I do not personally would buy a coffee from Starbucks as Americans have no idea about coffee but it was interesting to participate on this seminar and get some great intakes that any other brands might be able to apply on their businesses.
THE FIVE PRINCIPLES:
MY PERSONAL TAKE AWAYS FROM THIS SEMINAR
PEOPLE. Employ people who genuinely have a passion for the product and great affinity to it. Once you get the right people, the experience for the customer will be far richer.
PRODUCT. Keep the basic right. Before anything else is the "Coffee". Train your employees to know all the process of developing your product. In the Startbucks culture, the baristas should feel they cannot let down the amazing process to get a coffee bean on their machines.
PROCESSES. Great organisations create repeatable processes that allow people to be great at their jobs. I do not totally agree on this one as I do believe processes tend to kill creative people. For some other people processes work ok.
VALUE. People will pay premium if you offer an "experience" that no other competitor offers. Build emotional value: Create experiences that resonate with your customers. Experiences that make people say: "This is who I am, they care about me".
THE STORE WALK-THROUGH. At Startbucks, every morning, an employee walks through from the parking lot to the store tables and see the store from the customers "lense". The employee audits all aspects that influeces the customer experience ie: tidiness, cleaning, signs, etc. All the items get logged and fixed.
Starbucks Store - The Store Walk-Through
LOVE TO BE LOVED. Customers are more demanding and expect quick responses. Startbucks apply MIT Professor Peter Senge theory. The concept of love is not a fluffy idea. Love is focusing on the growth and the development on the ones you serve. It needs to be genuine. Starbucks have a section on their website about job interview tips, etc.
Starbucks Facebook page - Multi-channel Relationships and Technology
REACH FOR COMMON GROUND. Starbucks close many shops in Australia when they first came in 2007 as it tried to imitate US coffee culture and were not sensitive to local coffee culture. Reaching for common ground means defining the common and different aspects of each local culture that defines value. Finding and growing strategic local partnerships is key.
BE LOCAL. It is all about understanding the local cultures and the rituals each local culture has around enjoying a coffee. Customers want comfort, variety, want to be seen, to be heard, to be cared about.
What's your name? Strategy - Startbucks
"WHAT'S YOUR NAME?" STRATEGY. Connecting to the uniqueness of your customers in a way that is authentic. Asking for customers names in UK was not well received at the beginning with a lot of media debate however, in the long run it worked out quite well. The more you discover about your customers, the more you will be able to offer what they need and want. What sort of experience, content do they want? Then you can create relevant experiences and content for them.
TECHNOLOGY BRINGS CUSTOMISATION and MOBILISE CONNECTIONS. Technology that offers real time tracking and a close system between loyalty and payment allows for very customised offering. Starbucks allow customers to tweet a coffee (instant gift), consumption history allows for customised suggestions.
AMPLIFYING EFFECT VIA SOCIAL MEDIA. Leverage the social and cultural values of local communities to be top of mind via social media engagement.
BE WHERE YOUR CUSTOMERS ARE. Starbucks offering coffee machines for office and home.
INNOVATION. We love to keep doing the same thing that works. It is selling, we know how to sell it. It is hard for some business to get out there and offer something new.
SOCIAL LEADERSHIP. Starbucks foundation. Creating job opportunities to allow people buy more coffee. it makes sense.
NEXT
Need support with your marketing strategy? Call us! eDigital: +61481 367 711
If your marketing strategy is to reach a mass audience, it is very likely you need to have an "average" offering. Ignore the masses! Create a product or service just for believers and once those believers buy from you, their tribes will follow.
Shruti Shetty - Art Director & Data Science enthusiast
Mauricio: Why your passion for Design and Data Science?
Shruti: Design has gone through quite a silent transformation over the years. The canvas, the technology, the aesthetics have all evolved significantly. Now more so than ever I think, design plays a very central role in tying all these changing features and packaging them for experience. Moving into the new age of the Data Economy, made me look and explore this new and next avenue that will impact design in the coming few years. This lead me to Data Science.
M: Data Science brings insights from analysing data sets. Design can then help present those insights on ways they are easily understood but also engaging and interactive. As a result, those new insights or findings from data sets can highly resonate with audiences...is that correct?
S: That's correct. Traditionally data analysis and handling has taken place in the development or mathematical sense of the world. With the help of design, we translate those complex models, from texts and numbers to patterns, which we can see and understand, and in context to a collateral situation or problem. As said, an image might be as powerful as thousand words.
M : Analysis of data is just one part of a story; in some cases investigative journalism, historical context, current market, political, economic and social dynamics have also a great influence on helping shape data into powerful insights. How do you see the future of Data Science with other disciplines and how Design can play a key role?
S: Patterns are everywhere. They are the very fabric of human behaviour, which has now translated to our online lives. With the power of technology and our need to be switched-on 24/7, we are contributing continuously to this massive data pool. This also means data is being continuously altered and influenced by all and/or more factors, than the ones mentioned above. Hence, before we even begin processing the dataset, we try to understand the circumstances in which the data has been collected. Sometimes this can help fill in the blanks, with the bigger picture. The purpose of data science is to help tell our story, with the events & features of our data. As the scene setting changes so does the climax of the story. It can be quite hard to identify these influencers in the process of crunching numbers, and this is where visualisation comes into play, within the process itself. Visual tools also help determine the influencing features and charter an appropriate course for the story.We use tools like graphs, charts, plots etc. that display the workings of the data sets in a visual form. As mentioned before, design is a key interpretation of this story into a visuallanguage, which everyone can understand.
M: How important is for Designers (who help Data Scientists) to be involved from the early stages of data analysis? so they can fully understand final insights and create solutions that matches what Data Science want to convey...
S: Designing or visualizing isn't an end mean or a final output stage. Many designers would agree, that design and creation is a journey and a process by itself. Such as data, design goes through it's own transformations, gradually. Hence for a desired optimised solution, collaboration between the two fields, is key. The key is to compliment and co-relate.
M: Is it the role of Designers to just help Data Science better visualise data insights? or the Design role goes far beyond that?... Can Design also help companies better collect data or help companies to find better ways to engage people to contribute to data? or even more, can design engage audiences to analyse data sets?
S: I began the studying data science, my intention was to implement this within our service pool, for our clients. The data we collect can help impact the strategy with which we can constantly improve our products or technology, given the patterns that our users or consumers display. Which in turn, gives them a better experience. This evolution needs to be refuelled by new and more precise data, which can again be facilitated by design. In short, we use design to translate the given said data, and help grow and alter the data set, to maybe evolve into a new pattern. According to me, this agile approach would best suit this relationship, between data and design.
M: There might be plenty of data visualisation tools these days. What tools have you worked with and found them great to use?
S: Open source softwares such as R Project , and Python, provide a suite of visual tools to crunch and model the data, during the process. The output results can be visualised using a suite of other tools. There are a lot of javascript libraries out there, to help with this. For eg: My team has used, Raphael.js in the past, for a real-time RFID visualisation project. At the same time, there are many other public toolkits to help with this. The one I have found useful is the Tableautoolset.
The Method Case: The project uses digital practices and processes to blur the lines between photography, data visualization, textile design, and computer science.
M: Organisations with no access to Designers or Data Scientists have a big challenge when analysing and presenting insights from data? Any tips for them?
S: Ideally, gathering of that knowledge and datasets would be the first step, moving into this direction. Maintaining records and collecting them in a consistent and efficient manner. I guess with any given field, you need to have access to expertise on that subject matter. If you don't have those skill sets in-house, you would seek those services elsewhere. Traditionally, companies have been gathering the knowledge for the datasets, but haven't been able to implement it's full potential, back into their businesses. For businesses that want to explore this area, there are plenty of options out there. There are independent Data Science organisations who can then collaborate and partner with other agencies, to help make use of their data. But at the same time, companies like ours - Adrenalin Media, are upscaling their skill sets to include this as part of their services, even for Small / Medium sized companies to big scale corporations.
M: Do you favour tools that automate the discoveries of regularities in data? meaning less work for data crunching and possibly just more work for finding compelling ways to present those discovered regularities?
S: I have learnt the hard way, there is no easy formula to help clean up datasets. Again, softwares like R and Python are quite versatile and can handle this process quite well. Personally I like the Google Refine programme, as it has some really nifty features such as a log of all the changes you have made to the dataset, which helps reverse back any mistakes you might have made.
M: As cloud services become more popular and affordable, companies now have the opportunity to collect massive amount of data. However the reality is most of that data gets untapped and/or un-used? Apart from using Data Scientists to help companies find better ways to achieve their key objectives/goals by effective analysis and presentation of Data turned into insights; is there anything else companies should be using their data for?
S: My answer would be similar to the above.
M: There is a lot of talk about how to use big data on organisations and companies but what about individuals, citizens using data for everyday life activities or local community based activities? Any examples or insights on this front?
S: Definitely! Why should all the big companies have all the fun? Sites like vizify.com help visualize your personal data into a cluster of visual graphics, aggregating all your stories online, from LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter etc. Companies and services alike, have realised the power of visualization and there are a lot of them out there empowering us to take charge of our own data footprints to chart and describe the journey, in a visual form. It also helps keep things fun and interesting for the users.
M: Powerful visualisation of data is key but what about user interaction with data. Any user data driven projects and at what point can interactivity be a nuance for users to fully engage with stories and insights?
S: Interaction is such a powerful engaging tool. Data science wouldn't exist without user interaction. It's the basis of the records that we use. At the same time, the benefits of our insights are then used to display that information for the user to 'interact' with, in terms of engaging with and modifying a visual art piece or using a said service or product. The User interaction is central to the validation of the predictions that we as Data Scientists make. And design can then present this case for the user to accept or reject. In either cases, that would be fed back into the cycle, for the whole process to flow again. It's such a powerful concept, if one thinks about it.
M: What are possibly the top three projects you believe have implemented great design for their data driven projects?
S: Design can be assessed aesthetically or functionally. A good design follows a balance of both. Amazon, Netflix are a few of the companies that continuously update their design based on the data and user patterns that they record. While they aren't aesthetically prominent, they are studied to be one of the most effective use of Information Architectures. Similarly, you see startups such as Triptease, Evr.st etc. who hire data scientists, terming them as 'Growth Hackers' to bust and crunch the numbers and deliver visually stunning outputs for their users. The recurring themes with all these projects is the agile collaborative way that the data and the design teams work together to keep their services and their presence fresh and valuable.
Triptease - For finding lust worthy destinations curated by users
Shruti has a design background and been working in the digital space for the past 8 years now. After graduating from BillyBlue College in Sydney, with a degree in Communication Design, over the years she has specialised in User Experience and Information Architecture. In her current role as Art Director at Adrenalin Media in Sydney, her team produce online solutions, ranging from websites, campaigns to integrating new technologies into their services for eg: RFID.
Infographic explaining Big Data, made by James West and published by New Scientist. It starts with the most fundamental concept which drives big data 3 Vs of Big Data and then moves on to talk about trends, features and challenges of Big Data.
NEXT
Need Design support for your data sets? Call eDigital on +61481 367 711
We recently wrote an article about how to Invite all your Facebook friends to a Facebook page. Some times you also might need to invite all your thousands Facebook friends to a Facebook event but do not have the time to tick all those boxes next to your friends names.
WHAT TO DO - TIP AND TRICK Follow the below steps and you will get it done in less than a minute. Viola! Cheers Mauricio @ eDigital.
Join the event with your personal Facebook account using Firefox browser.
On the event page, click on "Invite friends" box - A pop up window will appear.
Scroll down until the end of the "Search by Name" list.
Open Firefox Scratch pad by going to Tools menu, then Developers, then Scratchpad.
Wait around 10-20 seconds and all your friends names should be now ticked.
Hope it works for you. If not give me a buzz and happy to assist +61481367711. Mauricio
NEXT
Need to support promoting with your event via social media? Call Mauricio - Digital Marketing Specialist, SEO & Social Media Specialist on +61481 367 711
Websites and blogs that no-one visits and cares about should read this!
This could be the best advice to websites and blogs that no-one visits or cares about: "If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead, either write something worth reading or do things worth writing". Benjamin F.
NEXT
Need to A WRITER for your website, google rankings or social media strategy? Call Mauricio - Digital Marketing Specialist, SEO & Social Media Specialist on +61481 367 711
As global mobile app market is to triple in just less than 3 years time; I wanted to have a refresher tonight at Mobile Monday Sydney. Key takeaways to follow suit this week.
I also got in touch with Justin Urbanski who works as a Scrum Master using "Agile" Methodology for new product development. Justin kindly shares his view about Agile Methodology in Australia and its benefits below.
Mauricio: Why are you so passionate about "Agile" Methodology?
Justin: On the train ride to the 2009 Agile Australia conference in Sydney I was reading "Agile Estimation and Planning" by Mike Cohn. On the train ride back I was writing my speech to management on why we need to go Agile. The conference is not the sole reason I am so passionate. When I first started reading about Agile it just made sense to me. In a way it was sort of how I liked to work anyway.
Justin Urbanski - Scrum Master - Australia
M: What does "Agile Methodology" mean and what are its key benefits compared with other project development methodologies?
J: Agile is an umbrella of methodologies. A team should choose which methodology is right for them. Agile differs from the traditional Waterfall method in that it promotes iterative development and self organising teams. Instead of doing 6 month software releases, in Scrum (one of the methodologies) we have 2 week sprints. At the end of each sprint the product is potentially shippable. Everyone can then inspect where the product is at, how the market is going, what the customers want and adapt every sprint. That's the difference and one of the key benefits.
In Scrum cross functional teams work through tasks. The teams are also self organising. I used to be a project manager and assign tasks to individuals to ensure that the project completed on time. I don't have to do that anymore. The teams simply pick off the highest priority tasks and work on it within a sprint. The team members decide who works on what. It's hard to explain but because the teams are working in short sprints and they continually inspect and adapt and eventually they become high performing. The teams talk about how they can get better and better both technically and organisationally. Its not a manager telling individuals how to improve, its a team understanding how they can go faster. That's the benefit.
Agile Methodology Cycle
M: You are a Scrum Master. What are the benefits of having a scrum master in a project development team?
J: Yes I am a Scrum Master. A Scrum Master serves the team. The Scrum Master does everything he or she can to help the team and make them as productive as possible. Like a coach on a football team, the Scrum Master should observe the team and help them adapt.
Scrum Master Position within a Product Development team
M: Is there anything on "Agile Methodology' that we could use for digital marketing processes, ie: managing social media, improving Search campaigns, producing content, etc?
J: I don't see why not. You just need to determine which methodology would be best for your team. For example Kanban may be the way to go. It helps teams prioritise and limit work in progress.
In Scrum you have a Product Owner. Their responsibility is to control the budget and vision. So they set what things should be worked on first to achieve greater return on investment. I don't see why you could not do that in the digital marketing space.
Kanban Methodology simplified
M: For entrepreneurs, is there any risk of taking/using "Agile methodologies" in their product development processes?
J: No, and I believe it would be beneficial because you continually inspect and adapt. A great book to read is "Thelean startup" by Eric Ries.
M: What are your top two project development management tools you would suggest for teams to track Agile projects (Jira?, others)
J: I am very familiar with Jira and it works well. I would suggest the Atlassian suite which includes Greenhopper and Confluence. Because they are both Atlassian products they integrate easily. Greenhopper is the Agile part and helps teams organise and plan sprints. Confluence is Atlassian's wiki. I love it because it enables teams to collaborate and document quickly.
Jira Dashboard - Example
M: Is there any specific products/services or even industries that tend to be better fit for 'Agile methodologies" why?
J: Agile is targeted for the software industry and I believe suits the development of any software product. Web based products tend to be the best fit because when you inspect and adapt each sprint there is something to show. Plus web based products tend to be more volatile and also easier to release each sprint. M: What are Australian companies implementing best practises Agile metholodogies? J: In Australia there are too many companies to list who is doing best practise. The thing is that every company is different. If you have the right people and the right coaches then hopefully those people are getting the most out of their Agile journey. M: Is there anything Agile teams should avoid when using Agile Methodology? J: Firstly avoid ScrumBut. If you do not Scrum properly then you will not get the most out of your teams. Secondly be patient. Your Agile transition is a journey. It takes years to get it right.
M: Can someone use Agile methodology for everyday activities? how?
J: Yes there are people using it in schools and I have even used it at home. At home I setup a Kanban wall to help organise our family activities.
M: How we do compare with America on the adoption of Agile methodologies and what companies in Australian are taking the lead?
J: I don't know the stats or about America but Agile in Australia is thriving. In 2009 there was the first Agile Australia conference. We now have 5 or more Agile conferences per year in Australia. The leading companies are Thoughtwoks, SMS MT, Suncorp, and Atlassian just to name a few.
M: Where people can learn more about what you do? please send us your website, blog, twitter, etc.
J: The best way is to just contact me via email for any questions your readers may have.
M: Anything cool or funny that you have experienced by working with Agile teams?
J: The coolest thing is watching a Scrum team grow into a high performing one. That's what I love about Agile. Its about the soft skills just as much as the technical skills. The soft skills allow teams to build the rapport that enables them to produce remarkable software.
NEXT
If you are a Scrum Master or Agile expert who would like to contribute to this article please let me know. Mauricio. Call Mauricio - Digital Marketing Specialist & on +61481 367 711
