As products become services, and services become more thoughtfully and holistically designed, we are breaking out of our digital silos and endeavoring to support a more seamless cross-channel customer experience spanning every touchpoint between the customer and company. But what constitutes the channel in cross-channel? And what implication does this have on the customers' experience when interacting with your product or service?
Last weekend, the New York Times published a lengthy piece on Sony and its woes. Sony is emblematic of a company that thrived in an Industrial Age mindset and is having trouble figuring its path in a Connected Age. While the article uses the recent earthquake/tsunami as a hook to talk about Sony's troubles, it acknowledges that Sony's had serious challenges long before Mother Nature exacted her toll. This ten year stock chart shows that Sony has never really recovered from the 2001 recession, and that the 2008/9 recession really hammered it.
Whether or not Microsoft paid too much, I have little doubt that Skype is an extremely valuable property (and I don't say this just because they're a client.) I've seen Skype embed itself into my life unlike other services. At home, it's for video calls with my children's grandparents. At work, it's for lightweight video conferencing between our offices, and with our clients. So while Skype began as a voice calling service (and I'm sure that's how it's still primarily used), it's unique utility really became clear with how it handles video calling, and, as bandwidth continues to improve, I suspect this activity will only increase.
The thing about video calling, though, is that it has been “just around the corner” for over 40 years, beginning with the AT&T Picturephone. According to Stanley Kubrick, we would be using them by 2001:
The cake model of product strategy is actually two different models for how to evolve and improve the scope of a product over time. I’ve found it’s a very helpful tool for helping teams think through what’s going to be a successful customer experience in the short term and the long term.
Model #1: Dry Cake
The first model shows the “dry cake” approach that many organizations plan out new products and experiences. They start with cake, then maybe add some filling, and then plan to add the icing as the final step. It makes sense from an…
I had the opportunity to share ideas on ‘life with impermanence’ at the Mobile Monday event in Amsterdam, on November 8th.
What does it mean to live in world where the pace of change is so high that nothing seems permanent.
The talk elaborates on swarm, mesh and morph as concepts that are emerging and gaining importance in this shift towards impermanence.
If you like to watch a video of the talk, you can find it here: http://www.mobilemonday.nl/talks/willem-boijens-life-with-impermanence/
A few months ago I wrote a post for HBR.org on how businesses that trust their customers deliver better experiences, because they use that trust to offer services that others simply will not match. In the article, I mention Amazon, Zappos, and USAA, and you could add to that Nordstrom, famous for their willingness to accept purchase returns without a receipt.
I’m continuing to explore the importance of trust, though not just in customers, but in ones own employees as well. For example, Southwest Airlines empowers front-line employees to make decisions driven by customer needs, and does not…
A week ago, I posted to an internal list about collaborative consumption:
Collaborative Consumption is a term used to describe a new kind of product and service use, away from ownership, and towards sharing, bartering, and the like. (Well, new in that it actually goes back to pre-capitalist forms of consumption, but makes them broader and have less friction thanks to technology).
There’s a TEDXSydney talk about it.
And if you want the short 3 minute version.
The trick to make collaborative consumption work is experience design. This is very much in line with what we talk about when we…
Luke Wroblewski recently posted “10 Things I Learned In Web School,” a set of realizations he’s had working deep in the Web. I find Luke’s insights spot on, but I realized my experience being deep in the Web has given me a different insight that I believe underlies much of what he addresses.
1. Mindset matters most.
This first became clear to me as companies attempted to “become Web 2.0” through the adoption of features (blogs! customer reviews) and technologies (APIs!). But most of those companies failed, because they didn’t have mindset to embrace the philosophy that underlaid Web 2.0 (e…
In this video, Peter Merholz shares a project plan for designing products 3-5 years into the future. This is the second installment of Whiteboard Confessionals, in which we share what’s happening on our office white boards.
My startup, Foodspotting, was born at Adaptive Path. Now it’s growing up (over 40,000 foods have been spotted around the world), and as of today, I’ll be heading off to work on Foodspotting full time. (Follow my adventures: @ladylexy and @foodspotting)
But the things I learned from 3.5 years at AP will continue to be put to good use as I strive to create a “UX-Driven Startup” (and to figure out exactly what that means in practice).
Today, at the Web 2.0 Expo, I shared how I’ve applied what I’ve learned at AP to my own startup so far,...