Yale Fox is a DJ and nightclub sociologist living and working between Las Vegas and New York City. In 2010, while working towards his PhD at the University of Toronto, Yale was contacted by a prominent Las Vegas nightclub – one of the highest rated in the world. So began Yale Fox’s transition from professional student to nightclub experience guru. This year, Yale received a TED Fellowship for his research on how a customer’s behaviors within a system (the nightclub) are influenced by the DJ’s repertoire of song selection – as well as other factors (flashing lights, wait times, architecture, the staff, other patrons and the unholy alchemy of Red Bull and vodka).

Yale Fox

His company, the 194 Group, is part research lab, part experiential branding firm and part talent agency – representing an impressive roster of DJs and party hosts. For Yale, the live booking aspects of the business are more a networking tool and a signifier of their coolness equity, “when (a potential client) asks, ‘how do we know that you guys know what’s hot in music?’ Well our DJs are playing the hottest nightclubs in the world.” The talent agency maintains their presence in the nightclubs, and Yale’s thesis papers provide a theoretical grounding for their services, but “we’re a marketing firm,” he asserts, “enhancing brand experience through music.” The 194 Group refers to 194 dB, the loudest sound pressure level a human ear can perceive without being damaged – and a double entendre suggesting the Group’s ability to amplify a brand through music.

Yale’s business partner Shez Mehra (DJ Wristpect), is a world-class DJ with a b-school vernacular and sensibility, who throws around phrases like “end-user-focused party-rocking.” Shez explains that there is often a conflict between what the client wants and what the customer wants, “A lot of times, the executives from a brand, the promoters or the venue owner, will want to dictate how we should play.” For Shez, mixing songs for the owner of the club, or for the client, would be the DJ equivalent of designing your customer experience around the disposition of the share- holder. It may please him in the short-term, but ultimately goes against his best interests. Of course, both the relationship with end-user and with the client needs to be managed. The latter requires a certain level of trust. “The client has one goal,” says Shez. “It’s either to sell alcohol or to spread the message about their product or service to the people in the venue. We do what we do to resonate with the end-user. Once they trust us to do that, they see it unfold in front of their eyes. They see the vibe. They see the sales and they see people leaving happily with their merch and talking about their experience.”

DJ Wristpect

For Research in Motion, 194 collaborated with Maritz to architect “BBM the DJ,” a series of experiential events to launch the BlackBerry Torch. The parties, exclusively for influencers – celebrities, athletes, bloggers and executives – as well as for sales reps from various retailers and wireless carriers, were designed to get the right people excited about the product. Attendees were given a Torch upon arrival, and could add an account that would allow them to literally BBM their requests to the DJ. A giant television monitor, dressed as a BlackBerry, displayed the requests, at which point the DJ was tasked to play as many of the requests as possible while maintaining the flow of the night. Shez characterizes this task, the improvisational element of creating a customer experience, as, “catering to the situation,” a notion that applies to many business spaces outside of the nightclub.

While Yale’s research papers are distributed and discussed within the 194 Group in the form of white papers and internal memos – both Yale and Shez are quick to point out that competence in moving dance floors is only teachable to a certain point. “Its hard to plan for,” Shez tells me. “In the BlackBerry Tours across North America, every city was completely different. What worked in New York didn’t work in Boston. You have to trust your talent to get into the psyche of the crowd.”

A recent 194 Group signee, DJ Mensa who also happens to have a background in psychology and marketing, adds that DJing is like creating any number of other customer experiences: “You say something with a song. Hopefully the crowd responds. Then you say something with another song and hopefully it perpetuates the conversation. I’ve always considered DJing a customer service. Develop a vibe that will hopefully peak at the right time.”

DJ Mensa

Robert Bolton is a writer at Idea Couture, a global strategic innovation and experience design firm. He is based in Toronto, Canada.

This Article has been taken from The Customer Experience Issue (Issue #3, Fall 2011) of M/I/S/C/ Magazine – a magazine dedicated to design thinking and innovation available in over 25 countries. To purchase a digital copy of the full issue and for other issues please click HERE.

Kiva’s micro-financing model, which allows people to acquire loans of as little as $25, has transformed the way many entrepreneurs in the third world conduct business. For social investors however, the relationship with these entrepreneurs and the products and services they offer can be detached and distant, lacking a real connection with the product being made. Presented with a very brief business biography and engaged with entrepreneurs in little more than a quick transaction, few lenders truly understand the financial context of the seamstress in Tajikstan, the lumber delivery woman in Peru or the rice farmer in Laos.

Here’s a concept that we developed here at Idea Couture (not commissioned by Kiva) to illustrate how social enterprises can apply whitespace mapping to create new customer experiences. From the several strategic themes that emerged from the mapping exercise came the Kiva Tea idea. The Kiva Tea Gallery bridges the investor and the entrepreneur by extending the relationship from lending to spending. This natural extension of the brand connects people across borders through sharing some of the experiences that surround tea and global tea cultures. The Kiva Tea Gallery was designed to create a greater engagement between the cultivators and consumers of tea as well as a deeper appreciation for its economies and gastronomies. Indexing the very best of old and new world Japanese architecture, with past retail experiences, Kiva Tea Gallery offer customers a series of curated tea products, services and entrepreneurial opportunities. More than a teashop, Kiva Tea Gallery makes for a truly fulfilling engaging multi-sensory experience.

Customers are invited to taste teas from independent tea producers from all over the world. Like a certain tea? Buy a bag of it. Better yet, loan funds to the farmer. The same goes for tea paraphernalia. A collection of handcrafted ceramic and cast-iron teapots, cups, trivets and steepers are exhibited and displayed for sale in the gallery. If a particular piece speaks to you, you can purchase it and even lend money to the artisan who crafted it. For the entrepreneurs supported, Kiva Tea Gallery generates increased income by setting them up not only with the resources to produce but an inherent mechanism to promote and sell. The structure is set up so that the partners and wholesale distribution channels bypass layers of middlemen.

Education is a big part of the experience at Kiva Tea Gallery. The physical locations regularly offer tastings, tea-knowledge seminars, pottery classes in the ceramics studio and nursery tutorials including gardening tips and a take-home plant. These programs and events educate the patrons in traditional and regional tea cultures and histories. Kiva Tea Gallery offers something for tea lovers and conscience consumers at all levels of engagement – whether you want to buy a bag of tea, lend $50 to a tea producer, or learn to grow and ferment your own iahpet – the Myanma pickled tea for eating.

For more active lenders, Kiva Tea Gallery offers tea travel and volunteerism programs. How would you like to visit the Sri Lankan plantation where your favorite tea is produced? Meet the farmer, smell the terrain, exchange knowledge and maybe even put in some grunt labor. Perhaps you’re more interested in a month of pottery training from the rural Chinese artisan whose teapot you purchased. Experience fascinating cultures and customs, exotic cuisine – and learn the intricacies of the tea industry – all while you establish an authentic connection through your social investment.

With its interactive platform, Kiva Tea Gallery opens the gateway to new tastes, wellness therapies, social experiences, global stories and business relationships that allow lenders to understand, experience and reap the rewards of their loans. Online visitors can surf profiles, lend money or make purchases and view Kiva-produced videos from tea growers all over the world – sharing healing and wellness knowledge as well as growing techniques. The resulting Kiva experiences can provide new and engaging experiences to anyone willing to enjoy them. The opportunities are limitless.

The name Kiva and its logo are trademarks of Kiva microfunds, a California non-profit public benefit corporation.

Cheesan Chew is VP Head of Digital Innovation at Idea Couture, a global strategic innovation and experience design firm. She spends her time between San Francisco and Toronto.

This Article has been taken from The Customer Experience Issue (Issue #3, Fall 2011) of M/I/S/C/ Magazine – a magazine dedicated to design thinking and innovation available in over 25 countries. To purchase a digital copy of the full issue and for other issues please click HERE.

10 years has seen explosive growth in what is being called the “massification of luxury goods.” Luxury has gone mainstream but does this still make them luxury brands?

Coach literally reinvented itself in 2001 as a fashion-forward producer of mass luxury goods to better compete against stronger luxury brands. They have been incredibly successful and other brands are doing the same thing. H&M had haute couture designers, Stella McCartney, Roberto Cavalli and Karl Lagerfeld design pieces for their retail stores that literally sold out in less than an hour. This is actually a good thing for the luxury market, providing an entry point for consumers into the luxury world.

Luxury brand leaders are trying to find ways to distinguish themselves from other premium brands and some are now pushing prices up to an unprecedented level to maintain their luxury positioning. Can being expensive alone maintain this positioning? Louis Vuitton, Chanel and Hermès are all testing the limit of what they can ask for. The question is how high can you go? And how do you justify that cost to consumers?

Louis Vuitton is maintaining prestige while selling to the masses without ever having an end of season sale. Burberry is doing a phenom- enal job transforming itself into a luxury brand. Chanel is making sure style never goes out of fashion and is never affordable. Tiffany & Co. is still making sure everyone understands what the little blue box means. Hermès offers a true luxury experience with only a limited number of bags to sell each season. Just like a high-end restaurant that holds a table or two for those important guests that drop in without a reservation, a few distinguished customers can purchase a bag in-store, but generally, if you want to buy a Hermès bag, you have to order it. Most bags in the store are just for display. You choose the material: cowhide, ostrich or canvas, and the color of the hardware: silver, gold or diamond-encrusted. As you wait the 6-8 months for your bag, you can excitedly tell your friends what you’ve ordered. They are the masters in making their products desirable.

The key success factor for luxury brands is still quality. It takes three years to train a leather goods craftsman and two years to train retail personnel. If we continue with Hermès as an example, for the past 20 years their craftsmen have grown from approximately 300 to over 2,000. A Hermès bag is going to last a customer 30 years – it isn’t a product, it’s an investment.

In 2010 the total consumption in the Chinese mainland luxury market reached USD10.7 billion, excluding private jets, yachts and luxury cars, making China the world’s second largest consumer of luxury goods following Japan. Roughly 73% of China’s luxury shoppers are under 45, compared with just over 50% in the US, according to McKinsey & Co., as many as 45% of China’s high-end buyers are under 35, compared with 28% in Western Europe. It is not difficult to see where the opportunities are.

If you spend an hour in Shanghai or Beijing you will find plenty of pseudo luxury brands that are working hard to position themselves as true luxury brands using Italian or French names to lure the unsophisticated Chinese consumers. But as Chinese consumers travel overseas, these pseudo luxury brands need to invest in overseas retail to maintain their image. The cost of entry is raised.

If the largest luxury market decides they needed change, or if they take the lead in luxury consumption, China may initiate a powerful shift. The1960s marked a Cultural Revolution in China; the 2010s may just be the Luxury Revolution. The Chinese consumer may acquire and develop their appreciation for luxury and 50% of so-called luxury brands may not pass the test. Shanghai and Beijing have a higher concentration of luxury watch outlets than any other major city in the world. In China, the ‘luxurification’ of everyday life is the new normal. They have a very different definition of luxury and are fast evolving.

Conspicuous consumption is prominent in China – consumers are willing to pay more for publicly displayed possessions to signify wealth, meaning price will be an indicator of exclusivity. This is good news for luxury goods. Luxury consumption always operates at a level of aspiration and imagination, but it can have real effects in facilitating the construction of self-identity. While luxury shoppers are being led by the rational desire to purchase items that are of high style and craftsmanship, eight of the ten top purchase motivators are emotionally driven. Luxury marketers must be reminded that it is vital to tap into deep consumers’ desires for social status and indulgence. In the context of Chinese consumers, marketers need to consider the implications of the needs of national identity and how they construct and maintain social meanings among the emerging upper-middle class. As luxury goods attempt satisfy a social need to project success, we enter the realm of the symbolic, and it is symbolic meaning that is used in the search for the meaning of existence.

Idris Mootee is the publisher and editor-in-chief of M/I/S/C/, a published author, speaker and CEO of Idea Couture, a global strategic innovation and experience design firm. He spends his time between, London, New York, Toronto, San Francisco and Shanghai.

This Article has been taken from The Customer Experience Issue (Issue #3, Fall 2011) of M/I/S/C/ Magazine – a magazine dedicated to design thinking and innovation available in over 25 countries. To purchase a digital copy of the full issue and for other issues please click HERE.

Lets begin with a short comparison of the customer experience of two mainstream news networks offering free video content online. One an incumbent in the N.A. market the other an interloper of sorts.

When I want to glance at the mainstream news from south of the border I click towards CNN. Apart from their lack of geopolitical coverage – they do have a considerable amount of bite size clips of news from the United States and around the world to choose from. There is no consistent ability to watch a live stream of their main network channels – only on special occasions like presidential addresses or when Anderson Cooper posts on a disaster zone for ratings. Most annoyingly – and this is where they loose major points in my book – is when selecting or clicking upon the bite size video clips, each one is preceded by an ad that you cannot skip – each time – often the same ad over and over again. This is a serious pain point. In addition to this, there are an insane amount of banner ads that take over the entire screen – and I find myself wondering if I’m watching CNN or Capital One presenting the news. Whatever it is, I don’t trust it and I don’t like it. This is a completely negative customer experience – and there is a less than positive brand association for all parties involved.

Clicking over to Al Jazeera (the interloper) I’m able to watch a live stream or feed of their main English news channel – just like watching cable TV. If I choose to browse other stories there are no captive advertisements presented prior to accessing the video clips – refreshingly there are no obnoxious banner ads framing everything, confusingly pushing products and services at me. Just the news as represented and reported by Al Jazeera. The experience is simple, positive and refreshing. I recognize that they are not making me pay for the content in anyway. While I assume and even anticipate this may be an acquisition scheme at play – I go back time and time again and rarely visit CNN’s site anymore.

Netflix versus torrents versus youtube versus Justin.tv

While I don’t have cable TV, I also choose not to pay for content services like Netflix. Due to misaligned content and copyright laws here in Canada, we cannot access the full catalogue available elsewhere. This fragmentation reassures me that I will not have the same customer experience as my neighbors to the south. I choose to wait and see.

Torrents are a free, relatively convenient and a somewhat shady alternative that promises me a broader spectrum of content (some not even “released” yet). Torrents also provide layers of on-demand selection and control, and the ability to download what I want, when I want it. In addition to these qualities I’m also attracted to the lack of advertisements. While Torrent sites are often saturated with banner and pop-up ads – the content at the end of the tunnel is not. Once downloaded, it runs on-demand and ad free. All I have to do is get over the unfamiliar web-personas, the piracy thing and the possibility of catching a nasty virus.

Of course YouTube is a completely different animal. While advertisements have crept further and further into this free content land – slowly eroding my experience – the ability to browse and consume heaps of content at will, upload my own content, create my own channel and subscribe to other channels is great. YouTube empowers me to join the broadcast revolution and embed, spread, seed and share through various online and social media platforms.

Last but not least there’s justin.tv – a venture-backed start-up from California. This is one of my favorite free video channels online and one of the best customer experiences to have. On justin.tv people create their own channels and upload their own video playlists (mostly pirated content) – everything from live streams of geeks playing video games, DJ’s and musicians performing, rants from crazy people to historic documentaries. There are ads but they only play once – the first time you click on a channel. Of course, there are live discussion forums and ongoing commentary next to the video content, if you choose to engage, you can. The only negative is that there is no control over the live streaming content, only the choice to tune in to a channel streaming video and watch or not.

Within this wild and competitive space, content providers are going to have to do a better job of aligning the qualities, characteristics and attributes of free online content. By improving the customer experience by stepping outside of their traditional media and business model approaches towards new media and the flexibility it promises, demands and affords.

Mathew Lincez is a Resident Futurist at Idea Couture, a global strategic innovation and experience design firm. He is based in Toronto, Canada.

This Article has been taken from The Customer Experience Issue (Issue #3, Fall 2011) of M/I/S/C/ Magazine – a magazine dedicated to design thinking and innovation available in over 25 countries. To purchase a digital copy of the full issue and for other issues please click HERE.

More curious, savvy and ambitious customers may flock to alternative, unfamiliar or questionable sources of free video content such as justin.tv or the Torrents – some of which may present pirated or “illegal” content and harbor potentially harmful viruses, trojans and other unknowns – but are still worth the risk because of the content they provide and the nature by which it can be accessed and experienced by the customer.

The contrast between these two sides of free content illustrates how the promise and potential of the digital online context is in many ways not being fulfilled and how the customer experience is still falling short of what it could be. Both ends of this spectrum (the incumbent broadcast brands versus the shady interloping start-ups) present different value propositions, qualities, characteristics and attributes that touch on various aspects of a customer’s experience – but not one (from either side) has been able to combine and deliver the best from both.

For the most part (within the free content experience) the customer still pays the price through Internet access fees, subscription regimes, viruses, uncontainable pop-up windows and spam; and through the same captive ad based revenue models that aggressively force feed online customers with just as much (or more) branded noise as their cable TV based cousins. Although the online context has the potential to deliver entirely new experiences that leverage the very best qualities of the web, digital and social media, the customer experience remains fragmented, inconsistent, and misaligned with the existing and emerging values, expectations, capabilities and assumptions. As a customer of free content I’d like to highlight and compare a few elements of the experience from both sides. My personal evaluation criteria generally boils down to:

1. Ease of access (do I have to sign up or subscribe? I do not want to spend the time inputting my personal data, I want instant one-click access)
2. Content variety and selection
3. The ability to control the timelines and playback
4. The presence (or lack of) captive advertisements and pop-up crap. I do not want to be force fed an obnoxious and out of context ad for tampons or the new blackberry before I watch a news clip about a suicide bombing in Afghanistan. I’m generally not interested in the social dimension to viewing free content (I know some people are) and while I find a few of the live discussions flaming up in the side bars occasionally funny or entertaining, I do not feel this is as critical a part to my overall experience.

To Be Continued…

Mathew Lincez is a Resident Futurist at Idea Couture, a global strategic innovation and experience design firm. He is based in Toronto, Canada.

This Article has been taken from The Customer Experience Issue (Issue #3, Fall 2011) of M/I/S/C/ Magazine – a magazine dedicated to design thinking and innovation available in over 25 countries. To purchase a digital copy of the full issue and for other issues please click HERE.

But there is a danger that these marketers may be drinking their own Kool-Aid. Many customers can have a level of enthusiasm towards certain products or brands because we provide them with a great customer experience, but is that love? This is something worth exploring.

Neurologists suggest that the early stages of love, governed by parts of the brain that are used for goal-seeking and reward, resemble obsessive-compulsive disorder. The first time we look at an Apple iPhone, a Burberry trench coat or a Mercedes SLC AMG, our brains are interpreting these objects in a certain way. At the first stage of a romantic relationship activity sparks in the dopamine-rich region of our brain normally associated with motivation and reward. The intensity is proportional to the activity. Advertising may not elicit love for your brand but it can attract attention and interest.

The insular cortex and parts of the anterior cingulate cortex, the parts of our brain associated with emotion, are not activated until the more mature phases of a relationship are entered. In the context of brand marketing, emotive connections require consistent good customer experiences, whether wonderful or awful – or love and hate. Love occurs when the sum of the total interactions that a customer experiences with a brand reach certain thresholds. Starting from the moment when a product is purchased to the moment when joy is shared with their friends on Facebook.

A parallel can also be drawn to kissing. According to Sheril Kirshenbaum, research scientist with the University of Texas in Austin and author of The Science of Kissing, kissing is sort of like Nature’s litmus test – whether it’s consciously or subconsciously, humans use the information encoded in a kiss to decide where a relationship is headed. She goes on to explain, when we kiss, we engage all of our senses. We’re learning so much about a person, not just visually, but we’re engaging our noses, our taste buds, our sense of touch, and through that information, all sorts of signals are being sent to our brain, telling us about the other person. Scientists discovered that women tend to prefer the scents of men who have a distinct genetic code for immunity – something that can only be picked up when in very close proximity, such as kissing. So think about the first kiss equivalent in multi-sensory customer experience – how do you design the litmus test for your brand?

Love is not emotion – it is a strategic capability to gain happiness. And love by itself has no object. It is some invisible and unexplainable energy of consciousness, which at times, we are not even aware of. It is beyond form, yet inclusive of form. Love is a capability that can be developed, nurtured and learned. We develop this capability when we were very young and over the years, we develop the ability to love and care for other people and sometimes even objects.

Emotion is a different animal. It is feelings (or reactions to our brain activity) that are aroused as a result of stimuli. When you see something, an emotion is elicited – you want to touch it, feel it and maybe even own it. As many relationships exist out of convenience or benefits, people remain loyal to certain brands. This may be because there is a lack of choice or simply because there is low involvement the product category.

Sex, love and emotion are three different things. In an ideal world, they intersect to produce ideal results. While it can be one of them, sex is not the single manifestation of love, as the purchase frequency of a product or brand is not necessarily the manifestation of brand love.

Emotions can often get us into trouble but we must recognize them as part of being human and accept them into our consciousness, where they can be cared for and managed. We often use the word “emotive” connections in the customer experience design process but I wonder how many of us know what it actually means.

Idris Mootee is the publisher and editor-in-chief of  M/I/S/C/, a published author, speaker and CEO of Idea Couture, a global strategic innovation and experience design firm. He spends his time between, London, New York, Toronto, San Francisco and Shanghai.

This Article has been taken from The Customer Experience Issue (Issue #3, Fall 2011) of M/I/S/C/ Magazine – a magazine dedicated to design thinking and innovation available in over 25 countries. To purchase a digital copy of the full issue and for other issues please click HERE.

But this phrase has a dark side. First of all, reality is not exclusive to business thinking. Most things, with the exception of comic books or mythology, or the like, deal with the ‘real world.’ And even these have some morsel of truth. So to say something deals with the ‘real world’ more than something else is ridiculous. The most troubling feature of this phrase is that it is a marker for our tendency to dismiss something because we cannot see how it applies to our own experience. We want things to remain in the ‘real world’ by which we mean immediately applicable to our needs and desires.

The problem here lies in the fact that the requirement to keep things in ‘the real world’ is actually more than it seems. It is not simply an expression of a desire to keep things grounded. It is actually code for a wide range of assumptions, philosophical positions, and antagonisms. This means the ‘real world’ is a way to assert a particular perspective on the world we live in—and our experience of it—which denies the validity of other ways of looking at the world. As such, the position it stands for is essentially a tyrannical epistemology. Additionally, instead of being a non-theoretical perspective, the phrase ‘the real world’ is actually evidence of theorizing without acknowledging what one is doing. It is a self-defeating and horribly limiting position that does more damage than good.

The worst damage done is the casual dismissal of kinds of thinking, arguments, or knowledge. The phrase the ‘real world’ quietly assumes abstract, complex, or theoretical knowledge is suspect or somehow does not apply to our lives. Those who wield it in this way often do so in reaction to an argument they feel is too philosophical or abstract. In these circumstances its applicability is actually what is in question. Often the cause of this problem is actually a feature of not seeing the very real connections between the argument as stated and the immediate problem at hand. The use of the phrase ‘the real world,’ in these circumstances is actually part of a denial of the argument’s validity on the basis of its abstract presentation. Dismissing an abstract argument, which when done well is most certainly addressing things in the ‘real world,’ is a sure-fire way to end in failure. We cannot be afraid to theorize or to talk about reality at a higher level of complexity if we want to solve hugely complex problems.

This phrase shows up in agency work a lot—mostly because there is always a time crunch and because clients will always approach the consultant to solve a very particular problem. But it is also true that some clients present problems that can only be solved with more abstracted thinking. Occasionally they are dismayed at the abstractness of the answers and ask for ‘real world’ examples. This is natural and can usually be solved through repackaging the insights or deeper emersion in the details of the study. What comes out of these conversations are several important points that will help everyone avoid the problems I outlined above and begin to make peace with abstract or theoretical thinking in a business environment.

/1 See everything, all things, and ideas, as existing together and interconnected. See a piece of research as making a specific argument about a particular part of this whole. Then realize not all arguments are talking about experience or things as they are in the same way. Different arguments exist at different levels, or strata.

/2 Learn to see the connections between strata and the implications of one circumstance on another. This will help ‘connect the dots.’ This is essentially what ideas agencies do for a living.

/3 Delegate understanding and knowledge. Sometimes one is simply not ready to see how something fits together. When that happens one must be comfortable with allowing others to do the understanding and helping them act on it.

There is much more that can be said about the intellectual tyranny of a concept like the ‘real world,’ but that is better left for another time. Suffice it to say, avoiding the damaging assumptions embedded in an idea like ‘the real world’ is as easy as being comfortable dealing with problems at several levels of complexity at once. One does not need to avoid theory when it is as simple as practicing seeing how it applies to many circumstances, including the one at hand. Finally, when you are tempted to locate something in the ‘real world’ ask yourself what you really want. You might find you simply want to see the connections or have something rephrased. Don’t cut out the good ideas simply because the direct application isn’t immediately apparent. Don’t assume something is not worth the time just because it is expressed in abstraction.

They were not only physically out of control, but mentally liberated from expectations and presumptions. For them there’s absolutely no reason why a frying pan shouldn’t talk about its cooking experiences or why you can’t hold your computer mouse the same way you hold your mobile phone. Their minds are not conditioned like ours and that’s what makes them a genuine source of innovation.

We as adults are generally limited to our past experiences. Any ‘new’ thinking or idea we initiate starts with a set of assumptions that will result in marginal revisions to what we’ve encountered before. Our minds are junkyards of historical observations. Those of us skilled or knowledgeable in a field will certainly be ahead of the game when it comes to decision making or when concepts need to evolve into feasible product. But if you’re a innovation strategist or a designer ideating the future of interaction design, you need to stop thinking about where apple is taking us and instead hang out with a 3 year old.

Seriously! Leave a bunch of 3 year olds with toys and a few colored markers. Do a simple experiment, like having a transparent sheet of plastic in the middle of the room where they can draw on and  play with each other from both sides of the invisible border.

You’ll be surprised!

The opportunity to become an “Innovation Strategist” catches people’s attention.

Since our initial posting for the role in Toronto, we’ve received over 120 resumes from dynamic, brilliant young individuals all interested in joining the Idea Couture team. From the outside looking in, innovation strategy sounds incredibly sexy (and it certainly looks good on a business card). But if you ask a typical applicant what exactly they think an innovation strategist does, what usually follows is blank stares, buzz words, or my favorite, “They strategize innovation”.

None of those are good answers.

There’s nothing worse than expecting one thing and getting another. In preparing to take on two new strategists in the next few weeks, I couldn’t help but reflect on what is becoming an industry title with no common definition. So I figured the least I could do is take a stab at some common tasks to help people know what they are getting in to, what they should consider learning to do, and where their responsibilities should lie.

So here are a few of the tasks, activities, and responsibilities of your typical innovation strategist.

Project Design
Innovation strategist as the planner

• Work with the client to articulate project outcomes
• Help design the structure of what innovation projects look like
• Set up the project’s research activities, and collaborate to select methods
• Build a multidisciplinary team based on available resources

Business Strategy

Innovation strategist as the box builder

• Interview clients to better understand what problems the team is trying to solve
• Help clients / the team state the project vision
• Help the project frame the problems based on client input
• Define what project success criteria looks like
• Draw from existing models or develop new frameworks to direct the solution

Design Research

Innovation strategist as design researcher

• Design and / or participate and / or facilitate research (depending on skills)
• Provide a business or user centered flaw to the other design researchers (depending on core competencies)
• Help researchers synthesize the findings into insights
• Frame the insights of user research insights through deliverables (personas, systems diagrams, customer journey maps, mental models, touchpoint analysis, or something else cool that I don’t even know exists yet.)

Workshop

Innovation strategist as a facilitator

Idea Development & Evaluation

Innovation strategist as an architect

• Help come up with killer ideas
• Help prototype, evaluate and test those ideas
• Make sure the final solution is in line with project briefings or has a damn good reason to break the brief
• Develop prioritization frameworks to evaluate which ideas are strongest
• Evaluate costs and benefits

Design Development

Innovation strategist as a sherpa

While innovation strategists are the center of my universe, being surrounded by a strong team is what makes a project work. An innovation strategist is nothing without the help of true and trained design researchers, skilled industrial and visual designers, project managers, futurists, human factors specialists, content strategists, and support.

But needless to say, when people ask, “What does an average day look like?”, there is no short answer. Being an innovation strategist is definitely a full time job, but even more, it’s a lifestyle decision. Innovation strategists are always working, because the world is where they learn, and their curiosity is not 9-5.

So what would you add? And are you interested in applying? We’re looking in Toronto and New York.

UPDATE: Add San Francisco to the mix. In short, if you think you meed the description, we want to meet you!

“Our model at Method is that being weird and different is good. Weird changes the world, and Detroit could use a little more of weird in terms of creative ideas.”

- Eric Ryan, Method Products Co-Founder (AdAge)

I’ve been into the idea of weird lately. It feels like odd and peculiar themes are increasingly breaking through and holding the public’s attention. Somehow, today’s world of endless choice still offers us an oversupply of sameness; so we’re almost begging for non-conformity. If you look to popular culture, the not-so-weak signals are everywhere. Austin’s “Keep [City] Weird” support-local movement is spreading across the US.  The world’s number one pop artist wears clothing made of meat. The LA Lakers’ starting Small Forward is changing his name to Meta World Peace. It seems the novelty of of the unconventional is pushing us to the edges of our relative notions of comfort. And we are liking it.

Unlikely friends have benefits.

One of my more specific interests around weirdness is the uncharted space that odd combinations can lead us to. I realize cultural mash-ups are not a new idea. And yes, they can be excruciatingly bad (think Rap-Rock). But they can also be hugely interesting, inventive and inspiring.

Artists, of course, have been fearlessly blending ideas for centuries. But in the business world we seem more hesitant to look beyond category borders for experimentation and learning. The recent emphasis on Design Thinking and Innovation has more key players preaching the merits of cross-disciplinary collaboration, but in practice this approach is still barely visible.

Recently I stumbled upon Grant McCracken’s Culturematic posts proposing the need for more culture-smashing tools. I think we’re likely to see an explosion of similar Oblique Strategies over the next few years. You can only imagine the fruits of a Large Hadron Cultural Collider. Or an event series that promotes weird cross-industry collaborations like Food & Psychology or Comedy & Finance (call it Funny Money).

A weird little brand case.

One of my favorite new local brands is a microbrew out of Barrie, Ontario. Flying Monkey produces a roster of delicious craft brews like Hoptical Illusion and Netherworld Cascadian Dark. The brand is not just a nod to oddity, it’s built on the idea. Their tagline “normal is weird” is a pledge to the peculiar, and everything they do serves to honour that pledge. The glassware, for example, is littered with little bits of unusual magic like the “Reorder Line” (photo below). The brand purpose extends to its people as well, as is evident in this excerpt from an article on a hot new little Toronto snack spot:

“Peter Aitchison, a salesman with Flying Monkeys Craft Brewery in Barrie, told us that he could sculpt anything. So we said, ‘OK, let’s see you make a draft tap out of a telephone pole.’ And he did, over a span of 12 hours with a chisel.”

Their website also keeps it surreal. Upon arrival you’re unsure if you’ve landed on the brewery’s mainpage or if you’re embarking on a journey to the fantastical underground of the early internets.

Things could (and should) get weird.

The Age of Weird is arriving. The business world is already playing catch-up. We know creative advantage is more crucial now than ever before. Firms willing to move beyond their core comforts, embrace their cultural quirks, and experiment on the fringes will be best positioned for innovation. Yes, this will be a difficult transition for many. But it also promises to be fun, enlightening, and potentially lucrative for those wiling to get a little freaky.

Stay tuned for some IC weird-play in the coming months.