[thelist] FW: Good Experience: March 3, 2005

Fri Mar 4 13:29:07 CST 2005

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-----Original Message-----

================== Good Experience - 03 Mar 05 =====================
                           By Mark Hurst
       Subscribe: http://www.goodexperience.com/signup.php
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Thursday, March 3, 2005

- The Best Month for Customer Experience
- This Is Broken: recent entries
- Job Opening: Community Connect
- Job Opening: Horizon Wimba, Inc.
- Job Opening: JPMorgan Chase
- Job Opening: Walmart.com
- Job Opening: TiVo Inc.
- All recent job openings...
- Worth a Look
- Fun Stuff

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              The Best Month for Customer Experience
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While waiting at the bank the other day I noticed a sign posted
behind the bank teller. The text was gray and shabby from the several
generations of tellers who had photocopied the sign over the years.
It read:

   The best months of the year to invest are September, February,
   May, March, January, November, August, December, July, April,
   October, and June.

I'm thinking of posting a similar sign above my desk, to hang
under its own thumbtack for the ages. I'll just edit it a bit:
"The best months of the year to invest *in customer experience*
are September, February..."

Or maybe I'll rewrite it entirely - something like this:

   The best times in a project to focus on the customer experience 
   are the beginning, the middle, and the end.

There's no right time to focus on the customer experience.
Certainly not at the end of the project, when some companies
suddenly decide to evaluate the user experience, or run customer
research. Instead, customer experience should be an all-the-time
activity: a constant commitment, from this day forward. For the
best companies, it's a way of life.

I remember, growing up in New Orleans, there was a phrase on
Election Day: Vote Early, Vote Often! (If you're into American
history, don't skip Louisiana.)

Early and often - that's when you should work on the customer
experience:

- EARLY: The best time to get started is ASAP. Remember that the
earlier in the project, the more you're able to think strategically...
and make changes to strategy. Customer experience is *strategic*,
and the kickoff meeting is a good time to establish the
customer-centric stance that will frame and guide the project.

The very worst thing a company can do - and unfortunately is done
commonly - is to go through the entire development process, and
*then*, just before launch, put it in front of the customer. At best
this is an empty exercise for management to convince itself that it
made all the right decisions; at worst it can confuse the developers
and delay the launch date.

- OFTEN: Don't read me wrong. I'm not suggesting constant, iterative
research where customer tests are run every two weeks throughout the
project. Instead, I'm advocating a focus on the customer experience
in each natural phase of the project - from problem assessment,
through customer research, and on into initial prototyping and
development.

   (For a description of the phases of a customer experience
   project, which can run yourself within your own company, see our
   Customer Experience Method whitepaper:)
   http://www.creativegood.com/doc/creativegood-method.pdf 

At its heart this is a very different development process from what
has been practiced in industry for the last 50 years. Traditionally,
customers are simply the last phase of the supply chain - the
"consumers" - who must be convinced, via ads and marketing, to buy
the product. Why bother with the customer experience at *all* in
that process, since the ads will do the selling?

To truly focus on the customer experience, early and often, is to do
something very different. Customers aren't just "consumers" but
participants in the strategic process; they aren't bit players but
the protagonist, the lead actor.

An awareness of customers and their goals and desires should be
baked into the very DNA of the company. It must affect how every
employee acts and works, and permeate the company as a whole. After
all, the organization is the only entity that can create and improve
the product.

As the female lead sings in "Spamalot," Monty Python's new Broadway
musical, "I've been offstage for far too long." How long will it
take your company to involve customers? Will the customer be on stage
early and often? 

- - -

Link to this column:
http://www.goodexperience.com/blog/archives/000122.php

Discuss this column:
http://www.goodexperience.com/scgi-bin/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=122

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                   Job Opening: Community Connect
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 Company: Community Connect
   Title: Product Strategist
Location: New York City

Responsible for product strategy for our ethnic-market leading sites
AsianAvenue.com, BlackPlanet.com and MiGente.com. Follow and analyze
trends in online community services and business models. Monitor and
analyze the performance of our existing products and services to
improve member experience and financial results.

Please send resumes to hr at communityconnect.com

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                   Job Opening: Horizon Wimba, Inc.
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 Company: Horizon Wimba, Inc.
   Title: Director of Product Management
Location: New York City

Web-based software company needs designer/manager/leader. 
Experience in design of software products and the ability to be
hands-on in designing and producing feature requirement docs
important.  Solid, growing company. Reports to CEO - This is a
decision making role.

Request info / send resumes to - recruiting at horizonwimba.com

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                   Job Opening: JPMorgan Chase
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 Company: JPMorgan Chase
   Title: Treasury & Security Services : Client Experience Manager
Location: New York

The Client Experience Manager will be responsible for building a TSS
client experience strategy and assisting with the development of a
standardized approach to brand, look and feel, navigation across
jpmorgan.com's public and private sites. 5 years of internet-related
creative design. HTML skills preferred.

If interested, e-mail your resume to scott_tamisha at jpmorgan.com.

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                   Job Opening: Walmart.com
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 Company: Walmart.com
   Title: Information Architects, Designers, & Lead UI Writer
Location: Brisbane, CA (10 min. south of San Francisco)

Our Creative team is growing!  Join a stellar group and help us
shape the user experience of one of retail's biggest sites. 
We're looking for talented Information Architects, Site
Designers, Marketing Designers and a Lead User Interface Writer. 
Sorry, no relocation costs paid.

More info: http://www.walmart.com/cservice/jb_dept_design.gsp

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                   Job Opening: TiVo Inc.
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Company	: TiVo Inc.
Title	: Web Developer (Contract) Job#WDC
Location: Alviso, CA 

TiVo Inc. is looking for an enthusiastic, team player to join their
Web Team on a contract basis.  Ideal candidate: 3-5yrs web developer
exp. for public facing web sites, proven track record of working in
a dynamic, deadline driven environment, ability to juggle projects.
More details at: http://www.tivo.com/5.8.2.asp?listing=321

To respond, email resume with Job# to employment at tivo.com

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                   All recent job openings...
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See all recent job openings here:
http://www.goodexperience.com/blog/archives/cat_job_openings.php

To post a job opening:
https://www.goodexperience.com/jobpost

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                  This Is Broken: recent entries
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Recently in This Is Broken... 

- Hearse in carpool lane (you can guess what was wrong with that)

- Toyota Prius shifter
(Big discussion on that here: http://tinyurl.com/4ggc3 )

- Air Canada sticker

Find them here: http://www.thisisbroken.com 

Send in your entry: broken at goodexperience.com 

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                          Worth a Look
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Charlie Todd, urban prankster, makes the New York Times:
http://tinyurl.com/49pve

(Charlie will speak at Gel 2005 in April - in fact, the Times found
his information from the mention on the Good Experience blog.)

Through March 20th, the Flying Karamazov Brothers (also speaking at
Gel 2005) are performing their incredible show, Life: A Guide for
the Perplexed, in Philadelphia. It's the best live performance I've
ever seen; I highly recommend it:
http://www.princemusictheater.org/mainstage.html

Gel conference signups are poppin'... if you haven't signed up yet,
please do so: http://www.goodexperience.com/gel 

Neat interactive search on any baby name:
http://babynamewizard.com/namevoyager/lnv0105.html

Neat planetary interface. Keep scrolling right... yes, it's to scale!
http://www.troybrophy.com/projects/solarsystem/

A reminder, Barry Schwartz (Gel 2005 speaker) and his student Dan Keys
have are running a study that is intended to extend some of the work
Barry discusses in his book, "The Paradox of Choice." Questionnaire: 
http://www.positive-psychology.org/timeandmoney/

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                            Fun Stuff
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Bizarre, bizarre, bizarre Flash video chock-full with pop culture 
references. (Who has time to make this stuff?)
http://www.drennor.com/flash/oddities/misc/chocolateNibletBeans.htm

Only a little less bizzare: M. B. Saulnier points us to 3-minute
world travelogues, starring a pair of fingers and a lot of paper.
http://www.finging.com

Still less bizarre, but cool - dancing Flash-dude movie.
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/221483

Futurist Poetry (thanks to Geoff Ross):
http://www.futurism.org.uk/poetry/

I always like Matthew Baldwin's writing, but this is one of his
funniest recent stories:
http://www.defectiveyeti.com/archives/001174.html

These links have made the rounds, but... parodies of "The Gates":
http://www.not-rocket-science.com/door_gates.htm
http://www.smilinggoat.com/crackers.html

The Gates at night, in the snow (thanks to Iris Bell):
http://www.maryannerussell.com/images/gates/

Once again: hope to see you at Gel, Apr 28-29, in NYC:
http://www.goodexperience.com/gel/

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Until next time,

- Mark Hurst
mark at goodexperience.com 

Tell your friends to subscribe. Point them here:
http://www.goodexperience.com/signup.php

Is your company hiring? Post a job on Good Experience:
http://www.goodexperience.com/jobpost

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                            contact info
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ABOUT MARK HURST
Mark Hurst, founder of Creative Good and Good Experience, has been
advocating better experiences (online and off) for ten years.
He also writes this newsletter.

Mark Hurst's bio: http://www.goodexperience.com/about/mark.php
Contact Mark Hurst: mark at goodexperience.com 

Gel conference, April 28-29, 2005: 
http://www.goodexperience.com/gel/

Gel 2004 DVD available for purchase:
http://www.goodexperience.com/gel/04/dvd.html

Uncle Mark 2005 Gift Guide and Almanac:
http://www.goodexperience.com/unclemark/unclemark2005.pdf 

Managing Incoming E-mail report:
http://www.goodexperience.com/reports/e-mail/email-report-goodexperience
.pdf

. . .

Is your company hiring? Post a job on Good Experience:
http://www.goodexperience.com/jobpost

If you want customer experience consulting, contact Creative Good: 
http://www.creativegood.com

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