Bernadette Jiwa - Meaningful: The Story of Ideas That Fly

[F]irst of all, we really need to care about the people we are designing for, understand what their dreams and desires and priorities are, and then we have to use that understanding as the driving force of the work we put forward, because the second we know what questions are important, then all we have to do is answer them.

BJARKE INGELS, ARCHITECT

T here has never been a more exciting or unpredictable time to be in business. The Internet has enabled the democratisation of opportunity by allowing us to find and connect with potential customers anywhere in the world, and increasingly it provides new ways to succeed by helping entrepreneurs and innovators to create value for the people they want to serve.

What I have come to realise through working with companies from Fortune 500s to businesses run by soloists is that whether we are business owners, content creators or directors of sales, innovation or marketing, our working lives are full of opportunitieseither taken or, more often, missedto create meaning and value for people.

Mostly were still working in silos and divorcing our ideas and innovations from our marketing because we are failing to understand and put first what really matters to the customer. Let me explain.

Typically when we have an idea for a product or service (even in companies with big research and development budgets), that product or service is often created without considering deeply enough what the customers unmet need is and what the marketing will look, feel and sound like. Early on in the process, we are so focused on ideation and creation that we forget to think about the story we will ask the customer to believe when the product launches, and so we miss an opportunity to make the product or service better. The innovator considers it his mission to create the best app, phone, car, shoe or platform, and then he hands it off to the marketing department to tell the story to the customer. Even entrepreneurs working on their own, iterating rapidly to bring a minimum viable product (MVP) to market, mostly begin with the idea, knowing that they can and will tweak the product based on user feedback down the track.

As I worked with clients, I kept hitting on this same problem over and over again. They were working hard to bring ideas to market and enlisting my help with the storytelling part after the idea was fully formed; their first focus was almost completely on the idea itself when it should have been on the prospective user or customer. In fact, it would have been much easier if they hadnt begun with the idea at all, but had started with the customers story instead. By story, I dont simply mean what the customer says she wants or insists she would buy. The customers story considers not just what the customer tells you, but also what you hear her say, and what you notice her do or be unable to dothings you see her wrestle with or avoid, those that pull her up short and things that bring her joy, too.

The blueprint I am sharing with you in this book helps you to start with the customers story. This blueprint started out as the seed of an idea when I was working with a global brand to breathe life into their product stories, which began life in the innovation department. Understanding who their customers werethose customers needs and their hopes and dreamsbecame the jumping-off point for both product innovation and marketing.

If marketing is about making people aware of the value you create, to do that, you have to unlock the value in your story. If innovation is about creating value, to do that well, you must unlock the value in the stories of the people you hope to serve.

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Traditionally, we innovate in the hope that our work will find and satisfy an audience because we know that no innovation, however brilliant, survives unless someone wants to use it. But there are no guarantees, and hope is not a business strategy. No business thrives unless it creates a difference for people who are willing to exchange money, time or loyalty for the value that difference brings to their lives. The irony is that while weve been focused on building more efficient factories and platforms to make better products and services, the reason for those factories and platforms to exist has often been put to one side. Behind the closed doors of innovation departments of Fortune 500 companies and in startup garages around the world, many product development teams, entrepreneurs and business owners are trying to create opportunities and products that they hope people will buy and fall in love with (or is that fall in love with and buy?). Product development teams are looking for a technological advantage that enhances the features and benefits of their products and services. Engineers are wrestling with processes, materials, molecules and lines of code, trying to create a breakthrough, often without fully understanding exactly how the end product or service they are working on will fit into peoples lives, help them overcome a frustration or do more of what they want to do.