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Hey, happy Monday,
It seems that the descent of the curve has begun. It is always good to start with good news.
If you would like to expand on what you read, we can also do that in person at our STRTGY Coffee Break, every day from 2:00 to 2:30 p.m. I leave a Zoom room open to anyone who wants to meet with other community members and catch up on important things.
Even if I’m not there, come on in and talk to those who are. It’s weird at first, then you get the hang of it, because this community is real! The link changes every week, the new one is at the bottom of each newsletter or in the welcome message if you’d like to sign up.
New rules and new habits
If you have read past notes you know how much I care about this concept of “bring-at-home” brands, i.e., all those brands that offer an exceptional Customer Experience in creating at-home experiences that you can no longer do outside (read Notes No. 9, No . 10, No. 11 for more on this ).
I realized, however, that said like that it sounds easy. But it isn’t.
Becoming a “bring-at-home” brand doesn’t mean opening an e-commerce just as digital transformation doesn’t mean turning paper forms into online forms so users can fill them out themselves…
It means entirely redesigning the experiences we offer so that we continue to exist in a world that will be completely different.
It will be vital for organizations to intercept new and emerging job-to-be-done because we will, without exclusion, all be subjected to new rules and new habits.
What new rules?
Those that will regulate gatherings such as events, fairs, conferences, concerts, sporting events… What will be the corporate policy on travel? What will be the new sanitation requirements for those who work with food–or simply pack and move goods or people?
What new habits?
Although this period, in my opinion, can be considered a good experiment in remote work, however, we cannot decree its success, or failure, so soon. On normal occasions you would have been able to work quietly at home, have your children in school and a less revolutionized routine… It is an experiment that is taking place in environmental conditions that I hope with all my heart will never be repeated… In any case, thanks to the undeniable advantage of remote-working, a new work/life balance is also emerging that reconfigures the perimeter of work and that of life, the need for new furniture to recreate work spaces at home, the need to use online shopping and home-delivering services, and often health services as well (the other day my prescription for a medication came to me via text message, I will probably be able to get a web call in the future, and medication will arrive in 24 hours with Amazon Prime).
Take the personas you drew just a while ago, the ones with stock photos, fake names, made-up quotes and needs that don’t exist, and throw them out now. They are of no use to you anymore.
8 impact areas
To align Design, Technology, and Business I recommend that you keep an eye on these areas that will surely affect any business:
Behavioral, hygiene and UX standards.
You will have to win back the trust of your customers by telling them that what you do will have no risk to those who will buy it.
In China, the food delivery app not only shows the rider’s location but also their temperature. For all Deliveroo has added contactless delivery.
Access turnstiles to subways, trains, offices, gyms, restaurants and pubs may soon integrate body temperature readings and communicate people’s health status in real time.
New packaging, new cutlery, new materials. Even for clothing.
Also think about new cosmetics containing antibacterials. For humans and animals.
Home and furniture
New solutions will emerge to get workspace back at home. Separates to divide an office on the fly and video conferencing tools in which to isolate oneself and use virtual reality, for example.
When we go back to buying a house, the studio will be more important than the garage.
Supply Chain, RFID and Blockchain
It will be necessary to rethink the speed at which goods will move and the certifications that operators and packaging will need to have.
In the production cycle, products are enriched with data that will need to be accessible to orchestration software as well as to the end consumer.
Contactless Everything
From payment methods to signing, to the robotic shopping cart that can follow you if you just can’t give up going to the supermarket.
But also in the home UV handles, switches and hand dryers instead of air dryers that instead spread bacteria and viruses all over.
Privacy
It may be vital to share your movements to predict the evolution of contagions, be prepared to install a big brother app that allows services to access this data through a shared protocol. For example, you may not be allowed to buy a train ticket if you have frequented at-risk areas previously.
Private property
The idea of a sharing economy will be put to the test. Will we be able to trust something that we do not have the ability to sanitize? Think about co-working. Or car sharing, from cabs to Uber to car2go.
Rural luxury and nomadism
Destinations where we could isolate ourselves completely from humanity will be the new luxury. Places where we will finally be allowed not to wear masks and sanitizing gels.
Among them, those predisposed to remote working will get an extra star.
Education
Educational institutions around the world will need to replace deans with Product Designers capable of designing new educational products, but more importantly, building new learning and upskilling experiences online.
They will replace marketing with Growth Hacking because the first time geography will not be the discriminator for enrolling at Harvard or Bocconi but rather the quality of the faculty and the training product.
Spoiler
In the next STRTGY Meeting we will talk about Growth Hacking and the guests I have invited are among the best in Italy. They will give you the step-by-step procedure to identify the bottleneck to solve in a business. I will make an announcement in the next Coffee Break.
You in the meantime block the agenda for April 9 from 6 p.m.
Good work!
Make yourself heard.
