That one time I was in Genève… What a wonderful way to start any sentence. Shortly after X: The Experience When Business Meets Design launched, I was invited by my good friend Arnaud Grobet to visit Genève. The trip was meant to serve as a mini book tour, with two speaking engagements at LIFT (one of my favorite events), media interviews and also a vist to CREA University to speak to students. Any time I have a chance to speak with…
The New Experts: How Robotics, AI and Automation Are Shaping the Future of Your Work
Sophia, the AI-powered robot who was infamously granted citizenship by Saudi Arabia recently beat me out for two keynote speaking opportunities. True story. This is how I opened my presentation at the KQED studios in its inaugural Silicon Valley Conversations program, “The New Experts: How Robotics, AI and Automation Are Shaping the Future of Your Work.” The event focused on the way new technologies are changing how we work, where we work and the skills we need to work. I joined Michael…
Here’s to the past, but now it’s time to learn and unlearn toward the future
How we measure future success is based on yesterday’s understanding of what success meant. It was a different time. The experiences that many deliver today are based on standards of the past and what was acceptable to a preceding generation of customers. People have changed and continue to do so. We simply can’t imagine new possibilities if we can’t see, feel, hear, sense, people as they advance. Otherwise, our ideas, no matter how creative, brilliant, bold, will always be rooted…
The Importance of Experience Design and the Future of Brand
Customers today are accidental narcissists. Tomorrow is an entirely new game brands, CX strategists and marketers. Disruption is a gift either given to you or by you. Knowing this, we are still making mistakes in creating meanignful experiences to a new generation of connected, impatient and demanding customers. We get stuck in legacy thinking, playbooks and metrics rather than innovate and disrupt to fully capitalize on new digital opportunities. Following my presentation at Adobe Summit, I had the opportunity to…
Silicon Valley Uncovered: The evolution of tech, media and its impact on society
In 2010, my dear friend Hermione Way invited me as the first-ever guest on her then new show, “Silicon Valley Uncovered” for TheNextWeb. It aired on January 18th, 2011. I share this with you because the conversation, while several years old now, is strangely better suited for today and the modern times in which we live and work. I’m not even sure how I stumbled across this interview. To be honest, I’m taken aback by how prescient and philosophical this conversation…
AI, Chatbots and Designing the Next Generation of Automated Customer Engagement
No matter how much sweetness or spin you add to it, early incarnations of AI-powered chatbots are the call centers of this generation. They’re cool. They’re scalable. They’re relatively inexpensive compared to human agents. Yes, chatbots scale engagement through new, popular messaging channels and introduce conversational commerce capabilities that carry the potential to deliver incredible experiences. But here’s the thing…most of the interactions are basic, seeking to replicate existing transactions and experiences that only seem to wow those designing not…
Brands of the Future: The Critical Relationship Between BX, CX, UX and EX
Businesses are doubling down on customer experience and rightfully so. The customer has never been more connected, informed and empowered. Any brand hoping to survive and thrive in an era of digital Darwinism has no choice but to #adaptordie. But customer experience in of itself is not enough. Brands must understand what it means to compete at a time when people are not only changing, their priorities around values, aspirations and loyalty are also shifting. Humanity is now the killer…
How to Transform Digital Customer Experiences for the Connected Customer
Digital transformation is only becoming more prominent in driving business modernization. Yet today, it is rarely designed, led and managed as one, sweeping, coordinated effort across the enterprise. Eventually companies get there as outlined in “The 6 Stages of Digital Transformation.” But, most of the time it starts disparately in pockets across the organization. Many business units learn and progress independently before regrouping with the rest of the organization to then move in unison and with purpose. This is why the…
To innovate or advance digital transformation, look outside your industry
My good friend and journalist Dan Tynan wrote two exceptional pieces on digital transformation in Adweek, “5 Steps for Digitally Transforming Your Marketing to Be More Responsive to Customer Needs” and “Why Old-School Brands Like Gap Need to Learn New Tricks to Survive in the Digital Age.” If you’re not in marketing, please don’t stop reading yet! This is bigger than marketing. This is about organizational innovation and transformation. Dan and I spent time together talking through what digital transformation…
The Next Round of Modern Commerce Disruption
The evolution of modern commerce is underway. Every day, we are introduced to new, niche players that introduce new personalized product and business models. At the same time, traditional retailers are learning how to innovate and also acquire innovative startups to introduce new capabilities, expertise and leadership into the fold. And of course, Amazon only continues to disrupt on all fronts. At the heart of this rapid evolution and revolution is emergent technology such as AI, machine learning, mobile, conversational…
