My first foray back into blogging after a years hiatus has been spurred on by the excellent Google+. Rising from the ashes of the percieved failures of Wave and Buzz it reminded me the importance of being decisive when things don't quite work out right.
My thoughts from experiences over the past 18 months.
Starting something is the hardest step. There's never a right time. Or enough time. Just do it. Inaction is always more costly than being wrong.
Never be afraid to stop something that isn't working. It's never too late to take time out to do something properly. Particularly if you're on a deathmarch.
Reboot. Try again. Change it. Look at if from a different angle. There are never complete failures. See the good that was there. Make something new.
In his excellent book ‘Rules of Thumb’,Alan Weber quotes (and I’m paraphrasing here from the original Tom Peters quote)
“On time, on budget, who cares?”
It's an inflammatory line that hides a pragmatic message; In many cases on time and on budget has little to do with overall success, and success is why you start a project in the first place (to be successful in your goals). Why then do so many projects use this as their main manta in the way they are run?
Think of the big marketing and tech successes of recent years - the iPhone, Google’s many services, Facebook – and we find lessons on the way these companies have deployed ideas what has been their key focus (a prize for guessing whether the iPhone was indeed on time or on budget).
This led me to think about the projects I've been involved with, from big brands to small, quick projects to long, creative led design projects to deeply technical projects – and it rang true.
So, inspired by Weber’s book I came up with my own Rules of Thumb for what really matters to making projects successful.All the advice below assumes your doing all the basics like picking a good project management style like Scrum, you have a good team and some modem design thinking like UCD, EED etc.
I first made a list of all the major projects I'd been involved with the projects (22 major projects in total) and wrote down a what made them successful or what made them fail. Fortunately all of them were delivered on broadly on time or on budget, so the variance was on how successful they were in the end. Here are the top 5 (well 7 as there we some joint most common features), and though this was subjective exercise, there were a few surprises
#1 Understanding the brief, and having a clear vision. This sounds obvious and easy, but doing this well was the most common factor in successful projects I’ve been involved in, and doing this badly is prominent in project failure. Typicall, every team will have read the brief, and have a vision; but it’s the degree to which everyone truly understands the brief, have translated it into what it means for their role and re-visited the brief and vision as the project evolves that I’ve found to be a main determinant on how a project does
#2 Moving rapidly from concept to reality (and back). Tim Brown’s ‘Change by Design’ makes this point well (page 87 if you have the book). Teams who spend to long in concept before making there ideas physical lose the reality of what the project is trying to achieve and procrastinate. Jump to reality too quickly and you missing chances to step back as see the broad picture and innovate. Great projects get this balance right, and at key times can work seamlessly from concept to reality (and back).
Joint #3Sticking close to the end user – staying close to the users from the start and throughout the project is a common feature of Agile projects, and I’ve found it to be a key factor of success. Getting face to face time with the people who your are trying to delight and the problems and opportunities they face is invaluable.
Joint #3Recognising that new ideas and projects will cause change – projects and ideas are generally about doing something new, and with that inevitably comes change. Teams that recognise this and embrace change (and also recognise that people really really don’t like change) do well and can manage and prepare for these very human aspects of doing things. Some of the most challenged projects I’ve worked on is where teams have demanded “we want to do something new and ground breaking with this idea”, but in the same breadth mentioned “but don’t want to change the way we do things”. This can extend in some cases to entire companies, and industries – in 2010 most Media companies are great examples not recognising how difficult change can be.
Joint #4 A passionate product owner – if you’re not familiar with Scrum terminology, a ‘product owner’ “represents the voice of the customer. They ensure that the team works with the “right things” from a business perspective”. They are also very handy at getting rid of obstacles and managing and communicating to stakeholders; all very useful in maintain good pace in developing ideas and projects.The more engaged the product owner, the better the project. If you can get this person engaged daily on your project then your chances of success are a whole lot better.
Joint #4 Immersion – this goes hand in hand with thebeing close to users. Teams who immerse themselves in the project, the problem, the customer, the solution do well. This can mean anything from store visits, moodboarding or posting pictures of your users on the wall. Teams who makes active steps to get immersed early do well.
#5 Funding – a very tricky topic to cover entirely but one that often kills a great project or idea when everyone least expects it.Most teams know the importance of funding at the start of a venture but it’s the good ones who take the time out to understand the interests and concerns of those holding the cash (and keep close to them throughout the project), have a good rationale for why the project should be funded and what it will return (which doesn’t always have to be a indepth business case) and tracking the financial benefits as the idea develops.
These are in my view the most common "advanced " elements in successful projects. Going through this I was surprised that a good plan, having fun, and good communication didn't rank higher against these elements. In part two of this post I’ll outline a few tips on what you can do to implement each of these areas.
As always, I’d love to hear any feedback you have from your experiences.
Last Friday I went Conway Hall to attend Playful 09, an event that brought together a mix of developers, designers, artists, bloggers and thinkers. With speakers from companies from Channel 4 to interactive agencies, the topic for the day was the role of playfulness in media, be it interactive games or the way we effect social change.
Play, and playfulness doesn’t immediately seem an important topic. As the day progressed two things became apparent, 1. The level investment in ‘playful’ media is significant enough to take notice and 2. We underestimate play as a motivator, this is particularly important for creating valuable social experiences which so many brands are striving for.
So, as with the Seth Godin talk earlier this year, I thought I’d share a few points from the day I found useful. Enjoy.
Fun motivates and changes our behaviour
With more marketing campaigns incorporating a social aspect, a big challenge for this medium is answering the question ‘why should a user or customer get involved’, ‘what is in it for them’?
Fun provides an answer to motivating a user.Some examples from Playful 09 were poignant, some bizarre but some showed real results - my two favourite examples being Volkswagen’s ‘Arcade Bottle Bank’ which showed encouraging adoption and shows you recycle more when it’s fun...
...and the Sidekick Studios Voicebox robot, which aims to catch the attention of MP’s by being placed in the upper waiting gallery of the House of Commons, writing out messages on social issues submitted online
Both these cases show taking a playful slant can change behaviour for important topics, and turn mundane tasks into games.
Interactive devices + augmented reality = new opportunities
Chris o’Shea gave a entertaining talk through some of his projects which focus on interactivity and playfulness.The example below is the well publicised augmented reality piece “A Hand From Above” which was staged in Liverpool recently....
... but I was more impressed with the less famous, but more powerful “Beacon” installation.Both examples show what great experiences can be created using interactive technologies which marketers should explore for their brands.
As the piano stairs example from Volkswagen shows, making something fun AND usable is a challenge – the discussion at Playful highlighted that the usability of the stairs would decrease as novelty decreases (and annoyance increases).
Play is great then. It can be an important asset to an experience. How to integrate it within our projects though?
Prototyping to find the fun
-Playfulness is elusive, so a major lesson from the day was that you find the fun and playfulness through learning from prototypes in a process where you’re not afraid to try alternatives.
Awesomeness is important not innovation
-One speaker referenced Umair Haques greatest recent post on The Awesome Manifesto – Umair reasons that what is important today is how awesome a product, experience, service is (in contrast to how innovative it is). Playfulness and Awesomeness seemed good companions.
The role of a high score
-The day showed that if you’re designing a playful experience consider whether there is a role for scoring – what will motivate users to engage with the experience or game, and how using scoring can change behaviour.
Throughout 2009 Mobile has got ever more exciting. Augmented reality (AR) has captured the imagine of the technology press and while there is no landmark moment for mobile AR yet, it's got true potential beyond the hype. If you're not aware of some of the possibilities for mobile AR, here's a quick video below
This got me thinking about past Mobile trends, particularly Mobile commerce. Mcommerce (the act of purchasing goods and services via a mobile) was a buzz word that seemed to be forever be next years big thing, and last year I contributed a few times to articles on why the channel has taken a long time to grow.
I'd forgotten all the mCommerce hype until realising last week that I'd spent nearly £1000 in 2009 on purchases made via my smartphone, a big share of wallet and a considerable figure given it's not even Autumn. Up from last year of less then £50, my purchases were split between buying flights, books, memory cards, the odd music event and the largest ticket item, a £500 laptop.
So what had changed or become mainstream since 2008?
·Better phones and flate rate data tariffs. 2009's smartphones are making mCommerce a lot simpler. I'd switched my smartphone to Vodafone's Google Android over the summer and found it a very simple browsing experience. Enhancements such as Google Voice make accessing information on products very easy, and mobile shopping becomes a bearable user experience.
·Better dedicated mobile sites. Few retailers have taken mobile seriously, however the best browsing experience I found was still on Amazon's mobile site. Sadly (for the competition) is not a new development but still featured some key elements of a great mobile experience, it was fast, simple and I had little typing to do and within a few clicks items are orders.
·A multitude of applications now available – The ability to quickly and seamlessly access search engines, shopping comparison sites, scan barcodes and peruse Amazons large catalogue whilst shopping is going to hit the high street hard, a few times this year when a products not been available in store I've ordered it there and then via my phone, typically with a rival brand, but mainly with Amazon
There's plenty of advice around how to make your online site more mobile friendly, so I won't repeat the advice but end my post with some developments which I believe will grow the channel
·Simpler and easy payment - Apple, Google and Nokia know the power of a simple payments mechanism through their respective stores, but we'll began to see 'charge to my mobile bill' as a simple and effective payment option. Mobile Network Operators (Vodafone, O2 etc) will provide simple experiences which will save the trouble of entering in credit card details on a mobile phone; with a simple 'add to my monthly bill' option. This move see's the operators take on the credit card companies as payment providers.
·Augmented Reality driving 'there and then' purchases – When AR and contextual technologies converge there will be some great opportunities – particularly 'click camera to search and buy' products you're viewing in the store environment, making mCommerce more simple, relevant and fun.
·The tipping point for adoption – just as with SMS in the 90's and Facebook in the 00's, mobile commerce needs and will benefit from more peoples involvement, as few retailers have made investments in this area citing perceived low user demand.
I'm always interested to know your experience and statistics on mobile commerce take up, so if you've any opinions drop me a line.
For 10 years retailers have struggled with delivering a great shopping experience via phone, catalogue, website or store so it feels like you’re dealing with one company. Multi-Channel presented challenges as varied as providing consistent product listings and promotions, remembering which channels customers have interacted with and managing channel cannibalisation.
Today only a minority of retailers provide a reasonable multichannel service (I think of John Lewis and Argos as good UK based examples). But a new challenge beyond Multi-Channel is rising; Many-Channel.
We can define ‘Many-Channel‘ as “selling your product or service, directly, through 100’s, 1000’s or potentially an infinite number of channels or individuals”. Two examples.
Direct purchase via online adverts - We’ll see a move away from affiliate models, the sort that are common on news, comparison or blog sites where you see ‘click here to buy’ and are then taken through to the retailers site. Soon, particularly for trusted retailers, it will become accepted to complete the transaction without moving off the page where you seen the advert – a move back to old direct response advertising days.
Direct purchase via video – In a previous post I looked at how Nike were utilising technology from Coull to allow customers to pause and buy the products featured, in this example you can purchase the shirt Cristiano Ronaldo is playing at Old Trafford in. This further changes the way in which we’ll purchase from retailers.
Both these examples highlight the huge number of direct channels retailers will have to understand and manage. While Many-Channel gives a convenient experience for customers, it will bring retailers challenges beyond the current Multi-Channel experience, specifically
Network strategy – Today most retailers work with a small network of organisations that help them sell and who they have a tight control over. To adapt to the Many-Channel challenge retailers must adapt a more embracing network strategy similar to the approach you’d take in building a social media strategy.
Analytics – Even today few retailers can effectively analyse as few as 3 or 4 distinct channels. Investing in an integrated view of all channels will be vital to understand shopping behaviour and optimise the offer across a complex sales network.
A great experience with the advert - Your web address is no longer your only online store front. Where users can complete a purchase straight from any advert or image of your product the message and offer must be consistent and engaging.
