„Do the work“ is a classic admonition (and a great book by Steven Pressfield). But I just got a reminder just how easily this imperative is overlooked in daily (work)life.
A finance seminar got great reviews when delivered pre Covid-19, i.e. offline. During the last weeks I updated the long-form seminar (equivalent to a full day of training) for deployment via live video (same overall length, three sessions – a set-up proven to work really well). Looking at the material through that lense was a truly fascinating experience: some transitions and topic changes that were so easily smoothed when delivered live in a room all of a sudden showed all their bumpiness, once everything was limited to two dimensions.
At first I thought I’d get away with some minor tweaking, but it didn’t solve the issue at all. Instead, a major reshuffle of content was necessary, almost a complete makeover of the entire thing. The result is so much smoother, the entire progression so much more logical and accessible, that I’ll definitely keep it this way, even when delivery in person will be possible again.
All of which serves as a reminder that the sheer fact that people like something doesn’t mean that the „something“ couldn’t be (much) better. And that stresstesting by imposing artificial or hypothetical restraints always and early is not optional, if we want whatever we make to be better. That seminar could have been better earlier.