Where the method
comes from.
I started my career doing a PhD in applied mathematics. Proofs, models, formal reasoning — I was trained to think in systems and to never say anything I couldn't justify. The upside: I learned how to structure a complex argument. The downside: I had no idea how to make anyone care about it.
After the PhD, something unexpected happened: I fell into improv theater. What started as a curiosity became a ten-year practice — performing, directing, teaching. Improv taught me everything the academic world hadn't: how to be present, how to listen, how to recover when things don't go to plan. Presence, I discovered, is not a personality trait. It's a set of skills you can learn.
Then came corporate consulting — real clients, real executives, real money on the table. I learned the Pyramid Principle. I learned that clarity is a form of respect. And I learned that the best communicators in the room weren't the loudest — they were the clearest.
UX design came next: the audience as a user. Their mental models matter. What they need to hear is not the same as what you want to say. I built this method because the training I was looking for didn't exist — and because I had been exactly where my participants are.
