I was at the Forrrester Consumer Forum last week. The topic of the conference was social technologies. At a place like that you meet people that have blogs. I try to check out blogs of people I meet, I scan them, and see if something pops out.
I met Deborah Schultz, a consultant in the Social Media / Interactive Design, and this post popped out to me where she outlined 10 things she tries to live by. In a busy, transparent world these rules are relevant for a consultant or corporation...they are salient for management and marketing...and some are useful to remember when living your life!
- Do not ignore your customers, it WILL come back to haunt you
- Constant iteration is NECESSARY - build in flexibility so you can respond quickly
- Don't LIE - you can't HIDE the truth anymore
- Build LISTENING into your DNA (Put it in customer service, marketing, product management - just PUT IT SOMEWHERE)
- Learn to BALANCE the listening with PERSPECTIVE so you are not constantly in REACTIVE mode.
- DESIGN matters - Make it EASY (iPhone anyone?)
- Be CLEAR & CONCISE - who has time for long winded-ness
- Be EMOTIONAL - tell a story [read this to learn the basics]
- Be HUMAN - talk like one, act like one. Sounds like a big DUH but it is amazing how easy it is to get lost in complexities when we forget this one.
- Take a BREAK - and step back to think BIG thoughts
Great stuff Deborah!