Brown cardigan no more

In the last couple of weeks I've had the opportunity to consult in at Telstra Digital and I've been nothing but impressed with the commitment to get digital right. I can't think of a major Australian corporate who is showing such a high degree of authentic and real passion for the medium. Credit must be given to the Telstra executive team who have thrown the kitchen sink at digital with the ambition to be the best and to more importantly deliver the best customer experience. Look around at the other major businesses in town be they banks, retailers, service provides or the like and the general theme is that digitization is the poor poor cousin of traditional channels despite the obvious trends of mass digital adoption by consumers and business. Sure there's some good evidence of belated capital investment but look beyond the project room and you'll find small operational digital teams fighting for legitimacy. So my hat goes off to Telstra for their commitment to invest large and follow through with strong operational teams. Is it perfect yet, of course not but the approach is bang on and over time this business will be recognized for digital excellence.

The value of great design

Have been giving a lot of thought to the value of great design in digital applications and its potential to fundamentally reposition your business.

From my dozen or so years in digital I have on the whole seen an under investment in design. And even when the investment has been appropriate the fight to secure the funds has been long and hard.

Interestingly as a society we value great design in other objects like cars, clothes, gadgets and the like, yet when it comes to digital experiences its under valued. Look around at the great many digital assets you consume. How many of them real inspire you?

So why do our sponsors love and appreciate design in objects a great Italian red sports car but when its come to digital there's a resistance to lay down the hard earn.

So here's the rub for digital leaders, we need to champion design and its tremendous ability to transform how our customers feel about our businesses. Somehow we as an industry of professionals need to undertake a mass course in influencing skills to get our sponsors to truly believe in the value of design.

My personal moment when I think I really got the value of design was when we were doing some usability testing with a panel of customers when I worked at GE Money. For one customer our efforts really struck a cord and for him the new portal we'd built fundamentally changed the way he thought about the product and business. Prior to that I never really appreciated how much design could change the emotional connection could have with a business.

Pretty much from that day moving forward I've become somewhat of a real zealot when it comes to design and the necessity to invest strongly in it.