Big Ideas, Little Pictures: Explaining the world one sketch at a time

Chat with Jono Hey (Creator of Sketchplanations; Product & Design Leader)

and

Nov 12, 2024

Welcome to this week’s free article of Level Up: Your source for executive insights, high performance habits, and specific career growth actions.

Upcoming live events:
Fireside chat with Chaitali Narla (Eng Lead at Stripe; ex-Google Director) & Jason Yoong (my operating partner) on “Career & Personal Challenges Often Faced by Women in Tech”.
Seattle in-person meetup (Nov 19) for Level Up Members!
See event details and RSVP here

Jono Hey — is the creator of the widely popular Sketchplanations (explaining the world one sketch at a time, 99.8% chance you’ve seen his sketches), a product leader, startup veteran, designer, strategist and UXer.

He helped take Nutmeg.com from a PowerPoint to a billion-dollar acquisition and an established brand in financial services through leading UX and design that meets people's real needs. As Chief Product Officer he helped build Zen Educate into a thriving marketplace for teaching staff across the UK and the US.

He’s also the author Big Ideas, Little Pictures: Explaining the world one sketch at a time (highly recommended to spark inspiration and look around corners):

"This is such a cool book. The range of Jono's knowledge is astounding, and so is his ability to digest complex ideas into deceptively simple drawings. You'll learn something on every page―and be entertained too."
― Bill Gates

In our fireside chat, Jono and Jason Yoong (my Operating Partner) discuss:

Dissecting 6 sketches from his book.
How Jono decides what to visualize.
Jono’s creative process.

Watch on YouTube.

Takeaways

For Jono, taking ACTION is the first step to entering into a state of flow. Sometimes things are just clear and you know exactly what the goal is and what to do. But for most of his work and life experience—Jono found that he just has to sit down and start doing the task (even when he’s are not feeling it), then through that process, he enters flow.
View ideas as a SPECTRUM (not black or white). Remember that when people share ideas in a meeting, it’s because they believe there are good elements to it. Thus, do not simply disregard the entire idea (egos are fragile in ideation sessions), instead task yourself to think: “What is it about that idea that has a germ of something good?”
1. Jono recommends the book The Practice of Creativity by George Prince.
Find your why NOT. If you can find your one dream job/mission that fulfills all buckets, great…but don’t fall into the trap of pressure and regret of thinking this is the only way. Rather, accept that your “why” may change (often and at different seasons of your life) and that you can fulfill yourself, the world, and your soul with two or more different things.
When Jono finds himself repeating things to other people, he turns it into a sketch. This could be in 1:1s as a manager or trainings that repeat frameworks. Jono also uses his sketches to learn and dive deeper into things he’s curious about such as the Equinox.
Jono’s career advice to readers: “You never really know what magic will happen when you share stuff with your name on it. The world and the internet is a big place. Just the act of sharing stuff and getting feedback, you work harder at it…and you just never know where it will go.”

Fun Facts

The curb-cut effect was one of the most challenging sketches to visualize. The idea is when we design for people with disabilities, we actually make things better for everyone.
The book cover sketch was selected to depict a situation in the world which makes you question this bigger principle, Jono thought about waves and thus, The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Hokusai was chosen. The sketch illustrates trying to understand this phenomena (waves) from the outside.
Of 900+ sketches, the overview effect is Jono’s favorite because it’s simple and just does the job. You aren’t stuck in the details, you immediately get the big picture perspective. Jono added the two astronauts for the book (with one sitting down and just contemplating).

Thank you Jono!

Follow him on LinkedIn, subscribe to his newsletter Sketchplanations to get a creative spark in your inbox, and pickup Jono’s book Big Ideas, Little Pictures: Explaining the world one sketch at a time

Career & Personal Challenges Often Faced by Women in Tech — fireside chat with Chaitali Narla (Eng Lead at Stripe; ex-Google Director)

Chaitali Narla and Jason Yoong (my Operating Partner) will have a fireside chat on the various career and personal challenges often faced by women in tech.

Jason here: Chaitali had 5 promotions in 10 years at Google (from recent grad to director) and helping women in tech grow is a topic she is passionate about.
I look forward to diving into this topic with Chaitali and for the audience questions (we’ve already got some thoughtful ones).

Live attendance is exclusive to newsletter paid subscribers.

Members, RSVP here

Connect With Ethan & Jason

Follow Ethan on LinkedIn.
Get Ethan’s career advice on YouTube.
Connect with Jason (Ethan’s operating partner) on LinkedIn.
Learn more about Ethan’s live online courses and on-demand courses.
Contact us for corporate training, speaking, podcast appearances, and more.

Many subscribers expense this newsletter to their Learning & Development budget, use this email template to send to your manager.

Student discount for academic email addresses.