I return to paper and a pen. That usually lasts for a few months.

Then someone hands me a tricky problem to solve. Or I get excited about a new idea that requires me to think in a complex way.

Do you ever have these moments? When your mind mulls over and over one idea?

During those times, even if I start the thinking with a paper and pen, I often give the tablet a try.

Why Tablets Are Great For Complex Thinking

Don Norman, author of the Design of Everyday Things, uses the term ‘affordance’. An affordance refers to the properties of an object that make certain behaviours possible.

For example, a chair has an affordance that allows people to sit. The two loops of scissors have an affordance for fingers and a thumb so we can cut.

A tablet (via the combination of the device, a stylus and notetaking software) provide affordances for certain interactions that help with complex thinking.

4 Unique Interactions Not Possible With Pen & Paper

Consider this. On a tablet we can:

1. Move a drawing (eg. select and move a sketched object to change its order)
2. Scale a drawing (eg. make a single sketched object smaller or larger)
3. Zoom in/out (eg. we can zoom in to add further, finer detail to a sketched object)
4. Change art-board or paper (eg. if the size of digital paper we are sketching on is A4, we could enlarge the art-board to A3 or A2 , so more can be fit on the page)

This is exciting, not because of the technology itself, but because these interactions offer new possibilities to deepen our thinking compared with paper.

And any tool that helps our brains interact with and simplify complex information is worth knowing about.

Examples Of Activities Where This May Apply

Some activities suit this style of thinking better than others.

In my experience, any activity that requires most or all of the following is helped by a tablet:

• iterative thinking
• lots of information or data
• classification and re-classification of information
• relationships between objects and ideas
• a sense of sequence or flow
• sketchnoting and visual thinking

As examples, these activities benefit from thinking on a tablet:

• User Journeys: presenting many steps that a typical user takes in order to complete a task;
• Prioritizing, Categorizing & Coding: working with ideas or data that require coding, categorization and/or prioritization, as with this with a recent article on effective projects;
• Systems Maps: using a visual language to describe all the aspects and interactions of a complex system. Leyla Acaroglu teaches systems thinking and provides some useful tips on other tools to help with systems maps;
• Roadmaps: charting the course of delivery and execution plans, including detailed dependencies between tasks;
• Integrated Frameworks: bringing together diverse and seemingly separate themes and ideas into a coordinated framework (eg. Operating Models, Design Systems, Spotify’s Scaling Agile Framework)

Tablets do have downsides compared to paper. Most don’t give the sensation of friction when a pen moves across paper and the backlight of the screen can cause fatigue.

Overall, they present some unique possibilities that can enhance personal thinking and productivity.

What do you think? Consider sharing your thoughts by adding a comment below.

The video used in the header of this page can be viewed from the video page of this site.

The post How Tablets Can Accelerate Complex Thinking appeared first on Alessio Bresciani.

Whether this is a project at work, an initiative for a team, or a crusade in our personal lives….sometimes we nail it and sometimes we don’t. So what makes the difference between these outcomes?

Every initiative has a start and an end point. Between these two points are lots of smaller steps. We call these milestones, deliverables or tasks. They  are waypoints along our journey.

Sometimes these waypoints are needed. They take us closer to our destination. Other times they are miscalculations which lead us in the wrong direction, and we’re forced to go back to get on track again.

For many people, the way to get work done is a process of trial and error. We wait until we hit a waypoint, see what we can learn from it, and then either continue or trace-back to find our correct path. In doing so, we may learn along the way, but we lose time and expend effort. In the end this costs us.

Poorly executed pathways look like this.

Well executed pathways look like this.

The key question, is what makes the difference between these pathways?

3 Principles That Will Improve Any Initiative

Recently I met with a number of colleagues and asked them to describe what makes their work most effective.

One of these people manages very substantial, complex projects in a multinational company. Another is involved in a successful technology venture. The third leads an incredibly balanced personal life and has contributed greatly in their community.

From the conversation, we defined three overarching principles that make a world of difference.

These principles are:

1. Take advantage of knowledge of the past,
2. Use best practice in the present, and
3. Learn from the future before it happens.

The more we spoke about the various activities we do to support great work, the more we realised each activity fell under one of these principles.

Apply These Principles To Activities

For example, one of the members of the group had just completed advanced agile training. We defined training as a way to build knowledge from the past, because most training is based on some discipline that has gone before it. The training would help him to run his projects more effectively.

The friend who works in the scaling technology venture said she spends time focusing on what’s essential. This involves thinking about what’s a priority and what can wait until later. This is an example of sharpening practice in the present.

The third colleague asks a simple question of any initiative; ‘what will this work mean and for who?’. This is a way of learning from the future, because it forces them to cast their mind forward and define how the work will result in good in the community when the work is complete.

The conversation was so meaningful I summarized it in this drawing (which you can download here as a high resolution PDF. Feel free to use it in your work and with teams).

So, For Your Next Initiative, Ask These Questions

You can use these principles also. For your next endeavour, ask:

• How can I…..

a) use knowledge from the past…or

b) refine my practice in the present…or

c) learn from the future, before it happens…

• …to make the pathway for this work more successful, more efficient and more meaningful for myself, the people I’m working with, and those who finally benefit from the initiative.

You might also plan how much time you will spend considering these principles before, during and after the work.

These principles are dynamic. They can be accessed at any stage of an initiative, based upon your need at the time.

The goal is to do the work in an optimal way, avoiding headaches and misspent time.

I hope this article is useful. If so, please let me know your feedback directly or share your thoughts by leaving a comment below.

—

Note: I also had many comments on this framework from a post on Linked In. Thanks to all those who gave their view.

The post The 2 Minute Cheat Sheet To Make Any Initiative More Effective appeared first on Alessio Bresciani.

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

The post Entrepreneurship: 3 Ways To Fast-Track Ideas To Execution Today appeared first on Alessio Bresciani.

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.

The post 7 Steps To Build A Digital Strategy appeared first on Alessio Bresciani.

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.

The post What’s the Difference Between a Mission Statement and Vision Statement appeared first on Alessio Bresciani.

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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I gave a response at the time and then thought about this question for days after the meeting.

The first things that came to mind were technical skills and expertise… but the more I thought it, the more I realised that doing well is about having the right attitude.

Unfortunately, intangible attributes like ‘attitude’ are often overlooked in favour of more tangible skills, despite its importance to leadership.

The following are 5 attributes I feel are important in any career, and on reflection have certainly been important in my own.

#1. Do good work

These three words are deceivingly simple. When we’re doing ‘good work’, we get a sense of focus and pride. We show our best skills and leave each day creating something better than was there before. If you are constantly seeking to do ‘good work’, the work you do today will be better than the work you did yesterday. While at first you will be the best measure of the work you do, if you do good work- you will become known for it.  Aim to be known for delivering great things that help the business you’re in and its customers.

#2. Foster a positive outlook

There will be aspects of your job that frustrate you. There will be setbacks. Sometimes these setbacks will occupy your thoughts, and threaten to distract you from larger goals. As you progress the challenges will become bigger, but so will your goals, and your ability to deal with and navigate ‘prickly issues’ will also expand. My advice is to foster a positive outlook. Spend time each day thinking about the positive things you’ve done. Learn from what you could have done better, without dwelling on it. There’s a difference between taking a learning from something and judging yourself negatively for it. A positive outlook will make you more adaptable. It will also make you happier at the end of the day. And most of all, others will appreciate it.

#3. Collaborate with others

Very little work can get done without the input of others. This is even more so today, as organisations adopt ‘matrix structures’. It seems like a cliché, but being able to work with others (to affect change, have healthy debate, solve problems together) will get you far. What’s more, you’ll win the respect of people and maybe make a few friends in the process. When leaving companies, so many people I’ve worked with say “I’ll miss the people” before they say “I’ll miss the work”.

#4. Focus on the priorities

As we progress in our careers, our time becomes more and more scarce. There will be more people to see, you’ll have larger opportunities to tackle, and there will be unexpected issues that beg for your attention. You’ll quickly realise you can’t do everything. You’ll have people and teams to help you, and they’ll be a tremendous support, but even with them you simply will not be able to do everything. You’ll have to prioritise. Focusing on the 20% of activities that create 80% of the results is a great place to start. Ask ‘what’s essential’? Ask ‘what’s impactful’? Ask “what can we stop#8221; As Steven Covey says “the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.”

#5. View happiness as a key measure of your performance

Treat happiness in your job as one of your key measures. Overall, on balance at the end of the day, we need to know we’re enjoying what we do. If you are not happy for a significant period, I recommend having a conversation with your boss.  If you run your business and are your own boss, you might have to have one of the toughest conversations of all… a conversation with yourself.  These things are simple to say…. but hard to do. I do hope though that in your current role you are more happy than not. Overall happiness and general job satisfaction is the secret to high performing individuals and teams.

If you are thinking about a change in career or role, you may find my article on factors to consider in your career decision useful.

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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.

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I hadn’t worked with this person for a while, but I had been following their career, and I knew they were extremely talented. So it was no surprise when they told me they had been approached about a job that paid a lot more than their current role.

My friend asked me, “What should I do#8221;

“Think about the money last,” I told them.

Now I know the financial aspects of a job are important to career decisions. Very important. But I’ve also met a lot of people who uprooted their jobs for more pay, only to be disappointed because money was the only thing they thought about.

According to the research by Glassdoor and the HBR “one of the most striking results we’ve found is that, across all income levels, the top predictor of workplace satisfaction is not pay”.[1]

So what else can we think about when we’re considering a career change?  When I thought about the shifts I’ve made over the last decade, these are the five factors I came up with.

Depending where we’re at in our careers, we might weight some of these higher than others. The key is to make sure we’re giving consideration to all five.

#1. Career Prospects

A job is about more than the role. It’s about what opportunities the role will also open up in the future. Does the role give you prospects? Does it make you feel excited about the things you’ll learn on the job, the people you’ll work with, or the challenges or opportunities you’ll take on? Is the role a match with your skills, and will it also stretch you in areas you are interested in?

#2. Environment

We spend so much time during every day in our jobs. It’s important to evaluate if the environment that comes with the role will be right for you.

Questions to ask here are:

• What is the physical environment like (the offices, open spaces, light in the building; Is it fixed or flexi desk, etc)?
• What is the mental environment like (eg. is it stressful, is the business going through change, etc)?
• What is the time environment like (eg. are there standard work hours, will you be expected to work late, are their flexible hours, etc)?
• What is the culture like? Is it fun and playful, explorative, innovative. Culture is an intangible which has a tremendous influence on the level of enjoyment we have in our work. So make sure the culture is right for you and that you will be able to contribute to it.

#3. Wants/Needs

A third fundamental is to consider your own wants and needs. This is a question for you and you only.

“What do you personally need to do your best work#8221;

The answer is different for every person.

Some people love autonomy. Others love guidance.

For me, I know I need a certain level of time for free thinking. This is where I create value by doing strategic work.

Consider all the elements you need to do your best work. Write a list. This list will be a great check-sheet for whether the role will be a fit for what you’re looking for.

#4. Leadership

Someone once told me ‘people don’t leave jobs, they leave people’. To a certain extent this is true.

Chances are you will spend a great portion of your time working for the person who hires you, so it’s important you respect them and feel they’ll support you.

A great manager will challenge you just as much as they will support you.

I’ve been very fortunate in that the majority of people I’ve worked for have been incredible leaders. They’ve shown me the types of qualities I aspire to, as well as the qualities I look for in people I chose to work for.

#5. Finances

This is the last fundamental. Now I know money is important. But, too often people make decisions on this factor alone!

I’ve known people to go into well paid positions only to find they have to work 70 hour weeks.

By considering this last, it ensures we’ve devoted attention to everything else. This is extremely important for our long lasting satisfaction in a new role.

Summary

These are not all the questions you might consider when deciding on a new role. They are the ones I’ve found important. I hope you find this useful for yourself or a friend. And if you have other ideas for areas to consider, I’d love to hear them in the comments area below.

References

1. What matters more to your workforce than money, HBR, 2017.

The post 5 Factors to Consider in a Career Decision (and Why Finances is Last) 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.

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