January 25th 2018
Uber and AirBnB are widely celebrated innovators. By thinking about how each gains advantage for network effect, I hope that we can get beyond simply recognizing the strength of their business growth or reputation, to appreciate how their circumstances create varying levels of advantage from network effect.
December 31st 2017
Its been a remarkable year in investment, politics and culture. This is my personal take on where we’re at – and a first swing at what we can improve together in the new year. I’d love to here your thoughts and plans, and to encourage them however I can. Happy New Year.
January 21st 2017
Not all change is wise, but nearly all change is resisted. To overcome organizational inertia and lead the way to transformation, you may need the strategic clarity that only the delete key can deliver. Here are some tips from from the front lines of digital consulting on creating alignment for change.
June 15th 2016
I’m in the process of trying out a pretty elaborate set tests to score how patients experience hospital websites. While everyone can focus on KPI’s that show interactions that hospitals’ want, in the age of empowered patients our own KPI’s alone simply don’t cut it. We also need to know how our site compares against alternatives patients may see, and develop toward best practice examples in and beyond the healthcare industry. That’s what this will do — and I need to some hospital marketers or IT leaders to help test this approach out.
January 20th 2016
New research from the National Academy of Science shows that over the last decade mortality rates have increased for middle-aged white American’s – accounting for as many as 500,000 new deaths caused by self-poisoning, liver disease and suicide. The researchers and I connect this to increased stress from economic decline and reduced life prospects among middle and lower earning families.
December 4th 2015
While this starts as thinking about unlikely outsider political candidates – I think its really about how work structures our world, and so that our values need to structure work. It touches on lifespan, your wealth, celebrity air travel even my mom. Your thoughts cordially invited! ;>
June 23rd 2015
Friday, the Wall Street Journal rushed to suggest that the Charleston Shooting wasn’t really about race. No, instead, in a year where the sign “Black Lives Matter” has been everywhere, the Journal suggested this shows how far we’ve come. We’re at a moment of change – and my first change is to fire my newspaper which seems to be offering the rejoinder for inaction.
January 19th 2015
What is it about the human mind that makes it so attracted to the simplicity of rankings? Consider the case of Shimer College, and what happened when it was “objectively” named the worst college in America. And how intellectually bankrupt most college rankings turn out to be.
January 11th 2015
The idea that planning a two week party for nine years will somehow better our focus Boston’s civic efforts that responding to real needs is at once the most optimistic and cynical gambit imaginable.
December 30th 2014
As we sit here hungry for the brief pause between years, here are a dozen or so great starting points for setting your digital course over the next year.
The future of digital experiences will be built by strategists who grasp the full array of emerging business, social, and technical models. Specialties in user experience, branding, application design, and data science are laying the foundation for richer user experiences and business models breakthrough products and revenue based marketing.
UsefulArts is a soapbox to discuss the front line of digital experience, and the agencies and platforms that enable it. Digital business needs a cadre of leaders who can connect c-level enterprise thinking with the ways these new interaction models can help organizations to matter more to their most important stakeholders.