I BROKE THE MOM RULE
WHEN TO LET YOUR IDEAS COOK
I think I broke one of the rules of ideation - the “Mom Rule.” Let me explain.
In advertising or any industry related to ideas, there are three groups that you can use as soundboards to check your ideas before they reach the general public. The first is people in your industry. Colleagues or supervisors, it doesn’t matter. Simply being in the same industry makes them the people you go to for ideas made to win awards or catch the eyes of other experts. You guessed it, this is where you get your harsh feedback.
The second group is your friends – those who want to support you, don’t understand what you do, but know current trends. They’re the perfect soundboard for checking visuals and whether an idea can excite the masses. Then there’s your mom.
Moms are a specific breed that want to support you with their entire being but have no idea of current trends, have a short attention span, and no clue how to use “advanced technology” like a website (a bit of a generalization, but hey, I’m not the one who came up with this). This makes them the perfect soundboard for ideas and user interface. Can your mom use the website? Great, that means it’s simple enough to use. Does your mom get the idea? Yes? Then, it’s straightforward enough to understand. That’s the “Mom Rule.” And I broke it.
Running your ideas by your mom does not mean running them by her a million times and in different ways. It only works if you can hook her with two sentences. Well, despite knowing the rule and how to apply it, I did just that. I ran the idea of Fistbump the Sky by my mom a million times and in ten different ways, only to receive a voice that trailed off and a vivid reenactment of a rabbit in front of headlights.
Did I take the hint? You bet I didn’t!
It took me a while to realize that it wasn’t just my technologically challenged mother who didn’t get it; everyone else also seemed to need more than one explanation. Not a good sign, my friend. So, I did the only thing I could do: return to the drawing board.
The first thing I did was change my approach. I thought it was straightforward, but it was far from that. It turned out that Fistbump the Sky was not a series of personalized books with supporting zines as I had thought. Instead, it was an imagined world that people could explore by becoming part of the world through personalized books, learning about it through encyclopedia chapters, or simply enjoying the world’s story through a serialized story. In short, it was NOT this:
It was THIS:
This had me changing the layout of the official website, the information on the newsletter homepage, along with the library cards and titles of the zines, now officially chapters in “The Fantastical Encyclopedia of the Imagined World of Fistbump the Sky.” (Say it fast, I dare you)
It didn’t take me long to make the changes, but it would have been much more effective if I had introduced Fistbump the Sky to readers with the proper approach. The moral of the letter? Don’t break your own rules, and check your mom’s expression. If she doesn’t get it, do it again.
If you have a similar story or anything in particular you’d like to see, then let’s get together on the group chat. I’m always up for a chat. Just ask my mom.