As I wrote the other day, I have joined XPLANE as a full time consultant.  I want to thank everyone who has reached out to me to offer me their congratulations and support.  I also want to answer several of the questions I've received, and figured it was far easier to do in a blog post.  So here goes:

WHAT IS XPLANE?  XPLANE (Wikipedia Entry) is one of the pioneers in Visual Thinking, which is the process of distilling complex processes and concepts into easy-to-understand and visually striking XPLANATIONS.  In short, XPLANE helps companies improve their business communication.  XPLANE has offices in St. Louis, Portland and Madrid.

WHY XPLANE? Since I returned to St. Louis over a year ago, I have been spending many of my Thursday afternoons at XPLANE's Visual Thinking School, a weekly design and thinking exercise conducted primarily for internal XPLANE personnel.  I was invited by XPLANE CEO Dave Gray to attend, and found myself intrigued by the way XPLANE used drawing and visuals to communicate complex business processes.  At the same time, XPLANE folks started coming to my Idea Markets, where I began to incorporate many visual thinking and drawing exercises and found it startling how much more effective a little "out of comfort zone" drawing could be than simply a verbal-based exercise.  After several months of VTS, Dave asked me why I didn't work for XPLANE.  Surprised by the question, I began to consider it.  Six months later, and after a trip to visit the Portland office, I'm here.

WHAT WILL I DO?  My official title is "Consultant," though that really doesn't describe what I'll be doing.  Part of XPLANE's unique process is pairing up a consultant/facilitator (me) with an artist/concept designer (the people with real talent), and going to a client's office for a day-long discovery session.  Instead of taking written notes, the artist will actually use live drawing to help visualize the client's story, audience, goals and needs.  By combining this live-sketching with a number of brainstorming and drawing, XPLANE is able to elicit a far more complete picture (literally!) of what the client wants to communicate.  Here's an overview of the process.

My role is to be the consultant/facilitator in the client sessions.  In addition, I will work within XPLANE to expand the consulting practice and further develop the  process for multiple client scenarios -- not just those that need an XPLANE "product" delivered at the end of the engagement.  Finally, I am going to work on a "visual thinking module" that will bring the benefits of visual thinking to workshops, conferences and retreats. 

In short, I get to do the same kinds of things I was doing before, but within a really cool organization, with amazingly talented people, and for much larger clients.

XPLANE will also begin to sponsor the Idea Markets.  More on that soon.

WHAT ABOUT THIS BLOG?  I will keep the [non]billable hour going.  I am working on a redesign, and you will see some cool new things in the next 90 days. I am also going to be re-purposing much of the older content in ways to make it more accessible to newer readers.

WHAT ABOUT LEXTHINK?  Dennis, JoAnna and I will be having a sit down soon to figure out what's next.  We have too many cool things planned for LexThink to let it go.  Stay tuned.

WHAT ELSE?  If you have any more questions, shoot me an email at homann@gmail.com or mhomann@xplane.com, and I'd be happy to answer them.  I am so excited to be working for XPLANE.  I have spent most of my working life as an entrepreneur, and to find an employer where the entrepreneurial spirit is part of the fabric of the organization is really cool.  Thanks for all your support!

Matt