Four things that caught our eye this week.

• Excellent guide to building in-house innovation teams by Jeff Gothelf, NEO.
• Forget Big Data, introducing ‘Big Content’. Interesting piece on the value of ‘big content‘ to website owners.
• See-Think-Do. A content, marketing, measurement business framework. Interesting read if you are struggling to work out what matters to you in social media.
• Crossword puzzles for computer scientists.

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Listen to Dan Siroker, CEO Founder of Optimizely and previously the man behind the data analytics for President Obama’s successful social media election campaign.

We held a Google Hangout at 13.00 EST, September 4th 2013 to talk about A/B Testing and see what you want Dan to talk about at Business of Software Conference this year.

Dan’s talk at BoS is titled, ‘If data can help win Elections, what can it help you do for your business?’

Companies like Disney, Amazon and Salesforce already use optimization as a core part of their business activity and they have masses of data that they can use to achieve this but how can smaller organizations with relatively small data sets use it to generate long term value? How can you get buy-in for A/B Testing in a business? Understand the future of optimization in the software industry as it enables the transition from a one to many relationship to a more personalized relationship with individual customers.

Dan and Mark will talk for 20 minutes about what Dan plans to talk about as well as trying to answer some of the burning questions that you have about Dan, Optimizely and A/B Testing.

Is there something that you would like Dan to cover in this talk? Now is your chance to let him know directly.

An interesting conversation despite a couple of technical issues connecting Dan and Mark which did remind us of this from Alan Partridge…

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Some very useful insights into the success of crowd-funded Kickstarter programmes in the US and UK that was bought to our attention by Rodolfo Rossini at Storybricks. So much of the talk about crowdfunding is absurd hyperbole that it is useful to get some actual data that you can use to make intelligent decisions about whether crowdfunding is an appropriate vehicle for your financing activities.

Aside from the very obvious:

• The US is bigger than the UK

There are some much more useful observations:

• Very interesting insights around how effectively projects in the UK and US manage their campaigns – US campaigns tend to be more successful as they manage the channels to market more effectively.
• Over 75% of ‘Dance’ related Kickstarters are funded while less than half technology related ones are. The average project in the respective categories is $5k and c$100k.
• UK campaigns have to run in GBP and Kickstarter users tend to be less comfortable with currencies other than $.
• Raising large amounts of money on Kickstarter is exceptionally rare in either the US or UK.

As more and more companies talk about crowdfunding as the potential answer to their funding problems and others point to crowdfunding as the first step towards the death of the venture capital industry (yes, really), it is good to get some actual data to help people make up their minds in a more measured manner.

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Why is it that, when you give customers what they say they want, it’s often not quite right?

Many years back, when I was still a bright eyed, naive young marketeer, I learnt a number of models for the process that happens when customers switch to a new product. They were all very convincing, very rational, but they never addressed the question of ‘why’ that particular product: that was approached using tools like surveys, focus groups and sales team feedback.

And it turns out that’s a mistake, because by asking questions about the process people go through when they adopt a new product, you are in a much better position to understand why they buy what they buy.  Even – shock! – how to design your products to give customers what they really need.

The masters of this approach are Bob Moesta and Chris Spiek from the Re-Wired Group and I recently spent a day in one of their Jobs to be Done workshops, learning how to uncover the real reasons people switch products.  The basic premise of Jobs to be Done (that customers hire a product to do a job and you need to understand what that job is) is explained here, with his usual clarity, by Prof Clayton Christensen.

So the principle sounds great, right? In practise, understanding what job(s) your customer is hiring your product to do requires you to invest a bit of time in interviewing them, really getting to understand, in depth, what happened at that switching moment. Unlike focus groups or surveys, these interviews try to uncover motivation before purchase and before post rationalisation (which is why so many post purchase surveys fail completely to get at the real reasons why a product is bought).

Bob and Chris’s workshop walked us through a number of live interviews, deconstructing what was happening and the framework they were using to steer the conversation. The results can be slightly spooky: an interview like this uncovers some of the hidden triggers (and emotions) involved even in some very ‘rational’ B2B purchases like a new CRM (my chosen purchase). It also highlights how often these triggers, although they might be unexpected, are not unique.

Since then, I’ve conducted one and a half interviews (my husband described his as ‘an interrogation’ so I obviously need to improve my technique!), and they feel like a incredibly useful way to get close to your customers. I’ll definitely be trying to schedule some more.

With Bob & Chris’s permission I’ve shared edited highlights of the slides from our day here and if you want to hear some interviews being done I recommend the Jobs To Be Done page on the Re-Wired company site. Better yet, if they are doing a workshop anywhere near you (like, for example, the workshop they are doing immediately after this year’s Business of Software) run, don’t walk, to book your place.

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Investing in, or running a tech start-up? Here is a great opportunity to make contact with the nice people in the innovation and mobile teams at Tesco, who will be running a TJAM in the City of London on the 22 August from 5:30pm – 8:30pm.

A what? ‘TJAM’- (T for Tesco and T for Technology). The idea of this event is to ‘jam’ together start-ups and senior Tesco technologists for an evening of food, drink, and tech-speed-dating!

Here’s what Tesco have to say (most importantly note that they need an application by COP Tuesday 13th August):

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‘At Tesco we talk about ‘making moments matter’ for customers, and we firmly believe that the latest ideas and innovations could help us achieve this. We already work with some great (mostly large) suppliers of exceptional technology which we use in abundance. What we don’t want to miss is the equally valuable set of ideas coming out of great British start-ups who are passionate about their product and are looking for research, trialling, investment and/or licensing opportunities with someone like us at Tesco.

You know and have probably shopped at Tesco before, whether in-store or online. Do you know start-ups that you think could ‘make moments matter’ for you as our customer if only we deployed their product or service? We’ll be as interested in listening to start-ups who are just beginning development of their idea as much as those who have a product ready. We’re equally excited to hear about products coming ‘next, soon, or later’.

We have a total of twelve spaces available (we’re limiting numbers only because we wish to have quality time with each start-up) and the theme of this T-Jam is simply ‘Come and Inspire Us!’.

So that ideas are protected and both sides can talk candidly about ideas and requirements, Non-Disclosure Agreements will be signed between Tesco and every start-up that takes part. After all we hope that this is the beginning of some great business relationships.

To make sure start-ups pitch only to Tesco colleagues and won’t get to talk about each others’ work if they don’t wish to do so, we’ll be running a ‘tech-speed-dating’ format, giving you the chance to have an informal 5 minute “1:1” with groups of Tesco technologists, representing different business focus of innovation or mobile development. Think of the pitch as conversation where questions can be asked, feedback given, the idea demonstrated, and next steps (if any) agreed

After the ‘speed-date’ section, we can all chat informally in self-forming groups for the next hour while we eat & drink, and then finish up by announcing the next steps we have agreed with each of the start-ups. We want them to know we’re serious about working with them if we think their product could fit.

Start-ups will be welcome to bring laptops and other portable devices. We’ll have wifi and mains power available, as well as plenty of meat and veggie pizzas, beer & cider, and soft drinks.

I hope you are interested in (and maybe intrigued by) by this event. If you are interested, please could you respond to nick.lansley@uk.tesco.com by 5pm on Tuesday 13 August (a week’s time) with a recommendation of any start-ups you would like us to invite. Please include a short summary and a link to their website. We’ll get back in touch with you by Friday 16 August with a formal invite for each accepted start-up and we’ll announce the venue with the formal invitation.

Best regards

Nick Lansley’

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There you have it – we think Nick deserves to be deluged with quality applications from quality businesses so please prove us right!

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