Do you co-create value with your Customer?
By · CommentsMy podcast guest next week is Arne van Oosterom, Partner at DesignThinkers in Amsterdam. He is a Designer in Residence at the Oslo School for Architecture and Design & Norwegian Center for Service Innovation, Founder of the Design Thinkers Network, Co-Founder of the Service Design Network Netherlands, Catalyst at WENOVSKI and Founder of the Healthcare Initiative CareToDesign and Keynote Speaker at various International Universities and Conferences. A preview of the podcast is below:
Joe: I think you have to go deeper than relationships. You have to actually start playing in the customer’s playground. You’ve got to be there with them in the use of the product. Does service design support that theory?
Arne: Well, it’s support service design in the sense that we really believe in what we call a value co?creation. Value is always being co?created, and we are moving away from what we call value in exchange, to a world where value is being used as a center stage. Value in exchange very simply means that you put a lot of value into a product as a factory as a producer, and then you exchange your product for money with a consumer. I buy something for my company, and I give them money, they give me a product. That’s value in exchange. That’s what we are focusing on right now, which is the product?dominant logic.
But you’re moving more towards a service?dominant logic, which is something you can see, for instance, with smartphones. I always say, a couple years ago when you would buy a non?smartphone, a traditional Nokia when we were still buying Nokias, you would buy the phone. But if you put the phone in your closet, Nokia wouldn’t care. The deal was made, money was exchanged, so that’s fine.
Nowadays, if you buy a phone, either the producer of the phone ?? be it Samsung, be it Nokia, be it Apple ?? they will not be happy if you’re not starting to use the phone. You need to have the phone, because it’s connected to all kinds of other stuff, and it’s part of this ecosystem. This ecosystem is only healthy when it’s in use.
So it has to have value for me in use, and that is something that is very much different, because I think what we’ll see is that more and more products will become connected. And data becomes more and more important, because that is actually the way you have your relationships with your customers. That’s your conversation you have with your customers.
I specifically enjoyed the comment, “This ecosystem is only healthy when it is in use.” Do you look at your product or service from that point of view? Do you treat your product/service as an enabler of value? IT frames your perspective entirely different. In fact, it is one of my key theories on how you create demand. Is your product unhealthy because you added more features and benefits to appeal to a wider audience? Would you have been better off increasing the use of your product through additional product/services? To accomplish this, you have to be involved with your customer. You cannot just be observing, you need to roll up you’re sleeves, take off your boots and play in their playground.
Related Information:
It’s not about the things we make, it’s how we use the things we make
Value can no longer be defined as What a Customer will pay for!
Can Service Design increase Customer demand?
The Service-dominant Logic of Marketing: Dialog, Debate, And Directions
A Service Design Thinking Primer
By · CommentsMy blog and podcast for next few months will focus on Business Strategists, Design Thinkers, Appreciative Inquiry Coaches, Architects and of course Lean Thinkers. I could not think of a better way to start this series than having a podcast with co-author Marc Stickdorn of This is Service Design Thinking. This is a transcription of the podcast.
Define the Expectation, Delight the Customer
Lean Engagement Team Book Released
Appreciative Inquiry instead of Problem Solving
Prototypes provide a Pathway for Connecting with Customers
Plan your Show and Tell – Mindmap on Prototyping
By · CommentsAt some point and time, you have to turn your idea into a reality. The best way is to get feedback as early as possible even at the pen paper stage, Your First Prototype is with Pen and Paper. Most of us are bias about our idea and even in the way we perceive and interpret the data. This is why having a structured approach to prototyping is imperative. Without one, we typically see what we want to see. As a result, we gain confirmation versus additional knowledge.
You must be very open to feedback at this stage. You must welcome complaints and criticisms from others. If you take an honest and positive approach in gaining feedback from others, you will have increased your odds of success and gain the valuable information needed.
The instinctive type approach is surprisingly rather closed to alternatives. As a result the outcome is frequently flawed or less effective than a structured approach. In The Thinker’s Toolkit: 14 Powerful Techniques for Problem Solving
- We commonly begin our analysis of a problem by formulating our conclusions; we thus start at what should be the end of the analytic process.
- Our analysis usually focuses on the solution which we intuitively favor; we therefore give inadequate attention to alternative solutions.
- The solution we intuitively favor is more often than not the first one that seems satisfactory.
- We tend to confuse “discussing/thinking hard” about a problem with “analyzing” it (these2 activities are not at all the same).
- We focus on the substance (evidence, arguments, and conclusions) and not on the process of our analysts.
- Most people are functionally illiterate when it comes to structuring their analysis.
If people have not learned and understood problem solving techniques, they cannot formulate a reasonable conclusion. It is a guess and a reaction based simply on intuition. Building the prototype is the easy part. Breaking them, testing them and learning from them is the important part. In a recent read, Prototyping: A Practitioner’s Guide, I found author Todd Warfel description of the process outstanding. Though the book may lend itself more to the UI/UX/IX and other software designers, I found the book fascinating and so grounded in foundational principles that I would recommend it for anyone. The majority of the Mindmap below is a result of my interpretation of the book.
If you would like to download the PDF, Prototype.
The reporting process I recommend for most prototyping is using a basic A3 for structure. This way you outline your process in a clear and concise manner.
Related information:
Why Prototype? Customer Interactivity is the Most Meaningful Part of Design
Prototyping into a Working Form
Prototypes provide a Pathway for Connecting with Customers
A Product Marketers perspective on Prototyping
Need a collection of tools to help generate business model ideas! The Business Model Canvas is an analytical tool outlined in the book Business Model Generation. It is a visual template preformatted with the nine blocks of a business model, which allows you to develop and sketch out new or existing business models. This book has sold over 220,000 copies the past two years and has established itself as one of the leading sources of modeling for both startups and established businesses.
If you’re ready to change the rules, you belong to “the business model generation!” Listen to Alex discuss this concept and he latest extensions to the BMGen platform such as the Customer Value Canvas plugin.
About: Dr. Alexander Osterwalder is a sought-after author, speaker, workshop facilitator and adviser on the topic of business model design and innovation. He has established himself as a global thought leader in this area, based on a systematic and practical methodology to achieve business model innovation. Executives and entrepreneurs all over the world apply Dr. Osterwalder?s approach to strengthen their business model and achieve a competitive advantage through business model innovation. Organizations that use his approach include 3M, Ericsson, IBM, Telenor, Capgemini, Deloitte, Logica, Public Works and Government Services Canada, and many more.
- Competitive Advantage Through Business Model Innovation
- Aligning Business Model Innovation and Information Technology
- From Business Model to Business Plan
- Private Banking Business Models – discover, understand, define
- Business Models in the Media Industry
- Business Models at the Bottom of the Pyramid
- Social Entrepreneurship Business models
- Design Thinking in Business
Alex’s Websites:
http://www.businessmodelalchemist.com
http://businessmodelhub.com/
http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com/
Related Information:
Do You Know the Right Job For Your Products?
Lean Canvas for Lean EDCA-PDCA-SDCA
Will Product Managers embrace Open Innovation?
Steve Blank on the Lean Startup at Ann Arbor
Marketing with Lean Series – 4 Pack
By · CommentsSpecial Offer
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Lean Marketing House (More Info): A starting point for creating true iterative marketing cycles based on not only Lean principles but more importantly Customer Value. Recommended 1st reading of series.
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Lean Engagement Team(More Info): The ability to share and create knowledge with your customer is the strongest marketing tool possible. Recommended 3rd reading of series.
Marketing with A3(More Info): Enables sales and marketing to use the Lean tool of A3 as a structured approach for their problem solving, strategies and tactics. Recommended 4th reading of series.
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This series of books is about developing a continuous improvement culture in your sales and marketing and re-positioning your customer as the center of your organization. The further we are from our customers’ knowledge base the more effort has to be made to create a larger and larger supply of prospects. The ability to share and create knowledge with your customer is the strongest marketing tool possible. Successful Sales and Marketing are no longer trying to get their message out but developing strategies to get the message in.
Disclaimer: There is no silver bullet introduced in these books.
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Related Information:
Lean Marketing House
Marketing with PDCA
Lean Engagement Team
Marketing with A3
