The Media Supermarket

I was watching a documentary about the sun and space and started drifting in the different thoughts that the program evoked in me. While imagining what was happening “out there” in space, I realized that I visually represent it in my mind, and I know that it is not just visual. I know that these are just impressions that happen on our eyes. The sounds the phenomena create (and they are quite noisy) are reverberations of the medium they are in, and what we call sound is just the impression left on our minds. So, to be able to start understanding these phenomena, I realized there should be other ways to “imagine” them.
When you talk about your customer, what do you imagine? Do you imagine a person buying your product, or do you just have a conceptual thing in your mind, or is it just a number?
What is the best way to imagine the customer you are targeting and communicating with?
The method I prefer is recreating and living the experience that person goes through when they are encountered with my message or experiencing a product I’m involved in. This is actually a personal passion of living as vividly as possible the experiences of other people, and understanding them as fully as possible. But I also think this is a sound business strategy, since you really need to understand that person you are motivating to have a good experience with your product.
This is of course different from imagining what you would do when in your customer’s place. This is totally different. I also don’t think it is a good thing, to imagine how you would react, since this throws the exercise off balance. I think we need to develop enough empathy to be able to somehow re-experience what our end users are going through with our products, and how they are reacting to them.

If “Location, Location, Location” is the mantra in the real estate world, I’m starting to believe that it should also be the mantra of cross functional teams as well. After a heated debate over whether or not location is important in producing quality work, I decided to watch.
Then I traveled to our office in another country.
Before long, I was asked by a colleague about a certain product we are working on. We decided to have a ten minute meeting out in the sun and talk about it. I shared some simple facts about that product, and I was very happy to know the next day that this gave him a good edge in his offering to the client, and the order more than doubled just because of that addition! The same day, we shared another product with another colleague, and with one simple recommendation, we were able to eliminate a lot of frustration about that product with a very small modification. These same colleagues were able to assist me in some partnerships I was trying to make, and we decided on several steps to get these things done.
I became a believer.
Had I not traveled on this trip, would we have not been able to “get our jobs done”. Yes we would. But it’s not about just getting the work done. It’s about jumping to new places, and levels. It’s about creating a harmony in the team, that would almost automate the process of innovation and creation. It’s about being in a vibrant group that is more like an orchestra than a “business unit”.
I am just remembering the way “friendships” were formed during my college years. They were based on a very simple and pure criterion: whether or not you attended the same elective classes together! We used to become close friends, share intimate information with each other, and they become special people in our lives. Of course much of this expires when the course ends and we acquire new friends.
An important psychological factor in this is that people start to view the world in a similar manner when they spend enough time with each other. A closer look shows that we start to adopt the positions of the people we work / live with, in the same place. My reasoning is that although there are logical reasons that push us to think similarly with close people, there is another hidden reason why we tend to take similar positions. We don’t want to break whatever harmony there is, and we find it difficult to reject these people when they are expressing strong emotions. Of course, this is an investment we do, so that eventually we are given the chance to freely express our feelings.
Imagine what can happen when people with opposing points of view (sales and production or marketing and finance) sit together and start seeing the world from a similar perspective, and start sympathizing with one another! You get harmony. You get great results.

After getting my hands over my new computer, I was engaged in my typical childish excitement, that I always had whenever I got something new in my life. I would wake up feeling that there is a certain addition to my life, and that I’m surprisingly just a bit happier that day. What makes this more interesting, are the five minutes of meaningless happiness that I feel trying to remember why I’m happy in the first place. And I become happier when I remember what that “something” is.
So I started wondering how far this computer can take me, and how far I can take it. Can it give my life a new boost, in terms of productivity and speed? How different would my life be after I start using it?
And so I started thinking about this new gift. Some other questions popped up in my mind also; do the products that I work on provoke similar questions in the minds of end users? Scary! Do they anticipate the changes that we make as intensely and as happily as I was anticipating the features of my new computer? Scarier!
Other scary questions also started crawling into my mind, “Do people who work with me have these anticipations about working with me?” Very scary! “Do they think that working with me is an “addition” to their work and life?”
It’s can really get fun to ask yourself these questions and move away from the stupid daily mundane questions and wonderings. Just for a change. It’s also a healthy approach. Try it!

I want this year to be about what I want, after all these are my resolutions. Last year, although I experienced an unexpected shift in direction in my work, was a stable year in general, preparing for the jump I started in work in the last two months. Since this is also confirmed by my horoscope for 2008, I’d like to believe that this will be the year of the jump. Thus, I am following eight main points this year, to transcend the linear and dance in the exponential.

One: Don’t wait, let them wait. As self-helpish as this might sound, it is just a positive approach to be taken. The more you wait, the more you are telling them to make decisions on your behalf. As a “waiter” by nature, i was very surprised to discover that when I clearly show my intentions, people can (and many times want to) accommodate to my decisions. This is regarding daily stuff. When it comes to decisions for long term and “big” stuff, they just tend to back off! So… go for it!

Two: As I am finally believing in the natural tendency of things to atrophy, and also starting to believe that the antidote to this is pure and simple intentions directed by the inner forces of our nature, I shall intend, more frequently, purely, and decidedly. At the same time, I shall keep my ability to be flexible in the process.

Three: Get to know a thousand people! It is very invigorating for me to meet new people and discover certain things about them. It just satisfies me to explore people. The thing stopping me is usually the inertia to which I surrender. I will not fight this inertia, but I will embrace the daily adventure of taking the initial steps of starting the talk.
Four: Go for the best. Being, doing, thinking, dreaming, and living with the best. No more mediocrity.
Five: One new thing. Totally new, one of those typical things that I usually engage in, every now and then. Let’s just anticipate what it is going to be this year.
Six: Read and write. Much more effectively, often, and artistically. It always surprises me when I come back to see what I have written. It’s not about good or bad, it’s about the difference in perspective gained by having crystallized some random thoughts into text, and then coming back to see how they have evolved.
Seven: On the seventh day, God rested. Enjoy this year much more than the last one. In new ways, and with more interesting people.

Eight: The last one is about the very special unique stuff that I have, which is usually hidden under two million layers of decadent psychological and intellectual algorithms. Knowing that when left alone, these things can perform wonders, I am to just set them free.

Happy new year! Happy interesting year.