Objectives, Not Problems, Drive Effective Design.

As a professional question-asker, I've never really cared for the query, “What keeps you up at night?” I'm more curious to know what gets someone to jump out of bed in the morning. Why? Well, as there is more therapeutic value when a doctor treats the whole patient, not just their disease, understanding a client's vision and aspirations provides more strategic value than just identifying their pain points.

I think too many in the creative and design fields treat diseases, not patients. And that leads to squandered potential and missed opportunities for their clients and themselves, not to mention wasted time, talent, and money.

The 'insomnia' question is so common because it appeals to people's innate negativity bias, that tendency to fixate on the bad stuff. You see, problems and issues are always top of mind. So they're easier to coax from clients versus visions and aspirations.

However, the problem with leading with problems is that it distracts the strategist, designer, creative, or business leader from the true catalyst for growth: a clear objective.

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Objective-Driven Design

Truly needle-moving design is guided by a defined objective, not a problem. A problem is simply an obstacle to overcome on the way to achieving an objective. Designing to solve a problem not contextualized by a greater objective often causes a team to swirl.

In my experience, pursuing a defined objective aligns and focuses a team's design efforts and dramatically increases success rates. You see, problems are prone to morphing and changing. An issue that's a priority today can be an afterthought tomorrow. And, addressing a problem that isn't tethered to a defined objective often leads to misspent energy and over-designed creative. So, maintaining a constant focus on the prime objective reduces diversions and distractions.

Where Have All the Objectives Gone?

From where I sit, effectively setting and sticking to objectives has become a neglected discipline. Please tell me if this resonates; how often have you been about seven minutes into a meeting when you or someone else says, "Remind me, what's the purpose of this meeting? What's our objective?" The meeting likely kicked off with someone wading into the weeds of a problem.

Now, don't get me wrong, objectives aren't totally absent from America's PowerPoint presentations. However, they tend to be vague, muddled, or misused when offered.

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What is an objective?

I recently saw an old clip of comedian George Carlin making fun of the phrase, 'occasional irregularity.' He cracked, "what other kind can there be? If it were frequent, it would be regularity." Just as redundant is the phrase 'strategic objective.' Can there ever be a random objective? No! Some objectives may be weightier than others, but that doesn't negate their strategic nature.

An objective is both the start and finish line of sound strategic thinking. It's impossible to chart a course for success without one. A clear, well-communicated goal focuses a team's strategies and actions—creating an empowering and gratifying experience for all involved. Vague, convoluted, or undefined objectives result in a meandering and shapeless strategy, which leads to confusion and frustration.

As I see it, an objective is a decision you make for the future. And the most critical part of any decision is one's commitment to it once it is made. Commitment is just as crucial as judgment when it comes to good decision-making. So, once you set an objective, please resist the urge to morph, switch, or abandon it. Every objective change causes the team to shake the Etch-A-Sketch and start again.

However, I have one caution before committing to an objective, make sure it's a sound one. The best-written objectives are specific, actionable, and verifiable. Together, these attributes form the very helpful acronym: SAV. I think it's very apropos because a sound objective saves a project from the outset.  

Specific: Effective objectives clearly identify the object you seek to impact, along with the desired outcome. For example, "Increase sales conversion by at least 10%." 'Sales conversion' is the object, and 'increase by at least 10%' is the outcome.

Actionable: The best objective statement is a single, straightforward sentence without preambles, explanations, or qualifiers. They also don't have flowery or jargony language. Save the urge to inspire or inform for other areas of your brief like the 'Current Situation' section.  

Verifiable: An objective is useless without some way to verify if you're making progress or when you’ve achieved it. Establishing quantifiable metrics is the best practice.

However, some worthwhile objectives can only be verified qualitatively, as a mechanism may not exist to quantify results. In these cases, the objective must be able to answer the question, "When will we know we achieved our goal?"

For illustration, a qualitative objective statement could read, "Our objective is to attract more high-caliber talent, and we'll achieve it when we are named to the Best Places to Work."

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Three Objective Writing Pitfalls

1) Confusing the means for the ends.

Put plainly, the paradigm of means and ends refers to an objective (the ends) and the strategy and tactics employed to achieve it (the means). People confuse the two when they take their focus off the ends and fixate on the means. 

To illustrate, in a project brief to their design firm, a consumer electronics brand defines its objective as: "Redesign POS displays and signage in big box accounts." This statement is an assignment and not an objective. I doubt the client's ends are installing a new display. Instead, they intend the display to be a means to improve sales performance in some way. But, like many marketers are prone to do, that desired result is left off the brief. 

Perhaps, the client assumes increasing sales is implied. However, there are a lot of variables along the path to purchase; which one is the key to increasing sales? For example, is the objective to speed comprehension of features and benefits? Or is it to attract more customers to the display?

I can't quite explain why most of us tend to elevate the means over the ends they're supposed to serve. Maybe it's because defining and accomplishing a task is more in our control than achieving an objective. Or, defining a goal puts us on the hook, and that's a little scary. Regardless, intentionality is required to both determine and achieve an objective.

2) Prescribing a strategy or tactic in the objective.

As much as I like to think designers and others memorize or keep my briefs within a hand's reach all of the time, the truth is that they don't. They skim it and refer to it when necessary. So, employing a short and specific objective increases comprehension and retention. And, of all the info on a brief, you want to deeply embed the objective in your team's memory. 

Prescribing approaches, methods, or tactics unnecessarily lengthens and muddles an objective statement. I'll use the same fictional consumer electronics brand to illustrate, "Create an interactive experience as a way to drive more in-store traffic to the retail display by leveraging devices like augmented reality or touchscreens." Compare that to the more concise objective, "Attract more shoppers to the display." See what I mean? I recommend placing any strategic or tactical notions, prescriptions, or recommendations in the 'approach,' 'assignment,' or 'requirements' section of your brief.

In addition, prescribing strategy or tactics to an objective diminishes the actionability of the statement by unnecessarily steering or limiting your team toward one way of doing something, which takes the bat out of their hands. Don't include such directives in an objective statement unless it's a requirement. And if it is, put it in the 'assignment' or 'mandatories' section of the brief, not in with the objective. 

3) Succumbing to FOLO.

FOLO stands for the Fear Of Leaving Out, and it's another human frailty that gets in the way of crafting clear objectives. FOLO is hard to resist because we want to ensure we cover all the bases, prevent criticism, or be inclusive of others' input. Or, as I am so prone to do, we want to sound smart, so we add buzzwords and puffed-up language. 

Sometimes, projects have more than one objective. Now, there are two ways to approach this situation. The first is to identify a macro objective that, if achieved, will meet all the goals. If that isn't feasible, you must assign one of the objectives as primary. Two or more objectives can't carry equal weight. By definition, only one thing can lead. Splitting attention between multiple objectives is a recipe for confusion stew that will be muddled and bland. In this case, distinguish your objectives as primary, secondary, or tertiary. 

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Two Simple Exercises for Setting Sound Objectives

1) Current State, Future State Exercise.

At its essence, an objective aims to achieve some kind of change. That change can be a wanted increase or decrease in something. For example, "boost store traffic." Or that change can be achieving transformation of some kind. For example, "Evolve from being known for speedy service to premium quality."

So, when it comes to composing an objective statement, it makes sense to take a moment to reflect upon the current state of the object(s) you want to change. Then envision the future state you would like to attain. In the illustration below, a home fixtures manufacturer seeks to grow sales through its brand.

First, identify the objects relevant to branding. Then describe the current state of each object. After that, depict the desired future state of the object.

Next, identify the object that offers the most potential or is the most relevant. Finally, compose multiple objective statements and select the one that is most specific, actionable, and verifiable (SAV). To illustrate,

Objective:

Be recognized by homeowners as a preferred maker of stylish and affordable fixtures, as reported in a future AAU study.

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2) Finish the Sentence Exercise.

Another exercise involves painting a picture of success by finishing the sentence,

“We’ll know this initiative is a success when _________________.”

Ask this question of yourself or your team and list all the possible answers. Then select the response that offers the most potential or is the most relevant, and then write your objective statement. To illustrate, I used the same fictional manufacturer as above.  

“We’ll know this initiative is a success when _________________.”

…we're a household name.

…we are on big box store shelves.

…top home decor influencers positively review us.

…we score high in a category AAU study.

…we get an absolute NPS score of 10 or more.

…customers wear our brand.

Objective:

To over-index our Net Promoter Score (NPS) category by at least 10%.

Closing

The notions I've unpacked are far from revolutionary. However, I believe being overly problem-focused has distracted us from the design power of a well-defined objective. And that was my objective before writing this article: To shift people's minds back to the discipline of defining sound objectives. And your comments will let me know if I'm successful.

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