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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…
Big Ideas
Value Statements
Tech Details
… 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.
“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.”
Mariana Padilla, CEO and Founder
“So cool! Pure gold. I’ve used it myself already. It really helped me think about Category design.”
Nick Kellett, Founder
“EVERYONE should take advantage of this. Your stuff is killer, dude.”
Zach Messler, Product Marketing Advisor and Mentor
“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.”
Tasha Cornish, Executive Director
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?
I’ll be announcing a series of early-access workshops for an exclusive set of hand-selected teams (perfect for founders and small tech teams).
To get on the shortlist, or to get more information about MessageSpecs Workshops, register below.
The MessageDeck story
I figured if I could create a card game (or “tabletop facilitation and training tool,” if you will) to assist CISOs and other infosec executives in communicating their cyber risks (which I did), doing the same for marketing should be just as easy.
It’s been five years since the original Risk Deck, and I’m proud to announce the MessageDeck — a workshop system of over 200 cards (and growing) with prompts and techniques to help your team get to the bottom of your first-principles messaging and begin nailing your marketing.
Here’s a sneak preview of the first prototypes:
The MessageDeck is in full production and you can get your own here!
About me
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.