Agility3R Blog

Hidden In Plain Sight
By Erich Joachimsthaler
Harvard Business School Press
223 pages
Reviewed by Jennifer Sertl jennifer@agility3r.com

The best investment you can make for your company this year is to get Hidden in Plain Sight. Joachimsthaler will help you understand your customers in a unique way and educate you on a method that will enable you to find and execute your company’s next big growth strategy. It is a promise delivered. Many companies are working on differentiation strategies marked by these typical questions:

• How can we enhance our product?
• How can we get our product on-line with a paypal account?
• How can we get more market share?

If these are the types of questions your sales and marketing teams are spending time on , you may be in big trouble. These are good questions, but in today’s market place, they are irrelevant. The questions are from the “inside-out.” We were taught that you have to have a value proposition and get exposure to sell a product. Today’s consumers are driving the economy. If you don’t have an “outside-in” mechanism to observe, study, and explore customer utilization, you won’t be able to compete in the near future. The strategy is studying “point of utilization” versus “point of purchase.”
Anthropology, sociology, and psychology are being used more and more frequently to help businesses better under stand their customer’s needs and wants. Only by studying the macro-environment of your customer will you be able access why they are picking one product over another. Focus groups, consumer journal entries, and interviewing strategies are getting more and more recognition as imperative fundamentals of ensuring the “pulse of the customer.”
Hidden In Plain Sight offers some very thorough case studies with both methodology and results from Frito Lay, BMW, and GE. While these companies have greater access to resources, the methods shared can be applied by start ups and small business. It is not the size of the company; it is the level of listening and observation that creates the strategic breakthroughs.
Here is the logic: each individual has 1440 minutes a day. A company’s goal is to get access to an individual’s minutes. Statistically it has been found that people only spend about 15 minutes a day purchasing. So, what do they do with the reaming 1425 minutes? Your consumers are living their lives when they are not consuming your product. So if you want to increase wallet-share you have to have intimate knowledge of how each individual spends their “episodes and moments of activities.” This is what Joachimsthaler calls “capturing the ecosystem of demand.” The more a company understands the macro-environment of each customer, the more able the company to ensure relevance and utilization. Customer satisfaction surveys and traditional marketing techniques still have a function, there just needs to be a balance of intention. Past, present, future focus will enable you to ensure that your company’s product or service falls inside of a customer’s 1440 minutes a day.
Besides the humbling reminder that our product or service is only a small fraction of our customer’s experience, another benefit of Hidden In Plain Sight is an easy to use matrix for deciding the best customer research model. There are four primary intentions with research:
1) To explore – I know I want to innovate, but what is the customer demand landscape?
2) To define—I know the customer demand landscape but where is the opportunity?
3) To enrich—I know where the opportunities lies; how can I leverage these so my product or brand can play a compelling role in customer’s lives?
4) To refine—I know I want to innovate; how do I refine or test my innovation to exactly fit into customer’s lives?

Here is a glimpse of how to best assess the landscape:

Customer experience w/ product Enrich
• Collaging and drawing
• Confessional interviews
• Mind mapping
• Outcome-based interviews
• Real-life experimenting
• Talk-through research• Define
• Collaging and drawing
• Day reconstruction method
• Photo journal
• Shadowing
• Text messaging/beeper studies
• Video observation
• Word/Concept association
• Written journals
Customer experience
w/ life Refine
• Archetypal research
• Card sorting
• Consumer led problem solving
• Consumer product interaction
• Consumer role playing
• Focus groups
• Participatory design
• Metaphor Elicitation Method
• Talk through research Explore
• Card sorting
• Collaging and drawing
• Consumer hypotheses brainstorming
• Consumer stories
• Day reconstruction method
• Metaphor Elicitation Method
• Mind Mapping
• Unfocus groups
• Talk through research

While Joachimsthaler is generous with all the details and methodology he shares, he is aware that very few will be able to leverage his generosity. The most challenging aspect of deploying any of these strategies is that of truly listening to customer’s complaints, feedback, and dreams. You have to forget what you produce and listen from the standpoint of being absolutely concerned about the human being. That is why much of this research has to be conducted by a third-party. Our ability to leverage these methods is our ability to detach from our company and our own preferences. Now I am looking forward to reading that book.

Reviewed by Jennifer Sertl jennifer@agility3.com

If Jerry and I go to our community coffee house for a networking breakfast and each of us has 25 contact names in our Blackberry, we would have as Juliette Powell so brilliantly puts it “33 million people in the room” That is the number of potential relationships available through our modest network of 25 people each. Adding just one person to our exchange can create the potential relationships of almost 1/6 of the world population. Social capital—who you know and the power of those relationships is a recent phenomenon that is dramatically transforming how business is run. The world is flat and we all are competing on our adaptability—how quickly can we get versed in the new economy and leverage tools available.
Powell is a map maker providing direction and longitude and latitude for as she says, “how to create, influence, and run a successful business with social networking.” She shares some of the most popular sites, back stories on Wikipedia and the Obama campaign, and has become the Ann Landers of proper social media etiquette. It is hard to believe that Facebook has more users than the United States has people. It is hard to believe that people are getting hired and fired based on what appears on Google. It is amazing that one person who has a bad experience with a company can write a blog and literally cause the business to go bankrupt.
For individuals, the greatest message is to be incredibly thoughtful of every communication you post. These posts are going to be your legacy. You almost have to reverse engineer your vision of yourself and make sure that every choice, every word, every message is aligned with that vision. You will absolutely be judged by your participation, the groups you join, and the language you use.
For companies, the greatest message is that social media is a double edged sword. One side allows you to get deeper data on potential hires, and ability to penetrate the social networks of your employees. The intangible asset of human capital is becoming much easier to make tangible and to bottom line. The side of the blade that cuts is that you are forced to pay even more attention to the customer experience and also the employee engagement process. Customers have more power to impact your brand reputation. You will be judged more harshly on every interaction and responsiveness. If you are not prepared to pay more attention to social media—you are going to miss critical research on your customer’s voice and also the 1440 minutes they are spending when they are not purchasing from you. As far as employee engagement, if you don’t create great employee Ambassadors your brand reputation may be tarnished because of angry or frustrated employees. The exponential repercussions of bad experiences both internal and external are accelerated because of immediacy and virality of social media.
I was at an event recently and a prominent CEO of a manufacturing company was asked, “Do you have a social media strategy?” The person responded, “No, haven’t thought of if. Doesn’t seem relevant in our market.” I Federal Expressed this book to that CEO with a clear message, “Rethink your social media strategy.”

Everywhere I turn I am being advised to leverage social media. There is even the new concept of “ 33 million people in the room.” With so many channels and methods to communicate to higher levels of influence and greater numbers in an audience, it is refreshing to know that the playing field is still relatively flat. Just because you have access to people, doesn’t mean you are making IMPACT. Mark Gouldston's, “Just Listen” is filled with realistic scenarios, assessment tests, and a real candid mirror.
If you aren’t getting the results you want in your personal or professional life, there is probably a reason within your control—you probably aren’t an effective communicator.
In pure Gouldston style—you are hit right between the eyes. In Section II Goulston shares his “nine core rules:”
1. Move yourself from “oh F#@& to OK”
2. Rewire yourself to listen
3. Make the other person feel “felt”
4. Be more interested than interesting
5. Make people feel valuable
6. Help people to exhale emotionally and mentally
7. Check your dissonance at the door
8. When all seems lost bare your neck
9. Steer clear of toxic people
You might read over this list and “yeah, yeah, yeah I do those things already.” Do you? Do you really? What makes “Just Listen” so powerful is that Goulston shares several examples where he was out of alignment with these nine core rules. His transparency forces the reader to be more reflective and take personal responsibility.
Creating dissonance is the barrier I most need to resolve. I could see myself in several of the practical scenarios outlined. Having raised awareness I was sure this week would be different. The hardest part about being human is . . . well, being human. We think we are smart, using our prefrontal cortex—where long term decision making, cause-effect thinking take place-and then we make a choice just a little wiser than a reptile. Bottom line is—just because we are aware of something that needs to change; that awareness doesn’t guarantee change. Being effective truly requires introspection, practice and patience. “Just Listen” is not a quick read. It is a workbook, a playbook, and flight plan. For the wisdom here to truly support sustainable progress, you might be keeping it as accessible as your blackberry.
Sales managers, marriage counselors, teachers, and spouses “Just Listen” is the greatest gift you could give yourself to enhance your own awareness and ability to reach those who are most important to you. Just read!

Excerpt from : Secrets of the World Class
By Steve Siebold
The Middle Class competes...the World Class creates.
The Middle Class avoids risk...the World Class manages risk.
The Middle Class loves to be comfortable... The World Class is comfortable being uncomfortable.
The Middle Class hungers for security...The World Class doesn't believe security exists.
The Middle Class sacrifices growth for safety... The World Class sacrifices safety for growth.
The Middle Class focuses on having...The World Class focuses on being.
The Middle Class has a lottery mentality... The World Class has an abundance mentality.
The Middle Class slows down...The World Class calms down.
The Middle Class is frustrated...The World Class is grateful.
The Middle Class operates out of fear and scarcity...The World Class operates from love and abundance.
The Middle Class has pipedreams...The World Class has vision.
The Middle Class denies its intuition...The World Class embraces its intuition.
The Middle Class trades time for money...The World Class trades ideas for money.
The Middle Class is problem oriented...The World Class is solution oriented.
The Middle Class sees itself as a victim....The World Class sees itself as responsible.
The Middle Class thinks it knows enough...The World Class is eager to learn.
The Middle Class chooses fear...The World Class chooses growth.
The Middle Class is boastful...The World Class is humble.
The Middle Class seeks riches...The World Class seeks wealth.
The Middle Class believes its vision only when it sees it...The World Class knows it will see its vision when it believes it.

Everything is Waiting for You
By David Whyte

Your great mistake is to act the drama
as if you were alone. As if life
were a progressive and cunning crime
with no witness to the tiny hidden
transgressions. To feel abandoned is to deny
the intimacy of your surroundings. Surely,
even you, at times, have felt the grand array;
the swelling presence, and the chorus, crowding
out your solo voice. You must note
the way the soap dish enables you,
or the window latch grants you freedom.
Alertness is the hidden discipline of familiarity.
The stairs are your mentor of things
to come, the doors have always been there
to frighten you and invite you,
and the tiny speaker in the phone
is your dream-ladder to divinity.

Put down the weight of your aloneness and ease into
the conversation. The kettle is singing
even as it pours you a drink, the cooking pots
have left their arrogant aloofness and
seen the good in you at last. All the birds
and creatures of the world are unutterably
themselves. Everything is waiting for you.