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How to Think Like George Washington and Abraham Lincoln
In honor of the upcoming Presidents’ Day, here’s a look at one of the most respected traits Washington and Lincoln shared that can provide guidance to everyone from the CEOs to product manager and market teams. They saw the world the way it was, not the way they wanted it to be, or thought it ought to be. This trait has been universally viewed as a key to their ability to develop effective strategies at two of the most critical points in our country’s history.
Read MoreDesign Thinking in Research
Although it’s been around for decades, Design Thinking is enjoying a burst of heightened awareness as recent articles and books advocate the approach for everything from reaching corporate objectives, to developing advertising and value propositions, to achieving your personal New Year’s resolutions. As a research firm we applaud this reawakening of the value of design thinking – its principles have always been a central part of thoughtful primary research designs.
Read MoreWhat is the expected life cycle of a cloud application?
Expected product life cycles have traditionally informed forecasts for software demand – they could be used to help estimate the number of organizations likely to be in play any given year because their solutions had reached their natural refresh cycle. The shift to cloud applications muddies the water in terms of this traditional forecasting approach.
Read MoreBetter Forecasting with Historical Data and Judgment
A recent article on forecasting presents historical data and judgment as an either-or choice. We disagree. In our view, the art of forecasting requires both and the understanding of how much weight to place on each depending on the circumstances.
Read MoreSpurious Correlations: Shark attacks and sales at all-you-can-eat buffets
Did you know that the Total Revenue Generated by Arcades correlates with the Number of Computer Science Doctorates awarded in the United States? Makes sense, right Hold on before you start using this fact to impress people at cocktail parties. It comes from Tyler Virgen’s website Spurious Correlations (which is also available as a book on Amazon). Virgen’s mines data and plays with the X and Y axes to create ridiculous but fun correlations such as the link between margarine consumption and divorce rates in Maine and the link between drownings in pools and movies starring Nicholas Cage.
Read MoreMake your product’s champion, don’t search for one
Conventional wisdom says the best way to sell a B2B product or service is to find the highest level champion in the prospect organization and follow their lead. But does that approach really work? Separate studies by the Corporate Executive Board (published in the April 2015 edition of the Harvard Business Review) and the media group B2B Marketing (published in its 2015 Buyersphere Report) indicate that this may be easier in theory than in practice.
Read MoreUnintended consequences of empathy: A new Golden Rule for marketers
Making an effort to imagine yourself in your customers’ shoes may give you a false sense that you understand what your customers want. This counter intuitive statement stems from research conducted by Johannes Hattula of London’s Imperial College and his colleagues. Fortunately there are steps you can take to ensure you are not projecting your opinions onto your customers.
Read MoreCustomer-centric IT: 4 tips for technology marketers
stomer centricity is reshaping IT in many organizations, as customer experience becomes an increasingly important source of competitive advantage. We’ve seen this trend developing over the past few years and it is now gaining widespread attention. Customer centricity means aligning IT’s resources and objectives to optimize the customer experience. Increasingly, IT’s strategies, organizational structure, and role in the organization are evaluated in relation to the external customer.
Read MoreB2B Product Messaging Checklist
Product messaging to B2B audiences is challenging. Marketers need to convey complex messages in simple but compelling terms. Here are five recommendations that will help you in the initial stages of message development, when decisions about message content, benefits and value propositions are made.
Read MoreDon’t throw out the data along with the failed concept
Product management and marketing teams often use primary research to test new product and service concepts. Before investing millions of dollars and years of development efforts they want to know if the concept has legs. Sometimes the research shows that the market does not have enough appetite for the concept to justify further investment. At that point the research has done its job. But often the results can provide additional value to the organization that is forgotten.
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