This session will cover-
• What is Customer Experience and why is it important?
• Who has the Customer Experience and Emotional Design advantage now?
• What is Emotional Design and why is it important?
• Serving customers with satisfying emotional experiences
• How do you create emotionally satisfying designs?
• Operationalizing your design
• A customer experience case with emotion – differentiation, market share and revenue results
• Your options, your next steps
• Your questions for the experts

Register for this event at http://www.sdsic.org/events.aspx

Moderator:
Sean Van Tyne www.seanvantyne.com/wordpress

Sean Van Tyne is the User Experience Director at FICO, the global leader for Decision Management solutions. At FICO, Sean provides leaderships for teams across the US, Europe, and Asia designing the FICO next generation global enterprise platform.

Panelists:

Becky Carroll http://customersrock.net

Becky Carroll is the founder of Petra Consulting Group focused on WOW customer experiences. Her business blog Customers Rock! focuses on the intersection of customer service and social media. She is a regular personality on nationally-syndicated The Big Biz Show and teaches the “Marketing via New Media” class at UC San Diego Extension. Previously, Becky was a Senior Consultant for Peppers & Rogers Group and worked at HP for 14 years.

Joely Gardner, PhD www.humanfactorsresearch.com
A licensed psychologist who specializes in customer experience strategy and the “operationalization” and incorporation of customer’s emotional needs into measurable improvement initiatives within an organization. Joely is currently Chief Customer Experience Strategist for Human Factors Research in San Marcos, CA. Her clients include start up‘s in social networking and mobile applications as well as enterprise-level organizations such as Life Technologies, Quest Diagnostics, Hewlett Packard, Gateway Computers, and JP Morgan Chase Bank.

Jeofrey Bean www.DelMarResearch.com
Principal of Del Mar Research & Consulting, LLC, specializing in increasing clients’ growth, while decreasing the uncertainty and costs of customer experience creation, product development and marketing. Client industries include software, hardware, telecommunications, financial services, pharmaceutical and biotechnology. Jeofrey is the author of several marketing, customer experience and product development articles; a frequent guest speaker; and advisor to several companies that produce or depend on technology for their success.

Sponsored by the San Diego Software Industry Council and INTUIT www.intuit.com

Register for this event at http://www.sdsic.org/events.aspx

I am pleased to be a featured speaker at the Product Management Educational Conference joining Gavin Johnston at Two West, Inc., Jon Hanley from Procter & Gamble and Dr. Joely Gardner at Human Factors Research. The conference focuses on putting customers at the center of innovating new products and services to assure customer acceptance and revenue generation.

Because of the economy, this is a very important time for organizations to continue to be relevant and innovate yet reduce the uncertainty of customer acceptance of their new products or services and creating revenue.

I will be leading a special session about Innovating Customer Experiences and will detail how a few savvy companies, including Netflix, Apple and Pure Digital Technologies’ Flip Video, have proven there is a new way to attract new customers and new revenues. I’ll cover many of the steps and processes they and other companies use and which ones you can also use when you return from the conference. There will be a lot more to the conference on May 24th and 25th , for additional information send me an e-mail or give me a call and see http://www.aipmm.com/html/pmec/index.php

The conference is organized by the Association of International Product Marketing & Management (AIPMM), the world’s largest professional organization of product managers, brand managers, product marketing managers and other individuals responsible for guiding their organizations, and promises to be great. I hope to see you at the conference! -Jeof

You got them to your site, but it’s still not bringing in the business. Live Case Studies on improving the User Experience on your website.
To sign-up go to http://techbizconnection.org/

Usability and user experience tests are an excellent way of discovering why your site is not performing like you thought it would. It is surprising to find out about what both web designers and marketers often miss, which are key ingredients of what your audience can see and not see on the website. How do usability best practices impact the success of your website? What are the key components to usability? In this session, you’ll learn the importance of having a website built with usability in mind from a sales and lead generation standpoint. With our panel of experts, we will cover the basics of usability and the role this concept plays in making these efforts successful with LIVE CASE STUDIES. Some of the topics we’ll cover include:

What are the most important usability considerations?
How are visitors getting lost or confused on your website?
What are some of the best ways to find and understand your offer?
How do you apply design-based thinking into your website?

PANELISTS

Dr. Joely Gardner | President | Human Factors Research

Asa licensed psychologist,Dr. Gardner captures the emotional essence of what customers consider a great experience. She then helps her clients tooperationalize that experience, measure and manage it.Dr. Gardner’s consulting clients range from startups in mobile technology and social networking to Fortune 100 companies. Clients include Intuit, Hewlett Packard, Quest Diagnostics Clinical Trials Division, Invitrogen, and Cricket Communications to name a few. Previously, she was the Director of Customer Experience Research for France Telecom R&D in San Francisco, and is the co-author of nearly 40 books with publishers such as Harper & Row, IDG, and QUE.

Jeof Bean | Principal | Del Mar Research & Consulting

Jeof specializes in increasing client growth, while decreasing the uncertainty and costs of product development and marketing. Jeof’s 20+ years of experience spans from small innovative technology companies to larger successful organizations like ComplianceMAX, ProMedia Wireless, LPL, AT&T / Bell Labs, and Quest Diagnostics. He has an M.S. in Business Management, a B.S. in Psychology / Marketing and has served as Adjunct Professor of Business Management and Marketing. Jeof is on the Board of Directors of the San Diego Software Industry Council’s (SDSIC) User Experience Group and User Experience expert review panel; author of several marketing, business and product development articles; and a frequent guest speaker.

Frank Mead | former eCommerce Manager | Apple &Targus

Frank is a creative leader who has turned around business units in Fortune 250 companies, consulted to many start-ups and has created dominant, sustainable sales strategies across a variety of industries. Helping entrepreneurs in diverse industries such as dental care, restaurant, online music sales, musical artist management, and high-tech network security, provide Frank with visibility into which business practices work and which do not. Frank served as the eCommerce Sales and Marketing Manager at Targus, as the eCommerce Manager at Apple Computer and as a Marketing Manager at Gateway.

To sign-up go to http://techbizconnection.org/node/48

Since I was introduced to the idea of cognitive mapping as an undergrad student in psychology and marketing many years ago, where an individual’s specific way of taking in information was measured and mapped, I have been interested in the differences in how people take in information and how that information needs to be presented for maximum effectiveness. The outcome of this understanding can be used in many areas, beyond the lab or universities, such as product and service development and go to market decisions.

In order to prepare for the conference panel session, that focuses on the applications of cognitive science and jobsin the field, the folks at the University of California San Diego asked me what my primary interests are in cognitive science. It was interesting to write this out since I do not think about how I apply cognitive science to what I do on a day-to-day basis in business. My top four interests from my experiences and practical standpoints are:

1. Customer experience and user experience and the development and effectiveness of products, services and brands
2. Buyer behavior (business and consumer) and how it helps companies to connect with valued customers
3. Cognitions of markets and how they affect a business’s go-to-market methods and performance including communications, pricing, distribution and timing. In many markets understanding how people take in and process information is not an option for significant revenue, market share and advantage.
4. How understanding prospects and customers cognitive profiles can reduce the uncertainty of business decisions and increase product success and profitability.

These certainly take much of what one CEO told me was “the guesswork and mystery” out of many product, service development and go to market decisions including: product customer experience creation, communication content development, media choices and distribution options. Why not get it as right as you can from the start? It cost much less than making multiple iterative changes and adjustments after the product or service is introduced into the market.

Additionally, some markets are not forgiving. They will not let you try and try again; they are not waiting for you or me to get it. Other opportunities may still be there after multiple iterations and adjustments, but the profit margins may be untenable. It is when you get the offer, how and when you engage prospective customers dialed-in early in the process that is to your advantage. It is applying the “cognition of people within the markets you serve” that is at the heart and success of that advantage.

UCSD CSSA’s Cognitive Science Conference 2010 Date: January 16th, 2010

Time: 10am-5:00pm, then Happy Hour!
Place: UCSD Cognitive Science Buildings
Cost: The event (and lunch) are on us!
Contact us: cssa.ucsd@gmail.com; http://www.z8z.com/cogscicon2010/Home.html

What is this conference (“CogSci Con 2010”)?

CogSci Con is an abbreviation of “Cognitive Science Conference”. The goal of this conference is to create connections between all levels of the Cognitive Science community. This year is the 5th anniversary of the first Cognitive Science Conference put on by the dedicated Executive Board of UCSD’s Cognitive Science Student Association. Whether you are new to Cognitive Science and here to learn what Cognitive Science is about in general or a seasoned CogSci grad, join us as we put our minds together with this year’s theme: “Let’s Brainstorm”. CogSci Con ‘10 will be held on UCSD campus in San Diego, CA, USA. UCSD is one of the top universities to study Cognitive Science. The first Cognitive Science Department in the world was established here in 1986.

Our full day of events will include giving exclusive tours of many of the Cognitive Science labs, speaking with Professors and students about aspects of Cognitive Science research, presentations, a research poster session and a lunch hour social.

I look forward to seeing you there!

The Flip Ultra's customer experience advantage is market defining

Certainly the handy example is the iPhone and Apple Macintosh (don’t worry, other examples are on the way). I’ve heard people say is – that’s Macintosh and that’s proprietary… What is most striking is how unique and proprietary the customer experience is. I think early on, they discovered that the user experience was incredibly important and they took into consideration needs and wants of potential customers very early in the development process.

There is a very dangerous spiral that customer experience can help many companies avoid or delay. You can keep putting more technology or features in your product or service and lowering your price, but that really is a very slippery slope.

Now, what’s happening is, certainly the iPhone is an example of, a highly rated product by their users, even though some of the functions that it does actually take longer than a wireless device that has a less great user experience. More importantly though, is the willingness to pay for and engage with the iPhone is much higher than its smart phone rivals.

Netflix is another one where I really admire how they’ve provided a great customer experience with a product- service hybrid. They understood the wants, and they understood the needs of customers through the whole process in the context of the market environment. They’ve got a special agreement with the post office, right? They’ve got the DVDs they deliver quickly and soon they’ll be uploading and downloading video streams.

Their web site is part of the pre and post purchase process. Netflix provide that unique customer experience. They altered the game board, redefined value and forced competitors to change or down the spiral and away. It’s easy to drop the price, it’s easy to throw in more features, it is not easy to create, execute or compete with a well honed customer experience.

One of my favorite examples, because I personally like it is the Flip Ultra video camera, by Pure Digital Technologies. It is a small hand held device. Easy to learn and use, all the software the user needs is inside it, nothing to install. A simple USB arm flips out the side and plugs into your PC. It becomes another drive. I think it’s really wonderful. They have created a new market segment and new revenues, in Sony’s market (for 25 or 30 years?), catching the legacy player off guard.

A company called Pure Digital Technologies went and sorted out the wants and needs of the customers (prospects actually). They mastered the voice of the prospect and intelligence about the market environment. The main value drivers were record, connect and share, quickly and easily. Not a lot of tools. Not extra software. Customers want to upload to YouTube and share family.

“The ease of use is incredibly seductive,” says Amazon.com vice-president of electronics – Money/CNN January 27, 2009

Pure Digital Technologies, the makers of the Flip Ultra, probably do have a toolbox of technology they could put against Sony. But, they didn’t. What they did was they came in at industry price, well below $200, it fits in the palm of your hand.

Let’s look at some of the results that support the user experience and how wonderful and important it is right now. Between May 2007 and December 2008, and Pure Digital Technologies generated $300 million in revenues from the sale of 2 million units garnering 17% market share and on the rise. This is market share and revenue that didn’t exist before and it caused Sony’s existing market share, 21%, was flat and declined in value.

What about the value creation with customer experience? Last March, Cisco announced that it would pay approximately $590 million in stock and $15 million in retention-based equity incentives for continuing employees, in exchange for all the shares of Pure Digital.

In April, Sony launched a press campaign explaining why they missed the market and announcing their fix for it as the Webbie HD. A key point was made that the introduction of the Webbie “Symbolizes an important shift in Sony’s culture.” But that shift was not reflected in the rest of Sony’s story about the Webbie. While price-conscious Americans are mentioned as the target market, no mention of the customer experience was included in how the Webbie came to be. Now Cisco and Sony are competitors. This is too interesting to ignore!

Do you or will you define and create customer experiences that will make your offers better, different and more profitable, even in a tough economy?

Since the world economies turned, I have been asked several excellent questions by CEOs, Marekting Directors, Investors, Product Managers and owners of small to medium sized businesses wanting to quickly navigate from survive to thrive.

Amongst the uncertain back-drop of bail outs, TARP programs, lay-offs, Twitter and hybrid-cars, are some very good examples of pragmatic management, exciting innovation and real opportunity.  Below, I will answer one of the questions, and a bit on the pragmatic side-

What do you measure to determine communication effectiveness and value?

The universe of metrics for this can include:
-Market share / reach
-Unit volume
-Reach into the market
-Sales volume
-Site conversion
-Revenue
-Media expense to revenue
-Time-to-market
-Time-to-revenue
-Adoption rate / velocity
-Market awareness (of product, company, brand, application)
-Return on investment

There are many more metric options, some specific to the media and market.  They have to be carefully selected against the objectives of the communication strategy and business.

The first step is benchmarking the current communications model with like metrics.

Then, make sure there is a very communication-specific understanding of the market, the demand side. 

Knowing how prospects learn (read, listen, see. . .), their attention spans and which media are most effective in attracting and engaging them (their preferred media set) is extremely important.

Professional communicators know that developing / discovering exactly what the product or service ‘does for’ the prospect is critical in getting the metrics to lift in the proper direction.  I call these the “Do-Fors”. They are more important and highly valued than what a product or service does.  They are beyond features and benefits.

Even if you have the “Do-Fors”, the next step is to find out what the most highly valued sub-set of these is. This is what I call  “the high willingness to pay set of Do-Fors.”  Or, the “money set.”

The goal of developing these is to take out as much of the uncertainly and expense risk of communication decisions as possible.  In-turn, there is increased effectiveness [moving those metrics in a positive direction!] and better return on investment.

The next step is to look at the results, and begin developing the communications platform.  This is the body of text, or content, that that will be combined with specially selected media options, to do the communicating and move the measurable.

There are many media options and expert communicators understand these, their strengths and weaknesses.  This understanding is combined with the characteristics of the market for maximum effectiveness.  Another area of concern is media overloading and solving the problem of  “cutting through the noise” of other messages, other media or events competing for the prospects attention.

The best selection of media options will attract and engage the prospect well and long enough so that they have a positive reaction to the “Do-Fors” that you have discovered and included within the communication.  This should result in a change in behavior – the purchase.  The revenue.

Now it is time to visit the metrics again and see how they differ from when they were benchmarked in the first place.  What was different this time?  What are the implications and recommendations the market and metrics are telling us?  What are the next steps? 

Are some or all of these steps included in how you reduce the uncertainty and increase the return-on-investment of your communications and promotions decisions?  If yes, you know and can measure the benefits.  If not now, when? -Jeof

I want to let you know about a special networking and presentation event at the San Diego Software Industry Council.  It is about the return on investment of User Experience development, design and market performance AND how you can do it in house, with the team you have now.

This strategy enables businesses to produce more innovative products that meet or exceed market needs with resources they already have.

I am presenting this along with colleagues Sean Van Tyne, User Experience Director of Global Architecture, Fair Isaac; Tina Sing, Sr. Product Manager at Oracle and Mark Hall, Senior User Experience Analyst, at I DRIVE SAFELY, LLC.

We will be concentrating on the in-sourcing model since several companies have told us this would be most valuable in a slowing economy.

More details are below. I hope you can join us!

Jeof

————————————————–

UX with What You Got: In-sourcing Your User Experience
San Diego Software Industry Council User Experience Business Information Group

INTUIT, Bennett Conference Room, Bldg. 37545 Torrey Santa Fe Road
Thursday, March 05, 2009

5:30 pm – 6:00 pm: Registration, Networking and Refreshments
6:00 pm – 7:30 pm: Program

REGISTER: www.sdsic.org/events.aspx

In the context of a slowing economy, you can gain the ROI of User Experience with the resources that you have. We will show you how to use existing resources to design user experiences that increase customer satisfaction, adoption, retention and revenue. This strategy enables business to produce more innovative products that meet or exceed market needs – with resources that you already have!

Moderator:
Sean Van Tyne, User Experience Director of Global Architecture, Fair Isaac, www.fairisaac.com

Panelists:
Teena Singh, Sr. Product Manager, Oracle, www.oracle.com
Mark Hall, Senior User Experience Analyst, I DRIVE SAFELY, www.idrivesafely.com
Jeofrey Bean, Principal, Del Mar Research & Consulting, LLC, www.delmarresearch.com

Part of how to reduce the guesswork, cycle times, and costs associated with product development and marketing for many companies is aligning what they know about the markets they serve, or could serve, and their distinctive technology capabilities. The next step is to translate this into customer and user relevant products and services that are positively engaging and highly valued.

There are a few high visibility examples that do this well for specific customers. One is the iPhone. So well are the user experiences and business results that the combination of T-Mobile, Google, their G1 smart phone and the Android operating system; are challenged to be fast followers of the iPhone. The same with Sony Eriksson, Nokia and the X1 Smart Phone; playing catch-up with touchscreens, high performance networks, and hopefully, positive user experiences to compete with the iPhone’s market aligned technology success (that has bled into non-Apple markets) for critical market share and revenue.

Companies do not have to be large titans to align their markets and technologies for success. How to do this is a discipline and a process that even firms with excellent marketing and technology resources frequently find difficult.

Sean Van Tyne, the AVP of User Experience for Technology Strategy at LPL Financial www.beanvantyne.com and I have developed a specific process to align markets and technologies. We did this to meet the needs of several clients, many of which we worked on together with great results prior to Sean joining LPL Financial. We have CEOs, CIOs, Marketing Directors, Product Managers and Designers asking us for advice on how to improve the relationship between their markets and technologies to not only lower costs, but also to help with customer loyalty, margin retention and top line growth.

In response to this, we decided to put together a half day seminar. We started preparing over 14 months ago, targeting October 2008.  When we started, we thought the economy would take a downturn. We could not have imaged what would take place in the coming months. These changes make business process improvement frameworks like Market Aligned User Experience more urgent than ever.

I hope you can join us at the seminar. Here is the information-

Market Aligned User Experience Seminar

Date: Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Time: 7:30am – 8:00 am: Continental breakfast, registration and Networking
800am – 12:00pm: The Market Aligned User Experience Seminar

Place: Doubletree Hotel San Diego, Del Mar, 11915 El Camino Real, San Diego, California 92130-2539.

To register or for more information-  www.beanvantyne.com

Customer experience encompasses the experience customers have with a company’s people and processes. Since processes include technology, the intersection between user and customer experience is made there. These experiences happen whether they are purposefully created or not.

I am frequently asked by CEOs and company owners: Does the user or customer experience have to be considered if the discussion is not about product or service? The answer is absolutely yes. The answer is routed in the importance of the pre sale experience by the prospect and the post sale experience as a customer. For pre sales, it could be how the prospect experiences advertising in analog or digital form such as a web site, sample software, how an affiliate is linked in, published product or service reviews and much more. These are important influencers of purchasing decisions impacting prospect to customer conversion rates.

The user experience continues after the sale and becomes a critical element of the overall customer experience as it combines how a customer experiences the support, usefulness and value of the product or services used. It also can include the status of ownership or usage, and packaging.

Most companies that have gone beyond usable products and services to design specific positive user experiences as part of a well thought out and executed customer experience program have one or more of the following positive attributes:

o Accelerated customer acquisition, engagement, loyalty and top line revenue
o Sustainable growth with slower margin declines
o Competitive advantage because the user and customer experience is positively
different; and
o Increased return on investment, brand and company equity

Regardless of their development stage, companies that are committed to continuously providing superior user and customer experiences show almost all of the attributes above. They are leaders in the fast company business of understanding and providing purposeful and profitable customer experiences. Examples include Four Seasons Hotels, brokerage firm Edward Jones, Lexus Automotive, Apple Computer and UPS shipping.

Where is your company along the continuum of user experience to customer experience? Are the user, prospect and customer experiences with your company being purposefully transformed into value for the business?

Beyond Usability

User Experience / Interface Design

March 5, 2008

Register at http://www.sdsic.org/eventregistration.php

Hosted by

Intuit

Do your customers have a good experience with your solution?

Are you leveraging “the experience advantage” for customer satisfaction and increased revenue?

Focusing on how “usable” products are has been a recent trend in software development but being usable is just not good enough.

Come hear how leading companies are going beyond usability and creating engaging user experiences, for . . .

• Competitive advantage

• Sustainable growth

• Increased profit margins and revenue

Our panel of experts share their case studies, experience and examples and discuss how some of these best practices can be easily adopted at your company.

Moderator:

Sean Van Tyne, User Experience Architect, Van Tyne Consulting, www.vantyneconsulting.com

Panelists:

- Maria Melendrez, Usability Strategist, SAIC, www.saic.com

- Beau Sullivan, Director of User Experience, Mitchell International, www.mitchell.com

- Erikheath Thomas, Senior UI Designer, Intuit, www.intuit.com

- Jeofrey Bean, Principal, Del Mar Research, www.delmarresearch.com

Date: March 5, 2008

Time: 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm – Registration and Networking

6:00 pm – 7:30 pm – Program

Fee: Pre registration Only – SDSIC Members $35.00

Pre registration Only – Non Members $45.00

Location: Intuit – New Campus

7545 Torrey Santa Fe Road

San Diego, CA 92129

Register at http://www.sdsic.org/eventregistration.php

The San Diego Software Industry Council SDSIC.ORG