What I’m Thinking About

The importance of planning.

I’m working with a new client right now and the first thing I like to do for any new client is research and craft strategy documents – marketing plan, brand audit, etc. Not because I want to waste their time and money, but because I work so much better and faster if I know where we’re trying to go.

At the same time, in my personal life, I increasingly make checklists before family trips – even small ones like movies or picnics. My wife reports that my forgetting of small, but irritating things, has dropped significantly.

Creativity sometimes feels stifled by a plan, the joy of the spontaneous genius restricted by overly meticulous guidelines. There is truth in that, but rushing in without a plan at all is how you end up in an on-and-off semi-forever war with your enemy holding the global oil markets hostage.

Or “Doing AI” without any clear conception of what that means, what you’re actually trying to accomplish, or what success even looks like today.

Not that I’m personally annoyed at either of those developments.

If it helps, remember that a plan is not your course of action in the same way that the map is not the terrain. It’s an abstraction, a necessary lie to help you get your arms around what actually needs to be done.

A marketing plan doesn’t preclude you from being agile, pouncing on sudden opportunities that appear. What it does do is clarify where you’re standing now, what the terrain is like around you, where you want to go, and generally how you’ll get there.

Similarly, there’s value in checklists and templates, even if they don’t end up being entirely right. They’re a place to start – they may not end up being sufficient, but they make sure you never forget anything important. And if something new and exciting and interesting comes up?

Just add to the plan.

What I’m Working on Now

• As mentioned above, I’m working on strategy documents for a new client, which is always fun. I get to learn so much and meet new people!
• Every time I interview someone in this process, they always apologize for “Not being very interesting”. Maybe it’s because I’m so naturally curious, but I’ve never met someone truly boring in my entire life.

Cool Things

• Malls are big with Gen Z, who are eager to experience a pre-digital age. Don’t rush into assuming the future is all online too quickly!
• This interview between Better Offline’s Ed Zitron and Nik Suresh of Hermit Tech regarding his article about global decision-making is exactly what I’m talking about regarding the dangers of not having a plan. You can no more “Do AI” than you can “Do marketing”. Do AI (or marketing or anything else) to do what? Without an answer to that, you’re just goofing around.