Transition Strategy Part 3: Actually It Is Magic
Posted by: Carl Smith on Friday March 5, 2010
In our post last week I said that succeeding on the web wasn’t magic — it was hard work and talent. nGen Friend Martin Ringlein felt differently. He said:
Something amazing happens when you have the right people working together … I like calling that something “magic.”
Damn it, Martin, really? Calling us out on our own blog? Well, you’re right. This week we thought a lot about magic, except we call it ideas. To us, that’s the tangible part of talent and teamwork. And while we were saying that there’s no magic in SEO or social, we’ll take that back, too. Ideas are everywhere, in everything we do.
In many ways, our job is to both create and protect ideas through the entire process. We become their champions, and we have to hit potential clients in the head with that before they hire us. No surprises. They are hiring a team that will tell the CEO “no” and would rather be fired than be ineffective. This doesn’t mean we’re confrontational; we’re as nice as they come. But if we have a good case for doing something new and someone says “no,” then we have to ask ourselves why we’re there.
So what kills ideas? Who is the enemy that lurks in the shadows of every project?
In my experience, these are the bad guys:
- Fear
- Budget
- Time
- Unknown ROI
- Ego
- Committee
- No champion
- Poor communication
- Laziness
- A lack of or inappropriate research
So rather than build a new process around how we can work effectively and get the answers we need to create an amazingly effective solution, we started building a process around creating and protecting ideas so that they can survive long enough to live or die in the wild. The funny realization is that this process also revolves around working effectively and getting answers we need.
The outline for the new process is nearly done, but as with everything, it’s in flux. In fact, the new process encourages ideas throughout the process so we anticipate delays as better thoughts rise to the top. Once we’re close, we’ll give you a peek.
As we’re working on process we’re also working on how we communicate our philosophy. In my humble opinion, we stumbled on something powerful this week.
We’re moving the conversation from interruption to contribution.
It’s time to let clients know that nobody cares about their products or services; they care about what they can do for them. We realize we now have to aim that focus at ourselves.
As always, let us know what’s going on in your world and any thoughts you have for us on the transition.
Comment RSS Filed under: Interweb
J Cornelius
03.05.10 at 5:28pm
“…nobody cares about products or services; they care about what those products or services can do for them.”
Bingo. It’s not about the product, it’s about the value. Not about the transaction, but the result. Too many people get lost thinking about what they do and not about how it impacts the customer.
If you help the customer accomplish their goals, yours will be met in the process.
Jason Sadler
03.06.10 at 11:17am
I think “Overnight Success” should be added to your bad guy list. Companies tend to think, whether it’s marketing, design, an ad, etc, that when they spend the money they will see immediate results and have a swimming pool of money like Scrooge McDuck. I don’t know how or where this ideology started, but it sucks and 75% of companies out there are victims of it.
Another crappy thought process these days is “if you build it, they will come”. No, they won’t. This is such a common misconception in the online world and I think people are starting to realize that. At least the smart ones are, who don’t want to go out of business in six months.
As always, great to see these process posts and I’m on the edge of my seat when you write the one about the power of e-books and flash intros!
Carl Smith
03.08.10 at 1:05pm
@JC We are in sync sir.
@Jason Excellent additions to the list. You have to give things time to survive and you have to keep fighting for them. If anybody should get that it’s a guy who makes a living wearing t-shirts. I’d like to have seen that idea survive a focus group.
Martin Ringlein
03.09.10 at 10:52am
I missed this one! (too busy thinking about SXSW I suppose). Nice :-). Thanks for the post, well said (as always).