NUDGE Method(tm) in a nutshell

I am working on a self published book and a book proposal. The Nudge Method is based on years of driving organizational change in tech companies while we developed products as well as my personal experiences as an entrepreneur. Basically, The Nudge Method is a practical way to tackle ambiguous problems evolved from behavioral research, creative development and business management methods.

Name - by giving “the thing” a name, it is a thing. In business we have code names, in film and TV you have “working titles” - a name gives your new thing a way to refer to your idea. I once got 1500 Microsoft Employees to focus on the overall product experience by creating a 3 day long working session Crave-o-Rama. At iRobot we called it “FutureX”. Just giving it a name gets it codified. I had a newly divorced friend call her new single living plan Linda 2.0 to help her identify how she was going to make positive adjustments for herself.

Understand - this is the research, before you start building a product, quitting your job or writing your book - take some time to identify what’s behind the idea. What ever idea you propose can be better. There are many ways to do research there’s qualatative (asking friends and ethongraphic research observing folks) and quantitative.

Dream (and Do) - dream by writing, drawing or making a powerpoint - just do something, create something to get your idea on paper and out of your head. If you are writing a movie or a creating a new YouTube channel - this is where you capture all the different ideas you have and dream many options.

Grow - this is where you do the hard work of tending to your new idea, this is the hard part (well at least hard to me). This is where you have to weed out and focus on your new project. And this is really where the plan comes to life and you tweak and readjust. In school we are focused on taking the test and moving to the next grade, in real life it’s not that easy.

Enjoy (and Evaluate) - yes, you need to enjoy what you’ve done and evaluate - would you do it again, what went well and what went bad. If you don’t evaluate you can’t grow and won’t get better. As a designer we are always getting feedback (and giving feedback) on our designs. Critique is a formal part of our day to day work and development of our craft. It takes time to really evaluate and keep the negative judgement out of your head.