Shift: from Product to People

While our book is a novel, we also wanted it to be a reference book. Our first piece of instruction arrives in chapter 3. Our user...

What strategy did we use to keep our book realistic? The Enneagram. Heard of it? We wanted our book to be true to life so we based every character on one of the 9 Enneagram personality types. Then we chose real people from our pasts and asked ourselves, "What would they do/say?" Then we layered multiple people and similar situations together to intentionally protect the innocent. So while everything in the book did happen, "any resemblance to actual persons or events is pu

Michael and I wanted an early example of breaking the rules for good reasons, but in a way that then causes the next crisis. "Every choice has tradeoffs." But solving one problem always causes new problems or makes other problems worse. Which things are okay to make worse, and which changes are causing our troubles? As Angela advises in the book, if we’ve never done the exercise “by the book”, we should do that first so we can experience the difference.