Storyboarding: Easy way to test program concept

​Iteration Iteration

​You have probably heard that word a lot recently. Whether you are talking about adaptive management, design thinking or lean start up, each approach involves iteration and experimentation. Creating a prototype – something much simpler and less expensive than a pilot project – is easy to imagine when you are talking about a tangible product. But what about a program or service your nonprofit or association plans to deliver? How can you create a low cost prototype of that to get in front of your customers/members/audience?

​Blah, Blah, Blah

​Nonprofits and association staff often rely on describing their program – whether to their board or in a grant application – through words. It is then up to the listener/reader to imagine what they are talking about. And usually the focus was on convincing those with money to support this new venture.  If the pitch is successful, the program is then funded, usually as a pilot program is developed over a few years. 

4 flaws to this approach

This approach has multiple flaws that are easily addressed.

1. The first is the audience. While it is important to get support of key stakeholders including your board and funders, they are unlikely to be using the program so their impressions of its validity and likelihood of success need to be taken with a grain of salt. Instead getting feedback from the people you have designed the program for this is much more useful and too often overlooked.
2. The second is the advocacy stance. You think you have a great idea and you are pitching it. When you are in the mode, it is challenging to hear feedback about the program. If you are less attached to the idea and in a position of inquiry – you are ready to investigate the underlying assumptions embedded in the program’s design and listen to feedback. 
3. Third is jumping immediately to the full development of a pilot program. Even with full funding, this is a high risk endeavor. It takes considerable time, human resources and organizational effort involved in fully developing a pilot.  Taking a less risky intermediate step of creating a prototype for the program and testing it with the target audience can save substantial resources.
4. Fourth is relying solely on the spoken or written word.  Creating a visual representation of the program makes it much easier for people to literally see what you are talking about.  Storyboarding is a very accessible method for creating this visual.

​What is a storyboard?

​Movies, videos, TV shows are all story boarded before filming starts. The storyboard is a sequence of drawings that show how the shots will progress. For a program you have imagined, you draw the steps in the storyboard that a program participant would take as they complete your program. Think of it as the comic book version of the program you want to create. 

​But I can’t draw

​When I worked with the design teams a number of team members were reluctant when we got to this set because they said they couldn’t draw. I reminded them that this wasn’t the purpose – we were not looking for artistic ability. Just clear enough stick figures to show what would happen as part of the program. Here is an example of piece of one of our first draft storyboards. No awards to artistic merit here! We then worked with a professional illustrator to create clearer versions to put in front of our audience.

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​Benefits of the storyboard

• It is easy to produce. The first hand drawn versions took about 20-30 minutes for team members to create. Taking this step had the added benefit of nudging team members to push their concepts from just vague ideas to a program with concrete elements.
• It is inexpensive. Even after working with an illustrator and printing the panels out on very large paper for our focus groups and interviews, we spent less than a couple 100 dollars.
• It creates a visual story for your target audience member to react to.  By adding pictures to the descriptive elements, the proposed programs come to life in the minds of those we tested them with.

Download the e-book that walks through the approach and tells you how we tested our concepts.

Let’s talk. I work with associations and nonprofits to help them lower the risk out of launching new program and service development initiatives by coaching them on using human centered design innovation approaches and tools.

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