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….
The Rise of Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Evangelists
Have you noticed the shift in focus of the evolving digital expert? We have… The Gapingvoid team and I have collaborated on many projects over the last decade. Our work has focused on prodding executives and entrepreneurs to think differently in their approaches to digital Darwinism and disruption. Whether we’re speaking to startups about the next big thing, attempting to humanize corporate culture and innovation or exploring ways to engage audiences in more meaningful ways, art and story carry our…
In Pursuit of Relevance
Welcome to irrelevance. Population: most of management by @gapingvoid and @briansolis What does it mean to be relevant today? We live and work in an era of digital Darwinism, where technology and society are evolving away from yesterday’s norms, mindsets, values, and behaviors. Most companies want to be customer and employee centric. Most executives believe that their work matters to employees and customers. But the reality is that customers and employees are changing as times, trends and tastes evolve. They’re…
Customer Experience For The Win #FTW
I had the opportunity to keynote UNITE by Satmetrix recently on the topic of experience design for modern customers. Leading up to the event, I joined the team on a podcast to discuss the topic in-depth. I share it with you here in the hopes that it will help you. Capture the heart, mind and spirt of the new CX…the customer’s experience Ask 10 different executives what CX means and how to improve it, you’ll get at least 15 different…
For Decades, Technology Scaled Businesses Away from People; It’s Time To Bring Customers Closer
For decades, businesses used technology to distance themselves from customers. Systems and processes helped companes automate, grow and scale transactions and service. Moving forward, we have to explore technology and service innovation to deliver against the experiences customers value versus building updated solutions on top of existing paradigms. Innovation is all the work you do to conform to expectations and aspirations of people as they evolve instead of making them conform to your legacy perspectives, assumptions, processes and metrics of…
If you had one hour with Mark Zuckerberg, what would you ask? Here’s what I learned about the state and future of Facebook, data, politics and bad actors
onstine In the wake of Cambridge Analytica, data misappropriation, #deletefacebook, calls for regulation and pending testimony to U.S. Congress, Facebook announced a series of initiatives to restrict data access and also a renewed selfie awareness to focus efforts on protecting people on the platform. What’s more notable however is that Mark Zuckerberg also hosted a last-minute, rare town hall with media and analysts to explain these efforts and also take tough questions for the better part of an hour. Let’s…
