Adjustments are a part of reality.

• As we move towards our goals, things change and new insights become available.
• As a sensemaker, the most important skill you can learn is to adjust your course to accommodate new forces as you encounter them on your journey.
• Don't seek finalization. Trying to make something that will never change can be super frustrating.
• Taking in feedback from other people and continuously refining the pieces as well as the whole is what assures that something is "good."
• Don't procrastinate. Messes only grow with time. Perfection isn't possible, but progress is.

The sum is greater than its parts.

• We need to understand the sum of a lot of pieces to make sense of what we have.
• For example, let's say we're working on bringing a product to the market. To support this process, we might create:
• A hierarchical diagram of how the product is structured and labeled for usersA flow diagram of the sequence users experience in the productA lexicon of terms the product will use, vetted to make sense to our audience
• These are all important pieces individually, but we need to look at them together to answer questions about the whole such as:
• What will users experience?Who will work on what, why, and with whom?When will things be released and how?How will things change over time?

It's easy to reach agreement alone.

• Maybe you're working on a project independently and you're the only stakeholder and user.
• In that scenario, making maps and diagrams alone at your desk is not practicing information architecture.
• Your whole team should be able to influence and react to your tools and methods. You should be making prototypes to get feedback from users on language and structure.
• When you see the world through the eyes of other people, you can spot weaknesses and opportunities for improvement.

Discuss it until it's clear.

• Learning to work with others while they're experiencing these not-so-pleasant realities is the hardest part of making sense of a mess.
• To get through the tension, try to understand other people's positions and perceptions: