It is idea generation, innovation and, most of all, hard work.

Many entrepreneurs I know – whether they’re self-employed or hired in specific innovation roles for leading companies – find the toughest and most rewarding part, execution.

Here are three pieces of advice to help you overcome challenges and fast-track your ideas to execution.

1. Entrepreneurship, Mindset & ‘The Learning Loop’

Execution is where we face our biggest fears – will the idea work, will customers like it, what if it doesn’t succeed?

It’s important we recognise that this is a natural part of the process. If we don’t go through this, we cannot learn.

This is why the best entrepreneurs I know treat execution very differently.

They switch their mindset. They take on the perspective that every time an idea doesn’t work, it isn’t ‘failure’, it’s ‘learning’. And we must go through learning in order to make our ideas stand out in the world.

This learning loop is the secret of success for some of the world’s business leaders.

Ray Dalio, leader of one of the most successful financial institutions in the world,Bridgewater, went through many obstacles and major challenges to become successful and at every step of his journey, leveraged this learning loop.[1]

2. Understand The Creative Cycle of Innovation

In 1926 Graham Wallas, a social psychologist and co-founder of the London School of Economics, shared a model on creativity that explains how ideas move through different stages toward execution.[2]

The model outlines four stages of the creative process.

• Preparation: when we’re working on an idea, this requires us to gather and sift through information, as part of our preparation activities.
• Incubation: as the name of this stage suggests, this is where our conscious and unconscious sorts through information in order to weaken lose threads, strengthen ties of our central ideas, and identify innovative concepts.
• Illumination: in this stage we become aware of the connections of our ideas. What seemed disconnected, starts to form an order that makes sense to us.
• Verification: verification is the stage where, having realized and given shape to an idea, we communicate it to others to validate it.

This model has largely held up until this day, though subsequent studies have elaborated upon each of its phases.

The first two stages are where ideas come easy. It’s not unusual to wind up with hundreds of ideas. Our minds are alight with possibility and it’s an incredibly exciting process.

When we shift to illumination and verification, this is when we start to get into the execution of ideas.

At these stages, we have to treat ideas differently, because suddenly they will require many more processes if we’re to illuminate and verify them – concepting, prototyping, testing with customers, and investing in their development.

Because of all this effort, it’s not possible to work with all the ideas we held at the previous stages of preparation and incubation.

We need to filter and prioritize our ideas, so that we take only a handful through to the next stages, so they have the best access to our resources. If we take too many ideas through to the final stages, we split our focus, and it becomes harder to thoroughly test ideas.

James Dyson is renowned for taking 15 years and 5,127 prototypes before he launched the first cyclone technology design. While he worked on many prototypes, he never lost sight of the one central idea that drove his entire process – the bagless vacuum cleaner.

Entrepreneurs who take too many ideas through to verification may often find themselves overwhelmed by the competing demands of testing many ideas or in a constant state of juggling resources. Prioritizing which ideas will go through to verification and commence their execution journey is a good way to overcome this.

3. Prioritize & Filter What We Take To Execution

When we’re dealing with hundreds of ideas, we need a way to filter and prioritize what we’ll take through to execution.

Many companies have different methods to do this, including:

• Rank & Rate: Some put all ideas into a spreadsheet and rank ideas according to different lenses. For example, having a lens of ‘market growth potential’ and ranking the idea from 1 to 10. Usually, teams doing this work target five to seven lenses and no more (or the system becomes too complex).  Only the ideas with the highest scores go through to subsequent stages.
• Expert Panel: Other companies might use a panel of experts, and use this panel to rank and rate ideas, before they go through to execution. The panel of experts acts like a ‘shark tank’ for new ideas. But with this, even experts cannot always spot what will be a success.
• Lite Market Testing: Some teams use a ‘lite’ method to rapidly market-test ideas as part of their prioritization process. Without going to a full prototype, for example, they might use online surveys to test initial concepts, as a way to filter out weaker ideas.
• Forced Constraints: Another method is  to apply a ‘forced constraint’ to make sure that resources aren’t over-expended on too many ideas. This constraint might involve “only allowing three ideas to be tested at one time”. Until an idea exits the verification process, the team simply does not look at any other idea.
• Internal Critiques: every company has access to their own in-house expertise. We can tap into this experience, by running internal critique sessions to examine, refine and eject ideas, before they go to execution. Apple’s Industrial Design Group for some time has used a pattern of workshopping and critiquing ideas amongst the sixteen or so designers that form part of this group.[3]

Whichever the method, the most important thing is to ‘narrow the field’ of ideas that will proceed through to execution. The goal is to avoid over-stretching ourselves by having too many ideas to execute (or illuminate and verify) and the best way to do this is to only allow a handful to go through to execution.

What are the methods your team uses to work through entrepreneurial ideas?  You might consider leaving a comment below so others can learn from your perspective.

—

References

1. Principles, Ray Dalio
2. The Art of Thought (1926), Graham Wallas.
3. Chapter 7, Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products, Leander Kahney

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I’ve worked in teams of five- to launch new digital products; as well as teams of hundreds- to create user experiences with advanced software and platforms. Regardless of the scale of work, many of the concepts of digital strategy described in this article, still applied.

My advice in this article is based on three things: 1) what I learnt during a post-graduate degree in strategy and innovation, 2) what myself and teams applied- based on challenges and opportunities across industries, 3) what worked best from foundations 1 and 2.

Here is how I would distill these learnings:

1. Gather Inputs for your Digital Strategy

Information is everywhere, so gather it. No matter how big or small, however shallow or deep, find information and capture it somewhere. Ideally on a wall, so it can be quickly visualised, as you will then be able to see =just how much information is available. At this stage, don’t be concerned about what the information is telling you…. this stage is just about identifying the ‘data points’.

2. Understand The Current Company Context

When we’re creating a digital strategy, there’s little point developing it within a vacuum. Understanding the target company we’re creating it for is essential.

I’ve seen many excellent digital strategies stall because they were focused on the wrong stage for the company. For example, a company may need get the basics right before moving onto innovation. I’ve also seen strategies with very sound plans fail because they were not innovative enough to challenge and outpace the competition.

Thus it is important to understanding the company’s context. Just like a coach is able to boost performance by pitching their coaching at the level of shape their athlete is in.

3. Map Macro & Micro Trends

Micro trends are those that have a duration of 3 to 5 years, whereas macro trends are longer lasting.

These trends are like water currents flowing through industries. We all know when we’re swimming in currents, it’s far easier to go with them, than against them.

Google succeeded because it spotted issues with its advertising algorithm early on; it responded to a micro-trend in the form of better understanding of internet advertising, within a macro-trend of the rise of the internet and search engines.

Any digital strategy needs to be informed by both the micro and macro trends, that will pull and push an industry, creating prevailing conditions for years ahead.

Within the area of trends, when it comes to digital strategy in particular, I also recommend attention to these three forces:

1. Identify existing customer needs, shifting needs and emerging behaviours
2. Understand emerging and prevalent technologies that will shape the industry’s future over the next five years
3. Analyse the competition, not just for direct competitors but also new entrants that could foreseeably compete in your company’s market

Digital technology is moving so quickly with such disruptive power, such that the above three forces have special importance relative to other trends.

As examples, MySpace came unstuck because it missed the shifting customer behaviours toward private social networks. Facebook acted well to purchase Whats App when it realised instant messaging was emerging as a new technological trend. Uber and Lyft have been embattled as they seek to understand one another’s every move in a competition that is vying for the global marketplace.

4. Deeply Interpret & Analyse The Data

Having built up your data points and understood the prevailing trends, now is the time to interpret and analyse this data. This requires deep thought.

During this stage, ask questions like:

• Questions About the ‘Now’
  • What does this data tell us?
  • What are the opportunities and challenges that are present today?
  • What are the deeper truths of this information?
  • Where are our major revenue / profit centres for digital?  How are these revenue sources changing?
• Questions About What ‘Could Be’
  • Where will action create further growth / revenue / profit?
  • Is there anything we can do to magnify returns?
  • Are there any areas where we are particularly weak / compromised / threatened? Without action, do these areas pose further risk?
  • Most importantly, ask lots of ‘If This, Then That’ questions. For example:
    – If trend A, B and C happened at once, more quickly than we thought, what might we do?
    – If Competitor B entered this market faster than we anticipated, what would we do?
    – If we leveraged this major technology trend, seriously investing in it and it succeeded, what might that mean for our business?

What we’re really doing at this step is building out our assumption base about the future. What we don’t often realise is that we can develop this assumption base through either real experiences or hypothesized scenarios.

This is why surgeons do mock surgeries to advance their skills and why pilots spend many hours in simulators in addition to actual flying time. Study after study tells us, that the process of scenario-based thinking and imagining alternate circumstances, can actually improve the way we’ll respond in real-life situations.

You’ll be surprised how useful this becomes, not just for the act of writing the strategy, but building out what pilots call ‘situational awareness’ for all future possibilities.

5. Clarify Your Major Themes For The Next 2 to 3 Years

With all this information, now is the time to clarify your major strategic themes for the next 18 months to 3 years. Anything longer is too far out. While longer timeframes will be useful for context, most digital plans have a shelf-life of 6 to 18 months in terms of practical planning.

Ideally, you would have five major themes for your strategic priorities, and at most seven.

When Steve Jobs was re-appointed interim CEO of Apple in 1997, one of the first things he did was simplify its strategy. Over the course of the next period, he would reduce the company’s products from 350 to ten core products, announce a direct-to-consumer sales model and also invest in Apple’s re-invigorated computing offering, the iMac. These clear priorities allowed Apple to do something few other Silicon Valley companies have been able to do – disrupt itself – and set the pathway for iPod, iPhone and iPad. An incredible amount of focus, through well articulated priorities, spearheaded this strategy.

Simple examples of digital strategies and priorities might be:

• Double online conversion within 12 months
• Increase self-service by 3x
• Grow registrations by 20%
• Create a pipeline of work based on 100% customer-validated ideas
• Consolidate all digital assets into one major platform
• Create a tiered pricing model for our subscription service

Whatever your priorities, take time to consider which are the most important and articulate them clearly.

6. Define Your Objectives, Priorities and Actions

From your strategies, you can now plan your actions and tactics. These will be the ideas that will bring your major themes and priorities to fruition.

When defining actions it’s important to know:

• what the action will provide to the company and its customers
• how the action will fulfil the strategy
• what uplift (conversion, signups, revenue, etc) the action will realise
• what the action will cost (a rough cost at this stage is okay)
• when (ideally) the tactic will be released to market
• In what sequence will the tactics best be fulfilled (some tactics may be better placed than others, to set the foundation for future tactics)

Once you have this, you can sequence these priorities into a roadmap.

‘Levelling’ of tactics will be important. The digital strategy would ideally clarify major themes and potential priorities, but also needs to leave space for teams to autonomously decide how they will fulfil these tactics.  If the level of the tactic is too low, it may encroach on the planning domains of small teams.  So the priority needs to be high enough to inform the work of teams, and not so low that it duplicates it.

If there’s one thing that frustrates digital people, it’s being told the solution, rather than the objective or problem to be solved. Digital teams are so often incredibly creative, hardworking and highly specialised; by sharing the digital strategy with these teams and asking for their help to bring it to a reality, it’s incredible what can be accomplished.

7. Review The Strategy Regularly

Remember, the strategy is a living and breathing tool. It requires attention if it is to grow.

While many companies return to their strategy every year, I’ve found the best success is to make it part of regular meetings, so teams are reflecting on it at least every month (but ideally even more often than that). The digital strategy can also complement any planning methods already part of your organisation, such as Objectives & Key Results, which may be part of a quarterly planning framework.

By applying these steps you will think like a strategist. I hope these seven activities are of help- and I wish you the very best with your digital strategy.

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When many companies go to write these statements, people can become distracted by the definition of a mission vs a vision statement, which takes time away from writing the actual statements.

Definitions are important so it’s natural we argue about them – after all, in just a few short words a mission or vision will direct the future direction of a company.

A great place to start is to look at examples how many companies have actually written their mission statements.  Beyond these examples, it’s also important to think more deeply about the definitions and differences of mission statements vs vision statements.

This is how I define these terms…

Chances are you will not find these definitions in any text book. In my research I found it difficult to find a clear sentence outlining each one.  So these definitions are based on my own research, previous studies in strategy and experiences working with different organisations.

The trouble with many other definitions, is that they’re not specific enough to show the exclusivity of these two terms.  And it’s important to have a degree of exclusivity, so we can understand which of these statements are best suited to which purpose.

We can highlight the difference between mission and vision with a simple metaphor.

A helpful metaphor

Let’s say I wanted to climb mount Everest.

My vision is to ‘stand at the top of Everest looking out over the Himalayas on a clear day, knowing that I had just climbed to the summit’.  This provides a very strong mental picture of the vision for the journey I want to take.

Now let’s say I wasn’t going to Everest for another year.

My mission might be to “prepare myself in all senses to ensure that my path to the top of the mountain was as safe and enjoyable as possible”.  Here, ‘in all senses’ could relate to how I get ready physically and mentally, including sourcing the right equipment and team.

Here, both the vision and the mission are involved in the path to achieving my goal.  At the same time, both give me quite different points of focus.

Taking a deeper look

A useful way to think about the differences between mission and vision statements is to compare them along a variety of dimensions.  This simple table summarises some major points of comparison.

Examples How Leading Companies Use Mission Statements and Vision Statements

These four companies use these statements in different ways.  I’ve included some commentary for each example, which references some of the definitions we used earlier in this article.

Disney

Mission Statement: “To be one of the world’s leading producers and providers of entertainment and information. Using our portfolio of brands to differentiate our content, services and consumer products, we seek to develop the most creative, innovative and profitable entertainment experiences and related products in the world.”

Vision Statement: “To be one of the world’s leading producers and providers of entertainment and information.”

Commentary: In Disney’s case, the mission statement provides a clear statement of purpose, including how the company will differentiate itself from the competition.  While this mission statement is longer than many others, it serves its purpose.

In my opinion, the vision statement is the weaker of the two statements, and could be made more specific to the company and its enduring purpose. 

For example, this vision doesn’t provide a clear or inspirational picture of the purpose that it is trying to create, other than to be ‘leading’, or how Disney’s vision is unique to the company or differentiated from competitors.

Reebok

Vision Statement: “We envision a future where humans return to their roots. A future where we recognize that each of us is a living, breathing, walking, talking, running, climbing, jumping, laughing, caring miracle—a miracle that happens only once.

Through tough fitness, we will push each other to honor the body we’ve been given, because we have only one body to honor. We will endure sweat, tears and even a bit of blood. We will flip tires, sprint hills, and do push-ups until we can’t do them any longer.  Why do we do this? We certainly aren’t flipping tires to be better tire flippers. We’re doing it to be better, period. Better leaders; better parents; better stronger, more determined humans—capable of anything. We do it to honor our bodies and sharpen our minds—to be more human.”

Commentary: Reebok’s vision statement provides a clear picture of a preferred future.  In a world overwhelmed by continuous change, Reebok reminds us of our enduring purpose – “to be more human”.  Both a call to arms and a return to the simple pleasure of hard training, this reminds us the journey is not just about being athletic, it’s about being better people in every walk of our lives.  

Nasa

Vision Statement: “We reach for new heights and reveal the unknown for the benefit of humankind.”

Mission Statement: “Drive advances in science, technology, aeronautics, and space exploration to enhance knowledge, education, innovation, economic vitality and stewardship of Earth.”

Commentary: Nasa’s vision identifies two eternal tasks which are likely to endure beyond any human life – ‘revealing the unknown’ and ‘benefit of human kind’.  The mission articles the domains of present exploration (science, technology, etc) and the benefactors of this research (education, innovation, etc).

Nike

Mission Statement: “To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete* in the world.”
*If you have a body, you are an athlete.

Commentary: In contrast to Reebok, it’s difficult to find a vision statement for Nike.  Instead Nike’s mission statement is well documented and referenced. In this simple statement Nike defines its purpose (inspiration and innovation) as well as target market (every athlete). 

It is deceptively simple and yet at the same time is true to Nike’s purpose and provides enormous latitude for current and future activities.

Should you use Mission or Vision Statement?

The definitions and comparisons above will help you target the type of statement you would like to create for your organisation.

I’ve noticed many organisations will only write one statement, and sometimes this statement will be a hybrid of both mission and vision.  So which one should you choose?

Generally, I would say a single statement is better than no statement at all, because it will give a company a common goal.  This is important in aligning all aspects of an organisation – its people, its resources, its priorities.

I do feel two separate statements around mission and vision, that follow the guidelines above, will be even more powerful.  But if you have to select one, I would say that a mission statement tends to be the most pervasive choice among organisations.

Using Google Insights for Search, I took a sample of search patterns over the last 5 years for mission and vision statements.  I was surprised to find that companies look far more often for ‘mission statement’ compared to ‘vision statement’.

One theory why this occurs is that organisations are more comfortable planning for the ‘here and now’, instead of the future, and this is reflected in search patterns.  The term ‘mission statement’ may also be more popular in business language than ‘vision statement’. As a result, we could assume that if an organisation writes a single statement, it will likely reference it as a ‘mission statement’.

I hope you’ve found this information useful for yourself and your organisation.  You may also wish to take a look at my post 7 Rules of a Vision Statement That Lasts.  If you did find this useful, please consider sharing your own experiences by adding a comment.

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But we don’t have to be frustrated by this question. I’m just happy when people ask.

That’s because there’s a bigger risk when we think that CX and UX are the same thing.

They are related, but they’re also very different.  And both are highly relevant to helping companies compete in the experience economy.

Unfortunately ‘digital’ as a specialisation has not been kind when it comes to buzz words. When we talk about things that sound the same – like User Interface and User Interaction and User Experience – it’s easy to see why our specialisation is confusing to many people. Likewise, it’s no wonder customer experience and user experience are often intertwined.

In this post I share my perspective on how CX and UX fit together. These principles are not set in stone….rather they’re intended as a guide to help clarify these concepts and avoid confusion.

How to Define Customer Experience and User Experience

Customer Experience is an umbrella concept encompassing all channels and all products and how people feel and place value on experiences (broad or narrow) with a brand.  It involves a broad concept of experience, where CX “encompasses the sum of all interactions between an organisation and a customer over the entire relationship”.¹

User Experience refers to a “person’s emotions and attitudes about using a particular product, system or service”.² The term became more widely used in the 90s but has origins that stem from the machine-age.

While User Experience can relate to physical products, it is most commonly aligned with computers and, even more recently, the development of interfaces that have emerged via websites, smartphones and mobile apps. As a result, User Experience is (in the majority) focused on digital experiences and is concerned with the question ‘how can the end user achieve their goals’.  It’s worth taking a look at Peter Morville’s seven perspectives of user experience that can help explore and validate product design.

The practice of User Experience supports a brand to design digital journeys that solve the “right problem for the end consumer in an efficient and enjoyable manner.”³

Okay, But What Are The Practical Distinctions?

If we stick with the definitions only, we risk missing the distinctions between CX and UX. So here I’ve considered CX and UX across a variety of dimensions.

Now these are generalisations, so please don’t be upset with me if these are not 100% accurate. Generalisations are useful, but they do not always capture the full reality. I recommend a soft focus when we consider these to help us spot the larger differences between CX and UX:

A Working Example….

While CX and UX can be pursued as seperate activities, better value is achieved when they’re used together.

Let’s consider an example.

Several years ago I worked with a team to design a new mobile app. We used CX to conduct high level data gathering about what might be important to people when using this future service, which interactions these customers performed frequently, how a new service could help them with these behaviours, whether they would use the new service when at home, the office or on the go. (For interest, Designing CX has some excellent resources for CX journey mapping.)

We also explored with customers whether they would place value in a mobile app and what features they would expect to see within an app. We used this information to develop some broad concepts of what the mobile app might do, and then explored through focus groups how these concepts could fit into peoples’ lives. I would consider all of this work to be Customer Experience.

When we shortlisted features for the app, we developed paper wireframes for the app’s main screens as well as some typical tasks we might expect users to do (like ‘register for an account’). We used these paper wireframes to run one-on-one user research sessions with customers, the input from which we used to refine our designs. From paper wireframes, we created an interactive prototype. Again we tested this with users, using the prototype to ask users to try a series of tasks.  We asked users to score how ‘usable’ they found the prototype. We also used these results and insights to refine the prototype further. Eventually we did a final round of testing before launch of the app. I would consider all of these activities User Experience.

Both CX and UX worked together in this project. Without CX we would not have known whether a mobile app would be useful to customers and how it would naturally fit into and complement their lives. Without User Experience, we may have built an app that was not fit-for-purpose and didn’t help customers to perform tasks as simply as possible.

This example shows how both CX and UX are discreet activities but add value to one another when used in combination.

I found Digitalgov‘s article on the differences between CX and UX particularly useful. However, I would adapt their model to show CX and UX overlapping (as is shown under the ‘Bingo!’ heading).  While both can operate together, both also have their own specific disciplines and practices, and thus can operate separately.  I suggest showing UX as a smaller discipline, to reflect it’s narrower focus when compared to CX.

Exceptions That Challenge CX and UX Conventions

These guidelines are not fixed in stone. While the insights above are useful, it’s important to point out some exceptions and emerging issues.

Recently I’ve been thinking about three examples that provoke new thinking.

#1 ChatBots:
According to Business Insider, the global chatbot market is expected to reach $1.23 billion by 2025.⁴ ChatBot’s go well beyond simple screen design, relying on content and conversation to respond to customers. While ChatBots occur within a digital experience, the ways in which ChatBots engage with users departs from many of the conventions of user experience.

#2 Voice (eg. Google Home)
The emergence of voice-enabled computing and artificial intelligence, such as Amazon Alexa and Google Home, also challenge the concept of user experience. Customers understand these services because they are an extension of services we have come to know that are primarily digital. For example, ordering an Amazon product on Alexa is an extension of ordering an Amazon product on their eCommerce website. However, over time these services will create completely new interactions and services. These products blend digital and physical interactions and require a larger concept of experience. While the specific task we seek these products to perform on our behalf might be considered User Experience, the study of how we use voice-enabled devices in the home and how these change our perception of convenience, are really questions for Customer Experience.

#3 Digital, Data and Push services
Services that blend digital experiences, with rich data and proactive notifications, will also stretch our perceptions of UX and CX. User experience is often concerned with solving a customer pain point or increasing customer delight. Yet, many of these new services focus on small increases of convenience. For example, when Google Now prompts you to try a different restaurant from the one you’ve eaten at last week, this may uncover a problem the user didn’t know they had (eg. the need for more variety / something novel). Whereas people used to either ask friends for recommendations of restaurants or turn toward review aggregation sites to discover new restaurants, this interaction pattern blends these two worlds with Google’s understanding of the user’s previous behaviour (eg. in this interaction, Google is the trusted friend and review source). Though the interaction may be digital, the ways in which it challenges existing behaviour redefines the concept of ‘looking for a restaurant’ which challenges broader concepts of customer experience.

These three examples aren’t cause to throw out the models above, but they do point out some of the emerging trends to consider.

That’s a wrap! I would love to hear how you view CX and UX. You can share your thoughts using the comments area below :).

References:

1. Understanding Customer Experience, HBR.  https://hbr.org/2007/02/understanding-customer-experience
2. User Experience vs Customer Experience: What’s the Dif, Digital Gov. https://www.digitalgov.gov/2014/07/07/user-experience-ux-vs-customer-experience-cx-whats-the-dif/
3. User Experience, Wikipedia.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_experience
4. The latest market research, trends & landscape in the growing AI chatbot industry, Business Insider. http://www.businessinsider.com/chatbot-market-stats-trends-size-ecosystem-research-2017-10/

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Customers used to put ‘stock’ mainly in a brand. Sure, they judged products and whether they fulfilled their purpose, but the ‘perceived value’ of a company’s brand was open to significant influence through advertising.

In recent times the emphasis customers place on brand has been accompanied by the value of experience. This shift commenced 20 years ago as the Experience Economy emerged and has now become mainstream.

Major innovators of today – Uber, AirBNB, Netflix – do not rely on advertising. They let the experience of their products sell their product, because they know this is what their customers will talk about. For these companies, advertising is a way to supplement their service, not justify their service.

Lately I’ve started to see something new in products. Products are increasingly providing a sense of assurance to customers through small micro-experiences that bolster the product’s brand value. We can refer to this emerging trend as “experience assurance”.

Experience assurance reinforces a variety of intangible attributes of a product – from quality, safety, through to the alertness (ie. the product is ‘listening’).

The role of experience assurance is to provide feedback to the user that reduces anxiety, instills confidence and reinforces the connection between the user and the product.  We can consider experience assurance as one of the factors available to companies to incrementally disrupt an industry’s value chain.

Consider these examples:

• Dyson Vacuum: when various tools of a Dyson vacuum cleaner “click” into place, precisely and audibly, this affirms the user’s perception of quality and reliability
• Apple iPhone: in recent years Apple has explored the connection between it’s software and physical attributes. When Apple let customers change the haptic feedback of the Home Button for iPhone 7, this increased the physical connection and feedback between the user and their phone.
• Ember: the award winning Ember travel coffee mug alerts you when you coffee reaches your desired and perfect temperature, acknowledging that your preference has been fulfilled
• Amazon Alexa: when Alexa’s light comes on and circles the cylinder, we know Alexa is alert and listening. We might be reminded of the spinning wheel on Apple Mac or the timer on Microsoft Windows. This same pattern that used to exist on software alone, has bridged to the physical product, and provides assurance back to whomever is speaking with Alexa.

A trait of experience assurance examples is that their presence in a product’s design is discreet, elegant and simple.

What will be interesting with the emergence of the internet of things, is that we will see experience assurance gain importance even when the product is not in the physical vicinity of the user. Products will stay connected and interact with us, so that we know they are doing the jobs we need them to, and these virtual connections will build upon the value we place on the physical products that produce them.

The post How Experience Assurance is Adding a Dimension to Breakthrough Product Design appeared first on Alessio Bresciani.

While the piece is 20 years old, it is still highly relevant in describing how companies are creating billion dollar valuations and start ups are securing new customers.

In the article HBR suggests “experiences have emerged as the next step in what we call the progression of economic value” and that “an experience occurs when a company intentionally uses services as the stage, and goods as props, to engage individual customers in a way that creates a memorable event.”

Now it would be tempting to think that experiences only relate to activities like theme parks or concerts…but an experience can be wrapped around any product.

During a recent interview by Jim Courier of Roger Federer at this year’s Australia Open, Federer was asked what role he plays in designing his Nike outfits. The 6 time Australian Open winner went on to say how Nike fashion emulates the story of his successes, as marked by the use of a Flinders Street station symbol on his shoes. He said these are not just products, these are stories.  In that single comment he connected the product to a larger experience, as expressed by his personal story.

Consider Nike’s wider efforts to connect its products with Apple devices, such as with the Apple Watch® Nike+.  Here is a company that is deeply involved in experiences at every level, from Roger Federer’s sponsorship through to the Nike+ app.

Today everywhere we can see examples of the experience economy. Some companies concentrate purely on the experience, whereas others wrap an experience around a physical product.

Here are 5 other examples of how companies are integrating their offerings into experiences:

• Uber: It’s not just about finding a ride, it’s about having a pleasant journey, having simple payment and then ongoing confidence….now it’ also about knowing your ‘rider rating’.
• Netflix: It’s not about finding great content, it’s about knowing whether that content is suited to you, and what other shows you’ll like.  Digital experiences are at the heart of how Netflix delivers for its customers.
• Rent The Runway: it’s not about just getting that special something to wear out, it’s about having an incredible selection of choice, the convenience of that choice coming to you, and super easy returns.
• Dyson: it’s not just about a vacuum, it’s about having the transformer of vacuums (that can change to any nook and cranny), going cordless and having the assurance the product is good for thousands of hours before it breaks.
• Expedia: it’s not about finding a great hotel, it’s finding THE HOTEL that is perfect for you, which others have loved, getting it at a great rate and having trust that it will be an amazing experience.

Can you think of others?  If so, consider sharing your thoughts below.

The post Why the Experience Economy is Here To Stay appeared first on Alessio Bresciani.

Businesses are still coming to terms with how to use mobile apps to reach customers.  And there’s been a great deal of debate whether a mobile app should do everything for customers, or only a subset of activities.  This debate can sometimes create a divide in organisations and teams.

Instead of debating whether mobile apps should do all things or some things, I recommend teams first ask the following questions:

• what are the tasks that are most valuable to customers?
• how could we fulfill these tasks exceptionally well?

When we look at it this way it refocuses us on the activities that create value for customers. This is the territory where memorable experiences are created.

To simplify value for mobile apps, we can consider value as a function of importance and frequency.

VALUE = TASK IMPORTANCE + TASK FREQUENCY

Some tasks are incredibly important to customers. For example, when it comes to mobile banking, checking account balance is incredibly important.

Other tasks occur frequently. For example, when using an email app, it’s a regular behaviour to check messages 10 to 20 times a day.

The sweet spot for mobile app design is the subset of user tasks that are both Important and Frequent. So before investing in any feature for a mobile app, it’s worth mapping where tasks fall relative to these two dimensions.

Mapping Tasks for Your Mobile App on a Value Matrix

By plotting user tasks on a matrix, we quickly get a bearing for whether tasks are high or low value. We can encourage teams to do this process for any digital experience, not just mobile, but the exercise is particularly relevant to mobile.  Here’s an example:

Once these tasks are mapped, we can group them according to these four zones:

#1. Mobile App ‘Value’ Zone (High Importance, High Frequency)

This is the high-octane zone for mobile app development. When we invest time and energy into creating mobile app features that fulfill these tasks, we have the very best chance to delight customers.

When I think of my favorite apps, features that come to mind in this category include: the ability to see my most recent notes in Evernote, the notifications feature in LinkedIn, the most recent content updates in Feedly, or the ability in Twitter to quickly send a Tweet.

Ideas in this zone are more likely to generate high value for customers (and potential returns for your business), even if they are more costly to build than less costly features placed in the three other quadrants.

#2. Mobile App ‘Consider’ Zone (High Importance, Low Frequency)

While these tasks are important to users, they will be completed infrequently.

Let’s take Netflix as an example. Netflix provides an incredibly easy process to suspend or cancel an account. However, the Netflix mobile app has an Account link that takes the user out of the mobile app and into the Netflix website to manage these tasks.

While the action to suspend or cancel an account is very important to users, this action is done infrequently, so Netflix has chosen not to build this into the mobile app.

The decision whether to build features in this zone will need to be carefully evaluated, based on how important the feature is to the customer experience.

#3. Mobile App ‘Enhance’ Zone (Low Importance, High Frequency)

Often there are relatively few tasks that fall into this zone.  In addition, tasks that occur with high frequency but are not important are often trivial in nature.

‘Refreshing’ a page is an example of task in this zone.

It used to be enough to navigate to a new page within a mobile app so that data would refresh within an app. However, this experience was replaced in some apps with a ‘swipe to refresh’ feature.

Twitter does this well, allowing the user to swipe to refresh their recent notifications. Prior experiences (such as navigating to a different page) were not particularly bothersome, but the swipe feature is a neat way to improve the experience.

#4. Mobile App ‘Reject or Backlog’ Zone (Low Importance, Low Frequency)

Tasks that are done infrequently and are of low importance will create little value for users if fulfilled within a mobile app.

Ideas in this area should be captured (as part of a your idea generation process) and allocated to a backlog, with a fairly low priority assigned to them.

If you do chose to service these ideas within the mobile app, they could be included deeper within the app than other, higher priority features.

An Exception – How Digital Experiences Can Change Customer Behaviour

So far we’ve spoken about how we should build features to respond to user tasks.  And we’ve also classified user tasks based on importance and frequency. But what happens when the features or experiences we create, completely change the way people do things?

Of course this does happen.

Let’s look at an example.  Sharing photos by email used to be a relatively ‘low frequency’ task.  Yet, whenever people shared photos it was usually an important way to connect with others.  So according to our value map, these interactions may have been allocated to the Consider zone (Low Frequency, High Importance).

Then along came Instagram.  Instagram made the process of sharing photos with social networks simpler and faster than ever before.  The result…the frequency of sharing photos exploded.  Suddenly it became incredibly important to share photos very frequently.  This shifted the task from the Consider to the Value zone.

Similarly, the process of adding effects to photos used to be hard work. Once again Instagram made the experience of adding filters to photos far simpler, and suddenly everyone was frequently adding filters to photos before the photos were shared.

So the way we create user experiences can have a dramatic impact on the way users behave and, in turn, the perceived value users place on certain tasks.

I hope you’ve found this article in contemplating what features you could build into your own mobile app.  If you are interested in mobile apps, you might like my other posts on why mobile apps hold a special place in customers’ hearts and how some of the world’s best companies have approached mobile apps.

References:

1. http://www.businessinsider.com.au/mobile-web-vs-app-usage-statistics-2014-4

The post How to Build Mobile App Features that Keep People Coming Back appeared first on Alessio Bresciani.

Since the launch of the Apple iPhone in 2007, tech launch events like those hosted by Apple have become a big deal in the consumer electronics industry. Today all the major players have their launch events, from Google to Samsung to Windows.

Over the last few years I’ve been intrigued by the question ‘what makes these launches so successful’?

Of all the companies in the world, in my opinion Apple has become the most successful at creating a dramatic launch. This single company has truly set the benchmark for this style of events, creating excitement and suspense at an international level for the launch of its products.

In this post we take a look at the stages and emotions we go through in a successful launch event. While these are all important, #4 to #7 are key for history-making events. When any company can master all 7 it is a truly a remarkable event.

#1 Awareness:

Triggered at the moment we realise a launch event will happen at some point in the future, we instantly start speculating about what may be released.  Whether it’s by reading an article online or hearing news of an upcoming event on the radio, we know there’s a time on the not-too-distant horizon when the launch event will happen.

# 2 Anticipation:

Anticipation is heightened the closer we get to the event. We’re open to market rumours and buzz. By the time the event comes around we have a laundry list of products and features we think are likely to be released.

#3 Agreement:

This phase occurs at the event itself. The most successful launch events get us to see the problem with fresh eyes. Often it is a problem that we have all come to live with. And when the problem is ‘told well’, we all say to ourselves “this is actually a problem and I’m amazed I didn’t see that before” and “you’re right, something needs to change”.

#4 Disbelief:

This is the stage when we’re told the problem has been solved. “Say what?!” It’s a powerful moment. We’ve just come to realise (in the proceeding step) that this is actually a big problem. We’ve also realised that many others have tried to solve the problem and have failed. And at this point we’re told that the problem will be solved! Stop Press! How? Can it be possible? It’s too hard to believe….

#5 Magic:

Then we are shown the magic! We are shown the real life proof that the problem which could not previously be solved, has actually been solved.  Our disbelief starts to show some cracks.  We try to hold it together.  Alas, at this point we’re shown not only how the problem has been solved, but how ridiculously simple they’ve made it, a far cry from the debacle that we knew previously. OMG! That’s incredible! Of course once we have been shown the magic, we now all want the magic. Please…please….give us some of the magic

#6 Hands On (an optional step):

This does not always happen at every launch event.  Here people are able to see and experience the magic first hand. Real life people.  It shows that the magic shown on the stage was not ‘smoke and mirrors’. Real people…yes real people…are able to use the products we were shown on stage. They can take photos and record snippets and do interviews. The magic really exists!

#7 Reward / Gratification:

After a little more anticipation, we too can have the magic. It’s available in stores. We can hold it in our hands. We can take it home. We can sit on the couch and experience it for ourselves. Because that is true magic after all…not something that is only for the magician, but which is there for anyone, man or woman, aged or infant.

Consistency:

When all is said an done, it is also important to establish consistency for launch events.  This isn’t really a stage we go through, but it is a promise made to customers by the most successful companies.

Consistency is the reason why the biggest tech companies in the world release over the September to October period.  It is the promise of consistency that creates a credible offering for brands, and gives customers a clear idea what they can expect and when (year after year after year).  Beyond customers, consistency has also become an important signal to investors, and its not unusual for share prices to jump before or after the news of a big event.

What do you think?  What other stages do you think make a successful launch event?  It would be great to share your view by leaving a comment.

The post 7 Stages We Go Through for History-Making Tech Launch Events appeared first on Alessio Bresciani.

While news like this instantly shines the spotlight on Netflix, it is the historical decisions made by the company to continuously disrupt that have ensured its success where others have failed.

In this article we look at the role of digital disruption across industries.

While disruption is often spoken about as large scale change undertaken at a specific point in time, the most significant disruption occurs through continuous change. When companies are able to understand an industry’s value chain and then continuously reinvent it piece by piece through digital technologies, this is when large scale digital disruption is possible.

Digital Disruption Spreads Through Value Chains

Take the airline industry as an example.  Disruption took hold at one place in a value chain, and then spread to adjacent steps.

The game changed when customers began booking flights online.  This occurred at the start of the value chain, at the moment of Purchase.  Then came online check-in and self-serve kiosks at airports. Now digital disruption is happening in the flight cabin itself, with WIFI, on-demand tablet entertainment, in-seat connectivity, and exploration of virtual reality for travelers.²

Virgin America is recognised as a leader in the industry and has drawn upon its agility in digital to connect many of these innovations for customers.  Beyond digital, it has also tied digital innovation to support wider customer experiences, including great music when you board the flight and entertaining safety videos.  In this way digital is just one aspect of Virgin America’s personality.

Of course no one company is immune from change within a value chain.  And just as airlines have innovated, so too they have had to deal with disruption further up the value chain.  Now at the Pre-Purchasing step, customers use services like Expedia and Adioso to compare a wide variety of prices and offers across airlines – all enabled via digital technologies.

In isolation, many of these developments feel like incremental innovations.  But taken in totality, with the period of the last decade compressed, the entire experience of flying is dramatically different due to these changes.

Leverage and Evolution as the New Platforms for Competition

Netflix used leverage to grow its business.  Netflix had amassed 4.2 million subscribers to its online DVD ordering business in 2005, before it launched its movie streaming business in 2007. Later in 2011 it begin to acquire original content, with series like House of Cards.  In so doing it used its streaming business and subscriber base as leverage to evolve further up the value chain, from distribution into content creation.³

Netflix didn’t quit there.  It continued to spot opportunities to make the experience of watching content even better for customers.

Through continuous digital evolution it introduced innovations such as support for multiple viewing profiles, a sophisticated recommendation engine for subscribers (so that its film-picks have the best possible match-rate for viewer preferences) and new forms of application development to ensure Netflix will play smoothly over thousands of device types.⁴

Incredibly, Netflix’s 65 million members can all watch high quality content closely fitting their expectations, sourced and recommended by Netflix, at home or on the move, advertisement-free and for a fraction of the price of the competition. This is disruption of every step of the value chain.

Winning Brands Are Those That Tie Digital Innovation with an Ongoing Promise of Experience

When we read mission statement examples from the world’s leading companies, many of these are deeply connected to digital disruption.

Digital innovation is enough to capture the attention of customers, but is it enough to keep it?

We’ve seen hundreds of examples of companies that launch a new mobile app, or a new website. For a short time these innovations ignite imaginations and attract customers.

But why do some customers stay when others leave?

What makes customers stay connected is where the company can connect further digital innovation with a consistent experience.

When Uber launched its first service in San Francisco it was the new kid on the block.  And after a time it became a brand unto itself, with its own loyal base of fans.

Uber’s customers told the story of how easy it was to use the service, how incredible it was pinpoint the exact location of their driver. If Uber was not able to sustain this promise when it launched other products, it would have fractured its brand.

Source: Mark Warner “Uber…” www.flickr.com/photos/senatormarkwarner/19588717540/

UberX succeeded because it maintained Uber’s ‘experience promise’ with customers.  It brought all the convenience of the premium Uber service, less some of the frills, and fulfilled expectations at a lower price tag.  It did this in close rapport with the brand that Uber had become.

UberX didn’t feel like we were getting a completely new product, but rather the innovation of an existing product we had come to love.⁵

Even when Uber launched a completely different type of service in the form of UberRush, it preserved its brand. UberRush gives customers a simple way to order a courier service and full knowledge of when their parcel will be collected, just as Uber does for drivers.

What is interesting is that Uber has drawn on its unique competencies (in branding, mapping and moving people) to create services that jump across industries entirely, from providing competition for taxis to couriers.⁶

This is the next wave of digital disruption that will occur, where innovations hop between industries and value chains to bring new services to customers.

Some of these changes are captured in this slide.

References

1. http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/NFLX/454272674x0x839404/C3CE9EE2-C8F3-40A1-AC9A-FFE0AFA20B21/FINAL_Q2_15_Letter_to_Shareholders_With_Tables_.pdf
2. http://www.qantasnewsroom.com.au/media-releases/qantas-samsung-unveil-industry-first-virtual-reality-experience-for-travellers
3. https://pr.netflix.com/WebClient/loginPageSalesNetWorksAction.do?contentGroupId=10477
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netflix#Original_programming
5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uber_(company)
6. http://blog.uber.com/RUSH

The post Digital Disruption: How Continuous Evolution is Reshaping Industries and Brands appeared first on Alessio Bresciani.

If you’re new to visual thinking, you might like to take a look at my post on Rich Pictures or even browse #sketchnotes on Twitter for some great examples.

In the last 10 years Visual Thinking has become an important management skill. This has been supported by the convergence of tablet devices and new forms of writing (just take a look at the Adonit Dash or Apple’s Pencil), as well as new spaces in workplaces dedicated to wall-drawing and collaboration. With all these developments the current and next generation of managers will take to drawing as a leadership skill.

In this post we look at three tools tools that enhance the visual thinking and creative process. These tools aren’t designed to replace drawing, but rather enhance at.

#1. Evernote Capture

I use Evernote’s capture facility to take quick photos of anything I sketch on paper. The tool will capture sketches at any angle. It also has the very handy facility of cleaning up the photo or converting it to a document (which basically colour-corrects and cleans up the image). You can even use the tool to add annotations to your picture.

#2. Tawe

Sometimes I’ll sketch at a conference or presentation. Then afterwards, when I wish to share the sketch with others, I open the page of my note book and talk through the sketch. The Tawe app allows you to do this for a single person or a large audience. If you have a photo of a sketch, just load it into Tawe, and then select the points you wish to animate. This lets you rapidly create a presentation from a simple sketch. It’s like Prezi meets your sketch pad. Congratulations to the folks at Tawe for creating something so unique and highly useful.

#3. Vittle

If you like to sketch directly on your tablet, Vittle is worth a try. Vittle lets you capture and animate your sketch as you draw it. You can use the app’s zoom feature to focus on a specific item you’re drawing or zoom out for a view of your entire sketch. What’s more, you can add narration to your sketch by recording your voice as the sketch plays. This is a very useful teaching aid which allows us to use visual thinking to build out stories and learning materials.

I hope these tools will enhance your own visual thinking process. If you wish to share different tools you use with others you can leave a comment below.

The post 3 Tools To Take Visual Thinking To The Next Level appeared first on Alessio Bresciani.