Back in 2009, as I was interviewing people for my book, Merchants of Virtue, I discovered that designing and developing a new book has a lot in common with designing and developing a new chair.

Who would have thought?

In one of my interviews, I talked with Tom Niergarth, head of New Product Commercialization at Herman Miller, Inc., the company featured in the book. Tom told me that Herman Miller engineers demonstrate completion of development milestones with documents called “deliverables.” Only the delivery of specified documents constitutes accomplishment of a milestone. A lot of time, effort, and activity do not count. No document, no accomplishment, no pats on the back.

The deliverables approach is remarkably similar to the “paper trail” I recommend for books. Each document in the paper trail marks the finish of a developmental milestone: message, title inventory, book précis, table of contents, competing books log, and so on. This is the process part of the “creative process.”

Speaking of which, I have since realized I have long emphasized the wrong thing when I have talked with authors about the creative process. I always put the emphasis on “creative,” not on “process.” I had it backwards. The emphasis should fall on “process.”

That’s because clarity in process requires clarity in thinking.  Clarity in thinking yields clarity in product.  That’s just as true for nonfiction book development as for developing new furniture.

That’s not to diminish the value of creativity. If you’re an author, you need to be both a creative person and a process person. That’s partly because creativity is not fully controllable. Process largely is. When the going gets tough, a process that controls our creativity is something we all need.

[Revised January 2020. Originally published September 19, 2011]