I’m not a coffee drinker but I work with many folks who love their coffee (you know who you are so I won’t mention any names). Often, en-route to a meeting, the airport or any number of destinations the team will stop for coffee. This is usually a good thing because happy people are much more fun to be around than those that didn’t get their morning jolt of joe. On the rare occasion that I’m interested in getting a beverage I will usually order a large hot chocolate. This is where the problems begin.

I have lived in Washington State for 13 years now. Not being a coffee person, I don’t see the fascination with ‘a Starbuck’s on every corner.’ They make coffee and other beverages. Their customers seem to be happy with their products and services so who am I to judge. The ‘issue’ I have with Starbuck’s is that I don’t speak Starbuckaneese. I step up to the counter and politely ask for a large hot chocolate. The reply inevitably is, ‘Vente?’ To which I reply, ‘uh… large?’ and the banter continues. They obviously hear me when I speak but they sure aren’t listening!

I don’t feel like I need to learn some secret handshake or vocabulary to buy a hot chocolate. It isn’t brain surgery. It’s a beverage. It’s not even a health food. Just figure it out and stop trying to ‘translate’ what I am saying. You’re a barista not a UN employee so when a customer says large I think you should be able to figure out that they want the big one. Got it?

You may be thinking to yourself, ‘Man, this guy has issues…’ and you’d probably be right but I have seen the same behavior in the other businesses and it usually results in customers not getting what they ask for. Are you guilty of this behavior? Do you know someone who is? Have you experienced this behavior when you were the customer? How did that make you feel?

When I call someone a customer I mean it in the most general sense. You are either the supplier or the customer (think back to all the TQM training you went through in the 90’s). You move through the supply chain taking on either role depending on the situation. It doesn’t matter if you are a fellow employee (internal customer) or a consumer of our products (external customer) you are still a customer. That also means that at some point in this process you become the supplier as well. So, in the words of my mother, clean the wax out of your ears and start listening.

I have witnessed the same type of large vs. Vente interactions in companies. A member of one team says they need something specific and the “supplier” hears what they say and interprets it to mean something different. I hear you saying large but I really know you mean Vente. Ever ask for a Coke and have a waiter say Pepsi? Is this a word association game? So if your “customer” asks for something specific and you think you know what they need maybe you should just clarify it.

I witnessed an interaction between an Operations Manager and an IT Manager where the Ops person says point blank, ‘I need to get my field engineers laptops with more horsepower than the standard company laptop profile. How do I request them?’ The IT manager replied, ‘You don’t need a different laptop. We get the current ones really cheap.’ Ops dude now says, ‘I know that but my engineers have to use a machine to machine interface to control some complex equipment and our current laptops slow down and lock up. The equipment manufacturer says our laptops don’t have enough RAM and the processors are too slow to meet the minimum equipment requirement.’ IT dude replies, ‘Those laptops have plenty of RAM. Everybody in sales uses them and they are just fine.’ And it continues on into the night. Both people have valid points but this interaction is leading nowhere and if the ‘supplier’ isn’t listening and just goes through the motions nobody will be happy in the end.

When you take on a mobility project and you think you know what your users need you are only seeing half (or less) of the picture. I’ve harped on this point so often it hurts but it just keeps coming up in my daily interactions so I figured I’d do it again. Start by asking questions and actually listening to the answers. Restate the answer as you heard it and make sure you gain consensus with the speaker that you are on target BEFORE you move on or take any action. And for God’s sake, write this stuff down! It does even less good to have the conversation if you don’t document it and circulate the docs to the stakeholders.

So the next time you ask for a Pepsi and someone replies, ‘Vente?’ you can laugh to yourself and remember we had this conversation.

I had a meeting with a client today in Manhattan. It was a beautiful, state of the art conference room. An impressive, long conference table surrounded by tall leather chairs. Around the room were numerous flat screen monitors linked to a very high tech system which included a global video conference system, which enabled us to speak face to face with dozens of people in numerous locations. It wasn’t that long ago that I remember giving presentations with an overhead projector and foils.

It was an impressive system, until I realized that there was a full time technical person in the room who was running all the equipment. The system was so complex that even with the full time, dedicated technician there were instances when the presentation was interrupted with technical difficulties.

It got me thinking about useful technology. There are many great technologies – but those that truly make an impact are those where the technology does not get in the way of the function. Think about the ATM machine. The first ATM machine was installed in New York City in 1961, but removed 6 months later due to lack of customer acceptance. It’s likely that this early version was not easy to use and didn’t replace the service of the live bank teller. Most of us did not start using ATMs with any regularity for another decade or more.

Now apply this simple analogy to mobile technologies. If a mobile user downloads an app or hits a mobile website and it’s not easy to use, they will likely move on and not return. When considering existing customers this can have a negative impression on their perceptions of your company. But more importantly is the lost opportunity when considering a potential customer who is interacting with your company for the first time.

The secret sauce of any mobile experience is ensuring that it’s self evident in it’s operation. Most mobile apps don’t have an opportunity to train the user. There may be occasional opportunities for deep applications such as an app for trading stocks and other investments, but for the large majority the app has to stand on it’s own.

So the secret sauce of usability for any mobile app or website is to ensure that the consumer can use it the first time, without the app getting in the way of the function. Considering that one customer may be a Harvard Ph.D. and the next may be using a mobile app for the first time ever; this is no small task.

When considering your customer facing mobile initiatives, don’t forget the secret sauce.

∞

I’m not just a mobile program manager, I’m also a mobile user.

I’ve noticed that it is easy to get deeply involved in my day-to-day activities and never stop to put my thinking cap on.  Usually the last items on my task list, the ones I never seem to have time for, are those related to thinking forward, developing strategies, or creating visions. It seems most people, including myself, feel guilty about putting the feet up and staring at a small spot on the ceiling while switching the brain into deep processing mode. In addition to this being a matter of not breaking routine, I also believe it can be comforting to work on the tactical and logistical stuff and avoid stepping out into empty space where our minds can run free.

Well, I decided to challenge myself today while hiding out from work during a snow storm. The goal? I work on mobile projects, but I’m also a mobile user, so what are ten things I can envision being useful when I am out and about? Please note that this can be the space for dumb ideas or capturing one that already exists, but when done regularly it can produce some truly visionary items that can be potentially added to your current or future projects.

1. In-store GPS – my iPhone can get me to the store, but can it actually help me when I am in the store? Imagine having a lists of twenty items you need to buy at the local big box store and when you walk in the door a map suddenly appears to guide you to each destination. In and out in less than five minutes. Stores might not like this because I would no longer randomly wander down the aisles throwing unnecessary junk into my cart, but it sure would be a nice differentiator between available shopping experiences.

2. Point of sale negotiations – I’m in Best Buy and I’m finally ready to buy that tablet. Three contenders sit right in front of me and it’s time to make a decision. Considering that the devices are close in quality and feature sets, which manufacturer really wants my business? I want to bring each of them into a virtual bidding war for my business. I’m ready to spend today, so who is more motivated to move inventory and give me the best price or bundle in a few extras.

3. Audio streams at concerts – lousy sound systems and screaming fans no longer work for me. Ticket prices are high and I want to hear the music. I saw Bob Dylan a few months back and couldn’t hear a word he sang. Classic songs went by and I had no idea. It’s time to let me slip on the iPhone headphones and hear Bob sing Maggie’s Farm. Heck, for an additional price, sell me live tracks and let me take home a real souvenir.

4. Video streams at movies – sorry, there are many bad seats at your local movie theater. Stream the movie to my iPad and let me switch back and forth between big and little screen depending on the scene playing. The streaming version could also answer ‘hey – who is that actress and what has she been in before?’. It would be fun to see other ways movies could be augmented, more so if they fit the category of never going to contend for a best picture nod.

5. Track routine activities – everybody else has my data but me. I’d like an app that automatically logs specific events and data about me, for my use. Get an oil change – logged with date/time and type of oil used. Go to the dentist – logged with procedures performed, copies of my x-rays, and date of my next appointment. Go to a restaurant – remember what I ordered and the cost of the final tab. I know I can manually enter this information, but I’d rather have my device capturing data while I’m on the run getting things done.

I’ve got five more ideas, but that will need to wait for my next blog. In the meantime, take a few minutes and run through a similar exercise. I’d love to hear what you come up with…

∞

How many of you saw Jeopardy the past couple of days with IBM’s Watson supercomputer as a contestant? Watson competed in two shows against two of the winning-est HUMAN contestants in Jeopardy history–and Watson won handily. It’s responses were so quick that the other contestants could barely buzz in. And it’s accuracy was uncanny despite the awkward phrasing of some of the questions.

For those who witnessed this historic event, I’m sure the movie ‘Terminator‘ came to mind with a supercomputer causing the apocalypse when it became self-aware. I don’t think we have to worry about that for a long time, probably not in my life time, but I was thinking more along the lines of putting Watson in the Mobile Cloud and letting people ask it questions in natural language. There’s been plenty of human-based services for mobile Q&A through calling, texting and emailing, but this would bring 411 to a whole new level.

It boggles the mind what possbilities this would open up. On the Jeopardy program, IBM researchers were interviewed and they talked about Waltson’s applications for science, medicine and other noble causes, but c’mon Big Blue…if you can’t make money off Watson in the next year by hooking it up to the Mobile Cloud you should be ashamed. How about $0.50 text questions for Watson to answer? How about social networking games versus Watson? How about getting a recipe for dinner by entering in a few on-hand ingredients? How about using it as a better alternative to Microsoft Word’s grammar check?

What ideas do you have? Maybe we can rent some mainframe time on Watson from IBM.

∞

I talk to many customers who are dealing with various challenges in their business. A few of these poor customers have so many problems they don’t know where to start. While this may seem sad it’s actually a good thing in a way: It’s a Target rich environment. The downside is these same customers can be very gun-shy.

So how do you take a customer that is facing the implosion of their business due to various and sundry problems and turn their situation around? Engage! But don’t just show up and act like their therapist; you’re not qualified for that kind of work. No, no, no! You should be there to help and have a plan to get that help in place. This involves the use of a sound Engagement Methodology.

Sure you say. We’re done here. I have one of those thingy’s so I can go watch TV now. Ok fine. Go ahead and watch TV, I’ll talk to the adults now. It’s not enough to have a Methodology it has to be sound and you have to follow it even when it seems unnecessary. Actually, it’s even more important to follow when you THINK you don’t need too. Something about ‘best laid plans’ comes to mind.

Too often people approach a problem with a preconceived notion that they already have the answer and are just going to insure that their answer is the only one that makes sense. This is a recipe for guaranteed disaster. More importantly, it violates your Engagement Methodology. A good Methodology must include a discovery step very early on. If you skip this step how successful do you think you will be? It’s only the basis for all actions going forward so I’m sure things will be just ducky if you skip it. 

Brian Philbin, Halloween, 2010

The good news is that if you are not doing this process as the Lone Ranger you will have other team members to keep you honest but you shouldn’t be so quick to jump in the first place. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound a customer screaming, well that’s what I’ve heard. You have developed a Methodology for a reason so let’s assume (yes I know all about assuming) that we are going to follow it. It’s documented so it should be no problem. What’s that you say? It’s just in your head? Write it down!!!

Now that we have set our baseline that we all agree we will follow our documented Engagement Methodology we will probably run head long into a small quandary. Many customers want to see ‘their application’ before they will agree to go forward. This scenario is best described as my pal Rich explains. You go to a tailor to buy a custom tailored suit. The tailor shows you lots of fabrics, styles, colors, takes your measurements, etc. He writes up your contract and asks you to sign it. You refuse. After all, how can I sign for something I haven’t seen yet? It’s just good business to wait for the deliverable before I agree to anything isn’t it?

Here’s the problem, the tailor won’t start making the suit until he knows you are going to pay for it. You won’t agree to pay for it until you know it’s what you want. Stalemate? Perhaps, but what if you looked at it a bit differently. This tailor has been in business for many years. He has custom tailored suits for hundreds of customers. He can show you various examples, let you talk to several of his customers and puts his reputation on the line that you will be satisfied with the outcome. Now will you sign? What if the answer is no?

The same situation occurs in Mobility projects. Many times a customer wants to see their actual app before they are willing to even agree that they will select you as a vendor. Not that they want to see another app that closely resembles their business but THEIR APP. Is this unreasonable? They are planning to spend quite a bit of money for your stuff, it’s only fair. Or is it?

In this case, as in many aspects of life there is a certain amount of trust that goes into your Engagement Methodology. You trust that your customer will be actively involved in the project and pay you and the customer trusts that you will deliver what they need, on time and on budget. But you need to both take a leap of faith for this to work.

Here’s a suggestion: Include ‘mutually agreed’ in the title of most of your Methodology docs and clearly communicate that both parties have to agree to the design before the development work is started. BOTH parties have to be actively engaged and communications are paramount. With a documented Engagement Methodology it’s easy to explain the process to your customer and gain their buy-in. They may ask for some additional reassurances (like seeing other suits you have tailored or talking to other customers who bought suits from you) but to keep the Methodology intact you have to have these steps as part of a milestone or gate or it’s just window shopping. ‘If we provide you with X and you are satisfied we will progress to Y…’

So when you get into that chicken and egg discussion of ‘…I won’t agree to buy until you build what I want and show it to me…’ you can quickly move to an actionable process that fits well into your Engagement Methodology without needlessly extending the sales or development cycles. And remember, the goal is to help the customer gain confidence in your ability to help them solve their problems so it’s time worth spending.

∞

Look around and one of the interesting things we’re starting to see in the land of mobile commentary, discussion and viewpoints, is the slow but real emerging era of the questioning of the relevance of mobile applications. I’m beginning to suspect that by the time we arrive at making our 2012 mobile trends predictions (that will be in less than ten months!) we’ll see some very interesting viewpoints emerge along this particular line of thought.

I myself have already begun going down this path: With mobile devices and mobile apps, the old metric – 20% of features handles 80% of all needs – is quickly becoming 5% of all features handles 95% of all needs! It isn’t a shift in core functionality that’s driving this – it’s simply a never-ending and seemingly always escalating heaping on of superfluous capabilities – and apps – that are changing this dynamic!

Now that we’ve spent a few years being indoctrinated with the virtues of the mobile app store (or really, app supermarket), the rapidly approaching 500,000^th mobile app, the 30 billionth download of a mobile app, and many other related albeit utterly useless measures of the value of mobility to the world at large (regardless of consumer, workforce, road warrior, mobile soldier or mobile general, mobile social networking maven or mobile gadfly, etc. etc. etc.) I come to the following grand question:

Where exactly will we find the longer term value of mobility to the world at large?

I began to search for some answers to the question I pose above in my blog post, The Antenna and HP Mobile Visions – Innovation at Work & Why Mobile App Developers Should be Happy. Developers are now being offered a new world of multiple, disparate and interconnected mobile devices, as well as access to cloud-based mobile computing power. We’re entering the next generation of mobility, and developers – especially those involved in all facets of enterprise mobility, need to focus on this.

I can add to this that I believe Joe Balfiore (right, Microsoft’s WP7 main guy) has figured some of this out as well – although Steve Ballmer does a poor job of articulating it, what he tries to get across (and what Balfiore does a good job of communicating through actual demos) is that WP7 is working very hard to deliver, through its Metro UI, the simplification of the user experience – and trying to factor out the noise – getting to the point where there is a strong balance and interaction between features and desired functionality – so that the entire mobile device feels to the user like a cohesive and optimized whole – instead of a bunch of mobile app icons.

This user experience and UI effort is THE key area of mobile innovation from Microsoft, and has been THE major stumbling block for Nokia. I like that Nokia is now engaged with WP7 as I believe it will help Nokia find a path towards building a beautiful and cohesive Nokia hardware-based user experience. It offers a real opportunity to move ahead of Android and iOS here. Nokia would have been completely lost trying to innovate on Android from a UI perspective – a notion that escapes most though not all pundits. Microsoft already has this mostly right, and it is the main reason I myself am glad that WP7 is where Nokia chose to go.

[[Update, 02/18/2011: A complete non-sequiter - While it is no secret that Microsoft must have deeply feared Nokia going to Android (that would have been a significant kiss of the deadly type for WP7), it isn’t entirely common to think of the numerous financial incentives behind Microsoft’s Nokia deal. The Wall Street Journal does a very good job of looking at this: Nokia's Flirtations Put the Fear of Google Into Microsoft. Highly recommended reading.]]

HP, in the meantime, has done its own impressive job, through WebOS, of delivering a more uncluttered and more cohesive user interface that extends to both tablets and smartphones. And let’s not forget Dell, which is currently playing in both the Android and WP7 camps. My very strong prediction is that Dell will find more compelling ways to innovate, differentiate and deliver on the cohesive user experiences through WP7.

The next generation of mobility is now emerging and offers developers a far richer environment to create mobile services (note, I don’t say applications). These mobile services in turn will give consumers and workforces a far cleaner, and much more unified and seamless mobile experience.

This experience will encompass multiple channels (mobile Web + mobile application services) operating in the cloud and across numerous mobile devices, where the term ‘mobile devices’ extends entirely beyond smartphones and computing peripherals, to become every type of electronic gadget one might own – including IPTVs, music servers, high end music systems, video, your car multimedia and navigation sysems, digital photography, guitar playing, one true universal, wirelessly connected mobile remote control…I could add here the smart electric grid and Internet-connected (and therefore ad-ready and marketing-ready) home kitchen appliances as well.…the list runs on and on and on.

This is what we can look forward to over the next several years. It won’t be yet another ‘Android phone variation on similar themes’ (someone please shoot me if that is still the case!) that CES will be showing off next year – it will be integrated mobile systems delivering a cohesive, customized and unified set of mobile services spanning numerous mobile-connected devices that will begin to dominate.

Marketing, Advertising, Gen X and Gen Y

The first place we’ll see it is in marketing and advertising – those two things that have been with us since the dawn of media and consumer electronics (that would be radio and TV). It’s no surprise that all of the major ‘brands’ – as well as the classic, big time, Madison avenue advertising and marketing agencies – are now getting their heads around the urgent message that in order to continue to foster brand loyalty, to foster brand recognition, to increase brand visibility and to insure brand integrity, a brand must have a crystal clear mobile strategy that functions seamlessly with what will soon emerge as the mobile user’s ‘multi-device set of customized services’ as I’ve sketched it out  above.

I’ve noted elsewhere why Gen X and Gen Y are the critical targets for advertisers and marketing teams to truly understand from a mobile perspective. More specifically, for marketing and advertising, we need to consider the following:

Gen X and Gen Y represent a unique and possibly strange mix of both me-centric and we-centric mindsets.

The immediacy of mobility – the always-on, anytime-ness and  anywhere-ness of mobility – has fostered a powerful sense of the mobile individual constantly focusing on himself or herself as being at the center of a three dimensional social web. A mobile user inside of this social web is always either in the process of receiving or diseminating information.

Today’s Gen X and Gen Y mobile users DEMAND that the entire external world that is relevant to them always knows where they are and what they are doing, and most important, what the actual context is around where they are and what they are doing – ‘I’m in a store, I’m looking at new shirts, anticipate my context and send me relevant information to make my shopping experience delightful.’ This is the highly individualistic me-centric aspect of today’s mobility, in which the mobile user is constantly receiving valuable information, or hoping to receive valuable information.

Every point on the Social Mobile Web appears as the center...

Today’s Gen X and Gen Y users are also highly social – today’s social networking is all about sharing information in real time – ‘Here is something I think is interesting, here is where I am, here is what I’m doing, here is an idea for us to do something – let’s gather.’ And so on. This is the we-centric aspect of today’s mobility, in which the mobile user is constantly diseminating information that the individual hopes is valuable to others.

What I find particularly interesting here is that every individual thinks they are at the center of their social mobile-based web. And yet this social web has no actual center. (OK, I admit a little Einstein and relativity helps in coming to grips with this.)

The mobile challenge for today’s brands is to figure out how to tap into both the me-centric and we-centric aspects of  Gen X and Gen Y. Preferably before your competitors do. The challenge is to become a key part of the mobile user’s integrated mobile system and unified set of mobile services. Figure this out and you will have the keys to today’s new mobile kingdom.

Next time I’ll take a closer look at what retailers and ad agencies need to consider from the me-centric and we-centric mobile user perspective.

Jump to Part 2.

∞

When you’re putting together any strategy, doesn’t it make good sense to ensure that you can address the needs of the largest percentage of whatever group you plan to serve? Sounds like common sense, right?

Think about our planet. Earth is made up of 70% water and 30% land. If the planet represented your customer base, you’d probably not make a single decision until you considered how it would impact that majority. In every decision you try to consider how to make the largest impact with each project. It’s one of those basic common sense approaches required for any business decision.

Now consider that approximately 70% of the mobile users on the planet are using feature phones. A feature phone, is simply a mobile phone that is not a ‘smart phone.’ Not sure who came up with that one, I personally would have referred to them as ‘dumb phones,’ but I guess the makers of these devices would have likely not been too happy with that designation. It is simply terminology that separates what we all knew as just plain cell phones – think about the Motorola RAZR or the Nokia 1100. These are phones first, and provided additional capabilities such as built in internet browsers. These are the types of devices still in use by 70% of the world’s mobile population. And I’ve run into more than a few iPhone users who have made snide remarks about how it’s great at everything except being a phone!

Let’s take a closer look at those 30% that are on smart devices. There are many studies that identify smartphone users as some very desirable customers for many industries. Statistics on this group tends to skew towards a younger demographic with more disposable income and a higher level of expectations regarding the ways in which they can do business with the companies they choose. Clearly, we can’t really ignore this group.

So, let’s revisit the initial question. How do we implement a mobile strategy that impacts the broadest view of our customers on the devices which they use every day – regardless if it’s a smartphone or feature phone?

The answer is twofold. You can’t have a one size fits all approach to solving the issue. First, Mobile Web is by far the answer to how you can reach the broadest audience. When I say ‘mobile web’, I don’t mean simply allowing customers to hit your standard PC web site from their mobile phones. Clearly, standard PC web pages are not designed for optimal viewing on any mobile device. A well designed mobile web solution optimizes the web content for the exact device on which it’s being displayed to ensure the user an optimal web browsing experience. If you’ve ever had a non-optimized web browsing experience (and there is no doubt that you’ve had these experiences numerous times), you know how frustrating it can be just to scroll left and right and try to read text fonts which are clearly not expecting a mobile user.

I’ll address the details of a well designed mobile web approach in a future post. But briefly what it entails is some powerful technologies that recognize the device in the users hand and automatically directs an appropriate look and feel, screen sizing, fonts, etc. to that device as the page in rendered.

A mobile web experience is great on all devices, but it’s typically not as robust an experience as native client installed on a smartphone device. A well designed mobile app on a users device can enable your company to become part of the users daily world, sitting right next to the news, sports and weather that users often consume on a daily basis on their devices. Your logo as an icon on their smart devices is a daily reminder that your company is part of mobile network, and available to them 24X7 as needed.

So when you’re considering a mobile approach, consider ways to incorporate both the 70% majority and the 30% minority. These are both very important user communities. Over time, it’s likely that this statistic will continue to skew up towards the smart devices, but you don’t want to leave any of your customers, or potential customers behind.

∞