Sign in with Facebook
Loading...
63rd out of 64 books
—
77 voters
Unfolding the Napkin: The Hands-On Method for Solving Complex Problems with Simple Pictures
by
Dan Roam
An original workbook companion to the acclaimed business bestseller The Back of the Napkin
Dan Roam's The Back of the Napkin, a BusinessWeek bestseller, taught readers the power of brainstorming and communicating with pictures. It presented a new and exciting way to solve all kinds of problems-from the boardroom to the sales floor to the cubicle jungle.
The companion wor...more
Paperback, 320 pages
Published
December 29th 2009
by Portfolio Trade
(first published 2009)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
532)
Dan Roam is really cool; I really enjoyed this book. Yes, the pictures are kind of corny. Yes, the examples are kind of cartoonish. Yes, the exercises seem like they are from kindergarten. But somehow Roam has taken corny, cartoonish, kindergarten tasks and turned them into something really useful.
I read this book and enjoyed it, but I didn't get the full value of the content until I went back and worked the exercises. Though I don't remember what SQVID stands for or any of the other organizing...more
I read this book and enjoyed it, but I didn't get the full value of the content until I went back and worked the exercises. Though I don't remember what SQVID stands for or any of the other organizing...more
The author spends the first 100 pages expaining why pictures are a good idea. He could have made his point much quicker and spent more time explaining his frameworks for drawing pictures, of which there are very many. He makes an analogy with a swiss army knife: his has 18 tools on it, culminating in a 6x5x2 = 60-picture grid of the different drawings you can make, which he calls the "visual thinking codex". The types of pictures he is talking about are: who/what, how much, where, when, how and...more
READ DEC 2010
Excellent approach to visual thinking and visual problem solving. This book is a follow-up to the original book and is set up as more of a workbook.
Best ideas are the four "unwritten rules" including: (a) whoever is best able to describe the problem is the person most likely to solve it, (b) we can't solve problems that overwhelm us. To understand what we're seeing, we need to break it into bite-size pieces, (c) problems don't get solved by the smartest, fastest, or strongest; they...more
Excellent approach to visual thinking and visual problem solving. This book is a follow-up to the original book and is set up as more of a workbook.
Best ideas are the four "unwritten rules" including: (a) whoever is best able to describe the problem is the person most likely to solve it, (b) we can't solve problems that overwhelm us. To understand what we're seeing, we need to break it into bite-size pieces, (c) problems don't get solved by the smartest, fastest, or strongest; they...more
I thought it was amazing!
I didn't read his first book about napkin creativity. However, this book was so totally up my alley. I soak in TONS of information and absolutely loved this method of getting down on paper. It's quick, it's not perfect, and it leaves a lot out... but that's what it's for!
And here's another huge thing... the more tools you learn to help you CONSCIOUSLY control which "frame of mind" your in... the better! This is a HUGE skill that all must posses.
Recommended.
I didn't read his first book about napkin creativity. However, this book was so totally up my alley. I soak in TONS of information and absolutely loved this method of getting down on paper. It's quick, it's not perfect, and it leaves a lot out... but that's what it's for!
And here's another huge thing... the more tools you learn to help you CONSCIOUSLY control which "frame of mind" your in... the better! This is a HUGE skill that all must posses.
Recommended.
I picked up this book--and in particular the "hands-on" workbook instead of the original The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures--because I am not particularly visual person, but I want to learn to communicate better visually and practice it, too. As such, I found the book quite helpful, but it took me *forever* to get through because, well, it was like "work". (This is quite ironic since I regularly read technical books that are very much related to my job and f...more
Loved it. Dan Roam really spells out how to use simple picture-drawing to improve problem solving - and how to present your solutions to others. He ostensibly writes for a business audience but his techniques apply just as well to other sectors. I've already used his lessons to some success in the classroom and with my peers.
We are not talking about great literature here but set of ideas/techniques on how to present your ideas based on the theory that we are born with the ability to draw but not to write and read.
The only slight drawback to this book is that it is too much like The Back of the Napkin. Still, of you only read this one it is still a book full of five-star ideas and insights.
This book was a harder read for me than The Back of the Napkin. I appreciated the exercises, and did force myself to complete them. I think it's a nice companion to The Back of the Napkin.
Better than Back of the Napkin because of the detail and number of examples. Otherwise nothing new. Still, absolutely worth reading and trying to apply to your work.
Somewhat of a companion book to "The Back of the Napkin". Shows how effective simple symbols are in communicating complex ideas especially for your whiteboard explanations.
Dec 26, 2010
Jochen Bünnagel
is currently reading it
So far, it mostly reiterates the stuff from "Back of the Napkin" from a more practical perspective. I hope it gets better.
Nice system. I will try and incorporate drawing into my briefs. Should come in very handy for teaching.
A great workbook for helping teachers sort through visual thinking, representing. I love VR!!
A must read for communicators, teachers, pastors, and leaders. Invaluable tools.
Great supplement to Back of the Napkin. You, too, can doodle with purpose.
Simple, yet brilliant. I use the principles from this book all the time.
Visual Thibkers of all stripes will love Dan Roam.
Started 9/5/2011
Excellent complement to "The Back of the Napkin". Deeper explanations about the 6x6 method and SQVID with examples and exercises.
This book provides a simple approach to become a more effective communicator.
It was interesting to recognize tactics that were already being implemented at my office. (I am guessing someone from our corporate, if not our office leader, has read this.)
None the less, I found it a valuable read and already find myself using some of its methods.
It's a 4-day workshop on how to make the steps your own. This one's for everyone who's ever been asked "Can you show me what it looks like?" I find the book especially helpful for presenting stuff in a brown bag lunch session and any other discussions over coffee & without a laptop computer, a white board or one of those blasted tablets.
More detailed than the Back of the Napkin but a lot of the same material.
May 21, 2013
Hans Baggesen
marked it as to-read
May 20, 2013
Rory Abbott
added it
May 19, 2013
Tony
marked it as to-read
May 15, 2013
Robin
marked it as to-read
May 13, 2013
Hertzel Karbasi
added it
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
30. Dezember, 03:12 Uhr