Part of the MFA Interaction Design Weekly Thesis Blog series - 6 of 64

The third session at the Penny conference was by comedian and director of digital at the Onion, Baratunde Thurston.  Baratunde recently wrote How to be Black - his talk was structured around how he wrote that book, and all the things he learned from writing it. His process provides a model of self-directed learning enabled by our networks.  The steps he outlined seemed like a fruitful template for thesis explorations.

Step 1: Interrogate the Experts

Baratunde went around the country asking people about their experience of blackness, prompting them using humorous questions, e.g. “When did you first realize you were black?” What flowed from these questions were insightful conversations about blackness. Baratunde invited his interviewees into the processes of writing the book, making sure they were consulted in how they were portrayed, and giving them a stake in the book’s success.

I probably won’t be asking people when they realized they were black. I will, however, have to interrogate experts, and I should probably start now. One insight from Baratunde’s process is to infuse the process with humour, and give the experts a stake in the project’s success. To do that, I must find a way to make the project relevant to their personal stories.

Step 2: Build a Team

Baratunde described how he built a “street team” to get the ideas from the book out in the world. This was a team that was rooting for the book’s success, and acted as a conduit between Baratunde and his potential audience.  The team not only promoted and built excitement for the book, but also feed questions and reactions back to Baratunde. In a sense, through the “street team” the book was able to learn about itself while it was being written.  To pull in another concept from entrepreneurial design, Baratunde engaged in customer development through the street team.

I have no idea how I might build a street team around an idea. I have no doubt that it is through hustling and going out and meeting people in the communities interested in my areas of exploration.  Which likely means that I ought to start by building an online presence for my ideas, so that I can point people to it and get them involved.

Step 3: Everyone a Teacher

This echoes the first two steps. Learning came from all corners for Baratunde, and he specifically designed channels so that his audience can teach him new things.  This included using hashtags to collect the public’s reactions to his ideas, and his “street team.” He went as far as live streaming his work sessions as he edited the book, which generated discussions both humorous and serious.

The takeaway seems to be work in public.  Opening up the process made him a lot more vulnerable as an author. Most people would not want to put their half finished work out in the open, because it will for sure be trampled by some. Baratunde did it anyway, and took the negative feedback in stride. The upside of an open process is that it allows interesting conversations to develop, and allows your to adjust course faster and gather more interesting ideas.  Most importantly, it enables connections to people that otherwise would not get made. If one could grin and bear the trampling, the upside of working in public will likely outweigh the downside.

This is likely one of the reasons why Liz asked us to blog every week for the rest of the thesis process. This blog is the first step in working in public, and also working to build a network. It also reminds me of what Gary told us about USV’s hiring process.  They don’t want to look at resumes. They simply look at your web presence. You can put a lot of bullshit on a resume. You cannot fake hundreds of blog posts. You cannot fake the passion, the tenacity and the consistency required.

So, takeaways for thesis process: work in public, be vulnerable, and leverage networks?