MessageDeck
🤖 Help your technical team be a little more … human
🚀 Accelerate how your agency supports clients
🤓 Just be a nerd that talks good
It’s sort of like tarot, but for messaging
About the MessageDeck
Used as part of a strategy session or in a facilitated workshop, the MessageDeck cards make developing marketing and communications messaging easy and fun for teams and individuals.
- Open participants to sharing their human stories,
- Develops alignment and consensus among your team.
- Avoids the “loudest voice wins” problem of most discovery sessions
How does the deck work?
Each card contains helpful prompts and guidance for developing messaging that aligns with the MessageSpecs Clarity Framework model.
All workshop participants are dealt a series of cards and asked to provide an authentic response on the reverse side.
These may solicit answers on things like…(hover to see the cards)
Big Ideas
The big emotional or visionary themes that define what you stand for and grab attention at first encounter.
Stories
Relatable narratives that connect your message to human experiences and build emotional and logical bridges.
Values
Clear benefits and outcomes that answer “What’s in it for me?” for your audience.
Mantras
Cultural truths or repeatable phrases that reflect your identity or shared beliefs with your audience.
Proof Points
Evidence like data, testimonials, or endorsements that build trust and credibility.
Technicals
The detailed, factual explanations of how your tech or solution works.
… and much more!
The core deck alone has 100 cards of prompts for your team or clients — with specialty industry expansion packs for SaaS solutions, cybersecurity SMEs, talent acquisition and retention, and more.
Facilitators then throw out Focus Cards that force participants to refine or reconsider their answers. Cards like:
When everything is out of your head and onto the table, the cards are culled and clustered by theme and core messaging, resulting in a truly authentic and group-created messaging framework — without the hazards of groupthink.
As I told Joel when I was on-site at the Cybermarketing Conference, his talk was the first one I watched – I flew a day earlier to make sure I could catch it! – and if I had left the conference then and there, it would have already been worth it! (Of course, the rest of the conference was great! 🙂 )
I particularly appreciated how well he articulated issues of Emotion, Logic, and Trust across the different stages of the customer’s journey and prompted us with questions that align to those topics. Across all this, he did it in a very energetic, humorous, and enjoyable way.
Major kudos to him for the session, and the body of work behind it.
“Ya’ll, go grab Joel’s MessageDeck. He’s a freaking wizard who can help turn your messaging from a hot mess sh*t show into brilliant copy that converts.”
“So cool! Pure gold. I’ve used it myself already. It really helped me think about Category design.”
“EVERYONE should take advantage of this. Your stuff is killer, dude.”
“Some ‘messaging’ exercises can feel routine, and uninspired – the MessageDeck sparked more creative conversations. Even after the MessageDeck crash course, I left feeling empowered to tweak some of my messaging.”
But why does it work so well?
When you’re in a typical strategy session, the person with the biggest mouth (and strongest opinions) is often the one whose perspective is heard.
Plus, our brains can only hold six or seven thoughts at the same time (and with social media and a “quick-hit, dopamine, instant gratification” world, sometimes fewer).
MessageDeck lets your full team’s perspective be captured and laid out on the table, so the brilliance can be discovered.
How about a workshop?
Bring your entire team together for an engaging half-day workshop, on-site or virtual, that will strengthen your messaging. Reserve your workshop below and schedule a discovery and planning session.
About Joel
Who the heck is this guy? That’s a good question! Hi, I’m Joel, and I’ve been working with technical communicators, startup founders, and leading companies to discover and refine their messaging for over 25 years. I’ve used my background in theater, education, and video games throughout my career to tease out the stories that stick in the minds of audiences and compel them to action.
For more about me, click here.