The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures

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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
A bold new way to tackle tough business problemseven if you draw like a second grader

When Herb Kelleher was brainstorming about how to beat the traditional hub-and- spoke airlines, he grabbed a bar napkin and a pen. Three dots to represent Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. Three arrows to show direct flights. Problem solved, and the picture made it easy to sell Southwest Airlines to investors and customers.

Used properly, a simple drawing on a humble napkin is more powerful than Excel or PowerPoint. It can help crystallize ideas, think outside the box, and communicate in a way that people simply get. In this book Dan Roam argues that everyone is born with a talent for visual thinking, even those who swear they cant draw.

Drawing on twenty years of visual problem solving combined with the recent discoveries of vision science, this book shows anyone how to clarify a problem or sell an idea by visually breaking it down using a simple set of visual thinking tools tools that take advantage of everyones innate ability to look, see, imagine, and show.

THE BACK OF THE NAPKIN proves that thinking with pictures can help anyone discover and develop new ideas, solve problems in unexpected ways, and dramatically improve their ability to share their insights. This book will help readers literally see the world in a new way.

Customer Reviews: Read 56 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

The simple cover and concept shields a deeply powerful tool April 1, 2008
74 out of 78 found this review helpful

I saw the book on the shelf at Borders and the cover caught my attention. I read the first few pages and knew I had to read the rest.

I am a technical trainer and writer and have been teaching classes for more than 10 years now. For the last 7 years I've been using a pen tablet in my classes to draw diagrams on-the-fly while lecturing about different technology concepts. The attendees have given phenomenally positive feedback about this learning method.

Now, I find this book that not only validates the process I've been using but helps me take it to the next level. The author reveals the four steps to visual thinking and the six problem categories that we all face. He shows you how to do it with case studies and examples that are practical.

One thing that I think many will find helpful is the way the author quickly removes any fear of drawing you may have. He gives the testimony of many attendees that he has helped overcome this fear of drawing in front of others. Personally, my family plays Pictionary very regularly because I want my children to be comfortable with this process.

My favorite part was the Appendix: The Science of Visual Thinking. I found it very interesting as it presents scientific research as it relates to this simple process.

If you want a great new way to solve problems and a great way to communicate ideas, I think you'll find this book very useful.

Excellent!

5 out of 5 stars

You can tell your story more compellingly using simple drawings May 17, 2008
24 out of 25 found this review helpful

Most business books fall into a few broad categories, and though this one might be lumped in the category of how to do presentations, it is really much cooler than that. I guess I find it so cool because I can't really draw a straight line with a ruler. My kids are pretty good artists, but that comes from my wife's side. I am a musician. This book shows you how to use simple drawings and sketches to communicate much more effectively.

If you are like me, when you have to draw an org chart or some other image associated with business, you will follow the traditional, easy to follow model closest at hand. Dan Roam says no. He wants you to think about what it is you are really trying to say and let your mind communicate that with a fresh image that shows what it is you want to say simply and clearly.

He divides the book into four parts. In Part 1 he introduces the basic ideas of thinking in terms of compelling images, which problems are best handled with pictures and how to use images. Roam also uses four steps to teach you visual thinking: Look, See, Imagine, and Show.

Part II teaches you how to think visually and implement the rules. Part II takes you through a series of standard business issues and questions and then shows you how to tell your story in a more compelling way with images. Remember, these images are simple drawings rather than great works of art or anything that requires high powered graphics software.

Part IV draws conclusions for you. I love the chapter entitled, "Everything I Know About Business I Learned in Show-And-Tell." How compelling you find it, I don't know, but he sure makes a good point. Remember, this isn't impressionism or impulse drawings. You must think clearly about what you are trying to say and wrestle awhile to find the right image or images to tell that story. But you must find simple and clear images to show your audience so they can absorb it quickly no matter how long it took you to come up with it.

Great book with lots of good drawings to spark your imagination and very well done text.

A fresh and interesting book.

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI

5 out of 5 stars

Readit, Draw, and Solve a problem March 16, 2008
20 out of 23 found this review helpful

If you have ever scribbled on the back of a napkin or for that matter any piece of paper while explaining something to a cohort, this book might help you. Mr. Roam's main premise is that pictures on the back of a napkin are a most effective way to solve problems and sell ideas. He takes you through his process in this quick read and convincing book.
His suggestion to solve business problems with simple drawings could raise a few doubts. Drawings are not business solutions is the common wisdom. Conventional tools such as spreadsheets, deep mathematical analysis are the norm. The book more than adequately addresses the doubts and other questions about drawing pictures to accomplish business objectives.
He resolves denials like "I can't draw or I don't carry napkins in my pocket ". This is accomplished by demonstrating how we all have the ability to draw within the system he has developed. He first drew a successful proposal on the back of a napkin while eating breakfast on a train in England. In the book we are taught by leading us through the development of the complete solving/selling process.
The book is written in an easy to read conversational style and is laced with the type of drawings he proposes that are most useful in attacking the most intractable of problems. While reading the book one finds themselves thinking things like "I can do that" or "I need to remember the steps in the process so I can do them whenever I have a problem and a napkin"
We are introduced to a group of problems that have been solved using the system. In those solutions the drawings were not only on napkins but white boards or just sheets of paper. The reader begins to understand that the system is a cleverly developed method to cause one to think not only outside the box but with pictures rather than words.
He also takes care in pointing out that timing and following a sequence of steps is most important. Pictures are often said to be worth a thousand words. He gives examples that explain when one is selling the idea one has to be sure the audience is led to the conclusions that the team found while developing the solution. Just flashing a picture and saying "this is the solution" is not usually the most effective way to convince those you are trying to convince. The book takes us from puzzle (the problem) to plan (the selling of the solution) in simple and easy to follow steps.
In these days we are constantly faced with solving complex problems. The Back of the Napkin presents a thought process and method that can help solve those problems. Using the method will help sell the solution. It becomes an arsenal one wants in his tool kit. When you couple that arsenal with an enjoyable read there is little to lose and much to gain. Now where are those napkins?

1 out of 5 stars

Needs more drawings, less chatter July 20, 2008
20 out of 22 found this review helpful

I also wanted to like this book. And, to be fair, I didn't read the entire book. I just couldn't. It goes on and on about how important visual thinking is. Okay, okay, I get it. Now what? Well, the author then--as others have pointed out--paradoxically proceeds to bore us with chatter about how to proceed with using drawing and visual thinking instead of sticking to his guns and using more drawings! ATTENTION KINDLE USERS: The Kindle version's drawings of this book are barely perceptible; it's quite a chore to squint and figure out what they are supposed to be. Adjusting the font size of the text does nothing for the illustrations.

5 out of 5 stars

Refreshing June 17, 2008
14 out of 15 found this review helpful

I found this book refreshing, even relaxing, and recommend it as a gift item for any student or adult. Had I been the publisher I would have made the book larger and the visuals (by definition, handwriting and sketches) consequently larger and fresher, but what is offered suffices.

I have been immersed for the past several weeks in some of the most advanced technical automated multi-media, multi-dimensional, geospatially-grounded visualizations with time lines and cross-cutting cultural dimesions, and after all of that, this book not only stands the test of holding my attention, but proves itself equal to the task of challenging what is supposed to be "state of the art."

A few other books that come to mind that complement this one:
Orbiting the Giant Hairball: A Corporate Fool's Guide to Surviving with Grace
The Attention Economy: Understanding the New Currency of Business
Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing
The Design of Dissent: Socially and Politically Driven Graphics
Information Design
Visual Interfaces to Digital Libraries (Lecture Notes in Computer Science)

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