Stealing or Borrowing both Work

Does Innovation have to be that tough? Picasso said, “Good artist copy,  Great artist steal.  What do you think? Austin Kleon’s talk Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative is a creative manifesto based on 10 things he wish he’d heard when he was starting out. Austin is a writer Read More …

Personas, Stakeholder, Journey Maps work?

Successful companies are now viewing their marketing as a method for getting the message in from the marketplace versus pounding the message out. It is this inbound marketing stuff we have been talking about the last few years. The new methodologies of User Experience, Service Design, Design Thinking and the Lean StartupTM are all about Read More …

Introduction to User Interviews

Steve Portigal. author of Interviewing Users: How to Uncover Compelling Insights, is the founder of  Portigal Consulting. Steve was my guest on the Business901 podcast, Uncovering Compelling Insights. This is a transcription of the podcast. Steve was gracious enough to secure a discount code for the book, IUBUSINESS901 for 20% off,  if purchased through Rosenfeld Read More …

Improve Sales try a Simplicity Persona

Recently I wrote a blog post, Value Stream Mapping should be left on the Shop Floor that some people took as a reflection on Value Stream Mapping versus my real intentions focused on the efforts of many consultants trying to force fit Lean into sales and marketing. I have certainly been guilty of that at Read More …

Voices Matter: Are you helping the situation?

Everyone is talking about conversations but are we really having them? Are 90% of conversations incorporated in 140 characters or thinking of the latest sound bite to get our message across? In Russ Unger’s new book Designing the Conversation: Techniques for Successful Facilitation (Voices That Matter) he discusses the ability to communicate and the practice Read More …

Adding Context to the Buyer Persona

So much has been written about Buyer Personas, Empathy Maps, etc., I have resisted sharing how I create mine. I am not sure that I can add anything new, but a slightly different perspective may be worth something. I have found most Personas as an exercise that is seldom done in the sales and marketing Read More …