"Metrics are like a compass leading you to a local maximum, the human part of all our jobs is knowing when to make a big leap to get to a whole new surface."
— Pete Warden referencing The role of intuition in business
Growing up in public
What’s curious to me is that as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Instagram, etc have blurred our personal borders between private and public, is that we’re all getting a taste of celebrity. The idea that you had a personal brand that needed to be consistent, unique, and saleable was the business of agents and publicists. However, today’s teens have grown up in the world where the digital remnants they leave behind carry them to further places then their drivers permit and bus pass.
As the modern “permanent record”, their choices of bands, brands, and duck-faced mirror photos are carefully curated to project an aura of sophistication, sexiness, and coolness that they would like others to attribute to them.
What really matters is what you like, not what you are like… Books, records, films - these things matter. Call me shallow but it’s the fuckin’ truth.
— Rob (High Fidelity)
Competing in a sea of brands requires brands (including media brands) to envision themselves less as who they want to be, and more as who they help their customers become.
"Today’s youth have been building their own personal brand for years, and will be the most brand-savvy generation the world has ever known. They have hand-selected every photo, wall post, tweet, and “like” that has been tied to their digital persona, and have carefully built their outward-facing identities."
"The illusion of knowledge is believing familiarity is the same as wisdom."
"Apple has packed almost everything involving media (and app) management, purchase, and playback into this single app. It’s bursting at the seams. It’s a complete mess. And it’s time for an overhaul."
—
iTunes: Time to right the syncing ship | Macworld
What is the right metaphor for the relationship between a centralized computer and a mobile device (smartphone or tablet)? iCloud and iTunes both seem like poor solutions. While a new separate app seems like a step backwards.
The solution I’m looking for is the personal cloud. Less of a centralized service like Dropbox, and more of a way for devices to talk directly to each other. Perhaps a personal bittorrent style setup, or maybe a CDN is a better metaphor? With transferring happening between all devices based on availability.
To it’s roots
I think there is value in looking at things from their emotional roots. Specifically, I’ve been thinking about the language of vehicles. How SUV’s have their roots in military uses, with an “at all costs” mentality. The vehicle must be able to roll over any road conditions, withstand direct impact by dangerous objects, and carry enough manpower and gear for weeks away. Or how sportscars derived from a one-ups-man-ship that never seemed to have been satiated. Faster, lighter, more agile, just the ability to “win” at some measure.
I’m curious about the emotional roots of some of my favorite digital efforts Etsy, Kickstarter, Pictory, etc. What language they use and what measurements define them.
"The easy part of treating digital news as a product is getting money from 2% of your audience. The hard part is losing 98% of your advertising base."
This is sad, when an organization loses their mission. When looking good publicly, trumps doing good privately.
Donate directly. (via: lianamaris)
(via mediahascookies)
Solve for overlapping needs, not demographics
Segmentation models based on demographics or lifestyle are increasingly less useful in retail. Using these models can often alienate people at the shelf and show a lack of empathy for the customer. It’s more useful to identify overlapping needs and build solutions to meet them. Finding the intersecting needs of seemingly disparate groups, such as young couples and empty nesters, for example, can be a stronger approach than marketing to a single target.
(Source: fastcodesign.com)
