Book Review: Made to Stick

Do you ever have to communicate ideas and make sure that people understand (and remember) your message? If yes, this book is for you. “Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die” by Chip Heath & Dan Heath is a goldmine.

The authors methodically take the user through the six key qualities of sticky ideas:

• Simplicity: Hmmm, this seems to be a common thread in everything that is success. Peel back the layers of your idea until you get to the core message. This is what you should communicate. For example, Americans have been bitten by the affluenza bug and as a result the earth is slowly dying. We need move toward a cradle to cradle approach where all parts of a product can be re-purposed once the consumer is done with the product.
• Unexpectedness: Shock your audience into attention. For example, did you know that we throw away 2.5 million tons of obsolete electronics every year? (Yikes!)
• Concreteness: Give meaningful examples that people can relate to and remember. For example, that’s more than 30,000 truckloads of electronic junk every year.
• Credibility: Use external or internal credibility to make people believe you. For example, the waste problem is apparent considering that several states have already run out of space and are shipping their trash to neighboring states.
• Emotional: Present your idea in a way that will make people care. For example, show pictures of mountains of trash where there once was beautiful landscape.
• Stories: Get people to act on your fabulous idea. For example, tell a story of a company who is able to re-purpose all components of their product, resulting in zero waste.

One idea that stood out to me is that it is more important to be able to recognize a good idea than it is to come up with one. Think about that for a second. In product management, it’s not about sitting around in your office and conjuring up great ideas. Rather, it’s about being out there in the world, listening to customers and potentials, understanding “a day in the life” of your users, and keeping your eyes open to discover great ideas. Once you come across the next great idea, you can use the techniques in this book to get everybody else on board.

Note: The main idea in my examples is from the book “Simple Prosperity: Finding Real Wealth in a Sustainable Lifestyle” by David Wann.