A talk given at the Federal Plain Language Summit on 10/28/2020. Three lessons from the dark complexity caverns of capitalism, from an IA making sense of messes in the private sector.

1. Sensemaking Lessons
FROM THE
PRIVATE SECTOR

2. I am an information
architect who loves to
make sense of messes.

3. Reasons for my civic duty
1. The messes you all face have me in awe
2. I know how hard it is to make sense
3. I have tools to share to make it feel more manageable

4. The Department
of Complexity

5. Everything is Complex

6. • Convinced ourselves we already have our arms
wrapped around complexity enough to judge the
fittingness of others’ approaches to managing it.
• Documented examples of good and bad
complexity management in practice
• Published academically-based theories,
frameworks and recommendations to reference
to sense makers across all industries and fields
of practice
Prerequisites w/ Low Probability

7. Mined from the Complexity Caverns of Capitalism
1
Swoop up and
down, swoop
round and round
2
Unmapped
Complexity
Breeds Fear
3
It’s People
All the Way
Down

8. Swoop up and down,
Swoop round and round
1

9. Image: Hooray for Birds by Lucy Cousins

10. “ Do organizations generally just give you
everything you need at the start of the project
or how does that all work? ”
A student recently

11. Me
Images: https://emojipedia.org/apple/

12. Areas of Inquiry
1. Context: “Capabilities, Aspirations,
Resources”
2. People: “Desires, Needs, Concerns”
Information Architecture for the Web and Beyond, Morville/Rosenfeld/Arango

13. Context
• What is the historical context?
• What is the end user context?
• What is the internal user context?
• What is the systems’ context?
• What is the data context?
• What is product, market or industry context?
• What is the context of time, team & resources available?

14. People
Who are the people or teams:
• within what you are working on?
• below what you are working on?
• above what you are working on?
• adjacent to what you are working on?
• behind what you are working on?

15. Stakeholder Interviewing
What is stuck in peoples’ heads?

16. Set boundaries before
the questions start

17. Boundaries I Set
• You were chosen because your experience
matters to the work I am trying to do
• I am recording so I can listen back and
transcribe fully
• What you say in this room is private, and your
identity will never be revealed to anyone
• I am interested in your experience, and your
ideas — so there are no wrong answers

18. Lean on the script, a
perfect prop to push
people further

19. Plan a flow
to build trust

20. Trust-Building Flow
1. Position: Questions that explore the stakeholders position in
relation to the subject being explored in the interview.
2. Beliefs: Questions that push to explore the things the
stakeholder believes to be true as it relates to the subject
being explored.
3. Doubts: Questions that push the stakeholder to explore the
things that make them less comfortable in the subject being
explored.
4. Color: Questions that you feel they are uniquely positioned
to answer given their background, experience and/or
answers to the above

21. Talk to the
Right People

22. What does it mean to
hold stake?

23. Find the people who…
• Could change the course of your project mid stream
• Sign off on your work or the work of your partners
• Will help you make the thing you are making
• Market the thing you are making
• Measure the success of the thing you are making
• Maintain the thing you are making
• Translate/interpret/adapt the thing you are making
• Provide customer service on the thing you are making

24. Give as much after
the interview as before
and during

25. Hard Truths
• You actually have to listen and take your own notes
• Transcripts are NOT notes, outsourcing doesn't work
• Unorganized, long-form notes and transcripts are useless
when you get to analysis

26. My notes for a small stakeholder interview project with 10 participants (30 min each) across three departments
5Hrs Prepping
5
Hrs Interviewing
5
Hrs Listening Back

27. How to Interview Stakeholders
1. Set Boundaries before the questions start
2. Lean on the script, a perfect prop to push people further
3. Plan a flow to build trust
4. Talk to the right people
5. Give as much after the interview as before and during

28. Unmapped Complexity
Breeds Fear
2

29. Welcome
to the
MIDDLE
of the
BEGINNING

32. PEOPLE
NEED MAPS

33. “ Do you have a map of what exists? ”
Me in many a meeting with sense-making advice-seekers

34. Auditing for Understanding
What is the shape of the problem?

35. Hub & Spoke Funnel or Flow Nest & Label
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36. Identify the bounds of
the problem space

37. Circle of Control
Circle of Influence
Circle of Concern
Based on Stephen Covey’s Circles of Control, Influence & Concern
Reverse engineer everything
you can to uncover the true
current state and honest
accountancy of past efforts
Document the
measurement, labels
and intentions
Document the risks

38. Gather the right inputs

39. Do you have full access to:
• Functionality?
• Content?
• Data?
• Users?
• Stakeholders?

40. Create a framework
with the future use
in mind

41. Diagram vs. Matrix

42. Create a humane
plan of attack

43. Time Spent Auditing
EnthusiasmforAudit
Images: https://emojipedia.org/apple/

44. Break Up Your Audit By:
• User type
• Context
• Channel
• Task
• Component
• …something else

45. Assume best intentions
of past sense makers

46. BECAUSE
REASONS

47. How to Audit for Understanding
1. Identify the bounds of the problem space
2. Gather the right inputs
3. Create a framework with the future use in mind
4. Create a humane plan of attack
5. Assume best intentions of past sense makers

48. It’s people
all the way down
3

49. Kindness & Bravery
How can we plan for the human part so that we aren’t
disappointed when that’s where we inevitably end up?

50. When NOT in doubt,
ask a question

51. Define & Defend
Enough

52. Pay it Forward

53. Be clarity for
those drowning in
ambiguity

54. IT DEPENDS
THERE IS NO HOPE
when I say…
they hear…

55. GOODBYE
CONFUSION

56. There is an i in kind

57. Do the detective
work needed to
understand
context & people
Make maps,
because we need
maps to move
forward in
uncertainty
Be kind and brave
as you plan for the
inescapable human
part of sense
making

58. Permission
Granted

59. Abby Covert, Information Architect | AbbyCovert.com
Thank you.
www.abbycovert.com/speaking/sensemaking-lessons
Presentation Deck & Write-up
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