Adding Value By Subtraction

When we’re innovating a product or iterating a service, we tend to add value by introducing features and benefits. But more isn’t always better. Sometimes improvements and progress are made by removing things that people wouldn’t miss. What could you subtract or stop doing to improve your product or service? Image by Garry Knight

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The Stages Of Change

If you’ve ever tried to quit a bad habit or establish a new one, you know that change takes time. When it comes to creating change in our own lives, we cut ourselves some slack because we know that change is a process. And yet when it comes to our customers, we impatiently hurry them…

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Leaving A Trail

The contractors who mow the lawn in the public spaces where my parents live whizz around on ride on lawnmowers. They don’t get off to move obstacles, trim edges or collect the grass. The job is done in no time. But for the next few days, cut grass blows around the suburb and is trailed…

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The Big Bang Is Overrated

When we imagine our ideal product launch we picture attention, applause and armies of customers beating a path to our door. Successful companies hardly ever launch with a big bang. Most hits begin with the slow and steady iteration of a product or service that’s improved by getting it in front of, and in the…

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What Outcome Are You Designing For?

If we want to eat healthy food we know we need to get into the habit of buying more vegetables. We also know resisting the temptation to put the sugary snacks we love into the shopping cart is how to avoid eating them. Once the fudge is in the kitchen cupboard, it’s too late. We…

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Good Feedback

The south Dublin café owner is proud of the business he’s growing, and rightly so. In just twelve months he’s built a thriving small business that’s become a meeting place for locals. The kind of place people recommend to their friends. A café people want to return to and talk about. If you spend any…

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What Are You Promising?

Products and services are promises. A promise from the brand to the customer. The word of the maker given to the user. A commitment from the seller to the buyer. Sellers promise that things are fresh and safe, worthy and working—that they will meet spec and sometimes even delight. Whenever we make or sell something,…

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The Imperfect Plan

In our imaginations, we plan for perfect. Perfect products bought and loved by perfect customers—who only show up on our best days. The days when we are perfect. Of course, the reality can’t always live up to the imagination. So we need to have a plan for when we’re far from perfect. The companies that…

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What Could You Leave Unsaid?

When I was in high school, the geography syllabus required us to study South America for a whole year. One of our teachers who had a special interest in South America decided to make it her business to teach us everything she knew about the continent. Everything. No stone was left unturned, no river basin…

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A Matter Of Marketing

We live in an age when it’s easier than ever to get your message in front of people. Many businesses have a strategy for getting their message seen and heard—far fewer have a plan for being believed and understood. It’s one thing to get in front of people, and another for them to choose to…

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