Susan Warren's [ v ] Blog

A picture says 1000 words (and saves a dozen meetings)

A "straw man" is simply a hastily-assembled approximation of a deliverable, and an incredibly effective tool for driving fast group decision making.  It will be wrong in many of the details, but it gives the folks in the room something to correct or elaborate upon and sidesteps the "blank sheet syndrome" where many design meetings fail to get down to specifics.

Tips for producing an effective straw man:

1. No straw men on the first date!  Spend some time listening to the client (or the team) before offering up a straw man.  There needs to be some open-ended discussion around the problems you are trying to address before you start to pencil out solutions. 
2. Put the straw man in the most informal format that will work for your discussion.  If you are trying to get to a list of requirements, for example, a list in email is perfectly acceptable
3. Assign the task of authoring the straw man to just one person.  As soon as you make it a team effort, you lose the efficiency gains of using a straw man.
4. When it's your turn to write the straw man, think about the decisions you'd like the group to make by the end of the meeting and make those the target of your strawman.   
5. Don't spend so much time on your strawman that folks are discouraged from are encouraged to pitch in and make it better.

Tips for presenting a straw man:

1. Before you present your strawman, clearly state that it's just an example meant to stimulate conversation.
2. If the strawman fails to stimulate the right discussion, set it aside.  It's just a tool, and sometimes you discover you really want the pliers instead of the screwdriver. 
3. Listen carefully to feedback and write it all down.  After the meeting you may choose to polish the strawman into a more permanent document, or capture the decisions elsewhere.