This month we have a guest blogger, Nancy Goldstein of Compass(x) Strategy. While Nancy’s firm focuses on brand strategy and marketing for environmentally and socially responsible businesses, she just couldn’t resist commenting on the recent launch and subsequent discontinuation of the Microsoft KIN. I thought she makes some terrific points, and wanted to share them here. As you’ll see, she feels the KIN case is ripe with lessons to be learned to help businesses of all shapes, sizes and missions improve their new product launches. So, here’s what she thinks:

On May 13 of this year, Microsoft launched The KIN – their latest entry into the mobile market. Just 48 days later, Microsoft killed The KIN. After spending tens of millions of dollars on advertising, $500 million to acquire a small tech design firm, and countless dollars and people on development, the product was discontinued due to dismal sales. Read More -›

Many wise managers and agency partners have taught me over the years that when asking for changes to creative work, framing the problem you want the creatives to solve, versus telling them how to solve it will virtually always get you the best results.

For example, instead of saying this: “Can you make the label bright green?”
Say something like: “I’d like the label to be more noticeable on the package”.

This way, you use the creatives to identify different, multiple ways to solve your problem. Versus spending their time on coming up with the perfect shade of green.

So I was pretty mortified a few weeks ago when I realized that I should have applied this “Frame The Problem” approach to my personal life as well.
Read More -›

I read an article recently in National Geographic Adventure magazine (link below) about how a team of climbers helped with an archeological expedition in one of my favorite parts of the world, Nepal.

The gist of the story is that for years, local residents of Mustang have “reported seeing old manuscripts fluttering out of [an inaccessible] cave, but they never had the means to explore it.” So National Geographic got an expedition together to use expert mountaineers to climb up and into the caves. One of the climbers said something which has really stuck with me: “It was the first time in my career that I got to use climbing techniques for something other than mountaineering.”

There’s a great parallel to the business world here. Read More -›