Storytelling is as magical as it is ancient. While many of us appreciate the power of story, we all could benefit from learning the art and science of storytelling and how it can help every facet of or professional and personal lives. Anyone who knows me, is well aware of my love for Disney. I’ve spent years studying the work of Walt, Imagineering, Pixar, et al. During the development of X: The Experience When Business Meets Design, I partnered with…
AI Marketing: The Next Big Thing
I recently had the opportunity to talk to SAS about a topic close to their heart and mine: AI Marketing. Why are we excited about this? Well, you can read more of our conversation here but in a nutshell AI has the power to revolutionize the way we market and how we shape the customer journey. In the Q&A I delve into the competitive benefits of AI marketing, the power AI has to reshape traditional marketing, the changes it will…
Perspectives: Reimagining space and experience In the future of retail
I just finished researching innovation trends in retail. It took over a year to complete and honestly, the insights shared in it are applicable to every industry. Please download, read and share it with your colleagues, even if you’re not in retail. It’ll help. Recently, I was invited to present my findings on retail innovation at The Summit hosted by AT&T. I also cut right to the heart of the matter, that what we’re really talking about is change. How…
We keep talking about Millennials and Centennials, let’s just talk about human beings first and go from there
It’s my job to study how people, you and me, are changing as a result of our relationship with technology. It’s also my job to then reverse-engineer those insights into opportunities for innovation. There are immediate areas of where human-centered design can solve problems you are facing right now. There are many more areas where human-centered innovation and iteration can help you create competitive and critical opportunities for the future. Everything from customer experience (CX) and employee experience (EX) to…
How true storytelling can save marketing (and more…)
I recently had the privilege to work on a very special project with my friends at GapingVoid and LinkedIn. We set out on a creative endeavor to explore the intersection of story, art, humor and candor as a means of fostering self-reflection and inspiring personal and professional change. The result is a something I’m very proud of…a new short and sweet but compelling ebook, Once Upon a Digital Time: How to be an amazing storyteller when everyone is a “storyteller.”…
Plugging into the Future of a Connected Humanity: Exploring the Human API
In 2012, I had the opportunity to present at LeWeb in Paris. The theme of the conference explored the Internet of Things, where devices and things connect to one another to perform certain tasks and/or track activities to improve what we already do or make possible what we’re trying to do. The Internet of Things is bigger than we may realize. We are experiencing a shift from a world of inanimate objects and reactive devices to a world where data,…
The Importance of Having a Purpose in Digital Transformation and Innovation
So many companies are investing in digital transformation and corporate innovation strategies to compete for the future. They’re typically led by technology and aimed at growth areas such as customer experience (CX). In actuality, these efforts are most often not that innovative…they’re a bit more iterative than groundbreaking. That’s ok, but these times necessitate a balance of innovation and iteration. Many organizations are simply investing in new technologies and expertise to simply modernize legacy models, processes and systems. However, to…
The Human Dimension of Innovation and Digital Transformation
Any time I get to visit Madrid, Spain (España!), I take it. It’s where my mother was born and it’s where much of my family still reside. I used to visit every other year going back to my earliest of years. I miss it, I miss my family and I hope to visit again soon. During my last trip, I had the opportunity to partner with BBVA and Oracle to present to executives from Spanish companies on the state and…
Customer Experience, Where It is Now, and Where It Will Go Next
Leo Bertelli was gracious enough to invite me for an interview on the state and future of CX. The conversation was so engrossing that I wanted to share it with you here. I hope it helps you! What do you think have been the most significant advances in CX in previous years? You can’t talk about customer experience if you don’t appreciate what the word experience means – and as the author of a book on experience design, I struggled…
Experience Innovation – Designing for the X Factor in Customer Experience
Coming up in Silicon Valley during the 90s and early 2000s was special for a geek like me. I moved to Northern California from LA in 1996. Tech and startups were at the time fledgling in Los Angeles but still exciting. I would later return to help catalyze the startup ecosystem. My goal at the time was to plug into the startup garage capital of the world. By then, there were already storied landmarks that one would have to visit….
