How can focus help our business, our teams, ourselves? This presentation disassembles the difficulty we have in achieving various kinds of focus (vision, goal, users, pragmatism, attention, calm) and gives practical tips on how to approach and improve each of them. This talk was originally prepared for ThemeConf (themeconf.com) and From the Front (2015.fromthefront.it).

1. THE SIX ELEMENTS OF
FOCUS
Davide ‘Folletto’ Casali

2. UX Redirector Advisor
NIGHT.EU

3. Manifesto Ibridi
F E L L O W

4. @Folletto

5. WHAT IS FOCUS?
PART I

6. We know what
we’re doing
I haven’t done
much today

7. Focus can be the difference between
knowing your destination and being lost

8. Focus can be the difference between
done and not done

9. The gravitational
point toward which
everything converges.

10. CENTER
Clarity
FORCES
Action
TIME
Patience

11. Clarity Focus

12. Why is it so hard
to keep focus?

13. FEARThe comfort of non-confrontational assumptions

14. FRUSTRATION
AVOIDANCE
CONFLICT
AVOIDANCE
Toward Self Toward Others

15. FOCUS AS
VISION CLARITY
PART II

16. Simon Sinek
Start With Why

17. What
How
Model by Simon Sinek
Why

18. “
”
Simon Sinek
Dr. King gave
the "I have a dream" speech,
not the "I have a plan" speech.

19. Do you know
your why?
Does your client know
its why?

20. Clarify with everyone involved.
Find the why.

21. FOCUS AS
GOAL CLARITY
PART III

22. Issue 1
MULTI-FOCUS

23. Issue 2
IMPLIED FOCUS

24. Set one goal
with metrics

25. Communicate

26. Set goal. Communicate. Repeat.

27. FOCUS AS
USERS
PART IV

28. user

29. user user

30. user user
user

31. Behaviour
Goal
Why

32. “
”
Alan Cooper
The best way to successfully accommodate
a variety of users is to design for specific
types of individuals with specific needs.

33. “Focus” on many people

34. Focus on one person

35. Identify your user:
behaviour, goal, why.

36. FOCUS AS
PRAGMATISM
PART V

37. “
”
Steve Jobs
Focus means saying no to the hundred
other good ideas that there are.

38. It’s possible
to build without focus.

39. Hey! _________ solves that already!
Scrum
Kanban
XP

40. Do they?

41. MILESTONE
One major
user-valuable
feature
A set of
minor fixes
and features

42. Unpack and apply your favourite technique

43. Each milestone is a
Minimum Viable Feature

45. Set milestones,
keep them fluid.

46. FOCUS AS
ATTENTION
PART VI

47. CHALLENGE
SKILLS
Anxiety
Boredom
Flow
Mihaly Czisentmihaily

48. kotaku.com/where-pro-street-fighter-players-look-1701167840kotaku.com/where-pro-street-fighter-players-look-1701167840

49. “
”
R. Sawaki, S.J. Luck
An attend-to-me signal can be overridden
by an active suppression process to prevent
the actual capture of attention.
R. Sawaki & S. J. Luck (2010) Capture versus suppression of attention by salient singletons

51. Increase motivation.
Reduce interruptions.

52. FOCUS AS
INNER CALM
PART VII

55. hey!

56. This moment
is a skill you can train

57. “
”
John Cleese
The creative architects had this tolerance
for this discomfort we all feel
when we leave things unresolved.

59. “
”
Baird, Smallwood, Mrazek, Kam, Franklin, Schooler
Engaging in simple external tasks that allow
the mind to wander may facilitate creative
problem solving.
Baird, Smallwood, Mrazek, Kam, Franklin, Schooler (2011) Inspired by Distraction Mind Wandering Facilitates Creative Incubation

60. Learn breaking the train of thought.
Find true free space.

61. SUMMARY
PART VIII

63. SYNC DESIGN BE
goal
vision
users
pragmatism
attention
calm

64. “
”
Bruno Munari
To complicate is easy, to simplify is hard.
To complicate, just add,
everyone is able to complicate.
Few are able to simplify.

65. Thanks.
@Folletto
INTENSEMINIMALISM.COM