Conversation Agent

What I find Most Fascinating About the Current "Gender" Conversation

2013-05-22T21:48:12-04:00

It's about all kinds of things but what should matter the most -- performance.

Competence and the ability to take action with confidence, keeping one's promises -- they are the qualities of a pro.

Why do we keep getting stuck in gender stuff?

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Valeria is an experienced listener. She is also frequent speaker at conferences and companies on a variety of topics. To book her for a speaking engagement click here.

Tesla Model S at a Mall Near You

2013-05-21T06:00:00-04:00

This past weekend I was at the King of Prussia Mall very briefly to pick up a few items for an upcoming trip. That is the one place I zip in and out of, parking near a less trafficked entrance, and practicing my long step to go as quickly as possible from entrance to destination.

Occasionally, one store gets my attention on the way, it's brand new and much bigger than it used to be and has a big white Apple on the glass pane.

I stopped short of it this time.

Right before it, I noticed a big crowd going in front of an open space. Inside, there were two brand new Tesla Model S cars, a white one, which I attempted to capture with my iPhone just before two kids would try to get into it, and a flame red one. That was the prettier one!

The chassis of a Tesla Model S on display in the store, showed onlookers what makes the electric system work, with battery compartments in the middle. The staff at the in Mall showroom used it to explain the benefits of owning such a car to several inquisitive individuals.

As the Inquirer writes, between the rear wheels are side-by-side round devices: the inverter, which converts the batteries’ direct current into alternating current, and the motor, which is closer to the size of lawn mower engine that a regular car’s.

Part due to the novelty, usually the car promotions are run in the middle of the Mall and don't look anything like a high end exhibit booth as the store did (right next to the Apple store).

They are also nowhere near that packed with people wanting to sit inside the car, try the doors, look at the trunk, and asking lots of questions while snapping probably better photos with their smartphones than I did with mine.

Yup, there is room for a small trunk even in the front, no huge engine.

Riding the wave

Tesla Motors is headed by billionaire innovator Elon Musk posted its first profit in the 10-years of its existence due partly by adding in zero-emission environmental credits.

The company intends to bring its Model S directly to consumers. At least one group is not thrilled about the proposition, and that is the U.S. auto dealership. We're very familiar with this fragmented environment as we kicked the tires on the dealership model of a year back.

With laws varying state by state (this is the case for insurance as well as taxes), the Tesla Model S is just plain not welcome in some locales#.

While I'm somewhat sympathetic with the dealers plea -- their system and business model has been in place for a while and is well established, even as its benefits are unevenly distributed (anyone who received poor service from a dealer is nodding). I have a harder time understanding the latest communication by Audi, attacking the Model S.

Then again, it is a sign that Tesla Motor is onto something that has appeal for the luxury market (for now).

Interestingly enough, one of the two models I am researching for my next new car purchase is an Audi due out in Q1 next year.

I do plan to blog about the experience of searching for information, comparing cars and models, signing up for newsletters from different auto makers, reading expert reviews, getting recommendations from friends, test driving at various dealers -- the works.

From the point of view of someone who is passionate about cars, yet not a "gearhead". Hint: I see a lot of content white space in there.

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Time and buyers will tell whether the direct strategy will pay off.

I do like the idea of using the car as a social object, allowing people to get close to it, to learn about the technology that makes it work, and the ability to ask question in a store that seemed to exert as little pressure to buy as the one next door.

Certainly the younger children looked excited and interested.

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Valeria is an experienced listener. She is also frequent speaker at conferences and companies on a variety of topics. To book her for a speaking engagement click here.

The Most Obvious and Important Realities

2013-05-20T06:00:00-04:00

In a 2005 commencement address at Kenyon College, author David Foster Wallace shared with students his take on the Truth with a capital "T" and the real value of a Liberal Arts education.

The most obvious and important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about.

The Glossary captured a little over nine minutes of that speech in this video, which starts with the statement above explaining why "this is water". The context of day in/day out makes our internal dialogue win over the present awareness. It papers over the fact that we have a choice.

It does take will and effort, however we can choose how to think and what to pay attention to, developing awareness and exercising discipline over our natural default setting. We know what this setting is about... it's all about "me".

Developing this awareness is useful in life. It is also useful in business, especially in customer-facing roles. The ability to switch sides, empathy, is a key ingredient to developing compelling experience for others.

Changing our default setting opens up all kinds of possibilities from keeping business promises to making true connections.

For five minutes over coffee, or five hours over a public event, the value of being with each other should not be underestimated. We are social beings.

[hat tip Faris Yakob]

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Valeria is an experienced listener. She is also frequent speaker at conferences and companies on a variety of topics. To book her for a speaking engagement click here.

Why Learning is as Important as Teaching

2013-05-19T10:51:46-04:00

In a recent TED Talk, Bill Gates shares this compelling statistic: “Until recently 98% of teachers got one word of feedback: satisfactory.”

We all need feedback. With no feedback, says Gates, no coaching, there’s just no way to improve. Learning is as important as teaching, if not more. As he says in the talk, even great teachers can get better with smart feedback.

Teaching doesn't happen only in the classroom

Mentors, coaches, and peers who are willing to provide constructive feedback enrich our opportunities to learn more about what works. In the absence of deliberate feedback, I recommend signing up and volunteering to work with people and teams you look up to.

For example, on the agency side, one of the main ways in which you can learn what works and what can be improved is by working on pitches. In a short period of time, you will gain feedback both from the rest of the team, and the prospect.

The key is to observe, take note, and be available to incorporating what we learn.

Learning does not have an expiration date

It is a continuous process of seeking both quantitative and qualitative input to get better. Getting and giving feedback is not easy, yet it pays dividends in the long run. Taken and given through the lens of learning blunts the emotional sting.

There is a difference between the abstract of how we see ourselves and our practice and the pragmatic and actual output we provide, how it works in real life.

Whenever I am invited to keynote a conference, or to moderate a panel, in addition to preparing visuals and an abstract of key take aways, I use a Flip camera to tape myself giving the talk.

This accomplishes three main goals:

shows me where to improve -- by getting to see how you do vs. how you think you do
highlights gaps in thinking -- usually that's where you get stuck
acts as dispassionate feedback mechanism -- no emotion involved

It's the best method to do a dry run I've found. In many instances, it's enough to be aware of something to improve it.

[hat tip Shane Parrish]

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Valeria is an experienced listener. She is also frequent speaker at conferences and companies on a variety of topics. To book her for a speaking engagement click here.

Switching Sides

2013-05-17T06:00:00-04:00

This past Monday, author, consultant, and friend Peter Shankman, the man who found himself on the receiving end of Morton's Steakhouse greatest customer experience, invited me to the experience the 3D IMAX Theater premiere of Star Trek in New York City.

That's for the man behind the connection.

As for the man behind the reboot of the Star Trek franchise, J.J. Abrams, he succeeded in creating a compelling story. I'm not normally too much into 3D, and IMAX can make me dizzy. However, this movie was well done. It was like being part of the action.

The best scenes are those of connection between characters. When they communicate the need to be understood, and in turn try to understand the other. The filming techniques made the connection with the characters feel authentic.

I recommend you go see the movie in 3D.

Empathy a key ingredient to developing compelling experiences for others

That to me means putting yourself into their shoes (or chairs, as the case may be) to support the job they're trying to do.

Before directing, Abrams wrote, produced, and co-created television series. Contributing a refreshed point of view to an already successful franchise is no small feat. Audiences get attached to successful story lines and popular characters.

Which is why making it work means gaining a deeper understanding of the people who will see it -- being understood is a need deeply nested in the human condition.

Tap into that and you can make lasting connections.

To put yourself in their shoes

Means gaining an appreciation of what they are experiencing from their vantage point. This is one of the most useful skills to transfer from life into business (or to develop, should you feel the need).

The rapid pace at which technologies are rewiring how we process information, in addition to how we work and communicate, requires increased levels of empathy (as well as tolerance for risk).

Every single industry is being disrupted by these changing patterns in how we as customers access information, research products and services, and complete transactions. Selling today is more complicated than it used to be.

And it starts with selling the idea itself.

Dan Pink put his finger on it when he talked about information asymmetry, and how the scale is now tipping to the side of buyers. Expectations have gone way up. Which makes the retail business exponentially exciting and complicated at the same time.

Switching sides

A more complex business environment challenges marketers and technologists, analysts and practitioners, agencies and clients, to go to even greater lengths in seeking opportunities to learn from each other.

Agency folks seldom have a full picture of the many hats a marketer needs to wear inside an organization. Switching from analytics to brand strategy to communication channels to mentoring and back to process in the course of a day.

See what three top agency-side marketers who switched to corporate CMO jobs have to say about that.

Then you have the power that has shifted to consumers who can choose any combination of digital channels to get their job done.

The agency business helps you understand what it means to serve and partner with others, says Jeff Jones, CMO, Target.

From where one sits

The client perspective helps you empathize with the challenges internal teams face as they, increasingly, look to establish Centers of Excellence to execute in multiple channels, including digital and social.

I see it clearly as I went the other way -- from years of working inside Fortune 500 and fast growth corporate organizations -- to the agency side of business.

I enjoy working with a really diverse group of people, from creatives to developers and information architects.

Having been embedded in different industries, flexing my mind across different topics and clients in the course of a day winds me up nicely to be even more receptive to their challenges and come up with appropriate approaches and executions to connect them to their customers.

This increasingly means being comfortable with experimenting and adjusting based upon the right set of queries and data. And it means a blending of roles between CMOs, CIOs, and in some cases Chief Digital Officers. Social networks have added a whole new set of considerations to how to organize a team.

A fresh perspective

We often talk about innovation as the ability to bring forth a fresh perspective, to combine assets and ideas in new ways. Switching sides allows you to experience greater empathy for those who operate on the other side.

Which in turns makes you more effective at connecting with them.

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Valeria is an experienced listener. She is also frequent speaker at conferences and companies on a variety of topics. To book her for a speaking engagement click here.

New, More Social Google Maps

2013-05-16T06:00:00-04:00

Google is out on a changing spree.

A new Google+ that looks a lot more like Facebook pages and Pinterest mashed together responsively (that was the commentary last night), and more dynamic and social data rich maps.

In the last couple of weeks, the Interwebs were filled with news, commentary, and reviews of Google Glass. Although little was said at the Developer Conference#.

Google Now app updates, too. How about those Google driverless cars#?

All this on the heels of changes to Gmail UI, and the announcement that due to declining use it will be retiring GReader in July#.

And I'm sure I'm missing changes because I blinked once or twice.

For a high level walk-through of what the New Google Maps looks like, I defer to Greg Sterling at Search Engine. He calls it more dynamic and social in his review.

I got the adaptive nature of the the product from Shlashgear: dynamically learning maps that tailor themselves to your needs the more you use them. This is the most interesting feature and functionality in the upgrade.

Showing different transport options on the same map simultaneously is a bonus. I often look for options, especially when in NYC. The driving route and public transportation options, such as trains or subways display in the results. I do like the on foot options when it's a nice day.

Om Malik provides a quick review, inclusive of historical perspective:

Google now uses vector maps and is using data as a stream, processing it on the graphical processing unit (GPU) of the new fangled computers and creating a brand new map, which is personalized not just based on a Google account.

Malik also raises the data/privacy question. My take is data leverage and reveal should be situational, more around what I'm trying to do (e.g., search), than who I am (e.g., identity).

More than about tools

I'm envisioning these developments as digital products, technology applied to what we do and how we go about doing it.

Indeed, where we are is the bridge between what we're doing both on phones and tablets and in the real world. It's early days, and it will be interesting to design and receive better experiences as a result of this blending of online/offline.

What's your take?

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Valeria is an experienced listener. She is also frequent speaker at conferences and companies on a variety of topics. To book her for a speaking engagement click here.

How Leasing and Renting Led to Sharing

2013-05-15T06:00:00-04:00

A primer to connect some recent thinking about sharing economy, digital products, and marketplaces.

By far the most popular post I published recently was about calculating the lifetime value of the sharing economy. And with good reason.

Following a small trend among mobile workers and their families which began to develop in the U.S. about ten years ago (and that has remained fairly consistent in Europe), the number of individuals who chose to rent and lease by choice has increased steadily.

And by "mobile", I mean upward mobility, as well as the availability to commute long distances during weekends to allow family to live in a place, and the (often) breadwinner to work in another.

Renting rather than moving

One of the principals at a company where I worked commuted from Chicago for years. I thought it was just an isolated case when through networking I came across two more professionals who did the same -- and, in a small world kind of situation had met him on flights.

Rather than facing daily mega commutes, professionals who often travel a lot for work to be on client sites, renting an apartment during the week near the work location makes a lot of sense. The family can stay in a city with a better school district, and airports all look the same after a while.

With all the talk about virtual work, most organizations still require workers to show up at the office.

People willing to move to where the opportunity is in many cases require more flexibility to return to home base or sign up for another assignment after a short stint. The availability to quickly up and move to where the need arises is a way to move up within organizations.

In the driver's seat

Leasing has been a good way to afford new car models more frequently for years. Change the concept from one monthly contract with one person to many people with access to paying just for what they need, when they need it, and you have car sharing.

The conversation is no longer about statistics cited to show younger generations are giving up the American Dream. We're now talking about reinventing how we share resources -- from co-working spaces, to co-housing developments.

From digital product to marketplaces

Digital technologies and social hubs are making it possible to engage in many different commerce marketplaces leveraging local resources and delivering the consistency of terms, brand familiarity, and service reliability that create the confidence necessary to (in some cases) replace the old markets.

Digital commerce markets create buying experiences that feel more like making.

I'm writing this quickly to hold on to the thoughts and observations.

As I continue to make sense of the research and chart the evolution of this trend to support my new speaking topics and implications for business promises, I'll be posting brief commentary here to invite reactions.

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A handy directory of digital platforms for sharing.

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Valeria is an experienced listener. She is also frequent speaker at conferences and companies on a variety of topics. To book her for a speaking engagement click here.

34 Ways to Spread your Ideas with a Blog

2013-05-14T11:22:57-04:00

When you think about it, social media is like sharecropping -- you help build a network with your content and it uses it however they see fit. What happens if they delete your account or the network changes its terms and conditions?

It could be an unintentional glitch -- and now your data is gone. Both Flickr and Facebook have given us examples in the last couple of years. The effects of those actions have been devastating for the people who had put time and care into building a presence in social networks with their content.

Which is why I have been and continue to be strongly in favor of using a blog as a base to spread your ideas.

Starting a blog shows commitment to a topic, industry, group, project, brand, etc. It establishes you as someone who can stick with a regular appointment, and has something to say, teach, and learn. There are many more benefits.

As I continue to receive many emails from students and young professionals about how to find opportunities and differentiate themselves, I thought it would be helpful to explore 34 ways to spread your ideas with a blog.

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1. do your internship this way -- no reason to wait for someone to screen you first, or give them an easier way to screen you in rather than out by taking the initiative

2. practice your writing skills -- I can think of no better way to improve writing than developing a regular writing habit

3. network online -- with your content all in one place, people will be able to learn about how you think more easily

4. develop your ideas -- fleshing them out with the help of the community can be a great accelerator to execution

5. find opportunities to do research -- you start a topic with what you know, and expand it into things that others know

6. discover opportunities to expand off line -- were it not for this blog, I would not have gone to many of the meet ups and conferences I've attended in the last couple of years, met great people, etc.

7. participate in worthy initiatives -- in the last couple of years, we helped promote awareness of worthy causes through Bloggers Unite and Blog Action Day each year. We talked about how social media is greening the planet, poverty and water

8. build a business -- many have built businesses off blogs, Darren Rowse with ProBlogger, Brian Clark with Copyblogger, Joe Pulizzi with Junta 42 are a few examples

9. help put a face on your business -- organizations that accept employees can be a passionate extension of the company's conversation continue to reap positive rewards

10. find mentors -- David Spinks had a wonderful series of blog posts about mentoring and finding a mentor on Mondays

11. build a tribe -- is there a like-minded group with a problem you can solve? There's your opportunity to fill a content/community vacuum and get help in amplifying discussions

12. create value by being who you are -- there is incredible opportunity on topics, cultures, and points of view that are still unexplored

13. curate the content of others -- say you're passionate about a topic and there is already quite a bit of great information online. You could become a relevant filter and curator of that information, the de facto destination on that topic

14. share a fresh perspective -- we need more of those. When you look beyond the known groups, you find that there are amazing blogs for many fields of knowledge and specialties

15. find an outlet for your passion -- sometimes our day job doesn't quite align with what you're passionate about, or doesn't provide enough space to creativity or the pursuit of something you love

16. attract others who are passionate about a topic -- remove geographic constraints, put search in your corner, and you're likely to be surprised finding kindred thinkers

17. establish yourself as a go-to resource -- it used to be that you had to be well known or established in a field or a profession to publish. With a blog, you can begin today

18. give back to your profession -- there are many ways to do that by helping professional associations, of course. However, you may find that you can squeeze in time to contribute only in the wee hours of the night

19. learn how to edit content -- this is a skill that will come in handy in many jobs outside communications. Think about writing reports, proposals, presentation decks, love notes, etc.

20. tell a story -- a blog can be a great repository for the stories you share here and there. In fact, that's how blogs got their start, as live journals. Just make sure you back up your files

21. be a resource for your networks -- you may find as I did that you don't scale so well in one on one conversations. Authoring a blog gives you the opportunity to share information more broadly

22. undertake a project -- yes, many say that a blog is an open ended endeavor. I think it's perfectly fine to start one to support a project. Authors do that to provide companions for their books, for example

23. showcase a less known brand on your product line -- not all products get equal marketing budgets and some may be better suited for the educational and informational approach blogs are suited for

24. complement or replace your resume -- when making hiring decisions, enlightened companies are starting to screen candidates by seeking evidence of their skills beyond a carefully written laundry list of things they have done

25. develop alternative career options -- it's no secret that the best way to find the ideal career is to create one for yourself. Plus, here are 50 ways to make limoncello when you've been laid off

26. start something new -- the best way to break through in an industry that is filled with insiders and is fossilized around the way things are done is to do something else and succeed at it

27. contribute your knowledge -- there are plenty of things we can still learn from each other and your contribution will help all of us

28. gain visibility -- by giving passionately and building on your domain expertise, or gaining one through blogging, you become more visible in the business community

29. mix it up -- by writing a blog, you open your ideas to the comments and perspectives of others, which end up enriching them

30. support a cause you care about -- helping spread the ideas and work of others is very rewarding, and a good way to donate time to increase awareness on behalf of a good cause

31. document your journey -- I've enjoyed reading blogs written by professionals who were on sabbatical or took some time off to experience life in different parts of the world, for example

32. collect useful information -- maybe you're not researching for one specific project, yet you keep finding great resources you want to share with your network along with your comments

33. use it to test drive ideas -- nothing wrong with giving it a shot, and the side benefit is improved writing skills

34. change the game on what a blog is -- there is plenty of room to reinvent the medium. Go ahead and do that, start something new and you'll be the first one to do it

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All this is to say that you can use the tools at your disposal to make what you envision a reality -- a new job or career, practice, building community, networking, etc. Blogging is no substitute for doing. It is a complement to it.

[updated from archives]

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Valeria is an experienced listener. She is also frequent speaker at conferences and companies on a variety of topics. To book her for a speaking engagement click here.

Calculating Life Time Value in the Sharing Economy

2013-05-13T06:00:00-04:00

Many new technologies have brought products and services to market ever since I published my thoughts on the semantic Web almost five years ago.

Points 1-3 evolved quite a bit, yet we have not cracked the code (completely):

Dealing with data

Both at personal level with one sign-on/identify we can carry across the Web and at business level, although many have made strides with integrations of personalization engines with CRM systems.

In addition to grappling with disparate legacy systems that do not speak to each other resulting in operational difficulties, we have quite a bit of core data disconnects -- location, identity, calendaring of public events, product identities.

All preventing or making discovery still nuanced and less predictable than we would like. More analog and within the domain of brands with strong search juice.

Growth of networks

As predicted, many of the social networks that were populating the charts have either been consolidated, moved into niche uses, or disappeared. Which is good news for the mainstream contenders: Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.

While our online activities are delivering better search results, we are not yet in a collaborative environment. Attention is a currency, yet it is only accidentally reciprocal. As I said in the post:

We need to make our Internet smaller, not bigger, yet more relevant to us. The social network lives inside your data network. Tailored to your needs and universal key to all your connections and relationships.

An environment tailored to what we know and like would be more engaging at first. However, discovery remains an issue.

Beginning of the true era of conversation

End of selling as pitches or better pitches?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) agents as service that determines what is good for you given your specs, essentially just pull. Sales as push has nowhere to go. The technology will be there to keep out what we don't want.

There will be people determined to create artificial personalities that will try to trick your agent and entice it to let them through your personal Internet/network walls. This is where the true meaning of authenticity in authentication will come in.

When you're ready to make a purchase, your personal AI agent will query open networks according to set parameters and will make contact with the agent connected with the right resources. With more information, we need more automation of the smart kind.

This part got me into a productive discussion with Stephen Baker at Business Week, who picked up the thread and added that the best way to use those tools will be to relinquish much of our control. My response:

I think the opposite will happen -- we will come upon content and people related to what we are seeking in a more deliberate fashion and in much less time. Which in turn has the potential to enrich our knowledge further.

To further Stephen's excellent use of the word system, I think that the system will be our network, the AI agents the channel. People, process and technology all at your service.

Jury is still out. However, a new crop of digitally-enabled start ups has accelerated our pace toward service solutions.

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I've been doing a lot of research on the changes brought about by a powerful combination of readily available bandwidth, responsive design that enables story- and content-driven experiences across devices, and the effects on human behavior and taxonomy.

For a sneak peak and preview see the new speaking topics. A renewed focus on product/experience is flipping the question of influence and refocusing us on reputation.

I believe what many are now calling the Sharing Economy calls for a new kind of responsive strategy. To connect operational excellence with optimization discipline and create revenue streams by calculating the life time value of experiences.

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More on the implications for several industries where I've had the privilege of being embedded in my corporate days and as a consultant, including retail commerce, technology and financial services.

Meanwhile, I have reached out to a few people who are doing interesting work related to these topics and pending availability I will be sharing what they're up to as part of kick starting again my series of conversations.

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Valeria is an experienced listener. She is also frequent speaker at conferences and companies on a variety of topics. To book her for a speaking engagement click here.