Monthly Archives: January 2020

The Leading Country for Innovation for 2020 is…

The Leading Country for Innovation for 2020 is...

The latest Bloomberg Innovation Index is out (2020 edition), and Germany has risen to first place, breaking South Korea’s six-year winning streak, while the U.S. fell one notch to No. 9.

“Innovation is a critical driver of growth and prosperity. China’s move up the rankings, and the U.S. drop, is a reminder that without investment in education and research, trade tariffs aren’t going to maintain America’s economic edge.” –Tom Orlik, Bloomberg Economics chief economist

The rankings are based on dozens of criteria centered around seven metrics:

  • For patent activity
  • For research personnel concentration
  • For tertiary education
  • For technology company density
  • For productivity
  • For manufacturing value added
  • For research and development expenditures

2020 Bloomberg Innovation Index

The Bloomberg Innovation Index tries to measure and rank countries on the ability of their economies to innovate, which will be a key theme at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland taking place Jan. 21-24.

While spending on research and development continues to be important, shifts in productivity and education effectiveness (among other factors) will continue to encourage significant changes in the index from year to year.

What do you think?

Does Bloomberg get it right or are there other innovation rankings or indexes that do a better job?

Which is more important to the relative innovativeness of a country, efforts by the government or by industry?

Which countries do the best job of achieving successful public/private partnerships to encourage innovation?

Click here to see the full 2020 Bloomberg Innovation Index rankings

Image credits: Bloomberg


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Time Travel Innovation

Time Travel Innovation

Is it really possible to travel back in time? What about traveling into the future, have we finally figured out how to do that? Well, you’ll have to read on to find out…

But before we explore whether someone has finally figured out how to successfully time travel and recruit you to join me in investing in their pre-IPO startup, I’d like to introduce one of the most important visualizations from the world of innovation that many of your have probably never seen – Neri Oxman’s Krebs Cycle of Creativity from January 2016.

If you’re not familiar with this incredibly important visual artifact from the work of Neri Oxman from MIT’s Media Lab, you should be because it does an amazing job of capturing the interplay between Art, Science, Engineering and Design in the creation of innovation. It builds on John Maeda’s Bermuda Quadrilateral from 2006:

John Maeda Bermuda Quadrilateral

And Rich Gold’s Matrix, also from 2006:

Rich Gold Matrix

While Rich Gold’s visualization builds on the logical bones of John Maeda’s Bermuda Quadrilateral and introduces the concepts of speculative design, speculative engineering, and the contrast between moving minds & moving molecules, it lacks the depth of Neri Oxman’s Krebs Cycle of Creativity visualization. But the Krebs Cycle of Creativity does lose Maeda’s expression of the linkages between science & exploration, engineering & invention, design & communication, and art & expression. But even without these assertions of Maeda, the Krebs Cycle of Creativity still captures a number of other powerful tensions and assertions that can benefit us in our pursuit of innovation.

Time Marches On

The Krebs Cycle of Creativity can be viewed from a number of different perspectives and utilized in a number of different ways. But, one way to look at it is as if it were a watch face. In this context as time moves forward you’re following the typical path, a technology-led innovation approach.

Using the Krebs Cycle of Creativity Canvas in a clockwise direction will help us explore:

  • What information do we have about what might be possible?
  • What knowledge needs to be obtained?
  • What utility does the invention create?
  • What behavior do we need to modify to encourage adoption?

It begins with the invention of a new piece of technology created by the usage of existing information and a new perception of what might be possible within the constraints of our understanding of the natural world, or even by expanding our understanding and knowledge of the natural world using the scientific method.

Neri Oxman Krebs Cycle of Creativity

You’ll see at 3 o’clock in the image above that it at this point in time that most organizations then hand off this new knowledge to their engineers to look at this new understanding of nature through the production lens in order to convert this new knowledge into new utility.

Engineers in most organizations are adept at finding a useful application for a new scientific discovery, and in many organizations this work is done before designers get a peek and begin to imagine how they can present this utility to users in a way that drives behaviors of adoption in a way that the behaviors of using the product or consuming the service feel as natural as possible and as frictionless as possible.

And unfortunately the artists in any organization (or outside via agency relationships) are called in at the eleventh hour to help shape perceptions and to communicate the philosophy behind the solution and the to make the case for it to occupy space in our collective culture.

Pausing at the Innovation Intersection

The way that innovation occurs in many organizations is that Science and Engineering collaborate to investigate and confirm feasibility, then Engineering and Design collaborate to inject viability into the equation, and then Design and Art (with elements of marketing and advertising) collaborate to create Desirability at the end. This may be how it works in many organizations, yet it doesn’t mean that it is the best way…

Feasibility Viability Desirability for Innovation

Traveling Back in Time

But as we all know, water can run uphill, the moon can eclipse the sun, and yes time can run in reverse. Viewing the Krebs Cycle of Creativity in a counter clockwise direction and pushing the hands of the watch backwards will have you following a user-led innovation approach instead.

Using the Krebs Cycle of Creativity Canvas in a counter clockwise direction will help us explore:

  • What information do we have about what is needed?
  • What behavior should we observe?
  • What would create utility for customers?
  • What knowledge must we obtain to realize our solution vision?

It begins with the identification of a new insight uncovered by the investigation of existing information and a new perception of what might be needed within the constraints of our understanding of our customers, or even by expanding our understanding and knowledge of our customers by using ethnography, observation, behavioral science and other tools to enter the mind of your customers, employees or partners.

You’ll see at 9 o’clock in the image above that it at this point in time that user-driven organizations after having their business artists use their perception skills to investigate the culture and philosophy underpinning this new understanding of behavior and pass it off for their designers to look at through the production lens in order to convert it into new utility.

Designers in many organizations are adept at finding a useful application for a new behavioral understanding, and in user-driven organizations this work is done before engineers get a peek and begin to imagine how they can build this utility for users in a way that creates new knowledge in a way that will differentiate the products or services of their organization from those of the competition.

And in user-driven organizations scientists are called in as needed to help overcome any barriers engineers encounter in realizing the solution that best satisfies the users’ identified needs, while leveraging new scientific perceptions that help shape our understanding of nature and empower new philosophical beliefs about what’s possible.

Conclusion

While we haven’t torn any worm holes through the fabric of the space-time continuum with this article, hopefully we have expanded your repertoire with some new tools to facilitate conscious choices around whether you are going to pursue technology-led innovation (clockwise) or user-led innovation (counter clockwise).

Hopefully we have also shown you a better way of visualizing where you are in your innovation journey and where the turning points in your innovation pursuits lie as you seek to take a quantum leap and transform your past into a bright, shiny future.

So now it is time to answer the question you had at the beginning of this article… Is time travel possible?

Well, nearly a decade ago NASA ran an experiment that proved elements of Einstein’s theory of relativity, specifically that the fabric of space-time warps around the earth in response to gravity. Read about it here

And yes, time travel is theoretically possible, or at least time is not theoretically constant as described in this NASA article.

Neither of these indicate that it is possible to travel backwards in time (despite what Superman physics says), only to affect how time advances, but if anyone wants to invest a million dollars in my time travel startup, I’ll cash your check. Because who knows, maybe your check is what will finally make time travel possible!

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

 

Image credits: Neri Oxman, MIT Media Lab; Rich Gold; John Maeda; Pixabay

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The Art and Science of Futures Research

The Art and Science of Futures Research

GUEST POST from Chateau G Pato

Every year, unforeseen events shape our lives—from pandemics to technological disruptions. It’s therefore no surprise that organizations of all types, ranging from governments to businesses, increasingly recognize the need to stay one step ahead of the curve. Futures research play a critical role in this process, blending the art of strategic scenario planning and the science of data-driven trend analysis to build a more resilient tomorrow.

At its core, futures research is a method of studying and anticipating change to better equip decision-makers to cope with, and capitalize on, opportunities and challenges of the future. It uses a blend of qualitative and quantitative research to consider both the immediate situation and a variety of potential scenarios, examining all elements that might affect this future, from socio-economic trends to proper investments. Most importantly, it is a way to proactively prepare for the inevitable changes that lay ahead, allowing organizations to make decisions with the greater context in mind.

Case Study 1 – Local Government

Take, for example, the Ontario Drinks Initiative (ODI), recently undertaken by the Ontario provincial government. ODI was established as a response to the explosive growth of hard seltzers and craft beers in the alcoholic beverage industry. The provincial government sought to understand not only current customer preferences and market figures but also the evolving trends in consumer demand that could shape the future of the sector. Futures research, in turn, allowed the government to more accurately predict the potential response to its proposed policies, providing insights on both the short-term actions and long-term investments needed to capitalize upon the industry’s transformation.

Case Study 2 – Healthcare Industry

A separate example can be seen in the healthcare industry, where a merger of hospital networks in the Midwest had become a major political issue. The medical staff, business leaders, and government officials had different opinions on the proposed merger, but they realized that the only way to make an informed decision was with the help of a more comprehensive and future-oriented analysis. Through futures research, the stakeholders managed to better understand potential long-term implications, economic impacts, and regulatory aspects in addition to more immediate pros and cons. In the end, this more nuanced research allowed for decision-makers to make a more informed and strategic decision.

Conclusion

Ultimately, futures research can be a powerful tool for any organization that is looking to stay ahead of the curve and stay ahead of the competition. By blending the art of qualitative scenarios with the science of quantitative data analysis, it can equip decision-makers with the greater context and insight they need to make more informed strategic decisions that can lead to long-term success.

Bottom line: Futurology is not fortune telling. Futurists use a scientific approach to create their deliverables, but a methodology and tools like those in FutureHacking™ can empower anyone to engage in futurology themselves.

Image credit: Pexels

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Human-Centered Design and User Experience

Human-Centered Design and User Experience

GUEST POST from Art Inteligencia

As technology becomes increasingly complex, the need for user-friendly design and user experience (UX) is more important than ever. To understand user experience, it’s essential to understand human-centered design, which is the practice of designing products and services with the user’s needs and objectives as the focal point. Human-centered design involves looking at the needs and wants of a product’s end user, rather than the product or service itself, which helps create a better user experience. The focus of human-centered design is on creating the best possible user experience, and many companies have realized the benefits of using this approach. Here, we’ll look at two case studies of successful human-centered design and user experience.

What are the key ways that human-centered design and user experience intersect?

There are definite intersections between user experience and human-centered design. Here are four (4) intersection points to consider:

1. Focus on Context: Human-centered design and user experience both focus on taking the context of the user into account and ensuring the system meets their needs. This means understanding the user’s environment, their emotional state, and their goals, and then designing the system to meet those needs.

2. Create Solutions for Different Types of Users: Human-centered design and user experience approach the problem solving process differently. They take into account how people interact with the system, how they may encounter problems, and how they feel. Then, they create solutions that can be tailored to specific types of users, older users, disabled users, etc.

3. Enable Iterative Development: Human-centered design and user experience methods enable a more iterative development process. This means that the design process can evolve as new information comes in from users, allowing for improved solutions at each step of development.

4. Focus on Holistic Experiences: Human-centered design and user experience place importance on the usability of the system, but also the overall experience the user will have. This means that both the visuals and the usability should enhance the user’s experience. It also means that the system should be easy to use and understand, no matter how it is accessed.

Case Study 1 – Healthcare Industry

The first case study is an example of human-centered design applied to the healthcare industry. Vitamin Health is a company that is leveraging human-centered design to quickly and accurately deliver personalized vitamin and supplement recommendations, tailored to the individual’s lifestyle and health needs. The company created an online platform that assesses the user’s needs and then generates personalized vitamin and supplement recommendations. After a brief survey, the user is presented with a clear summary of their recommended vitamins and supplements. Along with providing the recommendations, Vitamin Health has also created an app that allows users to manage their vitamin and supplement intake. Vitamin Health has improved the user experience by making the process of obtaining personalized recommendations easy and convenient.

Case Study 2 – Entertainment Industry

The second case study involves human-centered design applied to the entertainment industry. Netflix is a streaming service provider that has placed a strong emphasis on user experience. Netflix uses human-centered design to create a personalized experience for each user. It is constantly collecting data on user action in real time, which is then used to make personalized recommendations. Netflix has implemented many features that allow users to find content that suits their particular interests and preferences. The company has also made the process of subscribing to its service quick and easy.

Conclusion

By focusing on human-centered design and user experience, Netflix and Vitamin Health have been able to create products and services that are more user-friendly, efficient, and enjoyable. They have also demonstrated the importance of understanding the needs of end users in order to create an optimal user experience. Human-centered design is quickly becoming the foundation of modern product and service design, and companies must consider the end user’s needs if they hope to remain competitive in the future.

SPECIAL BONUS: Braden Kelley’s Problem Finding Canvas can be a super useful starting point for doing design thinking or human-centered design.

“The Problem Finding Canvas should help you investigate a handful of areas to explore, choose the one most important to you, extract all of the potential challenges and opportunities and choose one to prioritize.”

Image credit: Pexels

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The Impact of Autonomous Vehicles on Society

The Impact of Autonomous Vehicles on Society

GUEST POST from Chateau G Pato

With the emergence of autonomous vehicles (AVs), society is now at a crossroads, on the cusp of a whole new reality in transportation and mobility. AVs offer many benefits, including improved safety, reduced emissions, and increased efficiency. They also come with some risks, including a disruption of infrastructure and labor, as well as the potential for increased privacy concerns. As AVs become increasingly integrated into our society, it is important to consider both the benefits and risks of this new technology so that we can maximize its potential and minimize its drawbacks.

The potential benefits of AVs are immense. In terms of safety, human error is the leading cause of automotive fatalities, accounting for 90 percent of fatal accidents. AVs are equipped with advanced sensory systems that can enable them to be significantly safer drivers than their human counterparts. They can sense potential hazards on the road better than a human driver, and their reaction times are significantly faster. Furthermore, due to their automation, the risk of fatigue among drivers is eliminated, which can reduce the risk of accidents.

In terms of efficiency, AVs can help reduce traffic congestion due to their increased accuracy in predicting road conditions and their ability to plan routes more efficiently. By reducing congestion, AVs could result in improved efficiency for transportation, reducing both fuel consumption and air pollution. Additionally, by removing the need for direct human control, AVs can enable people to engage in other tasks while in transit, potentially improving productivity and reducing commute times.

While there are many potential benefits to AVs, it is important to recognize the potential risks as well. One of the most pressing concerns is the potential for AVs to displace existing workers. Truck drivers, taxi drivers, and other occupations that rely on human driving could become obsolete as self-driving vehicles become more commonplace. This could result in an increase in unemployment and social unrest. Furthermore, AVs require robust infrastructure and connectivity for them to work efficiently. This could also have a disruptive effect on existing infrastructure and require significant investment, both financially and in terms of time. Additionally, AVs raise serious concerns about the potential for surveillance and privacy, as data collected by the vehicles could be exploited by third parties.

As AVs become increasingly integrated into our society, it is important to recognize the potential benefits and risks. To illustrate this, two case studies are worth looking at.

Case Study 1 – GoMentum Station (USA)

The first is a pilot program in California called “GoMentum Station”, which was launched in 2017 by Honda to test autonomous vehicles on a closed-off track. The program has had great success and opened the door to further discussion of the potential for AVs in the public space.

Case Study 2 – Drive.ai (Singapore)

The second is a pilot program in Singapore called Drive.ai, which launched in 2018 and is testing AVs in a variety of situations, including mixed traffic roads, highways, and bad weather. These case studies provide insight into the potential for AVs to benefit society, while also highlighting the potential risks.

Conclusion

Overall, AVs have the potential to revolutionize transportation and mobility. With their increased safety features and efficiency, they could offer many benefits to society in the long run. However, it is important to consider the potential risks before introducing AVs into the public space, so that we can ensure that their benefits are maximized while their drawbacks are minimized.

Bottom line: Futurology is not fortune telling. Futurists use a scientific approach to create their deliverables, but a methodology and tools like those in FutureHacking™ can empower anyone to engage in futurology themselves.

Image credit: Pixabay

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What’s Inside the CEO’s Innovation Playbook?

What's Inside the CEO's Innovation Playbook?Recently I received an advance copy of “The CEO’s Innovation Playbook” – the latest white paper from Mastercard and Harvard Business Review Analytic Services. For the effort they interviewed a dozen CEO’s highly innovative companies including Citigroup, Lyft and Coca Cola.

The paper spends most of its real estate on captured quotes straight from the mouth of CEO’s, distilling their inputs into a few key themes, several data points from their broader research effort “Innovators Become Leaders” and some key insights for leaders to consider.

So, what should be in the innovation playbook of a CEO?

Well, the subtitle says it’s 50 actions to spark innovation accelerate growth.

Here are some of the highlights:

Five Distinct Traits Foster Successful Innovation

  1. Speed
  2. Data-Driven Decision Making
  3. Leadership Commitment
  4. Entrepreneurial Culture
  5. Relentless Focus on the Customer

In the introduction Ajay Banga, the President and CEO of Mastercard, argues for a sixth trait – Diversity.

1. Speed

I think most of our community would agree that moving at the speed of innovation is important, and their research found that:

“96% of innovation leaders say their organizations bring new ideas and solutions to market quickly.”

Whether you believe in first-mover advantages or not, I think nobody would disagree that once you’ve proven that a potential innovation is desirable, feasible and viable YOU MUST be able to quickly scale it, BUT NOT BEFORE. They don’t speak to the fact that going big too soon is a problem, but it is definitely something that can burn through millions of dollars needlessly.

2. Data-Driven Decision Making

The key point here is that smart companies make use of data to better understand where opportunities lie with their customers and use data to understand which opportunities are most promising and worthy of scaling. The research highlight for this section was that:

“Nearly three-quarters of innovation leaders use multiple internal and external data sources and advanced analytics to inform decisions around innovation.”

The key thing to remember of course is that you only can leverage the data that you choose to collect, so choose wisely. You need data that can be turned into useful information that can be turned into valuable, actionable insights.

3. Leadership Commitment

According to the report, three-quarters of leaders agree that innovation is a contributor to their financial performance.

“CEOs interviewed for this report demonstrate their commitment to innovation in ways that would be hard for their employees to miss, from providing tangible rewards for innovative behaviors to expressly voicing the idea that failure, within boundaries, is not a loss but a learning opportunity.”

4. Entrepreneurial Culture

Successful innovation leaders recognize the importance of encouraging productive conflict, creating a culture of curiosity and courage, and building a management team that is comfortable with employees challenging the status quo.

“84% of innovation leaders say their organizations test a broad pipeline of ideas with the expectation that many will fail.”

5. Relentless Focus on the Customer

Because innovation is all about identifying and delivering new sources of value that are unique and capable of replacing the existing solution. In order to understand what new sources of value are needed or how to increase existing sources of value in a meaningful way, you must also understand your customers sometimes better than they understand themselves.

“72% of all the executives surveyed agree that consumer insight is a vehicle for innovation.”

Knowing your customers is different than asking them what they want. Innovators always walk this delicate line successfully without falling off.

Conclusion

Let’s close with a series of questions for your to ponder:

Is your organization running fast enough to keep pace with the innovation expectations of your customers?

Are you gathering the right data to help you find the right insights to create the right range of potential innovations and select the right ones to scale?

Are you as a leader signaling clearly your commitment to innovation not just with your words, but reinforcing them properly with your actions and the actions of your team?

Are your demonstrating that an entrepreneurial culture is necessary, valued and supported in your organization?

When was the last time that you spent time with a customer? Do you catch yourself when you start to pretend that you’re the customer WHEN YOU ARE NOT?

And finally, are you injecting the right level of diversity in people and perspectives throughout your innovation process?

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Click here to download “The CEO’s Innovation Playbook” to read it for yourself.
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If you’re serious about building a continuous innovation structure, you can read all about how to do it in my first book Stoking Your Innovation Bonfire, available at libraries and fine booksellers everywhere.


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Tips for Developing a Culture of Continuous Improvement

Tips for Developing a Culture of Continuous Improvement

GUEST POST from Art Inteligencia

As today’s volatile business climate demands that organizations continuously improve and innovate, developing a culture of continuous improvement is essential for organizations to stay competitive. While this may seem like a daunting task, there are certain steps managers can take to foster a culture of continuous improvement.

1. Talk About Continuous Improvement

The first step to developing a culture of continuous improvement is to make sure that the organization is actually talking about it. Whether it’s part of the mission statement, a portion of an all-staff meeting, or a project goal, the importance of continuous improvement should be prominent.

2. Embrace Failure

Failures must be seen as learning opportunities instead of causes for retribution or punishment. By embedded this mind-set throughout the organization, employees will be more likely to try out new ideas instead of playing it safe.

3. Promote Innovation

Encourage employees to think about how their tasks can be implemented more effectively or replaced with new technologies or processes. Employ systems like suggestion boxes and make sure that employees are aware that their ideas will not be judged but instead be seen as opportunities for improvement.

4. Make Continuous Improvement a Priority

Leaders should identify areas in need of improvement and then set objectives and determine the necessary resources for those objectives. For example, if the goal is to reduce overhead costs, the organization should form a task force or committee that is focused on meeting that goal.

5. Communicate the Benefits of Continuous Improvement

Explain to employees why continuous improvement is important for the organization. Help them understand how the specific improvements will lead to specific benefits, such as cost savings, increased efficiency, or better customer service.

Another Approach

The workplace has changed drastically in recent years, as organizations are increasingly looking to create a culture of continuous improvement. With this kind of environment, employees are constantly motivated and challenged to learn and grow, leading to better results and more satisfied customers. While there is no one-size-fits-all approach to developing such a culture, there are a few tips and strategies that can help get your organization on the right track.

#1 Embrace Technology

Technology plays a major role in the ability to create a culture of continuous improvement. It enables employees to quickly connect with each other from any location, share ideas, and get feedback. It also allows businesses to automate and streamline various processes to free up time for more critical thinking and creativity. Investing in the right technology can have a tremendous impact on the success of your efforts.

Case Study: Netflix — The streaming giant is renowned for its culture of continuous improvement, having managed to adapt to changing market forces and create products and services that customers love. Technology is a major reason why. From their streaming platform itself to their internal systems, Netflix has embraced the power of technology to optimize workflows and enable faster decisions.

#2 Encourage Autonomy and Collaboration

Creating a culture of continuous improvement means providing employees with the freedom to think, act, and create on their own, without having to wait for lengthy approval processes or wait in line to discuss an idea with a manager. As such, businesses should provide employees with the autonomy to decide how they want to tackle a problem and collaborate with others in order to come up with creative solutions.

Case Study: Amazon — The e-commerce giant is all about autonomy and collaboration. This is evidenced by their flat structure, which allows employees to communicate and collaborate without having to go through a hierarchical chain of command. This has enabled their employees to think more creatively, come up with better solutions, and move faster than the competition.

#3 Celebrate Success

Creating a culture of continuous improvement requires positive reinforcement and recognition for employees who are doing a great job. Whether it is through awards, bonuses, public recognition, or other forms of reward, celebrating success is vital to encouraging employees to push themselves and come up with innovative solutions.

Case Study: Apple — The tech giant is known for its passion for innovation and has long relied on recognition and encouragement to drive their employees to excel. The company regularly recognizes employees for their successes in their internal publications, while also providing rewards and bonuses for noteworthy accomplishments. This emphasis on celebrating and recognizing employees has fostered a culture of continuous improvement, driving Apple to the top of their industry.

Conclusion

Creating a culture of continuous improvement requires commitment and a forward-thinking approach to management, but the long-term benefits are invaluable. With these tips and examples, businesses can start to build a culture where employees are encouraged to learn and grow, and customers benefit from better products and services.

Image credit: Pixabay

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Exploring the Benefits of Blockchain Technology

Exploring the Benefits of Blockchain Technology

GUEST POST from Chateau G Pato

The rise of blockchain technology has revolutionized the way businesses, governments, and individuals store and share data, as well as transact with each other. Because of its inherent security and digital record-keeping properties, blockchain technology presents a new level of assurance to organizations and offers unparalleled digital security. As the world increasingly shifts to more digitized processes, it’s becoming more important to explore the benefits of blockchain technology and consider how businesses can take advantage of its capabilities.

One of the most notable benefits of blockchain technology is its transparency. Data stored on blockchain networks is immutable and recorded in publicly available ledgers, meaning that it is resistant to tampering or manipulation. This level of visibility induces trust and improves collaboration between disparate parties through greater assurance that the data is authentic and secure.

The digital identity security that blockchain technology provides is another attractive benefit. By using private and public encryption keys, users can protect sensitive data and ensure that it is only accessible by appropriate parties. This further increases the trustworthiness of data and transactions as users can rest assured that their information is in the right hands and can be easily traced.

Case Study 1 – BBVA

The banking and financial industry has already begun to explore the many advantages of blockchain technology. A noteworthy case study is BBVA, a global bank that implemented blockchain technology to process multi-currency transactions. By utilizing distributed ledgers, the bank was able to reduce the time required to process international transactions from 2-3 days to under a minute. In addition, the transparency of the technology meant that customers could more easily verify that their transaction was secure and monitored, and it also allowed the bank to save on costs and improve operational efficiency.

Case Study 2 – eBay

Another example is well known online marketplace eBay, which utilizes blockchain technology to facilitate digital payments. By using distributed ledgers, eBay is able to securely store user payments and verify the authenticity of transactions, as well as support cross-border payments with confidence in the certainty of records. The technology has also enabled the company to reduce the risk of fraud and improve the speed and security of its digital transactions.

Conclusion

As businesses continue to migrate to the digital realm, blockchain technology offers several potential advantages that organizations should examine as they explore ways to improve data security and collaboration. Secure data storage, improved trustworthiness, and enhanced communication are just a few of the benefits that blockchain technology can provide businesses. By leveraging the technology’s capabilities, organizations can ultimately gain a competitive edge and improve operational efficiency.

Image credit: Pixabay

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What Are Moments of Truth?

What Are Moments of Truth?

GUEST POST from Art Inteligencia

Moments of truth are the individual experiences that customers have with a business, brand, or product. They are the critical interactions that leave lasting impressions and determine how customers feel about a business. Companies strive to use moments of truth to build relationships with customers and maximize customer satisfaction.

Moments of truth can occur both in-person and online. In-person moments of truth occur when a customer interacts with a business, such as when they walk into a store, talk to a customer service representative, or purchase a product. Online moments of truth occur when a customer visits a website, interacts with a chatbot, or reviews a product.

Companies can take advantage of moments of truth to create positive customer experiences. They can use these interactions to listen to customer feedback and make improvements to their products and services. Companies can also use moments of truth to build relationships with customers by providing personalized customer service and making customers feel valued.

Companies should strive to ensure that each moment of truth is positive and memorable. They should focus on creating an easy, enjoyable, and frictionless experience for customers. This can include providing helpful and informative customer service, making sure products are as described, and responding quickly to customer inquiries.

Moments of truth are critical for businesses because they shape how customers think and feel about a company. Companies must strive to make each moment of truth positive and memorable in order to create loyal, satisfied customers.

Image credit: Pixabay

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Are Innovation and Empathy in the Cards?

As part of the leadership team for a new human-centered problem-solving offering for select Oracle customers, I’m always on the lookout for new tools to integrate into our flexible problem-solving process to help clients innovate, grow or transform.

Because our dynamic team of experienced professionals has a diverse range of knowledge, skills and abilities we’re able to co-create solutions to a wide range of business challenges and leverage a wide variety of tools. This means I’m always on the lookout for new tools to better serve our clients, in addition to pursuing my hobby of creating new tools and methodologies in my spare time throughout my career.

My passion for empowering others to succeed in overcoming their business challenges has led to the publishing of two business best-sellers Stoking Your Innovation Bonfire (John Wiley & Sons, 2010) and Charting Change (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016), and the creation of the powerful, visual and collaborative Change Planning Toolkit™, my Nine Innovation Roles™ card deck, and the Human-Centered Innovation Toolkit™ (featuring tools like The Experiment Canvas™).

I create new tools, methodologies and frameworks when I see opportunities to make people more efficient and effective in their jobs and leverage the work of others when I find others have created good solutions. I leverage the Business Model Canvas for business model prototyping, I leverage The Play-to-Win Strategy Canvas v3.0 to help people work through strategic choices, along with other tools when the challenge is appropriate.

Recently I have been looking at a variety of card decks to evaluate their suitability to use alongside design thinking and other methodologies that form the basis of the Oracle FUEL approach.

Here are a few I’ve been evaluating lately:

Killer Questions Cards

1. Killer Questions – Volume 1 from Phil McKinney, author of Beyond the Obvious and CEO of CableLabs
(More info at https://innovation.tools/)

Brainstorming is a fairly useless exercise the way that most people facilitate it. There are much more effective ways to get ideas and most of the approaches that work better share at their core a more targeted and collaborative approach. The Killer Questions card deck is composed of just that, a collection of questions if left unanswered or unexplored, could lead to blind spots and disruption opportunities for new entrants (or your competition). The questions are categorized into three types:

  1. Who
  2. What
  3. How

And the questions include things like:

  • Who does not use my product because of my assumptions about their skill or ability
  • What emotional, psychological, or status benefits could people derive from using my product?
  • How could users avoid interacting with my product or service but still get the same value?

But the cards don’t just contain a single question. These are examples of guiding questions on the front of a few cards, but on the back of each card you will also find 3-5 supporting questions to help your team explore the guiding question more fully.

Overall, I consider the cards a useful tool for groups including: product teams wanting to continuously stretch themselves as they revaluate product direction, or for expanded innovation teams looking to broaden their search horizons.

Innovation Deck cards by Andrey Schukin

2. The Innovation Deck by Andrey Schukin, CTO at Interprefy AG
(More info at http://www.innovationfast.com/)

Where the Killer Questions deck is organized around questions, The Innovation Deck is organized around topics/tactics and triggers. For each topic/tactic there is either a set of instructions or a set of questions.

The Innovation Deck is composed of three different types of cards that will help you:

  1. Examine
  2. Explore
  3. Evaluate

Examine Card example:

EMOTION

  • People don’t buy things they need. They buy things they want.
  • How do you make sure that the product will trigger an emotional response from the customer?
  • What elements of your product will make the customer want to use it?

I would almost include the triggers cards as a fourth card type, because instead of a topic and questions the cards have a collection of words to see if any of the words inspire thought or conversations rather than giving people a guiding topic or tactic.

Overall, I consider these cards as a useful tool for product teams looking at a product to challenge or stretch the existing product direction for the future.

Nine Innovation Roles cards from Braden Kelley

3. Nine Innovation Roles – a card deck by Braden Kelley, author of Stoking Your Innovation Bonfire
(More info at http://9roles.com)

The following is an excerpt from my book that explains some of the thinking behind The Nine Innovation Roles™:

“Too often we treat people as commodities that are interchangeable and maintain the same characteristics and aptitudes. Of course, we know that people are not interchangeable, yet we continually pretend that they are anyway — to make life simpler for our reptile brain to comprehend. Deep down we know that people have different passions, skills, and potential, but even when it comes to innovation, we expect everybody to have good ideas.

I’m of the opinion that all people are creative, in their own way. That is not to say that all people are creative in the sense that every single person is good at creating lots of really great ideas, nor do they have to be. I believe instead that everyone has a dominant innovation role at which they excel, and that when properly identified and channeled, the organization stands to maximize its innovation capacity. I believe that all people excel at one of nine innovation roles, and that when organizations put the right people in the right innovation roles, that your innovation speed and capacity will increase.”

The Nine Innovation Roles™ are:

  1. Revolutionary
  2. Conscript
  3. Connector
  4. Artist
  5. Customer Champion
  6. Troubleshooter
  7. Judge
  8. Magic Maker
  9. Evangelist

To make my Nine Innovation Roles™ framework accessible to as many people as possible inside organizations all around the world to explore and improve innovation team dynamics and success, I am happy to announce that I have now made the print-ready files for the cards available here for FREE download, and you can either work with the vendor I use – adMagic – or work with a local printer in your part of the world.

LPK Roadblocks Cards

4. LPK Roadblocks by LPK, a brand and innovation consultancy
(More info at https://roadblocks.lpklab.com/)

The LPK Roadblocks deck is focused on innovation roadblocks and helping organizations whose innovation efforts might have stalled, get unstuck. There are six kinds of cards in the deck:

  1. Voting cards
  2. Question cards
  3. Create Your Own Roadblock cards
  4. Organization Roadblocks
  5. Project Roadblocks
  6. Idea Roadblocks

There are two main ways to use the cards, with selection and voting integrated into both:

  1. Root Cause Discovery
  2. Beginning, Middle and End

Organization Roadblocks include things like “Unrealistic Revenue Hurdles” and “Lip-Service Leadership,” while Project Roadblocks including things like “Untested Assumptions” and “Unclear Objectives”, while Idea Roadblocks include things like “Risk/Reward Imbalance” and “No Route to Market.”

Overall, I find these cards to be a useful tool when you run into a client that says they are struggling to innovate or that they’re not innovating as much as they’d like.

Questions & Empathy Cards

5. Questions & Empathy – a card deck by SubRosa, a brand strategy and design practice
(More info at https://www.questionsandempathy.com/)

SubRosa’s Questions & Empathy cards are composed of seven empathy archetype cards and a set of exploratory questions for each archetype. The seven archetypes are:

  1. Sage
  2. Inquirer
  3. Convener
  4. Alchemist
  5. Confidant
  6. Seeker
  7. Cultivator

Overall, I find these cards to be a useful tool for better understanding yourself and your own empathetic style and over time they could help you approach empathy from more angles than you would without them, but I struggle to see as is how they can actually help you practice applied empathy. The archetypes are useful, but I think I might create my own question cards to help my team better apply empathy within the empathize/understand phase of design thinking.

Conclusion

Whether you’re trying to innovate or just to build up your empathy muscles, I hope you see that there are some great, extremely portable resources to help with either. Of course, there are other card decks out there, but these will give you a few to explore and see whether there is a fit for your design thinking or innovation undertakings. If you’re pursuing a digital transformation or business transformation you can:

If you missed the links to the cards decks above, here they are again:

  1. Killer Questions – Volume 1
  2. The Innovation Deck
  3. Nine Innovation Roles (English/Spanish/Swedish)
  4. LPK Roadblocks
  5. Questions & Empathy


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