90 MINUTES TO SHITTIER MAPS
Taught by Joe Elemendorf
You're spending more time making things look right than figuring out if they are right. And the more polished it gets, the harder it becomes to change, even when you discover it's wrong.
Shitty Maps are quick visual expressions that help us understand. Instead of perfecting your explanation, you draw out your thinking - rough, incomplete, honest.
September 30th at 12:00 - 1:30 PM Eastern
Leave with permission to start before you're comfortable, and confidence to think out loud visually with others.
WHAT YOU'LL LEARN
In this 90-minute workshop, you'll learn the few but powerful rules of Shitty Mapping, hear stories of rough sketches that changed big decisions, practice drawing at the right level of terrible, and experience collaborative visual thinking with others.
WHAT YOU'LL BE ABLE TO DO
In just 90 minutes, you'll become the person who can:
- Walk into a meeting where everyone's talking past each other and within 5 minutes have something drawn that everyone can point to and say "yes, that's it"
- Take that project that's been stuck for weeks because no one can agree on what they're building and sketch out the thing that finally gets everyone aligned
- Be the one people come to when they need to clarify what they mean
- Turn those painful stakeholder meetings where everyone leaves confused into sessions where people actually understand each other
THE AGENDA:
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Why Shitty Maps Matter Now - Why this is the most important thing you can start doing.
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The Rules - What makes Shitty Mapping work.
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Stories of Impact - Real examples of rough sketches that changed big decisions and saved months of work
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Drawing Practice - Establish the right level of terrible and break perfectionism quickly
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Paired Practice - Experience collaborative visual thinking with another participant
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Group Reflection - Process what you experienced and how to apply it
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Closing Inspiration - Permission and confidence to start using this tomorrow
WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY "SHITTY" MAP?
A rough notecard sketch allowed a workshop creator to test their loose concept with peers, inviting specific questions about activities and leading to two critical additions to the final design.
This quick sketch helped business partners use an analogy to describe relationships between service components. The card became a recurring reference point—"you know, this thing"—when they needed shared language for complex concepts.
When everything felt related but distinct, this map helped pull apart a mess of ideas to identify what were actually three different but connected concepts. Progress on one piece could finally happen without disturbing the others.
This map helped research partners align on their tree test program structure, serving as both a scoping tool and prototype visual that evolved into client-ready materials. What felt like alignment in conversation became actual alignment on paper.
JOIN LIVE ON SEPTEMBER 30th
Shitty Maps
In this 90-minute workshop, you'll learn the few but powerful rules of Shitty Mapping, hear stories of rough sketches that changed big decisions, practice drawing at the right level of terrible, and experience collaborative visual thinking with others.
MEET YOUR GUIDE
JOE ELMENDORF
I help leaders turn complex ideas into visual clarity their teams can execute confidently.
Joe Elmendorf is the creator of Shitty Maps, a breakthrough methodology for getting unstuck through imperfect visual thinking. After 15+ years helping teams at REI Co-op, University of Michigan, and Herman Miller move from confusion to clarity, Joe discovered that the fastest path to alignment isn't perfect presentations—it's rough sketches that invite honest conversation.
As a former VP of Consulting and founder of his own practice, Joe has guided countless teams through the messy middle of bringing ideas to life. He developed the Clear Models Framework, teaches at UW-Milwaukee, and has presented his visual thinking approaches at conferences across North America and Europe. Joe believes the courage to draw badly is the key to thinking clearly together.
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