Vision and Mission are two of the most misused and therefore meaningless words in business. But it doesn’t have to, and shouldn’t, be that way.
Read MoreSee Vision and Do Mission
Thriving with the Fittest
Your customers are always looking for better outcomes and higher value. There are no two ways about it, price is a key factor in the perception of value.
Read MorePutting Out Into the Deep
Launching. Learning. Listening.
While you may not always act at this level, someone in your company had better be!
Read MoreSports and Business: a few of my favorite things
This week I was a guest on a podcast for the first time.
I’ve loved podcasts since … forever? But this was the first time I was on one.
Read MoreAnswering the Call
So, you want to be an entrepreneur? Here’s where you begin.
Read MoreWhat Are the Steps to Building a Beautiful Business?
No, you can’t just follow someone’s template: at best that will waste your time and energy. No, there’s no simple formula to follow. But you can do better than emulating successful entrepreneurs, you can have a framework for action and an intentional approach to build the beautiful business you’ve always imagined.
Read MoreBeing Data-Driven is Dumb
5+ years later, software vendors and consultants are still advertising the importance of being data-driven. It’s good for them to sell software and services, but it’s not at all what you need.
Read MoreSome Notes On Digital Transformation
Application modernization, cloud migration, digital transformation. Going from where you are to where you “ought to be” is a journey down a non-linear path you can’t predict; and, until you need them, you won’t even know all the tools and skills you’ll need to make it.
Read MoreWhat is “Digital Transformation” and do I need one?
As an entrepreneur in our modern digital economy your business needs to leverage technology for success, and “digital transformation” has been the buzzword de jour for years to describe what companies need to do to become competitive in the 21st Century. Even so, business owners rightly respond, “But what is it and do I really need to it?”
Read More3 Simple Tech Trends For Your Business
As an entrepreneur in our modern digital economy your business needs to leverage technology for success. But there are so many new techs, and so many old ones. What should I pay attention to? What should I try to use in my business?
Read MoreEntrepreneurial Lessons from Youth Hockey
The last two years I’ve coached my son’s team in hockey and it has been one of the most enjoying and fulfilling things I’ve ever done. My most recent coaching experience inspired me to standup and articulate the connections I see between and the lessons I think we can glean from youth hockey.
Read MoreLearning from Failing
I have been listening to the Cautionary Tales podcast all year long as I drive with my 10 year old son to and from his Saturday Art of Problem Solving program. The delivery and style of the stories create both and emotional and intellectual response of joy and satisfaction; frequently mingled with discomfort, sadness, longing, and pathos. This Saturday we listened to another episode and it was no different. Except it was.
Read MoreWhat’s more valuable, electricity or the equipment it powers?
Earlier this week I enjoyed a webinar from the TSIA, From Traditional to XaaS Hardware: Navigating your Digital Transformation, and got many good notes from it. (“X” is for “anything.”) I thought I would share this point because it also illustrates the “mindshift” necessary on the part of vendors and customers to imagine the value of XaaS hardware.
Read MoreGrowing Your Business and Making It Last
Every entrepreneur dreams of growing their business to serve all the people they envision need their offering. At some point, most entrepreneurs get stuck in the execution and operation of what they’ve built, while their dreams recede with regret in their rear-view mirror. Simbiotrek (sim-bÄ“-ˈä-ˈtrek) was founded to get entrepreneurs unstuck—or better yet, so they avoid getting stuck all together.
Read MoreSome Notes On Reinventing Your Business
Here are some “old” notes that come a cross a bit like a buzzword soup, but I’m pretty sure there are some germs of good ideas in here. If you can avoid going cross-eyed and dizzy reading the notes (or just scroll right past them), I follow them up with some bullet points that extract what might be those ideas to extract and expand on.
Read MoreSome Notes on Design by Concept
This talk (on YouTube) by Daniel Jackson, Design by Concept: A New Way to Think About Software, was recommended to me by Michael Feathers. I just thought I’d take a few notes on it while I watch 🙂
Read MoreJourneys in Journey Mapping
I have had a journey with journey mapping. Through it, I have noticed different types of customer journey maps requiring different inputs and resulting in different outputs/impact over time. I think that there is a time and place for each type of journey map and that it is worth categorizing the kind you’re using or creating in light of what you intend to achieve. I also believe that customer journey maps (and personas and scenarios) if kept as “living assets”, can help give all your teams “line of sight” to your customers, and that they are a powerful catalyst for organizations looking to reinvent themselves as truly customer-centered and empathetic.
Read MoreOvercoming the “Achilles Heel” of Agile
I recently noticed a former colleague gain a Disciplined Agile certification. In my congratulatory message I also indicated my interest in learning more. In addition to that conversation, he also pointed me towards a series of meetups and LinkedIn articles led by Ivar Jacobson around “Essence for Agility”. I won’t go into all the aspects of that, but I do want to share some of the thinking that it inspired me to do about how I’ve been been working and why that has been a solution to the Achilles’ Heel of Agile Adoption.
Read MoreAPIs for Fun and Profit
This is a republishing of an article that I’ve had around in few places, from the old company blog, to medium, and probably somewhere else. It is good for me to review from time to time the importance and impact of APIs in creating a true customer-centered business. We can probably never say it enough because the “techie” nature of APIs makes them an unusual topic for customer experience and business leaders. But the ultimate users of APIs are humans and the ultimate purpose for them is to facilitate value creation.
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