videos

Common Craft in Inc. Magazine

leelefever — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 23:25:20 +0000

A few months back April Joyner of Inc. Magazine contacted me to talk about the growth of videos as a sales tool. I wasn't really sure what the article's angle, but spoke from our experience in working with clients on videos that explain their products. The article is now online and in the print magazine.

My big points came out (mostly accurately) as:

It's not about how something works, it's why anyone should care about
The script is really important, write it first
Keep it short

The article also profiles the video experiences of iPhone app company Smule, Kiva Systems and has a mention of our friends at Wistia. Check it out.

Common Craft in Inc. Magazine

leelefever — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 23:25:20 +0000

My big points came out (mostly accurately) as:

It's not about how something works, it's why anyone should care about
The script is really important, write it first
Keep it short

The article also profiles the video experiences of iPhone app company Smule, Kiva Systems and has a mention of our friends at Wistia. Check it out.

Common Craft in Inc. Magazine

leelefever — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 23:25:20 +0000

My big points came out (mostly accurately) as:

It's not about how something works, it's why anyone should care about
The script is really important, write it first
Keep it short

The article also profiles the video experiences of iPhone app company Smule, Kiva Systems and has a mention of our friends at Wistia. Check it out.

Coming Soon: More Videos on Financial Responsibility

leelefever — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 15:54:14 +0000

Here's a question for you: Were you taught about financial responsibility when you were young?

When I ask this question, the vast majority of people respond with a quick "nope." I sure wasn't. In my high school I learned to recite a poem from BeoWulf in Olde English, but never learned about 401ks or compound interest. In light of the current financial crisis, we want to do our part to make sure people understand the important elements of personal finance and being financially responsible.

The First Three

This is why we've focused the first part of this year on videos about financial basics. We started with very basic videos, meant to be prerequisites for more complex topics. We've covered Saving Money (including Compound Interest), Borrowing Money and Investing Money. With these in place, we're ready to release our next three in the series. I won't divulge the titles just yet, but they're all meant to help people understand how to be more financially responsible.

Finance is Boring - But Doesn't Have to Be.

We see two big problems in learning about managing money. First, our financial system is filled with complex terms. It's difficult to care about financial information when you don't recognize the words. Second, most materials about finance are deadly boring. For these next Money videos, we've put a lot of effort into making the videos easy to understand, but also entertaining and fun. You won't find finance videos like these anywhere else.

For Whom?

We often have specific people in mind when working on videos like these. There are usually two audiences:

1. Learners - These are the people who need to learn about financial responsibility. They are students in classrooms and seminars, they are website visitors and employees.

2. Educators - These are the people who need better ways to educate others. Our goal is to provide these good people with accurate, useful and engaging videos that will help learners grasp and even care about financial responsibility. This is the audience we expect to license the videos.

Expect the first of the videos within a week from now. We'll look forward to your feedback and ideas...

Coming Soon: More Videos on Financial Responsibility

leelefever — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 15:54:14 +0000

Here's a question for you: Were you taught about financial responsibility when you were young?

The First Three

Finance is Boring - But Doesn't Have to Be.

For Whom?

We often have specific people in mind when working on videos like these. There are usually two audiences:

1. Learners - These are the people who need to learn about financial responsibility. They are students in classrooms and seminars, they are website visitors and employees.

Expect the first of the videos within a week from now. We'll look forward to your feedback and ideas...

Coming Soon: More Videos on Financial Responsibility

leelefever — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 15:54:14 +0000

Here's a question for you: Were you taught about financial responsibility when you were young?

The First Three

Finance is Boring - But Doesn't Have to Be.

For Whom?

We often have specific people in mind when working on videos like these. There are usually two audiences:

1. Learners - These are the people who need to learn about financial responsibility. They are students in classrooms and seminars, they are website visitors and employees.

Expect the first of the videos within a week from now. We'll look forward to your feedback and ideas...

Coming Soon: More Videos on Financial Responsibility

leelefever — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 15:54:14 +0000

Here's a question for you: Were you taught about financial responsibility when you were young?

The First Three

Finance is Boring - But Doesn't Have to Be.

For Whom?

We often have specific people in mind when working on videos like these. There are usually two audiences:

1. Learners - These are the people who need to learn about financial responsibility. They are students in classrooms and seminars, they are website visitors and employees.

Expect the first of the videos within a week from now. We'll look forward to your feedback and ideas...

Coming Soon: More Videos on Financial Responsibility

leelefever — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 15:54:14 +0000

Here's a question for you: Were you taught about financial responsibility when you were young?

The First Three

Finance is Boring - But Doesn't Have to Be.

For Whom?

We often have specific people in mind when working on videos like these. There are usually two audiences:

1. Learners - These are the people who need to learn about financial responsibility. They are students in classrooms and seminars, they are website visitors and employees.

Expect the first of the videos within a week from now. We'll look forward to your feedback and ideas...

Coming Soon: More Videos on Financial Responsibility

leelefever — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 15:54:14 +0000

Here's a question for you: Were you taught about financial responsibility when you were young?

The First Three

Finance is Boring - But Doesn't Have to Be.

For Whom?

We often have specific people in mind when working on videos like these. There are usually two audiences:

1. Learners - These are the people who need to learn about financial responsibility. They are students in classrooms and seminars, they are website visitors and employees.

Expect the first of the videos within a week from now. We'll look forward to your feedback and ideas...

A Model for Applying Common Craft Videos

leelefever — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 17:54:28 +0000

People often ask how our presentation quality videos are used in professional and educational settings. From talking to educators and influencers, we've learned that our videos are often used to introduce a subject - to get everyone on the same page at the beginning of a class, workshop, etc. Recently, as part of our planning for 2009, we came up with a model that helps tell this story. We call it the A-to-Z Scale.

The scale represents the path to learning a subject. On the left side are the basic, fundamental ideas. On the right, the details and applications of the ideas.

For example, let's consider the subject of biology. We might find topics like these at corresponding parts of the scale:

As you can see, the scale goes from big, fundamental ideas to specific details.

When we think about our videos and how they can be applied, we think about the scale and what parts of it represent the biggest opportunities for us to have a positive impact.

The Problem We See:

We believe that one of the real problems in explaining subjects is that people assume too much about what people already know. Their explanation doesn't account for people who are new to the ideas and have major knowledge gaps. They start in the middle of the scale:

When this happens, people feel lost. They don't have context for what is being taught or how the idea fits into the big picture. They're forced to build on an insufficient foundation.

Of course, this isn't surprising. If the explainer had to account for every knowledge gap, it would be difficult to move people down the scale. It takes valuable time to get everyone on the same page.

The Opportunity:

We believe that the left side of the scale has been neglected for too long. Educators and influencers don't have time to cover all the basics and they often lack quality resources. We've heard this many times "I used to spend hours trying to make sure everyone gets the big ideas, but now I just show them your video and everyone gets up to speed together."

This highlights how we see our videos fitting into the world. Our goal is to focus on the left side of the scale and ensure that viewers come away with the fundamental ideas that create a solid foundation for a subject. Educators and influencers can use the videos to introduce a subject and then spend their valuable time moving people down the scale.

A Caveat:

It may seem that we're orienting our videos around only fundamental ideas. This is not the case. The scale can be applied to almost any subject. For example, in terms of biology as a whole, the left side of the scale surely focuses on broad fundamentals. However, if we apply the scale to DNA gene mapping, our focus on the left side still applies. We would focus on the big ideas behind DNA gene mapping and leave the details to educators.

Use Case:

For example, let's consider a class on the subject of personal finance. It may be easy for the instructor to assume that everyone understands the basics of compound interest or annual percentage rates. Because it would take too long to get everyone up to speed, she chooses to spend time explaining more detailed ideas like buying a home and Insurance. She starts at about "K" on the scale.

People learn, but some in the class can't see the big picture because they have knowledge gaps regarding some of the basic ideas that create a foundation for understanding things like buying a home and insurance. They need a way to start learning at "A" instead of "K."

In the case above, Our Financial Basics Series, which is aimed at the left side of the scale, gives the instructor a fun and easy way to get the class on the same page and ensure that everyone can see the big picture. It helps her move quickly from A to K, so that her valuable time is spent on the details.

To Conclude:

In 2009 and beyond, our videos will be aimed at the left side of the scale. We want our videos to save educators and influencers valuable time by creating videos that fill basic knowledge gaps and get learners on the same page so that they can spend time where their time is most effective - on the right side of the scale.