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March 2008 Archives
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March 31, 2008
Foosball With A View
Posted by Brad Abare | Filed under: Personality News
Last week a few of the Personality™ guys got a hankering to rearrange the office a little bit and decided to move the prized foosball table to a more prime spot. Now, when resident or visiting foosball players dawn their gameface, they can overlook the Los Angeles skyline from our eighth-floor offices. If you're ever in the LA area, stop by anytime. Feel free to let us know your foosball savviness ahead of time so we can pair you with the right match. Not many people are able to beat Ken!
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March 28, 2008
Less is More: The Easy to Use Video Camera
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks | Filed under: Design
I love the story of the Flip: a paired down video camera with virtually no features (no zoom, no slots for extra memory, no menu, etc.). Yet it's captured 13% of the camcorder market in less than a year. It's been the top selling camcorder on Amazon.com since it came out.
Why? It's not designed for the average camcorder user. Its less is more approach makes it easy for someone who wouldn't normally shoot video to shoot video. Grandma's and 5-year-olds give it a try--and they love it. It's like the point and shoot camera for video.
Geeks like me might scoff because we actually want all those extra features. But I'm the wrong audience.
It's a perfect example of when narrowing your focus can pay off big. (link via 37Signals)
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March 24, 2008
Make it Easier on Your Customers, Not Harder
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks | Filed under: Business
Last week I had to run to the grocery store to pick up a few things, and I didn't go to my usual grocery store. That was my big mistake, right there. I picked a different store because I needed an item my usual store no longer carried. I thought maybe this new store would have what I need and maybe, just maybe, I'd switch.
As soon as I walked into the store I knew something was wrong. I couldn't find the bread. I couldn't find the milk. I wandered around the store aimlessly trying to figure out how it was laid out. The aisles were perpendicular to the check outs, so you couldn't just race down the aisle and arrive at the check outs. Then the aisles were separated in the strangest ways with nothing where you'd expect it to be. This store wasn't laid out like any other grocery store I'd been to, not even other locations of the same brand.
When I resorted to the signs identifying what was in each aisle, I was flabbergasted to find them written in only Spanish from one direction and only English from the other. I'm all for multi-lingual signage, but it has to be helpful.
I eventually found the one item my regular grocery store doesn't carry anymore, but at this point it was a lost cause. I'll never shop there again.
The lesson is that organizations need to make things easier on their customers, not harder. I understand the logic of supermarket design--bread on one end of the store and milk on the other forces most shoppers to traverse the entire store and perhaps spend more. But is it really worth it to irritate your customers? Perhaps a better business model is to organize your store to make everything easier on your customers. They'll be so happy they'll come back more often and they will spend more.
Sadly, I've never seen a grocery store with bread and milk up front.
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March 21, 2008
But That's How We've Always Done It
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks | Filed under: Business
The old answers don't always work. The way you've done it in the past isn't guaranteed to be the best way to do it in the future.
Take alphabetical order, for example. Seth Godin argues that in today's world it's often obsolete.
- When you've got nearly 8,000 songs and 1,400 artists in your iPod, alphabetical order can seem a bit nuts.
- When you've got 500 contacts in your address book, alphabetical order isn't always the fastest way to find the one you're looking for.
- When you've got millions of items available and infinite shelf space (i.e., most online stores), alphabetical seems more than a bit nuts--it's useless.
Just because it worked well yesterday doesn't mean it's the best idea for tomorrow. Besides, who put the alphabet in alphabetical order?
What is your organization still doing because that's how you've always done it?
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March 7, 2008
Narrowing the Focus Ain't Easy
Posted by Brad Abare | Filed under: Philosophy
One of the most difficult things we encounter working with clients is the process of narrowing the focus. It's something we all struggle with, especially when there are entrepreneurially bent brains like mine in the room. I want to leave my options open just in case it makes way for something bigger or better.
We're wrapping up the Personality Profile™ for one client right now and it always happens at the end. The closer we get to completion, the tougher it gets to make the critical decisions that keep the story specific, unique, differentiated, etc. It's always easier to be vague and generic than specific and concrete.
This challenge to narrow the focus is at direct odds with the culture we live in. We get stressed out at all the choices in life yet we're frustrated when there are not more options. If the shirt comes in blue, black and gray, we want it in red. We want the computer to have one more USB port than it does. We want our kids to learn all the subjects in school so they can keep their options open. In-N-Out is the king of narrowing the focus and keeping options to a minimum with their simple menu, but even they have a "secret" menu with several more options in case you're feeling too limited.
Think deeply. Narrow the focus. You might just get somewhere.
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March 4, 2008
Ahh, Clarity
Posted by Brad Abare | Filed under: E-mail Newsletter
I can see clearly now, the smog is gone.
As many of you know, we're located near downtown Los Angeles. The view from the Personality™ office is one of the best in the city. But in this land of paradise we have a problem—most of the time, this amazing beauty is covered in an amber-colored fog—affectionately known as smog.
Right now, we're in our less sunny season, and recently had some much needed rain move through the area, which blew the smog away. When I got to the office, the sun had taken over again and the view from our 8th floor conference room was stunning. The skyline from the Hollywood Hills, the Santa Monica Mountains and all the way to downtown was jaw dropping. Everything looked brighter, the color seemed richer, things were crisp, the lake in Echo Park was shimmering, the mountains were snow-capped and off in the distance a rare, sparkling clear view of the Pacific Ocean.
At the risk of alienating our snow-bound friends everywhere—it's the reason we live here.
So what's that have to do with your business? Well, glad you asked.
Continue reading "Ahh, Clarity"
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