Xperience This!

Back in June, I was a guest VIP blogger at the World Innovation Forum here in NYC. As you might intuit, the theme of the conference was innovation, or rather the lack of innovation within many companies today. While there were many ideas and reasons why a company should innovate, one of the recurring themes for how they should innovate was through Measurement. The most passionate speaker on measurement was the opening keynote speaker Dr. Michael Porter. Dr. Porter “had me at hello” as he jumped right in and began talking about measuring outcomes in the health care industry.

Dr. Porter pointed out that while the health care industry is a science and evidence-based industry with regard to the products it brings to market, (i.e. hypothesis, testing, measurement, etc.),  when it comes to understanding how well those products actually work in the context of  patient care, the industry falls short of the mark. Why? Because other than cancer remission and organ transplant success, the health care industry as a whole does not measure outcomes of end-to-end patient care. I was surprised to learn that an industry rooted in experimentation, results and measurement does not routinely continue to track things beyond go-to-market. Interestingly, Dr. Porter noted that when the industry does measure, monitor, and optimize outcomes, the results are dramatic in a very positive way. Download Dr. Porter’s slides for details.

While Dr. Porter’s talk was specific to measuring outcomes in the health care industry, the principle is applicable to every industry and organization. While measurement is not a new concept, outcomes-based measurement is still very much an innovation; however, it won’t be for long. Because measuring outcomes has the “magical” affect of getting everyone concerned with metrics to care about what’s really important for both your business and your target audience. More »

Seven (7) tips to help you ensure your business and customers are getting demonstrably valuable designs from your agency

No doubt you are aware of programs that were elegant, motivating experiences for their target audiences and returned compelling business results. The question is how can you ensure that the work your agencies are doing for you will result in such experiences? Do you know what good looks like when you’re watching it develop? 

If you’re not even thinking to ask that question, then here’s

Tip #1: Ask it

After all, something about this headline intrigued you, right? Whatever industry you work in, you have the responsibility to question what it is your agencies are creating and why. And not just questions like, “Are you using the right treatment of the logo?” Rather bottom line questions like, “Will I ever see a quantifiable or qualifiable benefit of that $80,000 Flash video you suggested we put on our site?” or “That 55-e-mail communication stream…how will we know it is working for us?”

Some agencies are questioning themselves. Take David Berkowitz and his Inside the Marketer’s Studio blog where he recently ‘atoned’ for sins on behalf of marketers and agencies. Included among his confessions was, “We have killed ideas that were spot on in favor of pet projects that we wanted for our portfolios.” If you’re not lucky enough to be working with an agency that has developed this level of self-awareness and self-evaluation, I’ve provided some tried and true tips for ensuring your agency is gives you good design. More »