EP039: On Product Design and Solving Wicked Problems with Adam Richardson
Release Date: 08/09/2016
EP057: Patricia O’Connell & Woo, Wow, and Win
Commanding Business
Band-aid strategies for pleasing customers isn’t enough to differentiate your business—it needs to be designed for service from the ground up. In today's interview with Patricia O’Connell we discover the importance of service design in businesses that compete today. Patricia shares her journey of discovery in the field of service design and the inspiration behind Woo, Wow, and Win, a guide to service design, strategy, and the art of customer delight. Patricia currently serves as the President of Aerten Consulting, in New York City. Key Takeaways: [1:03] As a journalist...
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EP056: Thomas A. Stewart & Woo, Wow, and Win
Commanding Business
Woo, Wow, and Win reveals the importance of designing your company around service, and offers clear, practical strategies based on the idea that the design of services is markedly different than manufacturing. Most companies, both digital and brick-and-mortar, B2B or B2C; are not designed for service—to provide an experience that matches a customer’s expectations with every interaction and serves the company’s needs. When customers have more choices than ever before, study after study reveals that it’s the experience that makes the difference. To provide great experiences that keep...
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EP055: Marc Stickdorn & Service Design Thinking
Commanding Business
Service design thinking is the designing and marketing of services that improve the customer experience, and the interactions between the service providers and the customers. We interview Marc Stickdorn, consultant, speaker and author of This Is Service Design Thinking. Key Takeaways: [1:03] The big idea behind This Is Service Design Thinking. [3:47] How the linear approach can waste two years of your life. [8:01] Silos make an organization easy to manage, but this creates friction. [11:10] The classic trap of change management. [12:43] Adapt the process to the existing culture in...
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EP054: John Mullins & The Customer-Funded Business
Commanding Business
In The Customer Funded Business, best-selling author John Mullins uncovers five novel approaches that scrappy and innovative 21st century entrepreneurs working in companies large and small have ingeniously adapted from their predecessors like Dell, Gates, and the Zieglers. John Mullins is an Associate Professor of Management Practice at the London Business School and a worldwide speaker and educator. He is a regularly published author at Harvard Business Review and MIT Sloan Management Review. Key Takeaways: [1:05] The big idea behind The Customer-Funded Business book. [3:30] Raising...
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EP053: Keith Casey & A Practical Approach to API Design
Commanding Business
Keith Casey is co-author of A Practical Approach to API design: From Principles to Practice. Former Developer Evangelist at Twilio, his current work with Okta focuses on identity and authentication APIs. Keith is a software engineer focusing on creating open architecture, specifically APIs. His goal is to get good technology into the hands of good people to do great things. Key Takeaways: [2:43] Keith Casey describes APIs from a business perspective. [5:04] Why would a business adopt an API strategy? [7:01] Twilio eliminates the need for a carrier contract and provides...
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EP052: Karen Dillon & Competing Against Luck
Commanding Business
Journalist, author, and speaker, Karen Dillon is a former editor of Harvard Business Review Magazine, and the former Deputy Editor of Inc. Magazine. She recently co-authored Competing Against Luck with Clay Christensen. Using the Jobs to Be Done framework, Karen Dillon and her co-authors help businesses understand what causes customers to "hire" a product or service. With that understanding, a business can improve its innovation track record, creating products that customers really want. Jobs theory offers new hope for growth to companies frustrated by their hit and...
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EP051: David Hubbard & Technology for Sales and Marketing
Commanding Business
David Hubbard is a Revenue Growth Expert and CEO of Marketing Outfield. He works with private and public companies to strategically align sales, marketing, and product development efforts and grow annual revenues by 25-50%. He creates growth machines by integrating a company’s core values into the customer decision-making process. Key Takeaways: [1:14] Many companies struggle to find alignment between the three revenue-producing functions of product management, product marketing, and sales. [3:31] When companies struggle with alignment, the customer experiences mixed messages in the...
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EP050: Jim Kalbach on Designing Web Navigation and Mapping Experiences
Commanding Business
Jim Kalbach is a noted author, speaker, and instructor in user experience design, information architecture, and strategy. He is currently the Head of Consulting and Education with MURAL, a leading online whiteboard for digital collaboration. Previously, Jim has worked with large companies, such as Audi, SONY, Elsevier Science, Lexis Nexis, Citrix, and eBay, among others. Jim Kalbach authored #1 Amazon Business Development Bestseller, Mapping Experiences: A Guide to Creating Value Through Journeys, Blueprints, and Diagrams. Key Takeaways: [1:05] Jim Kalbach never worried about what...
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EP049: Daniel Burrus & The Future of Global Trends and Innovation
Commanding Business
Author of the NYT and WSJ bestseller, Flash Foresight, Daniel Burrus is a leading futurist in global trends and innovation. A leading consultant to Google, Proctor & Gamble, IBM, and many other Fortune 500 firms, Daniel Burrus provides strategic advice for predicting forthcoming market innovators and anticipating disruptions before they disrupt. His Anticipatory Organization Model uses the key components of hard and soft trends to identify transformative, pre-active solutions. Key Takeaways: [1:33] To see the invisible and do the impossible, you must start with certainty. [7:02] How a...
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EP048: Bill Halal & Technology's Promise
Commanding Business
Author of six books, with a seventh in the works, Bill Halal is a Professor Emeritus of Management, Technology and Innovation at George Washington University. As the President of TechCast, Bill Halal and his team study the impact of artificial intelligence, the age of knowledge as compared to the age of consciousness, and future forecasting with a goal of simplifying change at the meso-economic level. Key Takeaways: [1:09] TechCast is a collective intelligence system that collects background data on emerging technologies, social trends, and wildcards. [2:56] TechCast has...
info_outlineToday’s guest is the multi-faceted and uniquely talented Adam Richardson. He is the author of the book Innovation X: Why a Company’s Toughest Problems Are Its Greatest Advantage, and is a contributing writer for the Harvard Business Review. Adam was formerly a design lead at Frog Design focusing on strategy and user research practices and today, he works as a product manager at Financial Engines. He shares his insights on how companies can continually bring innovation to the market, start solving ‘wicked’ problems and truly understand the customer experience.
Key Takeaways:
[1:14] There are common problems within certain business segments. If your company is able to solve the problems you have the advantage.
[5:44] Instead of attempting to solve problems with a purely internal, operations perspective, bring in an external, customer-oriented perspective for a balanced solution.
[11:48] A wicked problem is a type of problem that is very systemic in nature. You know there is a problem, but the fundamental challenge is trying to figure out what the problem actually is.
[12:26] To understand wicked problems you need to first start forming solutions. It's an iterative process where your understanding of the problem develops as you come up with initial solutions.
[15:35] Ethnographic research is working with a small number of customers in an intimate, emotional way.
[23:08] How can leaders adopt the challenge of the unknown to solve wicked problems?
[27:37] ‘Design Thinking’ is neither universal among designers nor exclusive to them.
[38:11] Leaders have to manage internal and external communications, and reinforce the company’s vision.
[40:54] Customer journey mapping is one of the most powerful tools a company can use.
[45:44] Relinquish some control in order to provide the customer a unique experience.
[50:06] Contact information for Adam Richardson
Mentioned in This Episode: