We are in the Experience Economy that Pine and Gilmore predicted – a customer-centric marketplace that Forrester calls the Age of the Customer where: “A customer obsessed company focuses its strategy, its energy, and its budget on processes that enhance knowledge of an engagement with customers, and prioritizes these over maintaining traditional competitive barriers.” We … Read more
Paul Brooks wrote this article for UX Magazine about developing personas for team. Personas are a stand-in for a group of people who share common goals. They are fictional representatives—archetypes based on the users’ behaviors, attitudes, and goals. Usually we make the distinction between Buyer Personas and User Personas where the Buyer is the person … Read more
I was having lunch with a colleague – catching up on family and his new gig, when we got on a conversation about the difference in US and Japanese business cultures (he has spent the last 25 years working in both). One thing in particular that stood out to me was that Japanese companies have … Read more
Jeofrey and I shared our aggregate views of what makes the best customer experience companies better, different, more profitable and sustainable at the SDL Innovate 2014 in San Francisco. We shared that these “Experience Makers” dominate their industries and change customers’ lives. We shared insights about leadership, best practices and decision making, based on the interviews … Read more
It has been an exciting year for Jeof and I and The Customer Experience Revolution this month. We had a great time as Closing Keynotes at SDL Innovate 2014 in San Francisco, the book went into a third printing, and Brigantine Media just released this trailer.
A phenomenal amount of innovation is happening at the forefront of mobile engagement. From wrist bands to smart pills, we are seeing the use of mobile technologies to collect new kinds of data, crunch it in the cloud, and then employ a mix of engagement tactics on mobile devices creating new interactions — new “mobile … Read more
In Nielsen Norman Group blog, Five Essential Analytics Reports for UX Strategists, Jennifer Cardello describes how analytics inform UX goals, strategies, and concepts. These are five examples that are essential: 1. How Fast Is Mobile Access Growing? This information is helpful when you are planning, pricing, and comparing approaches to making your site mobile friendly. … Read more
Finding the right sample size is a tradeoff between the number of participants in the study and the ability to detect problems. The larger the sample size, the more problems that get uncovered. There is however a diminishing return as fewer new problems get uncovered with each additional user. And not all problems uniformly affect … Read more
In a not-so-recent HBR article on Design Thinking, Tim Brown reminds us that “…innovation is powered by a thorough understanding, through direct observation, of what people want and need in their lives and what they like or dislike about the way particular products are made, packaged, marketed, sold, and supported.” That: “Design thinking is… a … Read more
According to the Corporate Executive Board, (CEB) almost 60% of the customers’ journey is complete before they reach out to vendors. Our customers’ journey starts way before their first transaction. with us And in a Harvard Business Review, “Solution Selling is Dead” (that cites the CEB findings) because talking about our products and services is no longer good enough. It … Read more
As a longtime advocate of Human-Centered Design, I belong to a group of people who have been desperately trying to get folks to stop thinking about features and instead, think about the human interactions, such as touchpoints, with our brand, products and services. Chris Risdon, in his article, Un-Sucking the Touchpoint, points out that a … Read more
I am a firm believer in the Human-Centered Design Process. So, why are there so many bad designs? Here’s why: There was never a Designer involved The Designer was brought in on the project too late There wasn’t a person(s) to implement the design The implementer(s) of the design do not have the right skills … Read more