planning, renaissance, and patterns

Like I was saying in my last post, Nguyen and I had a great conversation on the nature of planning. At one point while interning at Razorfish in San Fransico, it was early in my planning career and I started to think hard about what why planners exist, what makes a good planner and the like. What inspired the thinking was the fact that in a large branch of a large international agency, our strategy team included all of six people, typically referred to as "oh those guys up on the floor above us."

Our advertising undergrad program approached account planning as a completely normal part of the process, so what had started to sink in outside of the university context was just how relatively new core planning ideas really are in a history-of-advertising sense. It was my first experience being exposed to the fact that the ideas born in innovative shops over in the UK that inspired planning as a discipline have really only been around a few short decades, and are in may ways still trickling in over here. I mentored under the one official account planner Malia Supe (who by the way recently contributed a ton of stellar stuff to the FEED Consumer Experience Report - a great read), who at one point during my time there was giving internal presentations to the creative group that basically boiled down to "Hey I'm an account planner. This is why I'm here. This is what I can do for you."

So what can planners do? The conclusion I came to back then was that on some level, planners act as the researchers and analysts, right? But that traditional research isn't always there because of time/budget/whatever else constraints. So the planner needs to be able to have quick access to ideas that are going to support strategies and messaging. Or have them floating around in their head already. Sort of the toolbox of resources and methodologies that planners draw from, but specific to the consumer group at hand that is being reached.

More importantly, not only does statistical analysis and traditional research end up being just one of several ideation methodologies, but often you're talking about data that everyone has already anyway. I think there is something to be said for solid quantitative research, but there's something equally important in being able to make basic qualitative observations and to discover what is important about particular behaviors and responses.

A third thing, considering data mining: Razorfish Strategy VP Tom Lynch once said that planners are like the stargazers of long ago, connecting the dots and finding patterns in the constellations among billions of stars. The differentiating skill at hand is the ability to find key patterns from piles of data and research; moreover, the ability to turn these patterns into compelling and inpirational stories that maintain the integrity of the insights they reflect.

So during my conversation with Ngyuen we got to talking about the fact that if you're talking about planners with the above set of skills, you're talking about people who work with a wide variety of consumers and segmentations and groups - to relate to them all in the meaningful planner sort of way is to be something of a cultural renaissance man/woman, always learnng of/experiencing new worldviews.

And that's what has really brought me to the planning world to begin with, is that here I can be constantly learning. I recently started considering that it's never too late in our lives to start becoming an expert in something. We're younger than we know, if I'm to believe the last words of the latest Law/Order Criminal Intent season finale (read: yeah I do. Watching CI now, in fact). The conversation with Nguyen has sort of inspired me to more frequently experience something new to relate to that I haven't quite truly understood before.

Beginning as early as this week. I'll start by asking the question: what is something that I've thought to myself, "I don't get why people do that."?

That's the thing I'll try to relate to. What's yours?

Comments

[O.S]

I really, really hear you. Nice train of thought and it sounds like you're going through not only some reasons for planning and why you're there, but kind of reminding you what it is you need to contribute with. That's good. Everybody should do that more often for a few reasons. As everything changes, so does the stuff you need to contribute with.

In terms of understand/relate - good split definition. Understand is one thing, but only leads to observations and conclusions. Not often something new/useful. The relate is what I think about as "drives". What drives them. Not with the toilet example, but the gym example in your last post. Those people, what drives them to do that? Is it primarily others and how you need to look in front of them? Feeling good? Not having to say "no, I don't work out"? It helps me because it leads to thoughts about the reward they're looking for (often a group thing).

Anyways, interesting post. Nice new blog to follow.

[nguyen]

kyle,
i enjoyed our sunday chat very much, and it helped me prepare for my interview. thank you. i'm liking the challenge of trying to relate to something new. am working on a launch of a new convertible Lexus right now. my initial thought: "I don't understand who would want to drop $45K on a car right now, let alone a luxury convertible?" hopefully, w/n the next few days/weeks i can get to the point of relating to those who would? the folks here certainly seem to believe that there are ppl out there that are willing to drop a deposit before the car even hits the showroom floor. although that assessment maybe true last year, but now? really? will get back to you later. cheers, buddy!

[Kyle Studstill]

Thanks for the thoughts, Olle! I've found it increasingly important to revisit the fundamentals occasionally, as well as the little insightful things we run into. Keeps the good stuff top of mind.

And right - those drives you're talking about, that's what we've got to strive to understand. I joke a lot about stuff that I don't "get", but I think it's important to be able to take a step back in the way you've described, with the understanding that there's always a reason people do what they do.

[Kyle Studstill]

Glad to hear about the exciting new project, Nguyen! One thing that I'm always amazed by is the sheer number of attitudes out there in the world, so it'll be interesting to get to know that crowd. I think you're right in a way - that "drop money on a Lexus" picture probably looked a lot different last year. So I'm wondering about other ways to get at that defining that "$45K disposable income" niche. Something that defines them less by money and more by something like the drive for status Olle was getting at. Looking forward to hearing about it!