Capturing the Big Ideas
A conversation with the original sketchnoter, Mike Rohde.
Mike Rohde is a sketchnoter, bestselling author, and a software, experience and service designer.
What is the origin story of sketchnoting?
Back in late 2006, I was frustrated with my note-taking. I had developed a notion that I had to capture every detail of a meeting or a conference, and I tried my best to do it! I used large, lined notebooks so I had the space to write and I used pencil so I could erase mistakes.
I was really good at note-taking this way but there were a few problems: first, I hated it! It was a burden to try and capture everything I was hearing—and honestly, it was impossible. But even worse, I never went back deeply into those detailed notes to find gems like I thought I would.
I had to make a change. So, in early 2007, I decided to lean into some constraints, something I am often dealing with at work as a designer, and I put some on myself to see what might happen.
“Suddenly I felt as if I had all the time in the world to listen, analyze and only capture my analysis of what was most important—the big ideas.”
There was a design conference in Chicago, just a train ride from Milwaukee, that I attended to run a little experiment. What I learned in my test was life changing, even though I didn’t know it at the time.
Tools of choice were a pocket Moleskine notebook, to limit page size and number of pages and a gel pen so I would be deliberate about what went on those little pages.
In practice, this limitation worked well. Suddenly I felt as if I had all the time in the world to listen, analyze and only capture my analysis of what was most important—the big ideas. Remember: I had come from a place of writing everything down, so this approach was a huge relief.
Another revelation: I could use lettering and drawing along with writing to capture those thoughts. With my old way, I had no time for either.
The biggest revelation came after finishing my first intentional sketchnotes: I felt refreshed and excited about what I captured, and could review the notes in minutes as I rode the Amtrak home.
Then I shared these first notes on Flickr, the hot social media platform of 2007, and others responded to my sketchnotes—both speakers and attendees and those who weren’t even there.
I realized then I’d stumbled onto not only a solution to my challenge of note-taking, but that this approach could help others like me and communicate ideas to a broader audience.
Hear about upcoming conversations:
How does sketchnoting overlap with your work in software, experience and service design?
I find using sketchnoting as a visualization tool very valuable in my work in design. It’s fast, I can capture lots of detail and communicate ideas, interfaces, flows and processes without needing any specialized software to do it.
As an example, I worked with a financial services development team on software design. Sketchnoting came into play in an interesting way that helped the team:
First, we built a culture of whiteboarding interface ideas together on that team. Every Monday morning for an hour at a time our teams would gather at a 9 foot tall by 25 foot long whiteboard wall. Developers, business analysts, product owners and sometimes subject matter experts would all sit at the table together.
“...one developer constantly thought I was reading his mind, when really I was just intently listening and capturing his thoughts visually!”
We were redesigning an old Windows-based tool into a web-based app, so we were building it a feature at a time, evaluating the way the old app did something and either taking those ideas and refining them, or completely replacing them with new ideas.
The teams would know the feature ahead of the meeting, and come prepared to talk about the redesign of those features. I facilitated with a business analyst colleague, hearing about the feature, seeing it in action on the old app and then opening the floor for ideas.
As ideas were discussed, I would sketchnote those ideas on the whiteboard, typically in a dark color whiteboard ink and then with a contrasting color, annotate the discussion and comments about feature details. I would often note UX issues with the ideas and sometimes sketchnote alternatives with better UX.
This worked well because people saw their ideas appear on the board immediately. In fact, one developer constantly thought I was reading his mind, when really I was just intently listening and capturing his thoughts visually!
Sometimes developers or other team members would come to the board and draw their ideas, which was great! There was a communal safe space there and it really worked.
At the end of the session we would capture the sketchnote as a photo and post it to a shared drive location, so that product owners or developers could pull these sketches and start building, then have me review for UX implications. If I got there first, I would follow the mock-up approach we preferred—but this way I wouldn’t become as much of a bottleneck.
It worked great for team engagement and collaboration, team buy-in, and reducing my limits as a solo designer on a team of 50 people who all needed my help.
It was a fantastic experience I try to replicate now in my work with teams when I can.
What’s the best way for a creative firm to incorporate sketchnoting into their process?
I am a believer in experimenting and starting small.
So maybe your way is to integrate it into one meeting that is not critical but has interesting information you can draw value from—maybe a team meeting or design presentation by a colleague.
If sketching and drawing is a limiter for you, check out my YouTube video on basic drawing to change your confidence about drawing:
Sketchnote Mini Workshop
Limit drawing to just a portion of the notes you take if you are new to this (maybe 20–50%). That way you aren’t overwhelmed. If you are more experienced at drawing, slide that percentage up over 50% if you like.
“I am a believer in experimenting and starting small.”
My challenge to you is this:
DO NOT write every detail of the meeting. Instead, listen intently and analyze what is the idea you feel is being shared and capture that in your own words. Add direct quotes if you feel they are important.
Incorporate drawing where it makes sense for you to do so, but don’t feel you have to draw all the time either—keep a balance. Remember that you are experimenting and your needs can only be discovered by you and your context.
The idea is to experiment and see what works for you in a meeting that is not so critical that you worry about missing something, but is valuable enough that you can see this technique working.
Keep experimenting with this in different meetings as you build your confidence and keep looking for opportunities to use the technique as you get more comfortable.
How do you keep beginning sketchnoters from getting bogged down by the urge to render things perfectly?
Part of it is the way I teach them to draw—simply, with 5 elements (square, circle, triangle, line, and dot) and the other is to encourage beginners to start with just a few images and then move the drawings slider slowly to the right as they are more and more comfortable with the idea.
If you push too hard and too fast with this you can feel overwhelmed and might quit early.
I also encourage the use of pen, because you have to commit and it can be harder to spend time erasing and perfecting, shading and so on.
Trying to do as much real-time also helps keep you in the moment and not over-drawing.
You can always come back to your sketchnote after and add detail—just try that approach.
What’s the most important thing you have learned from starting the Sketchnote Army community?
That this community is amazing. They are friendly and encouraging to new people, helpful and sharing of their ideas and help, and they want the best for each other.
I’m most proud of this part of my work, because I aimed to set a tone for the community early with these principles in place, that I had learned from the best communities I’d been part of over the years.
“The lesson for me is to set the example and live it and others will live into that with me. It’s worked! ”
I think living out those principles in public drew like-minded people into the community and then it just became the way we do things in the sketchnoting community.
The lesson for me is to set the example and live it and others will live into that with me. It's worked!
Have you taught kids how to sketchnote? Who takes to it more readily, children or adults?
I have taught kids! Funny thing is, kids are often more open to trying my approach than adults because (depending on age) they have not had creativity squeezed out of them just yet. Kids will try things more readily than adults, though I have been pleased with how open many adults are when I present the introduction to sketchnoting.
Once I was teaching a small room of adults how to sketchnote and my wife and 7 year old son were in the room, watching. As it turned out, my son was actually following my teaching and drew everything I had prescribed for the adults, was very attentive and had fun. So I realized then that the teaching works for all ages as well as I could have hoped for!
I’ve heard that sketchnoting and drawing in general can give a tremendous boost to student learning and retention. Do you know if the idea of sketchnoting has taken hold in any classroom settings?
Sketchnoting is a huge hit with teachers for those reasons you mention. It’s engaging for students and takes advantage of the desire of may students to doodle and turns it toward learning, but even better, when it’s used with students they retain more information.
Pre-pandemic, most of my speaking engagements and workshops were at school district level, helping teachers prepare for this by learning sketchnoting themselves, and then working with them to build strategies for integrating sketchnoting into their classrooms.
Now there are teachers who are crazy for sketchnoting doing the evangelization of the idea at conferences and in schools, so I’m very excited for the impact this will have on young students who will be encouraged to visualize instead of being scolded for it.
“...I’m very excited for the impact this will have on young students who will be encouraged to visualize instead of being scolded for it.”
Are you welcomed into or shunned from Telestrations and Pictionary games?
I’m usually like a first round draft pick in those games, which is pretty fun for me. Being able to quickly get concepts out and understandable is a great tool for life and business, and if it helps me be popular with the Pictionary crowd, I’ll take it!
To learn more about Mike Rohde, visit rohdesign.com.