Monthly Archives: March 2015

March 20, 2015 · 10:35 am

Let Me In

This Foodie Friday I’d like us to have a think about accessibility and food.  No, I don’t mean wheelchair ramps into restaurants or menus for the blind.  Maybe a better word might be “pretense.”  Let me say what I’m thinking about and you can fill in the blanks.  Either way, it relates to business as well (what a shock!).

I watch a lot of cooking and food shows.  Some of them feature chefs who give off an air of superiority – they know a lot more than you do.  That may be true about the methods but it’s not true about the taste.  Any of us knows what we like and dislike and I, for one, am not going to let some dolt with a few years for cooking school under his belt tell me what tastes good.  Let’s face it – many of us probably know as much about cooking techniques as they do.  What really good chefs have that we might not are moments of inspiration through which they transform food into something etherial.

I don’t want to paint with too wide a brush.  As this piece pointed out:

Plenty of big name chefs are popular in large part because of how accessible they want food culture to be (Anthony Bourdain has made an entire career of sharing his love and understanding of food), or how they want to share their knowledge rather than lording it over us simple peons (Wiley Dufresne is as much an enthusiastic Culinary Biophysicist as he is a Chef). Chefs who want to join in the conversation rather than control it are myriad, and they’re a vital part of the discussion.

All of this is applicable to you no matter what business you’re in.  We need to spend time making what we do accessible – to our consumers, to our partners, to our team.  What I mean is that we need to demystify it – take the very complex and help others to understand it so they in turn can engage in the conversation.  It may mean a meeting to explain the types of data you’re gathering.  It could be a video inside your factory to explain how a product is made.  It’s all really a recognition that the benefits of letting others in and engaging in conversation far outweigh the downsides.  No chef is going to tell me what I like.  No brand is going to either.  Be accessible – ask me the question and I’ll answer and hopefully you’ll respond.

That’s my take.  Yours?

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March 19, 2015 · 11:46 am

The Right Cure

You would never dream of going to the emergency room and telling the staff to remove your appendix. I mean, there are a lot of organs nearby and it could be diverticulitis or even a stone in your urinary tract. Probably not a good idea to show up demand that they start cutting. Instead, you’d go in and explain what your symptoms were and let the experts do the diagnosis. In order to get to a cure you first have to accurately identify the problem.

Bilateral kidney stones on abdominal X-ray. No...

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

You’re thinking that’s an absurd example – who would do that? – but the odds are you have seen something very similar in your business life. Sales are a little slow and the boss comes in and announces that the ads stink – change them.  Sure, changing the creative or maybe even the media plan will have an effect – it will be a cure of sorts – but is it the right one?  That’s where data comes in.  The media plan may be delivering the planned impressions, the resulting traffic to whatever landing page you’ve designated might be fine – but conversions are low.  Analytics can tell you if it’s a landing page issue (bounce rates!) or a funnel issue (where aer they dropping out?).  The cure for those things – redesign or maybe some remarketing – isn’t to change the ads.

Some of us spend way too much time implementing the wrong cure.  We should be spending time looking at the symptoms and figuring out all the possible “diseases” they can indicate before we start demanding that someone removes a perfectly healthy appendix.  It’s not always easy when the one demanding is a higher-up but if they’re any good at what they do they’ll welcome someone who points out that there are many other potential issues the perceived problem can be.  While it’s not really a good idea to point out that you are more expert than the boss in your particular area (they should know that and think it’s a good thing!) part of your job is to protect whomever is driving the team forward from sending it off a cliff.

Cutting out an appendix isn’t a cure for kidney stones.  Changing a media plan isn’t a cure for a crappy website.  We need to find the right cure, not just any cure.  You agree?

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March 18, 2015 · 11:59 am

I Suck At Art

What, you are wondering, compelled me to announce to the world I lack proficiency in art? Why am I telling you that I can’t draw? The self-portrait I painted in college (yes, I took an art class) looks like something a 5-year-old did while taking acid and flinging paint. I haven’t improved much over the years. But why am I telling you?

I’m telling you because you need to do the same thing. You need to think about your weaknesses. No, I don’t mean your inability to step away from the candy bowl. I mean the areas in business which are not your strengths. It’s a critical step to becoming a better business person and probably to being a better human being too.

Bad managers think they know it all.  They can read the data better than the person breaking it out.  They can write better than the chief copywriter and design better than an art director.  Their marketing campaigns are brilliant and they know everything there is to know about social media.  You might have worked for that guy.  The problem is that inevitably they miss something because they refuse to admit they have a blind spot in their skill set.  They don’t ask questions – they just give you answers.

Great managers know their weaknesses and hire accordingly.  Even those of us who are on our own need to do that.  Sure, I can build you a website but it will take me a long time and it won’t be as good as when I bring in someone who excels at it.  While I know what works from a user experience perspective in digital you don’t want me doing artwork to bring it to life.  This is why you hire someone like me (OK, hopefully me!)  in the first place – to work with you in areas where I’m more expert than you and to bring in resources that will compensate for the weaknesses in your business.

So I suck at art.  You may be Michelangelo but you probably suck at something else that’s important to your business.  What are you doing to patch that hole?

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