What VAR can teach us about clear communication
If you're a football fan, there's no doubt that you've probably seen some mixed reactions for the Video Assistant Referee (VAR). Whether it's the fact that your team has lost because of a VAR decision, the length of time it takes to make a decision, or just the fact it's killing the spectacle of the game, you'll certainly get some opinions if you brought it up in a pub. Yes, it's got decisions right but it's also sorting through decisions it shouldn't even be making...
I think the fact that it's making decisions that it was never intended to is a good lesson in moving the goalposts during the delivery of a project, or even as you streamline your communication as an organisation. It happens in football, but as a designer - I can assure you this also happens in business too. A project is commissioned to solve one problem, but then the lines get blurred. A marketing strategy starts off targeting one specific group, before targeting everyone because of budget restrictions. It happens...
First though, let's just set the scene in case you're not particularly interested in football ... (understandable if you live in Ipswich).
According to the Premier League website, VAR was introduced to constantly monitor the match, and was intended to only be used only for "clear and obvious errors" or "serious missed incidents" in four match-changing situations:
Though the final decision is given by the on-field referee, VAR can make recommendations based on what they see.
Now, the problem doesn't lie with the system itself; it seems to have been designed fairly well. It takes a long time for decisions to be made, but that will hopefully get better. The problem lies with what it's now being used to do in the games.
As we just read, the original intention was to overturn "clear and obvious" errors, but it's now being used to look to finely go through every decision to see if they can give a penalty, it's not being for CLEAR AND OBVIOUS ERRORS by the referee. It's now looking to make decisions on the referee's behalf...
Having been at the latest Norwich home game where VAR was used (and no, I don't think they really made the wrong decision in this case), it got me thinking about how so often this same change in strategy/goals for design projects can often be a bit like VAR.
So let's start talking about what this post was originally intended to be about, design and business.
Often design projects start with all good intentions, a clear problem to solve and what success would look like when we solve it, but so often clients and designers can be prone to change direction without communicating it clearly, and having good reason to do so.
I'm not saying briefs should be so rigid that they can never be changed once agreed, that would be a bit ludicrous to think as projects always adapt and develop over time. Often campaigns need to be reactive as well. The problem comes with not communicating it effectively... It also doesn't make sense for one project trying to solve all the problems your organisation might be facing.
If the premier league and the team of referees in charge developed a clearer campaign to update people as to what VAR is there to do, it would sort of make sense, but instead there's been silence and the only communication is the same communication from the start of the season. As far as everyone knows, it's still being used for clear and obvious errors - but it doesn't seem that way at match days.
For people commissioning design projects and briefing designers, it's important to communicate changes in goals/target market clearly and in a timely way. Without communicating it, designers will never know and will be designing for the original audience/goal. It's also worth mentioning that if you're going to change the scope of the project, make sure you've got a reason for doing so and talk to the design team about it, it's often good to get another opinion on it!
For third sector organisations, there's also a lesson to be learnt; if you feel something should be going in a different direction, or you feel people should be clearer on your services. Learn from the mistakes of VAR. Don't just leave it in the background, but update your communications and let people know about the change in direction. I understand that process takes time in some cases, but the quicker you can act on it, the smaller the barrier for your potential service users. That hopefully then means people will be more engaged and more likely to act upon what they see.
Changes in direction are normal, and essential in many cases. Communicating those ideas is where the difficulty lies. Don't leave your service users and customers wonder why you're offering something, or what you offer.
Don't leave your design team wondering who on earth they're designing for, or what problem they're trying to solve. That's a quick way to not solving any problem at all. Get specific.
Communicate clearly and openly. Don't change the scope or direction of something without communicating it.
Don't do what the Premier League and VAR seems to be doing...
This might be the worst comparison in the world, but in my head, it's one that we can learn from.
Disclaimer: This post was written before the recent Norwich game against Sheffield United, I'm not just being bitter!! Although the point still stands based on that game too...