Your guide to becoming an explanation specialist.
You've done the hard work. Your product or service works beautifully - but something is missing. People just don't see the big idea - and it's keeping you from being successful. Your idea has an explanation problem.
The Art of Explanation is for business people, educators and influencers who want to improve their explanation skills and start solving explanation problems.
Author Lee LeFever is the founder of Common Craft, a company known around the world for making complex ideas easy to understand through short animated videos. He is your guide to helping audiences fall in love with your ideas, products or services through better explanations in any medium.
You will learn to:
- Plan: Learn explanation basics, what causes them to fail and how to diagnose explanation problems.
- Package: Using simple elements, create an explanation strategy that builds confidence and motivates your audience.
- Present: Produce remarkable explanations with visuals and media.
The Art of Explanation is your invitation to become an explanation specialist and see why explanation is now a fundamental skill for professionals.
Table of Contents
Preface xi
Author Note xv
Introduction xvii
PART 1 Plan 1
Chapter 1 Learning to Run 3
Chapter 2 What Is an Explanation? 7
What Is Not An Explanation 8
Defining Explanation 9
Explanations Require Empathy 10
Act and Art 11
Look at Your Fish 12
Explanation Lowers the Cost of Understanding 13
An Explanation Is a Way to Package Ideas 14
Explanations Answer the Question ‘‘Why?’’ 16
Explanations Make People Care 16
Chapter 3 Why Explanations Fail 23
All About Confidence 24
Assumptions Cause Failure 24
Words Can Hurt 26
We Lack Understanding 27
We Want to Appear Smart 28
The Direct Approach - No Context 30
Summary 32
Chapter 4 Planning Your Explanations 33
Identifying Explanation Problems 34
PART 2 Package 43
Chapter 5 Packaging Ideas 45
Stepping Outside the Bubble 46
What Goes into the Packaging? 48
Chapter 6 Context 51
Forest then Trees 53
Solving the Context Problem 56
Context in Explanation - We Can All Agree 61
Context and Pain 63
Example: Google Docs 63
On the Explanation Scale 65
Summary 66
Chapter 7 Story 67
Stories Versus Facts 68
But I’m Not a Storyteller 69
Common Craft and Stories 71
The Simple Ingredient: People 73
Using Stories in Explanation 74
Basic Story Format 75
When Does Storytelling Not Work? 77
Personification and Story 79
On the Explanation Scale 81
Summary 81
Chapter 8 Connections 83
Connecting Your Long Lost Uncle - Old Versus New 84
Building-on Versus Establishing 87
Analogy 89
Common Craft Videos 90
On the Explanation Scale 92
Summary 92
Chapter 9 Description 93
Explaining Web Browsers 95
Explanation Is Not a Recipe 97
On The Explanation Scale 99
Summary 99
Chapter 10 Simplification 103
Chapter 11 Constraints 113
Common Craft and Constraints 115
Constraints and Your Explanations 117
Summary 119
Chapter 12 Preparing for and Writing an Explanation 121
The Common Craft Writing Process 122
Big Ideas 123
Research and Discovery 123
Script Writing 125
The Real Thing 128
Chapter 13 Bringing an Explanation Together 131
PART 3 Present 147
Chapter 14 Common Craft’s Lessons Learned 149
Common Craft Gets Started 149
Ten Lessons Learned from Common Craft Explanations 151
Chapter 15 Right Medium for the Message 157
A Transformation 158
Media Options 159
Presentation Modes 161
Recording and Distribution Options 164
Constraints Come to the Rescue 165
Summary 171
Chapter 16 Visuals 173
You Can Use Visuals 178
Dan Roam’s 6 × 6 Rule 178
Common Craft Visual Metaphors 186
Noise and Simplicity in Visuals 188
Infographics 191
Creating Digital Visuals 193
Summary 193
Chapter 17 Emma and Carlos 195
Epilogue 202
Chapter 18 Explanation Culture and Your Life as an Explainer 203
Your Life as An Explainer 206
Acknowledgments 209
Links to Common Craft Videos 211
About the Author 215
Bibliography 217
Index 219
