Creating A Sensory Checklist For Socially Distant Work

How would you run an in-person business in a socially distant world? By studying the complete in-person experience and deciding what to keep in and leave out. We can think of it as creating a sensory checklist.

What’s it look like? How’s it smell? What’s it sound like? What about the touch and feel, up close and in the atmosphere? Taste (maybe)? A sensory checklist can help us take a 360-degree inventory of how and why we experience a product or service the way we do.

Whether it’s education in the classroom, on the mat in the yoga studio, or on the couch at the psychologist’s, a socially distant world means we have the opportunity to re-understand, re-imagine, and re-create our workspace. “The same thing but on Zoom” is far from the same thing. We might as well make it a great version of a different thing. What tech does our audience need? Speakers? Headphones? Lighting? How do we get it to them? What don’t they need? Can we design for delivery on an iPhone? Should we?

Getting the remote delivery of our work figured out now means when the world goes back to in-person, we’ll have an advantage. We want to polish our act now. On our way, we’ll also learn about new and varied cost structures for the delivery of our services. These aren’t just any options, they can be profitable options. Better opportunities at lower costs without the restriction of location is the Holy Grail here.

Being able to toggle between in-person and remote means learning to be competitive on multiple fronts. Now is the time to get good at this. Our customers are still adjusting and the lack of norms makes the environment more forgiving. Waiting means someone else will have the edge.

Sensory checklist? Check.