Recipes

Think like a Cookbook, act like a recipe

I have been sifting through my narrative design work built over the last ten years. I can’t believe the seeds of a client project turned into a career path that is now 10 years in the making.  

I have said many times over those ten years that I didn’t want to become formulaic like consultants. I didn’t want to become prescriptive, but rather collaborative in coming to an outcome for either a company or an executive. 

Can I tell someone what their strategic narrative is in two hours?  Yes, I believe I can.  With over 100 narratives created, I can get to the root of something pretty quickly. I have developed the ability to absorb and synthesize a large volume of inputs and come to a conclusion very fast. The key here is to treat that conclusion as a hypothesis until confirmed.  

But, I submit that if a client is looking for a quick fix and wants me to do that work, it will not be internalized. I fundamentally believe it is in the co-creation of that strategic narrative that the aha is generated. 

Which leads me to recipes. 

A conversation yesterday with a long-time friend reframed my sifting above back to the early idea of how I approach my work - I view my approach like a cookbook, with lots of recipes inside.  

My cookbook is about designing strategic narratives.  My recipes collected (and experienced) over the years are the approaches and angles I may pull out to help overcome stuckness or a deeper issue that I uncover in my findings.  

This metaphor is rooted in an experience from when I worked at Meredith in the late 80’s/early 90’s.  My ConAgra client was launching their Healthy Choice brand at the time (which became a multi-billion brand with over 200 line extensions). We brought their product and food science teams to Des Moines to collaborate on recipe development. 

We worked with the Better Homes & Garden kitchen teams, our cookbook and food magazine editors, and our direct-to-consumer and custom publishing divisions (we produced the Williams Sonoma Cookbooks at the time, among other recognizable brands). 

The thing that I remembered all of these years later was the distinction of a recipe.  It was argued and discussed that there were three types of recipes - which translated to who was cooking from the recipe. 

There was the Cookbook recipe.  It was generally the most sophisticated of the bunch.  It had the most extensive research and testing.  And, it was founded on the belief that it was time tested and only the most confident chefs or cooks would take on this level of recipe.  

There was the Food Magazine recipe.  As food magazines (which have all but disappeared into the digital sphere today), these recipes are also generally grounded in research and testing, but not to the extent of a cookbook recipe.  These recipes were more geared toward the quick meal (time-based prep for a busy family) or the weekend cook who wanted to amp up a dish for entertaining. 

And then, there was the on-pack recipe.  Some consumers viewed the “microwave instructions'' as a recipe. Some on-pack recipes have become household staples (like the Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies, which is still my favorite).  This recipe profile was most likely geared toward the least confident cooks and was designed to be easy to accomplish, with minimal ingredients required. 

I remember the debates raging between the “food snobs” (cookbook purists), “food aware” (food magazine editors), and on-pack recipe creators (a synthesized version of recipe development). Applying this to Healthy Choice was about finding the right balance to create new line extensions, on-pack heating instructions, and compliments to enhance the meal beyond what was in the box.

Fast forward to 30 years later and those basic insights are now showing up in my narrative design.  It is about having those time-tested recipes and extensive research to know what goes with what and where it should reside. It is about being bold, yet calculating where necessary.

It is about being a cookbook and not a formulaic recipe that is duplicated like a copy machine or a template. Because in the end, it is matching the right recipe to the right person.  Meeting companies and people where they are to ensure the chasm is not too wide but reachable with the right recipe.

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NOW (How you are realizing this today)

1. Do you operate like a cookbook or a recipe?

2. Are you formulaic or do you deviate from the recipe when needed?  

3. Do you cook from a cookbook, an NYT recipe, or microwave instructions?

NEW (How you will realize this tomorrow)

1. I will take on a new recipe by the end of April. 

2. I will think about how I apply my thinking to solve a challenge and make tweaks by May. 

3. I will use this metaphorical approach in a TBD meeting to question why we do something the way we do it.  

NEXT (I see a world in which) 

I see a world in which we create cookbooks to achieve outcomes but use recipes to fine-tune the kind of outcome we desire.  

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The Payoff 

"When baking, follow directions. When cooking, go by your own taste." - Laiko Bahrs