Preparing for your AMG session (This is the URL they can download mentioned in stage one)
AMG is most useful when what you want to explore is ‘messy’. After all, technical problems can be solved using handbooks, experts, google and youtube: no matter how complicated they are technically there’s a technical solution – you just have to execute it.
AMG works for the other kind of problem – the problems for which there is no clear answer. Rather than problems about ‘how to do something’ (technical problems) concentration on problems which are more orientated around ‘what do do’.
It doesn’t have to be a problem, of course, it could be an opportunity that you want to make the most of, too.
The really hard part is explaining the problem with the right amount of depth so that people can help, but without drowning them in the details – details that are almost always irrelevant to the solution and very often get in the way of people coming up with solutions, as they get bogged down in the minutiae, too.
An excellent formula for exploring your issue is the acronym CBA, which stands for
- Context – the background of what you’re looking at
- Behaviours – things people do or don’t do in that context
- Answer – specific ideas of things to try
If it helps to look at examples, there are some over the page. For lots of people, seeing other people’s thoughts is very limiting, so only read the ideas below if you’re stuck or you’re absolutely sure it won’t limit your thinking.
An excellent exercise in getting your issue ready to share is to imagine you’re only allowed to write a single tweet… Twitter now allows more characters (280) but it helps as an exercise to use the old-style 140 character limit.
Example 1
I’m trying to find a way to monetise my blog about cooking different types of bread (context). It’s got about 5000 unique visitors per week and I need to make them come back more often – there’s some interaction on the posts but not too much (behaviours). What I need are things I can sell that the kind of people who read my blog would want. (specific answers)
Example 2
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Example 3
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