Proctor & Gamble’s Innovation Factory

“We know from our history that while promotions may win quarters, innovation wins decades.” – Bob McDonald, Chairman, President, and CEO, Proctor & Gamble The company spends billions annually on R&D – roughly 50% more than its closest competitor and more than most other competitors combined according to How P&G Tripled Its Innovation Success Rate. Each … Read more

Innovation Through Empathy Maps

If there is such a thing as a  Design Thinking geek – I’m it. My new favorite Design Thinking technique is Empathy Maps. Empathy Maps are a tool to help synthesize your observations to discover insights about your target audience. Empathy Maps are to Design Thinking what  SWOT Analysis is to business. They are simple … Read more

Three Tips to Successfully Prototype Your Ideas

In Tim Brown, CEO and president at IDEO, recent LinkedIn post, Why You Should Talk Less and Do More, he states that “Ideas are of little use if they stay put as ideas…” and “Shortening the distance between talking about an idea and prototyping it is key to becoming a successful design thinker.” Tim shares … Read more

Chatbot User Experience Guidelines

chatbot

Creating an effective and user-friendly chatbot experience involves considering several factors, including human-centered design principles and conversational flow best practices.  Here are some guidelines to enhance the user experience of your chatbot: 1. Understand Your Audience    – Identify your target audience and tailor the language and tone of the chatbot accordingly.    – Consider user demographics, preferences, … Read more

Deliver Meaningful Customer Experiences

looking at CX metrics

The last, best experience a shopper has anywhere becomes the minimum expectation for the experience they want everywhere. – Havas 2019 Prosumer survey Havas Group surveyed a combination of 2,000 “pro-sumers” — early adopters who are forward thinking, influential, and proactive in what they do and share — and mainstream consumers across the U.S., U.K., … Read more

Six Actions to Managing the Customer Experience Journey

CX Journey

Customer journeys include many things that happen before, during, and after the experience of a product or service. Journeys can be long, stretching across multiple channels and touchpoints, and often lasting days, weeks or longer. Brand awareness, converting prospects to customer, providing long-tern value to create loyalty and advocacy are all part of the journey. … Read more

Six Problem-Solving Mindsets

problem solving mindset

Great problem solvers are made, not born. That’s what McKinsey found after decades of problem solving with leaders across business, nonprofit, and policy sectors. Six mutually reinforcing approaches underly their success: Being Ever Curious A simple technique, worth employing at the beginning of problem solving, is simply to pause and ask why conditions or assumptions … Read more

Seven Steps to Creating a Memorable Experience for Your Customers

memorable experiences

In a recent interview with Zoey Chen, assistant professor of Marketing at the University of Miami School of Business and co-author of the Return Trip Effect. Colin Shaw derived these seven steps to create a memorable experience for your customers. Decide what type of memory you want people to have about your experience. Different strategies enhance … Read more

Tenacity

determination

Tenacity is the quality of being determined and persistent. I have found tenacity to be a key factor in long-term success. My father grew up during the Great Depression. His father had died when he was young, and he was raised by his single mother, grandmother and sister. Jobs were hard to find but, like … Read more

Trust and Loyalty

I have been fortunate to have some great leaders along my path. They seemed to have genuinely cared about me and instilled in me a strong trust and loyalty to them. These leaders had empathy, they were good listeners and knew how to inspire a team with a clear vision. “Success is a team sport. … Read more

Lean UX

Inspired by Lean and Agile development theories, Lean UX focuses on the actual experience being designed, rather than deliverables (an updated edition came out this month). This book shows you how to collaborate closely with other members of the product team, and gather feedback early and often. It shares how to drive the design in … Read more

10 Tips for UX Success from Agile Practitioners

Earlier this year, the Nielsen Norman Group asked Agile practitioners at a UX conference to share tips that have contributed to the success of their Agile projects. They received 125 responses from professionals that worked in various-size companies and held different job responsibilities, ranging from UX designers and developers to product owners and project managers. Here are … Read more