andydidyk.com

Here’s something that’s been on my mind quite a bit recently as I’ve been reading marketing blogs and thinking about how to improve mine. The best advice a marketing or branding firm can give their client is this:

“You’ve got to differentiate. You’ve got to develop a unique selling proposition (or promise) that is different from everyone else, and is laser-focused so that your audience knows exactly what you’re offering.”

It’s great advice for any business or any blog that wants to be “successful,” and I will continue to relay that advice when appropriate. However, while I believe those maxims are sound and necessary for business, I don’t really think that they are appropriate for the rest of life. I’ve run into too many people that seem to think this is the case.

To put it simply, when I hire a consultant at work, she or he had better be specialized. But when I take them out for lunch, I should hope that their lives are less focused and more diversified. People who are all about work all of the time are boring, and I don’t think I could ever live that way. In some ways, the blogging community (even “professional” bloggers) has helped mitigate this trend because a genuine experience with someone else has gained some value. But I think that so many people, in the name of “marketing” themselves or of “maintaining their personal brand” create a fake experience for others in business and in life.

I think I might be guilty of this to some degree. I have a background in sales, and continue to function in a sales role at n-tara. As a salesperson I’m very conscious of what others are experiencing, and I like to be professional. But I also like to take every available opportunity to be real with a client. To share something about myself and to ask them something personal. It’s not a tactic to build rapport (although it does have that side effect), it’s a chance to connect with someone in a real way.

In my career, I’ve met so many people that are intensely uncomfortable with themselves. So uncomfortable that they have to play up their work persona into what they think they should look like rather than who they actually are. It’s the same reason that people lie on resumes, and it carries the same results. In the end, no one, not even you, benefits from falsifying experience on a resume. The employer is robbed of his/her ability to make a good decision about whom they are hiring, and you are robbed of the chance to truly find a match for your real skill sets and interest.

Where is all of this going? To this point, I think. It’s good for a blog to have a focus so it is valuable to others and is differentiated, etc. But right now in my life I don’t have that intense of a focus, and I’m telling the world (and myself) that it’s okay to be that way. Maybe the blogging community, like the rest of life, can be a good place to learn and distill what your passion really is, and to inform oneself about what you do and don’t know. I’m going to try it.

I hereby give this blog (and myself) permission to be unfocused for the time being. To largely stay within my areas of interest and experience, but to be genearlly absent of the typical top 10 list of improving your direct mail campaigns, small business brand, or whatever. What’s really of value to anyone who visits here is exactly what is truly of value to me when I visit anyone else’s site – my (and your) unique perspective on life. Everyone sees things differently, and we can all learn from each other. What I can’t learn from is someone who squashes their own personality in the name of creating a more “successful” blog.

Alright, good rant.

This post is in response to David Armano’s post, “Thought of the Day”, in which he quotes Roger Martin, Dean of the Rotman School of Business, at the University of Toronto, saying this:

“To get more reliability (business approach), you sacrifice validity (design approach). And vice-versa.”

Wow. I have the disadvantage of taking this quote without context, but at face value I have to totally disagree Mr. Martin. I’m sure that Roger is a very intelligent and accomplished individual, but I’m not sure what his motivation is here. So somebody please correct me if I’ve got this wrong…

I think that the core of this statement is a very, very narrow definition of what design is. I know that’s the cry of our industry, right? Evidently with good reason; most people still aren’t convinced. Design isn’t pretty pictures, it’s immersion and empathy, science, statistics, usability, and communication. To me, Roger’s statement invokes sentiments of an artificial demarcation between business and design that is decades out of date and dangerously uninformed. Validity (good design), by its very nature breeds good business results. And I’m not talking about how nice something looks, I’m talking about how well it functions, which is a direct reflection of the design.

Good design has to be fueled by clear business objectives, a thorough understanding and empathy of the audience, and skillful problem solving. It’s a result of teamwork between businesspeople and designers, not competition as Roger implies. I’d love to hear feedback on what others think.

–> Clarification: David was able to offer me this context:

Hi Andy,

I read your post and I do think this may be a case of not having the context. The essance of Roger’s message was that designers speak the language of validation while business speaks the language of reliability. This causes friction and miscommunication though there are shared goals. He stresses that each camp needs to learn the language of the other and get closer to a 50/50 mix of reliability + validity. His point being that this balance leads to both good design and business.

I’m an outdoor enthusiast, and I enjoy hiking, backpacking, camping, caving, etc. It’s no secret that I’m as obsessed about having the right gear as I am about the actual activities, so I’m constantly scouring discount outdoor gear stores online in search of the next great thing that I didn’t know I needed. One of those sites is moosejaw.com, a very reputable dealer that has its marketing talons firmly embedded in the 16-30 year-old market, as their website design clearly indicates. I saw a promotion on their site that made very little sense from a product standpoint, but was a brilliant idea from a promotions standpoint:

“WOW!” I thought. What a great hook to get that twenty-something male to part with $60 in dispensable income for some sandals. A real ninja star, just for buying shoes! I can picture the masses of young men who would otherwise never own a ninja star becoming very excited about buying some sandals in order to have one. However, when you click on the promotion…
… you get to see how “real” it really is. It’s a cheap plastic star. As if that wasn’t safe enough, moosejaw thoughtfully included a plastic safety ring as well.

What a crushing disappointment. And worse, how useless! What would you do with such an insignificant trinket? Now I know, there are thousands of good reasons for not sending a real metal star with sharpened points. Thousands of reasons that lawyers with good intentions of protecting their company posed in the conference room where this ninja star promotion was probably dreamed up. But in doing so, moosejaw ends up delivering something to their customers that is worse than nothing – an empty, misleading promise.

I’m currently awaiting my “authorization to test” for my PMP (Project Management Professional) certification, which is currently one of the most widely-recognized standards for project management. Yippie. It’s a great set of standards, but even PMI recognizes that every project and company is different. Therefore, as with any formal education, the value of the PMP certification is in being able to apply the knowledge rather than the merely possess it.

I’ve been reading quite a bit lately into an emerging trend called “agile project management” which stems from another trend called “agile software development,” both of which focus more on software development than traditional creative agency work. However, what I’ve gathered is that Agile Project Management is really just standard project management, with a few key differences. Here are a few tenants of Agile Project Management (APM) from this ccpace article:

1. Establish a “Guiding Vision” to enable your team to make decisions independently if needed.
2. Use teamwork and collaboration whenever possible
3. Keep everyone constantly informed and have all project details readily accessible
4. Manage with a “light touch”. APM assumes the PM is more of a “Visionary Leader” than an “Uninspired Task Master”
5. Stay adaptive, ready to reorganize your team, resources, and timeline as the project demands.

APM is a huge subject, but it’s another outcome of trying to apply a rigid control mechanism to the organic creative process. PMI lands on the heavy control side, whereas APM lands on the light side of the spectrum. Each company is different, and needs to determine how much Project Management is enough to satisfy the balance of control vs. creativity. I think APM is worth looking into, but that you have to weigh the unique needs of your organization against any approach before selecting one or creating your own.

If you’re interested, here is another great article on the subject.

Outstanding project management for an agency is synonymous with great client satisfaction, excellent employee satisfaction, and a healthy creative environment. Let me show you what I mean:

Regardless of industry, but especially in the creative space where projects can be more organic in nature, accuracy in all of your client interactions form the foundation of a client’s needs in a relationship. Accuracy is impossible without good project management, and the higher levels of client partnership that every agency desires are impossible to achieve without having a strong foundation. Your clients will not chose you as a partner if your estimates are constantly inaccurate, you can’t forecast your workload, or you miss deadlines. Proper project management (about which I’ll be discussing over the next few posts) is the set of methodologies which can foster creativity while maintaining everyone’s sanity and making your agency shine above others in a client relationship.

And the best part is, project management is billable to clients that understand the value of it.