* Imagine: No SQUIDS here (it's SQVID (simple, quality, vision, individual attributes, delta (change)).
* Show: Telling the story with visuals.

Roam takes you through complicated examples -- typical business problems. For example, a training department had hundreds of documents and couldn't see anything anymore. After analyzing all of their work, the team created a visual process to break it down. The story becomes clearer.

I appreciate that Roam provides many examples. He also walks through several case studies of putting visual process to work. It may take some time to get the hang of the process and turning complicated ideas into visuals the audience can absorb with little thought.

This isn't the kind of book where you can scan a few pages and suddenly come up with a way to explain that doo-dad. I think the book could stand an appendix or chapter on how to draw basic figures. I couldn't even copy some of the simple drawings. Also, the software information needs to include Smartdraw. Although, not as powerful as Visio, it's more affordable.

Sales people can use the book to learn how to communicate their complicated products or services to prospects. Web design agencies can communicate their solutions for a Web site's architecture. Presenters can stop posting busy charts and use these drawings to quickly get a point across. The visual process comes in handy for many situations and I believe it's a good skill to have.

I also learned something else while attempting my first drawings after reading the book. I tried to use Visio to create them, but it didn't have what I wanted and it took too much time. Two drawings took about 10 to 20 minutes.

The premise of the book is that any problem, idea, or presentation can be solved using pictures - hand drawn pictures. Roam argues that everyone is visual, even those who say they aren't. He gives a few frameworks to work from as you prepare to draw out maps, charts, and pictures to present your ideas. I found them very helpful and refreshing. Roam also uses pictures significantly throughout the book which are also helpful.

In addition to Dan Roam saying that hand drawn pictures are more powerful than PowerPoint, Stephanie Palmer in her book Good in a Room: How to Sell Yourself (and Your Ideas) and Win Over Any Audience, also argues the same thing. My experience has been that they are both right. It really is much more captivating and easier to remember when I watch people draw out ideas in front of me rather than looking at a pretty computer generated graphic.

Dan Roam's "Back of the Napkin" is an important first step in teaching business people how to compose problems visually. However, it's definitely a rookie effort, heavy on sizzle but light on steak.

Roam spends nearly half the book explaining how our minds process information. Okay, fine. Kind of like a book on how to build a house explaining what is a hammer, a saw, a drill. Then Roam proposes some different ways to draw the different ways the brain processes information. Kind of like showing that a hammer is good for nailing wood together, a saw is good for dividing wood in half, and a drill is good for drywall and screws. The reader cannot wait to see how this will all fit together - "This is going to be good!". Finally, Roam throws out an example of how to pull it all together to solve a problem.

Unfortunately, the example is overly-easy, explores many blind alleys, and finally arrives at a solution that is fundamentally flawed. Roam's case study shows flat sales for a proprietary software company for two years. Roam's analysis shows $78 million in proprietary software will be purchased next year vs. $48 million in open source. The solution - convert their software into open source. Huh? Leave a $78 million industry to a single competitor to compete with two other open-source vendors for a $48 million industry? What kind of solution is that? Will you fire all your developers and hire open source developers? Will you force your existing customers to move to open source too, or just abandon them?

In the end, after many chapters of "wait till you see this" type posturing, Dan Roam never delivers the goods. I don't doubt Roam's sincerity, and hope he will continue to iterate on his models until he comes back with something that actually works.

Dan Roam's "Back of the Napkin" is an important first step in teaching business people how to compose problems visually. However, it's definitely a rookie effort, heavy on sizzle but light on steak.

Roam spends nearly half the book explaining how our minds process information. Okay, fine. Kind of like a book on how to build a house explaining what is a hammer, a saw, a drill. Then Roam proposes some different ways to draw the different ways the brain processes information. Kind of like showing that a hammer is good for nailing wood together, a saw is good for dividing wood in half, and a drill is good for drywall and screws. The reader cannot wait to see how this will all fit together - "This is going to be good!". Finally, Roam throws out an example of how to pull it all together to solve a problem.

Unfortunately, the example is overly-easy, explores many blind alleys, and finally arrives at a solution that is fundamentally flawed. Roam's case study shows flat sales for a software company for two years. Roam's analysis shows $78 million in proprietary software will be purchased next year vs. $48 million in open source. The solution - convert their software into open source. Huh? Leave a $78 million industry to a single competitor to compete with two other open-source vendors for a $48 million industry? What kind of solution is that? Will you fire all your developers and hire open source developers? Will you force your existing customers to move to open source too, or just abandon them?

In the end, after many chapters of "wait till you see this" type posturing, Dan Roam never delivers the goods. I don't doubt Roam's sincerity, and hope he will continue to iterate on his models until he comes back with something that actually works.

Typically I don't buy many books-- we have a good local library, so I buy only those that are 1) very interesting and 2) worth referring to later. This book is both. It is marketed as a book that shows how to develop business presentations by drawing the charts in front of the audience rather than relying on pre-made PowerPoint slides. Anyone, however, who needs to learn how to display data to convince others (data visualization) will find this book useful.

The good: it is an easy and fast read, with little jargon, and with good explanations of the various ways to display data. The chapter, "Frameworks For Showing," alone makes the book worthwhile to purchase. When do you use a timeline, or a flowchart, or a multivariable plot? This chapter explains all.

The bad: the drawings, while clever and creative, are at the lower end of my ability to read the writing. (And I have very good eyes.) A paperback version with the drawings much larger would be very helpful.

Very worthwhile.

This insightful book says that any problem can be solved using a simple drawing. The author warns against saying you cannot draw, because he says anyone can draw the simple stick figure drawings he suggests. Roam reminds us that visual information is much more interesting than verbal information. He explains that simple drawings are the most effective way to solve problems, sell ideas, or communicate information. He believes drawings help people crystallize ideas and think more creatively. The author emphasizes that communicating your ideas effectively is crucial and reminds us that a picture is worth a thousand words.

The book begins with the basics of making drawings, charts, and graphs, then moves on to the author's tools for thinking in pictures. The remaining sections of the book explain how to develop and sell ideas. The section on developing ideas provides suggested models to use to best represent types of situations.

The book presents step-by-step directions on how to clearly present a problem using a set of visual tools - as a series of pictures or a progressively-drawn picture. His basic instructions include: 1) Make the first mark by drawing a circle and label it something like me, them, you, product, company, etc.; 2) Choose a type of picture to best describe the situation from the categories a who/what portrait, a how-much chart, a where map, a when timeline, a how flowchart, or a why multi-variable xy plot; 3) Anthropomorphize your drawing since people relate to people even if they are just stick-figures with faces; 4) Use mental triggers in your drawing to make a point such as making something bigger or smaller to signify power or using the sun to orient an up or down direction; 5) Draw your picture real-time in front of your audience as a progression of your thought process and describe it as you go rather than presenting a finished drawing; 6) As you finish drawing your picture, write in or draw your conclusion. 7) Because a picture is so powerful, it is important to accurately portray the situation even though the drawing may not be artistic.

The book also presents examples of problems that have been solved using the system. The author emphasizes that you should develop your ideas and solutions and make sure the audience is moving along with you and that they are deducing the same conclusions you are presenting. You do this by making a progression of pictures or augmenting your drawing, as you simultaneously describe what you are sketching. The book clearly lays out how to get from the problem to selling the solution. Other inspirational books I also recommend are: THE 3:00 PM SECRET: Live Slim and Strong, Live Your Dreams and THE BLUE ZONES: Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who've Lived the Longest.

If you don't have any idea of how pictures can help you see more dimensions of problems and explain your solutions better, this is a good book to get you started. The book's main drawback is that it doesn't discuss how to integrate stories with pictures to make for more compelling communications. You'll have to learn to do that by reading books about storytelling to supplement this one.

I consider myself to be not very good at creating pictures for either solving problems or communicating solutions. I was disappointed that the book wasn't aimed more at helping people like me who understand the principles but have trouble applying those concepts.

Dan Roam writes a fun book. I thought I would learn how to draw better when drawing business ideas. This book goes through the business plan on napkins - but after practicing drawing like Dan Roam in the book, it looks nothing like the book. Bummer. I would of loved a chapter on how to draw better.

If you have to get complex points across to people as part of your job, this book will help you do a better job. Great for technical sales or product management.

I also wanted to like this book. And, to be fair, I didn't read the entire book. I just couldn't. It goes on and on about how important visual thinking is. Okay, okay, I get it. Now what? Well, the author then--as others have pointed out--paradoxically proceeds to bore us with chatter about how to proceed with using drawing and visual thinking instead of sticking to his guns and using more drawings! ATTENTION KINDLE USERS: The Kindle version's drawings of this book are barely perceptible; it's quite a chore to squint and figure out what they are supposed to be. Adjusting the font size of the text does nothing for the illustrations.

I bought this book because the idea of improving my visual thinking skills was intriguing. The first half of the book was more helpful to me than the second (the case study).

The main thing I was looking for help improving was my public speaking and teaching skills. It was moderately helpful in this area. The main audience I think that would be interested in this book is salespeople or consultants. It spends a lot of time convincing the reader to use hand drawn graphs instead of PowerPoint or Excel created ones.

i was really disappointed with this book. i tend to be a visual guy, and had a high level of expectancy about how fun this book would be to read, and how helpful it would be. but i was bored -- crazy bored. i could barely finish it.

there are some good ideas in the book, to be sure. but i found it horribly paradoxical that a book about using drawings would be so pickin' linear. there were three steps for this, and 6 rules for that. i felt like i was reading a john maxwell leadership book! the cute little drawings on every page even got really old. tons of repeated info, and `no duh' stuff also.

sorry, not a helpful book.

I enjoyed reading this book, the language is easy, the proposed models are nice and for sure add up to your way of thinking, but i guess that implementing the concepts isnt as easy as the book proposes ....

This review refers ONLY to the kindle version.

The way that the kindle converts the text to an e-format forces the images at a fixed size -- a size that too small to be able to see details.

You can resize the text, but not the pictures.

Obviously, this was more than a little annoying in a book that is all about using pictures to convey information.

Also, there were several places in the book where there was a caption for a picture but just a blank space where the picture (presumably) was supposed to appear.

If you need to communicate ideas get this book. Simple to read and understand. Great thoughts on how to get ideas across visually. It isn't about the quality of the drawings either. You can do it.

Executive summary: This book opens up a completely new marcet for career minded people. See details below .

---

Dan Roam is visually summarizing in four sections how to step through problem solving tasks.

Part I is a general introduction into problem solving.
Part II is about discovering the ideas.
Part III is developing the ideas to a business plan and
Part IV is about how to showcase your presentation and sell the idea.

What makes this book different is the fact that Dan is using visual clues to solve the problems.

In all parts of the book he is vigorously running through each of the below questions

Who/What ...
How many ...
Where ...
When ...
How ...
Why ...

and emphasizes the importance and the impact of the answers to it.

He is using the "Look,see, imagine and show" steps to explain whats is actually happening when a problem is analyzed, defined, a solution prepared and it must be "sold" to the upper management to get the go ahead.

I can easily see how this book opens up a completely new marcet f.e. for
instructors and junior business consultants.

Instructors for teaching those people that want to understand what they have missed so far and junior consultants because it visually combines their analytical skills, selective filtering skills and presentational skills and makes them explicitely aware of them and how to apply them.

It is interesting to see how Dan is able in Part III to "simplify" and demystify the open source <--> closed source issue any software company is facing.

That alone must be worth the book for any software company.

What Dan is really show casing is what good analysts already call their own:

- analytical skills
- context sensitive expertise
- selective filtering skills
- experience

Explicitly visualizing the problem solving steps in slow motion is in the right hands a powerful weapon to get an edge over your competition.


I suggest you read the book three times.

First to get an overview.
Second to let it sink in and
Third to finetune.

Its one of those books that will give you new aspects everytime you read it.

This insightful book says that any problem can be solved using a picture. Author, Dan Roam, quickly warns against saying you cannot draw, because anyone can draw the simple stick figure drawings he suggests. Roam reminds us that visual information is much more interesting than verbal information. He explains that simple drawings are the most effective way to solve problems, sell ideas, or communicate information. He believes drawings help people crystallize ideas and think more creatively. The author emphasizes that communicating your ideas effectively is crucial and reminds us that a picture is worth a thousand words.

The book begins with the basics of making drawings, charts, and graphs, then moves on to the author's tools for thinking in pictures. The remaining sections of the book explain how to develop and sell ideas. The section on developing ideas provides suggested models to use to best represent types of situations.

The book presents step-by-step directions on how to clearly present a problem using a set of visual tools - as a series of pictures or a progressively-drawn picture. His basic instructions include: 1) Make the first mark by drawing a circle and label it something like me, them, you, product, company, etc.; 2) Choose a type of picture to best describe the situation from the categories a who/what portrait, a how-much chart, a where map, a when timeline, a how flowchart, or a why multi-variable xy plot; 3) Anthropomorphize your drawing since people relate to people even if they are just stick-figures with faces; 4) Use mental triggers in your drawing to make a point such as making something bigger or smaller to signify power or using the sun to orient an up or down direction; 5) Draw your picture real-time in front of your audience as a progression of your thought process and describe it as you go rather than presenting a finished drawing; 6) As you finish drawing your picture, write in or draw your conclusion. 7) Because a picture is so powerful, it is important to accurately portray the situation even though the drawing may not be artistic.

The book also presents examples of problems that have been solved using the system. The author emphasizes that you should develop your ideas and solutions and make sure the audience is moving along with you and that they are deducing the same conclusions you are presenting. You do this by making a progression of pictures or augmenting your drawing, as you simultaneously describe what you are sketching. The book clearly lays out how to get from the problem to selling the solution. Other inspirational books I also recommend are: THE 3:00 PM SECRET: Live Slim and Strong, Live Your Dreamsand THE BLUE ZONES: Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who've Lived the Longest.

I have always been fascinated by visual thinking & visual problem solving.

I attribute this captivation of mine partly to my engineering training - seeing the problem first before getting to the solution.

In the earlier years of my professional career, my field guide to visual thinking & visual problem solving happened to be Henning Nelms' 'Thinking with a Pencil'. I could relate to it very quickly because of my engineering work.

In subsequent years, I had picked up the mind-mapping techniques from Tony Buzan, which led me to explore other visual tools, partly fueled by my curiosity.

One of them was the mind-scaping techniques from Nancy Margulies. Another was the rapid visualisation techniques from Kurt Hanks, especially his wonderful book, 'Rapid Viz', which gave me a more fun & spontaneous approach.

As I moved into the upper echelons of marketing & management, in conjunction with my career progression, I came across Terry Richey's 'Marketer's Visual Toolkit: Using Charts, Graphs, & Models for Strategic Planning & Problem Solving'.

Prior to it, I didn't realise a simple box matrix could do so much wonders to understanding problems. As a matter of fact, today the Nine Block Matrix is one of my most favourite business analytical tools.

This was followed by Larry Raymond's 'Reinventing Communication: A Guide for Using Visual Language for Planning, Problem Solving & Re engineering'.

The journey metaphor was a real eye opener for me, especially in terms of thinking strategically.

Both of them certainly gave me many broad perspectives about using more effective visual approaches to get into the heart of business issues.

In the early nineties, I went to the United States to learn advanced visual tools from the legendary Jim Channon. It was an awesome learning experience for me.

His brilliant work then led me to discover David Sibbet of Grove Consultants, & Jerry McNellis (storyboarding), from both of whom I had learned to develop my own professional expertise in helping small businesses to expedite their problem solving as well as fine-tune their strategic planning techniques.

As part of my strategy consulting & training development work in the ensuing years, with entrepreneurs, professionals, managers as well as students, I also started to explore graphic organisers & other visual organisers as power tools to manage information overload.

In the last couple of years, a handful of experts have further expanded my personal understanding about making systems sense of challenging business situations. They are:

- Alex Lowry & Phil Hood, 'The Power of the 2x2 Matrix: Using 2x2 Thinking to Solve Business Problems & Make Better Decisions';

- John Bryson, 'Visible Thinking: Unlocking Causal Mapping for Practical Business Results';

I have even indulged in what I call 'deliberate doodling', with some great help from the work of Joy Sikorski.

As you can see, I have come a long way as far as exploring & practising visual thinking & visual problem solving are concerned. In many respects, my learning journey has been greatly influenced by the teachings of all the above mentioned experts.

Against this backdrop, I am very glad to meet Dan Roam, through his wonderful book, 'The Back of the Napkin'. I have come across the book at first while browsing through some body's blog. Fortunately, to my great delight, I have managed to get a copy from Kinokuniya Bookstore quickly.

I am still reading the book, & have yet to finish it, but I have already started with real-world prototyping for use in my strategy consulting work.

In a nutshell, the book has four critical sections, from my point of view, with two supporting technical appendices & an extended case study:

- Part I: Looking at the problem;
- Part II: Seeing & Discovering Ideas;
- Part III: Imagining & Developing Ideas;
- Part IV: Showing & Selling Ideas;

My initial adverse response while reading this book is that I have to get used to the hand-drawn stick figures [which I don't like] in the book, & also the need to do flip-flopping between images & text, but after a while, I just get used to them & finally, reading becomes a breeze.

Tactically, it is a do-it-yourself book. So you have to work with it systematically to get what you need.

Actually for me, & in application terms, the book is an intellectual extension of Kurt Hank's rapid visualisation techniques, which are more spontaneous & artful, but Dan Roam has put in a more systems perspective - almost structured & yet still free-form, in a limited sense - to view issues or problems.

What I like about the book from the beginning is the author's "Guide Rope to Visual Thinking", which outlines his comprehensive 4-step process, 3 built-in tools & 6 ways of seeing. They are basically the foundational tools, while the latter forms the six fundamental questions that guide how we see the world.

I am glad that the "6 ways of seeing" has sparked off an interesting idea at my end - I can now synergise - in fact, I like to use the term 'synconvergise' from Michael Gelb - what I had picked up from an earlier book, 'So What? The Definitive Guide to the Only Business Questions that Matter', by Kevin Duncan, which I had reviewed earlier.

All I can say so far is that all the techniques as introduced by the author certainly build on, or rather amplify, my current repertoire of abilities & skills to view, simplify & summarise complicated concepts with simple pictures.

To end this post, let me paraphrase the author: "Welcome to a whole new way of looking at business . . . The heart of business is the art of problem solving . . . Visual thinking means taking advantage of our innate ability to see . . ."

Most business presentations rely on fancy graphs, professional graphics, and slick tools to get their point across. But sometimes, the most effective way to make your case is to whip out a napkin and start drawing. Dan Roam covers that subject in the book The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures. This opened my eyes to many different concepts that I somewhat took for granted, as well as giving me a framework for getting better at the whiteboard...

Contents:
Part 1 - Introductions - Anytime, Anyone, Anywhere - Solving Problems with Pictures: A Whole New Way of Looking at Business; Which Problems, Which Pictures, and Who is "We"?; A Gamble We Can't Lose - The Four Steps of Visual Speaking
Part 2 - Discovering Ideas - Looking Better, Seeing Sharper, Imagining Further - Tools and Rules for Good Visual Thinking: No Thanks, Just Looking; The Six Ways of Seeing; The SQVID - A Practical Lesson in Applied Imagination; Frameworks for Showing
Part 3 - Developing Ideas - The Visual Thinking MBA - Putting Visual Thinking to Work: Showing and The Visual Thinking MBA; Who Are Our Customers? - Pictures That Solve a Who/What Problem; How Many Are Buying? - Pictures That Solve a How Much Problem; Where Is Our Business? - Pictures That Solve a Where Problem; When Can We Fix Things? - Pictures That Solve a When Problem; How Can We Improve Our Business? - Pictures That Solve a How Problem; Why Should We Even Bother? - Pictures That Solve a Why Problem
Part 4 - Selling Ideas - It's Showtime; Everything I Know About Business I Learned In Show-And-Tell; Drawing Conclusions
Acknowledgments; Appendix A - The Science of Visual Thinking; Appendix B - Resources for Visual Thinkers

Probably the most famous example of this type of learning is the Southwest Airlines story. Herb Kelleher and Rollin King were discussing a failed airline of King's. King took a napkin, drew a triangle on it, and labeled each corner Dallas, San Antonio, and Houston. This flight plan for a small regional airline broke a number of "rules", and the result of this simple drawing became Southwest Airlines four years later. It would have been "normal" to present an idea like this with PowerPoint slides, full color documents, and endless spreadsheets showing the numbers. But the most effective way of illustrating the concept was a simple napkin and pen. Roam has studied the science behind this deceptively simple idea and shows how nearly any idea can not only be communicated in this fashion, but most often can be communicated more succinctly than any other method. The act of drawing and simplifying concepts draws people in and puts life behind your message in a way that sterile professional graphics can't do.

Rather than just say "draw more", Roam creates a framework that allows you to figure out what type of picture applies. The problem is one of the following: who/what (portrait), how much (chart), where (map), when (timeline), how (flowchart), and why (plot). Within each of those frameworks, you have five options of what to show (the SQVID method): S (simple > elaborate), Q (quality > quantity), V (vision > execution), I (individual > comparison), and D (change > as-is). Once you understand these different conditions, the type of picture becomes clear, and then it's a matter of drawing the information. Keep in mind we're not talking about elaborate illustrations... stick figures and simple shapes will do. And that's a good thing, as "art" is not my forte... :)

This is another one of those books that will forever change the way you think about sharing information with others in a business or professional setting. This doesn't replace high-end, quality proposals or presentations... Instead, it simplifies and clarifies the message you have, and allows you to share it in a fraction of the time you might need for a formal, text/picture/word-laden meeting. This ranks right up with Presentation Zen in terms of books that change the way I work, and did so immediately.

I have always been fascinated by visual thinking & visual problem solving.

I attribute this captivation of mine partly to my engineering training - seeing the problem first before getting to the solution.

In the earlier years of my professional career, my field guide to visual thinking & visual problem solving happened to be Henning Nelms' 'Thinking with a Pencil'. I could relate to it very quickly because of my engineering work.

In subsequent years, I had picked up the mind-mapping techniques from Tony Buzan, which led me to explore other visual tools, partly fueled by my curiosity.

One of them was the mind-scaping techniques from Nancy Margulies. Another was the rapid visualisation techniques from Kurt Hanks, especially his wonderful book, 'Rapid Viz', which gave me a more fun & spontaneous approach.

As I moved into the upper echelons of marketing & management, in conjunction with my career progression, I came across Terry Richey's 'Marketer's Visual Toolkit: Using Charts, Graphs, & Models for Strategic Planning & Problem Solving'.

Prior to it, I didn't realise a simple box matrix could do so much wonders to understanding problems. As a matter of fact, today the Nine Block Matrix is one of my most favourite business analytical tools.

This was followed by Larry Raymond's 'Reinventing Communication: A Guide for Using Visual Language for Planning, Problem Solving & Re engineering'.

The journey metaphor was a real eye opener for me, especially in terms of thinking strategically.

Both of them certainly gave me many broad perspectives about using more effective visual approaches to get into the heart of business issues.

In the early nineties, I went to the United States to learn advanced visual tools from the legendary Jim Channon. It was an awesome learning experience for me.

His brilliant work then led me to discover David Sibbet of Grove Consultants, & Jerry McNellis (storyboarding), from both of whom I had learned to develop my own professional expertise in helping small businesses to expedite their problem solving as well as fine-tune their strategic planning techniques.

As part of my strategy consulting & training development work in the ensuing years, with entrepreneurs, professionals, managers as well as students, I also started to explore graphic organisers & other visual organisers as power tools to manage information overload.

In the last couple of years, a handful of experts have further expanded my personal understanding about making systems sense of challenging business situations. They are:

- Alex Lowry & Phil Hood, 'The Power of the 2x2 Matrix: Using 2x2 Thinking to Solve Business Problems & Make Better Decisions';

- John Bryson, 'Visible Thinking: Unlocking Causal Mapping for Practical Business Results';

As you can see, I have come a long way as far as exploring & practising visual thinking & visual problem solving are concerned. In many respects, my learning journey has been greatly influenced by the teachings of all the above mentioned experts.

Against this backdrop, I am very glad to meet Dan Roam, through his wonderful book, 'The Back of the Napkin'. I have come across the book at first while browsing through some body's blog. Fortunately, to my great delight, I have managed to get a copy from Kinokuniya Bookstore quickly.

I am still reading the book, & have yet to finish it, but I have already started with real-world prototyping for use in my strategy consulting work.

In a nutshell, the book has four critical sections, from my point of view, with two supporting technical appendices & an extended case study:

- Part I: Looking at the problem;
- Part II: Seeing & Discovering Ideas;
- Part III: Imagining & Developing Ideas;
- Part IV: Showing & Selling Ideas;

My initial adverse response while reading this book is that I have to get used to the hand-drawn stick figures [which I don't like] in the book, & also the need to do flip-flopping between images & text, but after a while, I just get used to them & finally, reading becomes a breeze.

Tactically, it is a do-it-yourself book. So you have to work with it systematically to get what you need.

Actually for me, & in application terms, the book is an intellectual extension of Kurt Hank's rapid visualisation techniques, which are more spontaneous & artful, but Dan Roam has put in a more systems perspective - almost structured & yet still free-form, in a limited sense - to view issues or problems.

What I like about the book from the beginning is the author's "Guide Rope to Visual Thinking", which outlines his comprehensive 4-step process, 3 built-in tools & 6 ways of seeing. They are basically the foundational tools, while the latter forms the six fundamental questions that guide how we see the world.

I am glad that the "6 ways of seeing" has sparked off an interesting idea at my end - I can now synergise - in fact, I like to use the term 'synconvergise' from Michael Gelb - what I had picked up from an earlier book, 'So What? The Definitive Guide to the Only Business Questions that Matter', by Kevin Duncan, which I had reviewed earlier.

All I can say so far is that all the techniques as introduced by the author certainly build on, or rather amplify, my current repertoire of abilities & skills to view, simplify & summarise complicated concepts with simple pictures.

To end this post, let me paraphrase the author: "Welcome to a whole new way of looking at business . . . The heart of business is the art of problem solving . . . Visual thinking means taking advantage of our innate ability to see . . ."

Dan Roam's The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures, is a wonderful instructional manual that teaches you the power of visual thinking in four lessons - introduction to visual thinking, discovering ideas, developing ideas, and selling ideas.

Dan explains how you don't have to be a "visual person" to take advantage of the power of visual thinking. He lays out a specific four step process of visual thinking that anyone can follow. I can't draw to save my life, but I'm already benefiting from following the process and using my crude sketches to capture and work through ideas.

This is a practical book that provides you with a set of frameworks for solving the different types of problems you will run into in business. Roam also provides simple to follow rules to help you decide which framework to use to solve your particular type of problem and communicate your ideas to your particular audience.

The last section of the book presents an MBA school style lesson. The author presents a walk-through of a complete case study. He demonstrates all the tools outlined in the book and you get to see how one progresses from one tool to the next to first help define the problem, then explore solutions, and then present those solutions to the key decision makers.

In the last chapter, the author walks his talk by demonstrating how to create a picture to describe your new visual thinking toolkit to your colleagues. Using a simple sketch of a Swiss Army knife, he summarizes the 3 basic visual thinking tools, the 4 steps of the visual thinking process, the 5 questions that help us open our mind's eye, and the 6 ways that we see.

Be sure to check out his creative acknowledgements section in the back of the book. This was the longest I've ever spent looking at an author's acknowledgements.

I highly recommend this book. It won't take you long to read, and your problem solving skills will increase so dramatically, you'll wish you read it 10 years ago.

Great idea but hard concept to accept as ALL business problems are just not that easy to assign to the catagories referenced in this book.

Very succinct in making its (strong) points. The pull-out chart near the end is great & so if the final "cheat sheet". Strongly recommended!

I found this book refreshing, even relaxing, and recommend it as a gift item for any student or adult. Had I been the publisher I would have made the book larger and the visuals (by definition, handwriting and sketches) consequently larger and fresher, but what is offered suffices.

I have been immersed for the past several weeks in some of the most advanced technical automated multi-media, multi-dimensional, geospatially-grounded visualizations with time lines and cross-cutting cultural dimesions, and after all of that, this book not only stands the test of holding my attention, but proves itself equal to the task of challenging what is supposed to be "state of the art."

A few other books that come to mind that complement this one:
Orbiting the Giant Hairball: A Corporate Fool's Guide to Surviving with Grace
The Attention Economy: Understanding the New Currency of Business
Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing
The Design of Dissent: Socially and Politically Driven Graphics
Information Design
Visual Interfaces to Digital Libraries (Lecture Notes in Computer Science)

I think this is a great book for a few reasons. Firstly it is very easy to read; at the start the author proposes a simple test to determine what your visual thinking preference is. Based on this suggestions are made on what area of the book to skip and what to start with.

For me the core of the book was the Visual Thinking Codex. Understanding this one page opens up the toolbox to present ideas and solve problems visually. With this codex you can fairly easily move to creating your visuals. The last section of the book works through a case study using this Codex which I found very useful.

Bottom line this is an easily understandable and applicable book. For me the real value was the one page with the Codex, the rest either set it up or explained it. With this mind set it is easy to skim through and extract a valuable tool set.

Thanks for reminding me how powerful visuals can be and how they can perfectly summarize many pages of data.

If enough people read and use this book I have hope that 100 slide PowerPoint decks will be a thing of the past.

For someone like me, who is non-artistic, this little gem points out the way to overcome that obstacle. It offers a nice, clear path to visual communication with just the "basics". Very worthwhile.

Most business books fall into a few broad categories, and though this one might be lumped in the category of how to do presentations, it is really much cooler than that. I guess I find it so cool because I can't really draw a straight line with a ruler. My kids are pretty good artists, but that comes from my wife's side. I am a musician. This book shows you how to use simple drawings and sketches to communicate much more effectively.

If you are like me, when you have to draw an org chart or some other image associated with business, you will follow the traditional, easy to follow model closest at hand. Dan Roam says no. He wants you to think about what it is you are really trying to say and let your mind communicate that with a fresh image that shows what it is you want to say simply and clearly.

He divides the book into four parts. In Part 1 he introduces the basic ideas of thinking in terms of compelling images, which problems are best handled with pictures and how to use images. Roam also uses four steps to teach you visual thinking: Look, See, Imagine, and Show.

Part II teaches you how to think visually and implement the rules. Part II takes you through a series of standard business issues and questions and then shows you how to tell your story in a more compelling way with images. Remember, these images are simple drawings rather than great works of art or anything that requires high powered graphics software.

Part IV draws conclusions for you. I love the chapter entitled, "Everything I Know About Business I Learned in Show-And-Tell." How compelling you find it, I don't know, but he sure makes a good point. Remember, this isn't impressionism or impulse drawings. You must think clearly about what you are trying to say and wrestle awhile to find the right image or images to tell that story. But you must find simple and clear images to show your audience so they can absorb it quickly no matter how long it took you to come up with it.

Great book with lots of good drawings to spark your imagination and very well done text.

A fresh and interesting book.

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI

Roam does a good job presenting an easily digestible piece that encourages anyway who *thinks* they don't have what it takes to present with pictures. As an user experience designer, I'm drawn (pun intended) to the parts in which he gives examples of making your stories/presentations less daunting to your audiences by trimming off the info-fat. Tips like this help us designers create better experiences.
Definitely recommended.

This book is an antidote to good-looking presentations that interfere with rather than enhance thinking with clients about what matters.

Dan's experience as a pilot and the association he makes to situational awareness in flight and business was a big part of the reason I purchased the kindle edition of his book. This comparison, in a service industry, is enormously insightful. The concept he discusses in this text has huge value for sales, service and leaders. The science of it may have been a bit more than I wanted. However, the exercises and examples and the basic premise of drawing to assist a group in understtnding where we are, where we want to go and how to get there is significant. We use a whiteboard a lot in meetings. We will certainly try pictures more in the future and test in our own environment the effectiveness of this concept. Good read for facilitators, leaders and salespeople.

I help companies sell more. In doing so, I am often asked to quickly help them understand their sales process. When a group of people sit down in a room, talking takes time. The story is a picture replaces a thousand words. Using the techniques used in this book, the one can lead the discussion in a fraction of the time.

If you work with groups of people, this book is a must for future productivity.

Frank Hurtte
River Heights Consulting

An excellent book. Sometimes the best means of conveying ideas is via a written narrative and other times it is oral. This book does an excellent job of not only providing very good counsel as to how to present ideas with illustrations but also to develop solutions to complex problems. I expected a simple book but discovered one with much more helpful, substantive, practical guidance. In fact, I've added this as one of the 12 business books our company book club discusses this year.

This book helps you to get out of your logic box and think creatively. I enjoyed reading every page. Author is truthful about his real experiences with briefing executives. This book encapsulates a lot of important principles and techniques that have been around for at least 20 or so years. The cool thing is it is easy to read and doesn't take very long to read, and the reader can get a lot out of applying the visual principles highlighted in the book.

This a terrific complement to Presentation Zen . Roam tells you exactly how to use an empirical, tried and works-in-the-trenches approach to illustration and solving problems (Unpeeling the onion and then building something very powerful ) He then shows that there is scientific evidence on how we see and process info that follows the same models his solution uses. Lesson learned, following my reading on creating more insightful and powerful presentations he also adds the nugget that showing and telling are two different worlds. After you have created the very insightful image, it is important to build it in front of the audience using a thoughtful order. Thus, they can discover it too. This book would be great as a consultants handbook on clear communication. If you need to communicate clearly, get this book. It is clear, well written and follows his use of images to also lead you to understanding.

An excellent insight into the visual thinking process. It provides a logical tool to produce simple and powerful visual representations of concepts and problems. I have been utilising visual thinking techniques for some years and have found it is often the only effective way to rapidly build shared understanding with people. Shared understanding is an essential basis for sound decision making and coordinated action.

I can now use this excellent text as a tool to lead others down the same path.

Well done Dan!

I'm quite a visual guy but that book make you create concepts in a snap!
Really efficient and far away from being a hard lecture.
If you have diffculties to express the working problems you have, this book is the one to have!

This book should be taught at the college level. It is an extremely well written book that captures the essence of business communication and what it should be. How many of us have sat through boring word wall presentations of list after list of speakers notes. The next time someone makes me sit through one I am going to send them this book.

The basic concepts of Visual Thinking: Look, See, Imagine, Show are helpful in providing a framework for developing your thoughts prior to starting any presentation. Then using the SQVID guide to understand what type of picture to use helps you think through the problem and finishing with the author's six ways we see and show of Who/what, how much, where, when, how, and why provides a guide for how to communicate your ideas.

I never read a business book twice but find myself studying this one. I have read over 50 business books in the last 18 months and this is at the very top of my list.

I was really looking forward to reading this book and using it as a resource for helping me solve many of my everyday business issues. I very disappointed. The book does describe a very simplistic view. However, the process lacks any depth to be useful in my work.

Great book. Adds a new dimension to effective communication. I have no doubt that it will be a great help to me in future presentations.

As an longtime napkin scribbler and doodler, I was so pleased to see someone actually put some rigor and science into that process! Bring it from the bar room to the boardroom, so to speak. Anyone who even remotely buys into the idea that we are becoming increasingly dependent on right brained thinking for success needs to be exposed to Roam's work. The ideas and techniques in this book can make the difference between engaging people's brains and losing their interest. Between "making a sale" and losing a prospect. Between getting your idea across and boring people to tears. Very important piece of work for anyone who is in the business of communicating ideas -- and who isn't??!!

The ideas in this book are the types of things that I will keep coming back in my work -- looking for new ways, techniques, approaches etc. to communicate in a powerful way. My only complaint -- I wish that the publisher would have invested more in high quality color images, since the work itself is so visually oriented.

So much of our problem solving effort (personal and professional) is spent finding perfectly reasonable answers...to the wrong questions. After nearly 20 years in both corporate management and strategy consulting, I firmly believe the most powerful tool in any room isn't the computer, the projector or the telephone; it's the white board! A small amount of time visualizing a problem (on a whiteboard or on the back of a napkin) always pays dividends in making sure you're asking the right questions before diving into the solution.

Whether you adopt the author's exact methods or not, this book gives you CONFIDENCE to more consistently use a powerful tool that your brain already understands. Equally important, it invites USEFUL collaboration (even among the most jaded collaborators) since everybody else in the room intuitively knows how to do this too.

Regardless of the types of problems you have to tackle, getting better at simple visualization is a great investment in your own skills.

I saw the book on the shelf at Borders and the cover caught my attention. I read the first few pages and knew I had to read the rest.

I am a technical trainer and writer and have been teaching classes for more than 10 years now. For the last 7 years I've been using a pen tablet in my classes to draw diagrams on-the-fly while lecturing about different technology concepts. The attendees have given phenomenally positive feedback about this learning method.

Now, I find this book that not only validates the process I've been using but helps me take it to the next level. The author reveals the four steps to visual thinking and the six problem categories that we all face. He shows you how to do it with case studies and examples that are practical.

One thing that I think many will find helpful is the way the author quickly removes any fear of drawing you may have. He gives the testimony of many attendees that he has helped overcome this fear of drawing in front of others. Personally, my family plays Pictionary very regularly because I want my children to be comfortable with this process.

My favorite part was the Appendix: The Science of Visual Thinking. I found it very interesting as it presents scientific research as it relates to this simple process.

If you want a great new way to solve problems and a great way to communicate ideas, I think you'll find this book very useful.




Excellent!

Roam does a solid job of walking you through the visual learning using "the back of the napkin" as a useful metaphor. Many of us have used "the back of a napkin" to make a point. Roam examines the efficiency of communication using diagrams, drawings, illustrations and other visual aids. Worth reading and even more - worth practicing!

This insightful book says that any problem can be solved using a picture. Author, Dan Roam, quickly warns against saying you cannot draw, because anyone can draw the simple stick figure drawings he suggests. Roam thinks visual information is much more interesting than verbal information and that even simple drawings are the most effective way to solve problems, sell ideas, or communicate information. He believes drawings help people crystallize ideas and think more creatively. The author emphasizes that communicating your ideas effectively is crucial and reminds us that a picture is worth a thousand words.

The book begins with the basics of making drawings, charts, and graphs, then moves on to the author's tools for thinking in pictures. The remaining sections of the book explain how to develop and sell ideas. The section on developing ideas provides suggested models to use to best represent types of situations.

The book presents step-by-step directions on how to clearly present a problem using a set of visual tools - as a series of pictures or a progressively-drawn picture. His basic instructions include: 1) Make the first mark by drawing a circle and label it something like me, them, you, product, company, etc.; 2) Choose a type of picture to best describe the situation from the categories a who/what portrait, a how-much chart, a where map, a when timeline, a how flowchart, or a why multi-variable xy plot; 3) Anthropomorphize your drawing since people relate to people even if they are just stick-figures with faces; 4) Use mental triggers in your drawing to make a point such as making something bigger or smaller to signify power or using the sun to orient an up or down direction; 5) Draw your picture real-time in front of your audience as a progression of your thought process and describe it as you go rather than presenting a finished drawing; 6) As you finish drawing your picture, write in or draw your conclusion. 7) Because a picture is so powerful, it is important to accurately portray the situation even though the drawing may not be artistic.

The book also presents examples of problems that have been solved using the system. The author emphasizes that you should develop your ideas and solutions and make sure the audience is moving along with you and that they are deducing the same conclusions you are presenting. You do this by making a progression of pictures or augmenting your drawing, as you simultaneously describe what you are sketching. The book clearly lays out how to get from the problem to selling the solution. Debra Lawrence, author of THE 3:00 PM SECRET: Live Slim and Strong, Live Your Dreams

This insightful book says that any problem can be solved using a picture. Author, Dan Roam, quickly warns against saying you cannot draw, because anyone can draw the simple stick figure drawings he suggests. Roam thinks visual information is much more interesting than verbal information and that even simple drawings are the most effective way to solve problems, sell ideas, or communicate information. He believes drawings help people crystallize ideas and think more creatively. The author emphasizes that communicating your ideas effectively is crucial and reminds us that a picture is worth a thousand words.

The book begins with the basics of making drawings, charts, and graphs, then moves on to the author's tools for thinking in pictures. The remaining sections of the book explain how to develop and sell ideas. The section on developing ideas provides suggested models to use to best represent types of situations.

The book presents step-by-step directions on how to clearly present a problem using a set of visual tools - as a series of pictures or a progressively-drawn picture. His basic instructions include: 1) Make the first mark by drawing a circle and label it something like me, them, you, product, company, etc.; 2) Choose a type of picture to best describe the situation from the categories a who/what portrait, a how-much chart, a where map, a when timeline, a how flowchart, or a why multi-variable xy plot; 3) Anthropomorphize your drawing since people relate to people even if they are just stick-figures with faces; 4) Use mental triggers in your drawing to make a point such as making something bigger or smaller to signify power or using the sun to orient an up or down direction; 5) Draw your picture real-time in front of your audience as a progression of your thought process and describe it as you go rather than presenting a finished drawing; 6) As you finish drawing your picture, write in or draw your conclusion. 7) Because a picture is so powerful, it is important to accurately portray the situation even though the drawing may not be artistic.

The book also presents examples of problems that have been solved using the system. The author emphasizes that you should develop your ideas and solutions and make sure the audience is moving along with you and that they are deducing the same conclusions you are presenting. You do this by making a progression of pictures or augmenting your drawing, as you simultaneously describe what you are drawing, to present your thought process. The book clearly lays out how to get from the problem to selling the solution. Debra Lawrence, author of THE 3:00 PM SECRET: Live Slim and Strong, Live Your Dreams

Don't be fooled by the cartoon-like cover, Mr. Roam presents a well thought out system for "visual thinking" that doesn't exist elsewhere, or is at least hard to find.

This is one of those books that should be a standard part of every business travel's carry-on luggage because like any new language it takes work to master, but I believe that it will not only lead to more effective communications, it will also lead to clearer thinking by anyone dealing with complex problems involving managing and coordinating people to accomplish important goals.

Be a hero - buy several, keep one for yourself and give the others to friends and colleagues. They'll not only thank you, but you'll be able to improve your own visual thinking and communications skills because you'll be developing your new skills with colleagues on real problems. That's what my firm is doing - we're expecting over 100 copies to present to clients and business partners!

Simplicity. This is Dan Roam's message in The Back Of The Napkin. Just as René Descartes summarized the entire philosophy of existence in five words (just three in the Latin translation) and Stephen Hawking summarized the history of time in a book with a single mathematical formula, Roam gives business communicators a lesson in simplicity.
We all dread business meetings with their mountains of documents that few people ever read, and the endless bulleted power points that serve only to dull the mind into nervous slumber. Roam cuts through all that to demonstrate how the use of simple, but well chosen, drawings, executed while the audience watches, can communicate infinitely better that the complex presentations that incite loathing and yield only distraction.
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.

Very good read for leaders in any consulting engagement or changing corporate environment. If you are looking to "break the mold", then read this!