The deepest possible way to bond with another human being is through meanings you share and both cherish.

In their book “Making Meaning. How Successful Businesses Deliver Meaningful Customer Experiences” Nathan Shedroff and his co-authors argue that a company with its brand should aspire to resonate with meanings that are dear to their customers.

They base on research that shows that among the different cultures on our planet there are 15 meanings, that universally apply to all of us. Nice, isn’t it?

Stop before you go about solving a problem! You're missing a great chance to disrupt, think out-of-the-box, re-invent business.

As an engineer, and I would say also as a manager, we are trained and take great pride in being very fast at assessing a problem and then properly applying a (known!) solution to the problem. In some cases this is exactly the right thing to do.

Design Thinking goes through cycles of divergent thinking to create solutions – and convergent thinking to make solutions. Here’s how to diverge.

No one has a benefit from bulletpoint-loaded slides. Neither you as a presenter or speaker, nor your audience.

Go back a couple of thousand years, to the time before paper (and Powerpoint). Caveman. Fire. Families, a tribe sitting around a fire, shadows cast to the wall, simple drawings, while elders tell stories of the past, pass on their knowledge.

That’s as far back as Storytelling goes. Use it in a business context!

Years back, I recall meetings with colleagues from Product Marketing (A), Business Intelligence (B), Managers (C), etc. where discussions went like this: A: “I believe we should offer an option X.” – B: “I believe this is especially attractive in the youth segment.” – C: “I believe especially young men will like this.” etc. None of them knew, they believed. I was one of them, as well.

As we go about our days we connect – without thinking much – single interactions to whole experiences; Sometimes we realize where things are disconnected, where brand promises are not delivered consistently across all touch points.

As soon as we enter our office something amazing happens …

You will likely have come across the term “Experience Economy” by now, as well. We (at Swisscom) – and I am one of the particularily fond ones – have been on that journey for a couple of years. What an experience it’s been so far!

I was going to just set up my backlog, and started typing away what a backlog is.

Turns out this is my first blog post.

Enjoy!