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(Including
2 new job posts from our jobs
board... a new Gel video ... two site launches ... and
lots of Fun Stuff.)
Customer
experience includes distribution
One
of my favorite lessons in customer experience came via the
Loch Ness Monster hunter. Back in 1995, in my last semester in
grad school, I signed up for a class in patent law taught by
the late Professor Robert Rines (see Wikipedia),
an engaging, friendly lecturer who also happened to be a
pre-eminent hunter of the Loch Ness Monster. (Professor Rines
passed away a few months ago and the Economist wrote a
respectful obituary
that's well worth reading.)
As
interesting as Professor Rines was, I learned a key lesson
about customer experience from a guest speaker who told us
about his experiences starting a small business. He was young,
a former student, who had invented a new type of helium
balloon - I forget the details, but something that offered an
improvement over the standard balloon you see at parties.
Given
that his innovation met the three key requirements of being
new, useful, and nonobvious (hey, I guess I did pay
attention!) he had acquired a patent and was building a
business around producing and selling these balloons into the
market.
Then
he explained the steps he had gone through so far. He drew a
block diagram on the blackboard, something like this:
[concept]
-> [design] -> [prototype] -> [production] ->
[distribution]
What
was the most important step in the process, in his experience?
Well, he said, the concept phase was definitely the most fun.
Playing with ideas, thinking about problems to solve, dreaming
about business models. That took a small amount of time and
effort but was enjoyable. Now he had his concept: an idea for
an improved helium balloon.
Next,
the design phase. It took a little more time and effort,
sketching out how he planned to create the balloon, but he
worked it out fairly quickly.
Then
he had to assemble some tools and make the design real, in the
form of a physical prototype. This proved his concept and
allowed him to show it to production facilities to see who
could make the product - at scale, within a budget, adhering
to quality standards, and so on. Suddenly he was spending a
lot of time in meetings and evaluating partners. This took
much more time and he was no longer innovating - he was
concerned with details upon details about execution.
Finally
he had his production lined up and he went to get the product
into the market - party stores, supermarkets, gift shops - via
various distributors. Here he had to explain to mostly
uninterested people why his product would sell, how they
should display it, what his fulfillment terms were, and so on.
It took forever - or I should say was taking forever,
because he was still months into this phase when he came to
talk to the class. Long hours, tough work, all yielding slow,
small steps forward.
And
now, he said, you can probably guess which is the most
important phase: distribution. Yes, dreaming up the
concept and designing the invention was fun. That probably
took up 1% of my time so far. Creating the prototype took
another 5%. Getting production going took another 20%. And
getting distribution has taken up the rest of my time. It's
the hardest and most important challenge.
As
a 22-year-old grad student, I thought this was a strange
outcome. With all the emphasis on big ideas and elegant
solutions that we were taught at MIT, why was this guy
spending almost 75% of his time on a decidedly low-tech,
non-innovative problem space? Why was he saying this was the
most important task in his entrepreneurial career?
I
started my own business a couple of years later, and I've been
experiencing ever since the truth of his lesson. For my
consulting firm, Creative
Good, the customer experience we create is for our clients
- and fortunately our concept, design, prototype, and
production are all excellent (if I do say so myself). But
distribution has always been a challenge. Adhering to our own
core principles and methods has often made it harder to fit
the square peg into the round holes that the market is looking
for. There can be a pressure, in other words, to compromise
the concept in order to open up distribution. (View almost any
well-distributed Hollywood blockbuster to see this in action.)
Then
later I tried, with some success, to get my book Bit
Literacy into bookstores, without signing a bad
publishing contract - more on that in secrets
of book publishing I wish I had known. Suffice to say that
distribution is a major determinant of success in publishing,
even in this shiny digital future we're entering.
But
here's the thing: distribution is part of the
customer experience. If the customer doesn't have any access
to your brilliant idea, they can't ever experience it. Access
itself is just as important - or perhaps, in the words of the
balloon entrepreneur - more important - to the
success of the idea than the idea itself.
For
the customer experience you create, consider the
stages your innovation goes through - from initial concept to
finally being experienced by the end user. What are the most
fun points? What are the most time-consuming? And what, if
you're being honest about the process, is the most important?
For
more reading
Two
new site launches and several other resources this week.
-m
New
site #1: cgcouncils.com
- our new Councils website is up, now with a video featuring
the wonderful Marie Tahir, Sarah Smith Bernard, Lou Weiss,
Aaron Puritz, Phil Terry, Anne Ashbey, and others. Take
a look.
New
site #2: sittingo.com
- I'll say more about this in a future newsletter, but I've
quietly launched SittingO, a site with conference
videos and speaker lists from dozens of great events. Let
me know what you think.
Brief
column - Should
a brand love you back? "...I would only suggest that, in
many contexts, customers aren't looking for love. They don't
want a "relationship." Painful as it might be for some
executives to accept, the company's brand is not the center of
the customer's universe."
Wolfram
Tones and auto-generated music: Auto-generate music in a
number of styles ... I have to wonder where we're headed from
here. Is this about as good as algorithms can do - or do they
improve further as processing power increases in coming
years?
How
an indie bookseller got productive, and less stressed, by managing
info better.
And
from my Twitter
feed...
•
Instant declutter: right now, spend 30 seconds deleting as
many irrelevant emails from the inbox as you can.
•
Technically, shouldn't the phrase be "burst a move"?
(kidding...)
•
Dear NPR underwriters: you no longer need to say "forward
slash" when the guy reads off your URL. (Memo dated 1998.)
•
Another 30-second declutter: type in, or write down, ONE list
of the 3 main things you need to work on today.
•
Gel speaker @ZinaSaunders draws Utne
Reader cover - see her Gel
2009 video.
•
Front page, NYTimes: we're deluged in bits - http://goodexperiencenewsletter.cmail4.com/t/y/l/bijkkj/yduukymk/a
- "oh, if only there was a solution!" Ahem, read Bit
Literacy.
...more
of this sort of stuff here.
Video
of The Gregory Brothers at Gel 2010
 The
Gregory Brothers: The team behind Auto Tune the News, the
phenomenal video serios, takes us behind the scenes to see how
the experience is created.
See also the highlights
of Gel 2010 - a 2-minute video showing fun moments from
the event.
Job
Opening: The Motley Fool (Front End Web Developer)
Company:
The Motley Fool
Title: Front End Web Developer
Location:
Alexandria, VA
The
Motley Fool is looking for one more experienced,
passionate UI- layer developer to join our team. If you live
& breathe CSS, thriving on the
satisfaction you get after wrestling the browsers into
submission, you'll be great. Also, we're one of the best
places to work in the Washington DC Area. Jobs.Fool.com
Apply
here.
Job
Opening: Tiny Prints (Senior User Interface Designer)
Company:
Tiny Prints
Title: Senior User Interface
Designer
Location: Mountain View, CA
This person
will be part of a cross functional team developing interfaces
that meet business objectives and the needs of our
customers. The UI designer will be responsible for
quickly turning abstract requirements and use case
documentation into concrete design specifications.
Send
resume to: jobs@tinyprints.com. Put
"UI Designer" in subject.
Fun
Stuff
A
new look at the Star
Wars briefing scene.
The
European debt crisis explained
with great humor.
Jon
Stewart gives an important history lesson - about the U.S.'s
historic dependence
on foreign oil.
Also
don't miss this comedy video - "BP
spills coffee" - funny, or maybe just heartbreakingly
accurate.
Not
fun at all, but following up the BP video above, here's are
more oil-spill related pointers: striking
photo of the oil spill ... collection of anti-BP
art ... howmanygallonsspilled
, like the Debt Clock but more depressing ... and, on the
brighter side, an upcoming conference
on the oil spill.
Catchy,
funny, awesome: Auto Tune the News #12. Watch
it here.
Once
again, the 2-minute highlights
video of Gel 2010 is a fun snack.
Finally,
don't miss my list
of good Web games...
...and
my list
of good iPhone games...
...and
my list
of good iPad games.
Until
next time,
-
Mark Hurst
mark@goodexperience.com
Author,
Good
Experience
Host, Gel
conference
Founder and president, Creative
Good
Creator, Good
Todo
Author, Bit
Literacy
Follow
me on Twitter here.
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