Scars

I just wrote this for a new chapter in the book entitled “Pulling It All Together.” I don’t know if it will make it into the published version:

See this scar on my lower abdomen. I’ll tell you what this scar is from. Picture your intrepid information architect on a two-week sprint to prepare a deliverable, a wireframes deck rife with detailed annotations. They were 10-hour days, trying to hit a deadline so the engineering team could ramp up their development efforts. Your gallant information architect had but one gate to hurdle, an in-depth review with a key business stakeholder. The day of the meeting arrives, two hours set aside to walk through the document and solicit feedback.

For better or worse, the stakeholder hadn’t been present throughout the design process, and your handsome information architect was worried. Worried that they hadn’t accounted for every scenario with the business rules on the configuration page. Worried that he could have done a better job designing the acknowledgement screen. Worried that his hair was kind of sticking up in the back.

The stakeholder arrives five minutes late. Your humble information architect demurely fires up the projector to walk through the deliverable, offering a freshly printed version. He directs the stakeholder to flip to the table of contents. After a brief glance, the stakeholder says, “I’m double booked. I got to get to my other meeting. What do you need from me?”