Business: Innovation

According to IBM’s research, design thinking can cut development expenses by around 75% on some projects. Design thinking is all about solving problems by keeping users at the center of the design process and can reshape the entire product experience, whether a mobile app, Web platform, or software as a service (SaaS) tool.

With thousands of apps, Web sites, and services competing for users’ attention, we must exceed their expectations. User behaviors are shifting faster than ever, so keeping up with the marketplace can feel like a never-ending sprint. Imbibing a user-centered mindset through UX innovation can bring clarity and focus in the midst of that rush. Focus on what real people expect and value to avoid wasting time coding features that would fall flat. Start putting users first.

Design thinking sparks fresh concepts in UX design and each step of the process—research, prototyping, and feedback—can result in greater user engagement and a much better user experience, truly connecting users to your product. Let’s explore how a user-centric approach can encourage new ways of thinking about product design. Read More

This is an excerpt from Chapter 4 of Jim Kalbach’s new book The Jobs to Be Done Playbook: Align Your Markets, Organization, and Strategy Around Customer Needs. ©2020, Rosenfeld Media.

Chapter 4: Defining Value

In this chapter, you will learn about these plays:

• How to find unmet needs
• How to create goal-based personas
• A new way to compare competing solutions
• How to define a value proposition

The product marketing manager at a company I once worked for stood up in a meeting to present his strategy. He proceeded to describe the top customer needs that we should support with our solutions. I was thrilled to see him align to a customer-centric model. Read More

Much has been written on the difference between innovation and invention. This makes some sense because it seems every company in the world, big or small, is striving for an innovative approach to solving existing problems. However, there is mass confusion about what innovation actually is—especially in the enterprise-software space.

It seems that every consultancy is frothing at the mouth to win the very lucrative opportunities to help organizations solve their digital-transformation problems. And they’re employing our experience-design playbook to do this.

How? In a word: empathy. Hearing and reading about all the latest approaches in technology and sales, empathy is the best new thing—the secret skill that can enable us to reach dizzying, new heights. Empathy could solve world hunger and make us all better people. But the fact that empathy does actually make us better people is lost on most. Empathy can help us innovate more quickly and, ultimately, sell more products, satisfy more customers, and generate greater revenues. Read More