Getting the story

I discovered recently that the story that I believed to be accurate about a particular project was not exactly wrong, but not exactly the real story, either. What appeared (quite plausibly) to be primarily a sustainability story turned out to be all about the community that the client has attracted from its earliest days - not unlike the following that Saturn has among its devoted customers (but with a lot less heartache along the way). It made me realize that there's a kind of "urban legend" quality to project stories, especially if a lot of different people have touched them. It's a reason to get the original team to tell it - and document the telling. Especially when work is pouring in, that doesn't always happen. Fortunately, the lead designer saw it and commented on it. Even the client, reviewing an earlier version, addressed it in its own skewed terms instead of just saying, "Actually, we had something else in mind here."