Three-and-a-half years in the making, I’m proud and also relieved to finally announce that X is now available online and in a store near you. I can’t tell you how important this is to me. There were several times along the way including up until the end when I thought this book would never see the light of day. I can’t wait to share it with you. I tend to spend most of my time sharing my work across the…
How To Unify Your Sales, Service and Marketing Departments Around Customer Experience
Guest post by Omar Akhtar (@obakhtar), Managing Editor, Altimeter Group, a Prophet company Imagine you’re getting ready to drive your car. But when you turn on the engine, you get a mobile notification telling you that your oil needs to be changed, and it gives you a link to the nearest dealership with a 10% discount coupon. You’re left surprised and delighted by the sheer, almost magical convenience of it all. But is that event classified as a sales, service…
Wolfpack App is a Mobile Social Nichework for Guys to be Guys – Is this the Dawn of Social Nicheworks?
I thought I’d seen it all. Wolfpack app is a new mobile-centered, social network that helps guys connect with like-minded buddies around interests and events. When the news of Wolfpack’s debut landed in my inbox, I initially disregarded it as yet another “bro” app. I live in Silicon Valley where bro culture is a widely recognized problem. Too many of these bros after all are blamed for the lack of diversity and respect in startups among many other things that…
Experience is the Brand: Why this is the time for experience architecture
While I was in traveling in Europe, my friends at 800CEOREAD reached out to talk about X. I was so focused on production and printing that I’ve almost neglected letting people know that the book is finally getting released! I took the time to answer a handful of questions. But, I didn’t reply quickly. I took my time to share the depth of what X explores and how it will help you. “Here’s the thing. Experience is the brand. Meaningful…
Marketing to Marketing to Reimagine Marketing
Guest post by Fred Studer (@fredstuder), Chief Marketing Officer at NetSuite Sometimes, in fact oftentimes, the most important audience for your message are the people who are already working for you. In an age of online surveys and instant feedback across social channels, articulating your message to the people who work in your company can often be neglected. In fact, if you haven’t convinced and energized your own people, you’re going to be hard pressed to convince the market. My…
The New Peeple App Does Not Represent People; Stop This App Before It’s Released
“Character is destiny.” This is the ironic tagline for Peeple (I’m not linking to it), a new app that wants to be the “Yelp for people” allowing anyone to rate you “professionally, personally and romantically” as long as they have 1) a Facebook account, 2) your phone number and 3) that they’re a real person. I’m not kidding. This is a real app that is one-to-two months away from impacting your social, professional and dating graphs all because two…
Silicon Valley Hierarchy of Needs
The other day, my friend Loic Le Meur shared a hilarious take on Maslov’s famous Hierarchy of Needs, simply called, “Silicon Valley Hierarchy of Needs.” For many, including me, the list of laughably superficial “needs” of those mocked in Silicon Valley are also a little too familiar or relatable. We all know that person, someone like them, or we’ve seen them characterized in spoofs, TV, movies, books, etc. As a refresher, Abraham Maslov’s Hierarchy of Needs were inspired by his…
Announcing My Next Book: X, The Experience When Business Meets Design
It is with great pride, relief ,mixed with a bursting sensation of anxiousness, that I announce my next book, X: The Experience When Business Meets Design. It’s been a long road to get here. I started writing this book 3.5 – 4 years ago. I couldn’t get my mind fully around the subject matter and instead willfully embraced my avoidance behavior syndrome and ended up writing a book that wasn’t in my plan at all, What’s the Future of Business…
Why Customer Experience is The Catalyst for Digital Transformation
As a digital analyst, I spend a lot of his time thinking about the future of customer experience. So much so that my next book attempts to rethink the term “experience,” X:The Experience of Business Meets Design. “X” explores experience architecture the various ways companies can design meaningful and shareable experiences in every moment of truth. I recently spent time with the team at VisionCritical as part of the prep for its their upcoming conference in Chicago, 2015 Vision Critical…
Racing IndyCars with Team Penske and Hitachi
On August 30th, 2015, I dropped the top on my 1960s Corvette Sting Ray, fired up the 427 and made my way from Silicon Valley to Sonoma Raceway for the big IndyCar race finale. For those who don’t know, I am enamored with cars and have been since I was old enough to play with Hot Wheels. I remember obsessively washing my hands before and after too. In fact, my parents still tease me about it to this day because…
