1. All that matters to customers is their experience
So Maybe what passes for design is really not all that important

2. But the value of investing solely in these things has reached an end.
For decades, businesses have sought technology, features, and optimizations to maintain or increase an advantage over their competitors.
But the value of investing solely in these things has reached an end.
So Maybe what passes for design is really not all that important

3. the real differentiator is
So Maybe what passes for design is really not all that important

4. the experiences people have with your products and services
So Maybe what passes for design is really not all that important

5. When a person engages with your products, services, and environments, a set of distinctly human qualities comes into play.
So Maybe what passes for design is really not all that important

6. A person’s experience emerges from these qualities:
So Maybe what passes for design is really not all that important

7. Expectations: the preconceptions they bring to how something works
Motivations: why they are engaged with your offering, and what they hope to get out of it
Expectations: the preconceptions they bring to how something works
Perceptions: the ways in which your offering affects their senses (see, hear, touch, smell, taste)
Abilities: how they are able to cognitively and physically interact with your offering
So Maybe what passes for design is really not all that important

8. Expectations: the preconceptions they bring to how something works
Motivations: why they are engaged with your offering, and what they hope to get out of it
Expectations: the preconceptions they bring to how something works
Perceptions: the ways in which your offering affects their senses (see, hear, touch, smell, taste)
Abilities: how they are able to cognitively and physically interact with your offering
So Maybe what passes for design is really not all that important

9. Expectations: the preconceptions they bring to how something works
Motivations: why they are engaged with your offering, and what they hope to get out of it
Expectations: the preconceptions they bring to how something works
Perceptions: the ways in which your offering affects their senses (see, hear, touch, smell, taste)
Abilities: how they are able to cognitively and physically interact with your offering
So Maybe what passes for design is really not all that important

10. Expectations: the preconceptions they bring to how something works
Motivations: why they are engaged with your offering, and what they hope to get out of it
Expectations: the preconceptions they bring to how something works
Perceptions: the ways in which your offering affects their senses (see, hear, touch, smell, taste)
Abilities: how they are able to cognitively and physically interact with your offering
So Maybe what passes for design is really not all that important

11. Flow: how they engage with your offering over time
Abilities: how they are able to cognitively and physically interact with your offering
Flow: how they engage with your offering over time
Culture: the framework of codes (manners, language, rituals), behavioral norms, and systems of belief within which the person operates.
So Maybe what passes for design is really not all that important

12. Flow: how they engage with your offering over time
Abilities: how they are able to cognitively and physically interact with your offering
Flow: how they engage with your offering over time
Culture: the framework of codes (manners, language, rituals), behavioral norms, and systems of belief within which the person operates.
So Maybe what passes for design is really not all that important

13. When someone says they've had a good or a bad experience, what they're talking about is how a product, service, or environment did or didn't satisfactorily address these qualities.
So Maybe what passes for design is really not all that important

14. Competitive Advantage: A Little History

15. The early days of business management began with economic theory and an the obsession with optimization
So Maybe what passes for design is really not all that important

16. "you can only manage what you measure,"
An old adage suggests that
"you can only manage what you measure,"
So Maybe what passes for design is really not all that important

17. So Maybe what passes for design is really not all that important

18. Dell’s iterative cycle of Business Process Reengineering optimizes what the Dell business already does.
So Maybe what passes for design is really not all that important

19. But aiming to be better at an activity that everyone else has mastered isn't a strategy.
So Maybe what passes for design is really not all that important

20. Strategy is about tradeoffs purposefully choosing tactics different than those used by your competition.
So Maybe what passes for design is really not all that important

21. and the result
So Maybe what passes for design is really not all that important

22. products and services that are clearly distinguished in customers' minds, with meaningful differences that can't easily be replicated by others.
So Maybe what passes for design is really not all that important

23. Escaping Parity
So Maybe what passes for design is really not all that important

24. apples-to-apples and oranges-to-oranges,
So Maybe what passes for design is really not all that important
By comparing you to your competitors
apples-to-apples and oranges-to-oranges,
you find where you're ahead, where you're lagging, and where you're absolutely not represented.

25. Unfortunately,
So Maybe what passes for design is really not all that important
the typical response is to focus on the deficient or missing "features."

26. The natural response is to seek parity with your competition.
So Maybe what passes for design is really not all that important

27. So Maybe what passes for design is really not all that important

28. But what is parity?

29. It's sameness

30. It's sameness
It's removing differentiation between you and the competition.

31. It's sameness
It's removing differentiation between you and the competition.
It's looking only to your competitors for what defines your offering.

32. From your customer's viewpoint, if you've reached parity with your rivals then there's no discernable difference between you and anyone else.
So Maybe what passes for design is really not all that important

33. So Maybe what passes for design is really not all that important

34. Different is good.
So Maybe what passes for design is really not all that important

35. Competitive strategy is based on doing things differently than your competitors, and demonstrating the worth of those differences to customers.
So Maybe what passes for design is really not all that important

36. So Maybe what passes for design is really not all that important

37. Being the Best Isn't a Strategy

38. Being the Best Isn't a Strategy
Striving to be the best at everything, to be the best in your industry, can be an all too common misstep.

39. Instead of just saying you want to be the best…

40. ASK

41. ASK
How can you deliver a unique value to meet an important set of needs for customers?

43. The Escape of Novelty

44. It's easier to make something new than it is to make something that's useful or desirable. Thus many companies pander to novelty at the expense of more beneficial qualities.

45. The experience of riding on a Segway is new and different, but the Segway technology in its current form isn't relevant to the way people move through their lives.

46. Strategies of parity are low value and short-lived.

47. Strategies of delivering new offerings for novelty's sake won't survive.

48. These approaches center on features and technologies rather than focusing on the one thing that really matters

49. These approaches center on features and technologies rather than focusing on the one thing that really matters
the experience

50. But even though experience matters to everyone, we almost always lose sight of it in product development.

51. This is a TRAGEDY

52. because to the customers the experience they have is the only thing that matters.

54. Maintaining Experiential Focus

55. There are a number of ways to encourage and maintain an experiential focus.

57. "experience strategy"

58. An experience strategy is a clearly articulated touchstone that influences all of the decisions made about technology, features, and interfaces. Such a strategy guides and ensures that the customer's perspective is maintained throughout.

60. Fast, visually appealing, and joyous to use
The vision for Google Calendar, was articulated from the perspective of how it could satisfy users' experiential needs:
Fast, visually appealing, and joyous to use

61. Fast, visually appealing, and joyous to use
The vision for Google Calendar, articulated from the perspective of how it could satisfy users' experiential needs:
Fast, visually appealing, and joyous to use
Drop-dead simple to get information into the calendar

62. Fast, visually appealing, and joyous to use
The vision for Google Calendar, articulated from the perspective of how it could satisfy users' experiential needs:
Fast, visually appealing, and joyous to use
Drop-dead simple to get information into the calendar
More than boxes on a screen (reminders, invitations, etc.)

63. Fast, visually appealing, and joyous to use
The vision for Google Calendar, articulated from the perspective of how it could satisfy users' experiential needs:
Fast, visually appealing, and joyous to use
Drop-dead simple to get information into the calendar
More than boxes on a screen (reminders, invitations, etc.)
Easy to share so you can see your whole life in one place

64. An Experience Strategy Isn't a Brand Strategy

65. Brand strategy is practiced as a marketing function; it's about associating a company or its products with a set of values and qualities. Brand begins with the company. As such, it's very much an inside-out orientation.

67. In contrast to traditional brand strategy, experience strategy begins with the customer. It's about contributing to a desirable experience, helping people accomplish what they want to get done. Experience comes from the outside in.

69. An appreciation of customers' motivations, behaviors, and context leads to the development of a product, service, or system that can satisfy them.

71. Creating Effective Experience Strategies

72. Truly differentiate themselves from the perspective of the customer, connecting to something distinct about your offer; feature parity isn't an experience strategy.

73. Truly differentiate themselves from the perspective of the customer, connecting to something distinct about your offer; feature parity isn't an experience strategy.
Are what matter most to customers to truly understand these experiences, you have to understand them from the context of the customer. The experiences are what they choose to engage in, not the nuts and bolts that create them.

74. Truly differentiate themselves from the perspective of the customer, connecting to something distinct about your offer; feature parity isn't an experience strategy.
Are what matter most to customers to truly understand these experiences, you have to understand them from the context of the customer. The experiences are what they choose to engage in, not the nuts and bolts that create them.
Should be invested in and managed just as you would manage any other opportunities. Business decisions should be made with consideration of the impact on experience.

75. Can be cultivated and nurtured
Truly differentiate themselves from the perspective of the customer, connecting to something distinct about your offer; feature parity isn't an experience strategy.
Are what matter most to customers to truly understand these experiences, you have to understand them from the context of the customer. The experiences are what they choose to engage in, not the nuts and bolts that create them.
Should be invested in and managed just as you would manage any other opportunities. Business decisions should be made with consideration of the impact on experience.
Can be cultivated and nurtured
while keeping in mind that they arise not from the customer's perception of value.

76. As you have noticed, much of an experience strategy hinges upon how people perceive experiences.

77. THANK YOU