What we can learn from the intelligence community.

The difference between puzzles & mysteries

The answer exists, you just have to find it

PUZZLES

Mission Impossible © 1996. Paramount Home Entertainment. All rights reserved

MYSTERIES

Don't have clear answers even though all the information may be available

The Hurt Locker © 2008. LIONSGATE Home Entertainment. All rights reserved

TASK COMPLETION

With user testing it is quantifiable, measurable and predictable

Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring © 2002. Entertainment in Video. All rights reserved

EXPERIENCES

Interrelated elements where changes can be unpredictable

TRON – Legacy © 2010. Walt Disney Studios Entertainment. All rights reserved

MY FRUSTRATION

I was trying looking for a definitive, predictable answer over and over again

Groundhog Day © 1993. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. All rights reserved

DEATH BY DATA

Hard to understand what’s going on

The Matrix © 1999. Warner Home Entertainment. All rights reserved

SOME ADVICE

Identify the puzzles within a mystery and solve them separately

Sherlock Holmes© 2009. Warner Home Entertainment. All rights reserved

DON’T PLAY WHACK A MOLE

Recognise when solving one

problem or being better

at one thing won’t help

Happy Gilmore © 1996. UCA. All rights reserved

EXPERIMENT

Use radical A/B testing to learn before committing

Weird Science © 1985. UCA. All rights reserved

Use segmentation, statistical theory, data visualisations and analytical

models to clarify meaning

THERE ARE SOLUTIONS

Wall Street – Money Never Sleeps © 2010. 20th Century Fox. All rights reserved

REFERENCES

Risks & riddles. By Gregory F. Treverton, Smithsonian magazine, June 2007

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/presence_puzzle.html#ixzz1CPqCGaa7

Open secrets. Malcolm Gladwell, The New Yorker, January 2007

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/01/08/070108fa_fact

About Me

Lucy Spence

LOVEFiLM, Head of Product (Acquisition & Retention)

Twitter: @lucyjspence