Sensemaking in a changing world
The key to galvanizing your audience with a good story is to make listeners feel that they can be heroic. When good salespeople prospect and pitch, they must be alert to the stories running through their customers’ minds. What is their internal hero story? What do they wish to achieve through this sale? Whom do [...] Read more »
If I were Will Wright, I’d say that ‘Fun is the process of discovering areas in a possibility space.’ We talk so much about emergent gameplay, non-linear storytelling, or about player-centered content. They’re all ways of increasing the possibility space, making self-refreshing puzzles. Theory of Fun In a similar vein, is it possible to say that [...] Read more »
Games usually start at a well-defined state (the setup in chess, for instance) and end when a specific state is reached (the king is checkmated). Players navigate this possibility space by their choices and actions; every player’s path is unique. Games cultivate – and exploit – possibility space better than any other medium. In linear [...] Read more »
Look closely at each scene and ask: what value is at stake in my character’s life at this moment? Love? Trust? What? How is that value charged at the top of the scene? Positive? Negative? Some of both? Then at close of scene, ask: where is this value now? Compare. If answer at end is [...] Read more »
We see the world, not as it is, but as we are. Talmud Think back to the different organizations you interacted with today. Directly or indirectly. Drinking your morning coffee. Commuting to work. Shopping for groceries. Using your computer. Watching a show on cable. Having a beer. Watching your favorite sports team. Attending a yoga [...] Read more »
Stories are the creative conversion of life itself into a more powerful, clearer, more meaningful experience. They are the currency of human contact. Robert McKee I’ve been wrestling with the concept of moments of truth lately. One of the objectives when visualizing experiences using customer experience journey maps is to identify and redesign the moments [...] Read more »
What’s the worst customer experience you’ve ever had? In this presentation from Content World, I (partially) chronicle my own worst ever customer experience using a simplified customer experience journey map. While it wasn’t the worst in terms of any one interaction, the overall experience as it unfolded over time, across multiple interactions, and through multiple [...] Read more »
While I’m excited by the rapid growth of the discipline of content strategy as evidenced by last week’s sold out Content Strategy Forum in Paris and the growing buzz about content strategy across the webisphere, most of the conversation is currently centered around web content strategy. I think the reason the conversation has centered around [...] Read more »
In the spirit of filter or be flooded (Fast Company) and the Simplicity of Dr. Seuss (a funny must read on the need for content strategy), I’m sharing my draft of “What’s your story? Designing a holistic customer experience” in advance of my talk at the Content Strategy Forum. I’ve crafted something too long to present [...] Read more »
Next week I’m attending (and speaking at) the first Content Strategy Forum in Paris. I’m intrigued by the discipline of content strategy because I believe that now, more than ever before, content strategy is critical for designing a holistic customer experience. No longer will content be thought of as a necessary evil (technical how to [...] Read more »