PlannovationPlanning data & tools that don't suck

Today, I sat down to write a thank you note to a recent customer.  But all of my rough drafts thank you notes kept reading as like marketing brochures.  I wrote things like: “I really appreciate your purchase of a Cubit Planning report.”  Uggggh!

Frustrated with my inability to speak like a human, I went online to look for inspirational thank you note language.  What I found was even worse: “Thank you for choosing to use my service.”

In desperation that this simple task was taking way too long, I pretended that a friend of mine who I used to work with had made a purchase.  I pictured my friend in my head, and this is what I wrote to her.

Terri,
Thank you for buying a Socio-Ec Report for Project Name.  I hope that this project is a successful one for you and the rest of your team.

Cheers!

Kristen

Now that is exactly what I meant to say 30 minutes ago.

My co-founder once described my writing as having the density of a dictionary but with none of the brevity.  In my defense, my previous job was to write and review technical documents.

But lately, I have been reading Paul Graham, Jason Fried and the master of get-to-the-point, Seth Godin.  Yesterday, I started on a 2,500 word article for the American Planning Association’s Planning magazine.  And I noticed that my writing has lost some of its density and now uses bullet points and questions.

I figured starting a business would change how I eat and sleep.  But I didn’t occur to me that it would change how I write.