I work in a software organisation that uses Scrum to lead our development teams. Outside the development team, the business unit is structured in functional silos e.g. marketing, design etc. With the success, we had with using Scrum we believed by adopting Agile principles in other areas of the business we could change the way we work for the better.
At the time of writing this post, I have been running an Agile squad for a few months, and these are some of the learnings I have had.
The most important things I learnt
If I were asked what are the top two most important things I have learnt, they would be:
The team – Focus on building a team so they can work in harmony
Test, measure & adapt – don’t assume it will be successful. Find a quick and easy to test your ideas.
The other important thing I learnt the mission of the squad has should be:
Easy to understand
Easy to measure
Something possible but impossible to complete
The principles we started with
Change takes time so start small
The squad members have responsibilities outside the squad, so do not overburden the team
Being a member of the squad is entirely voluntary so build an amazing team to attract and retain members
Where we started
To build the squad, we needed people to cover every major business function (UX, user research, design, development and marketing) and some particular requirements for our business model. This way the team could act independently and deliver.
We also had soft skills that we felt were essential for the team (happy to learn through iteration, able to accept change and able to work effectively in a team).
It was important to get the business leader’s buy-in as members of the squad would come from their team. Once we knew what we wanted, we spoke to the team leaders and explained what we were looking for. They then spoke to their teams looking trying to match the experience of their teams, the availability of individual members and their desire to work in an Agile squad.
The interviewing process
Once we had a list of possible candidates it was time to speak to them. It was important to understand:
What are their expectations?
What skills do they bring to the team?
Are they a good match for the team e.g. do they welcome change, can they work under an Agile framework and are they interested in the projects we will work on?
How much time can they devote to the project?
What I learnt from this experience:
Being excited does not necessarily translate to commitment to the squad. Some of the more reserved people have a deep passion for their work.
Agile is buzz word so it is important to clarify what it is meant by it
Clarify the level of participation they are comfortable with. Do they want to lead? Are they are interested in trying things outside their core skill set? Do they have any major upcoming projects coming up?
Kick-off meeting
Once we have the team it is important to have a kick-off meeting. The objective was twofold:
Let everyone get to know each other
Outline how the squad will work
What our kick-off meeting contained:
Objectives – Explain the mission of the squad and how it plays into the vision of the business.
Some sort of icebreaker activity – to create a space where people can open up
Metrics – how will we measure success and failure
Failing fast – ideas of MVPs
First steps – what are the first round of projects we will work on
What I learnt from the experience
Build trust first
Outlining initial projects helped the team adjust to working in a squad
There are many smart people in the room, listen attentively
Having squad meetings
What I learnt from having squad meetings:
Regular squad meetups are instrumental in improving communication and collaboration
Ask for feedback
Not everyone will participate in a meeting. They may prefer to share, comment or feedback after the meeting.
Having meetings optional except the kick-off meeting respects the squad member’s time. If certain members of the squad need to attend a meeting, then it needs to be explained why we would like them to attend.
Publish meeting notes after the meetings to act as a reminder of the outcome of the meeting and for those who did not attend.
Sharing is power – communication and virtual whiteboards
People learn differently, they understand things differently, some are auditory, some are visual, and some are tactile learners. By sharing information openly, we achieved:
Sharing early and often helps save time in the long run.
If it is documented, it is easy to reference in the future. Especially when onboarding new members.
Sharing information creates a culture for others to share as well.
Helps remove follow-the-leader mindset and puts a value on the contributions of all members of the squad
The ego and the need to be right
Moving from a top-down approach where the highest paid opinion counts more moving to an Agile framework can be a jarring experience. The leader becomes a servant leader rather than the centre of the team. A meeting or a project can easily be derailed when a difference of opinion arises. And the only way to resolve this is through discussion and testing.
The take-home message from this experience it can be a very humbling experience. Success in Agile is about swallowing your pride and accepting that evidence/testing is more important than your opinion.
A shared brief
In a business where teams are organised by function, it is typical for the business owner to produce a brief for a project. This brief will then be used by other teams to deliver on that project. In the Agile squad model, the cross-functional team meet to discuss so everyone can voice their concerns or how to optimise before it goes into production.
What I learnt from this experience
Encourage critiquing of ideas as everyone has a perspective
Meetings can easily get sidetracked. It is important to manage the discussion to be on point.
Use virtual whiteboards to brainstorm and track conclusions
Some team members will need to be encouraged to speak
Ask the question how do we test?
End the meeting with action items
Produce a summary write-up after the meeting and share it with the team
Prioritisation and Impact
One of the first exercises we ran was to rank a list of projects by impact and ease of implementation. For impact, we look at estimating revenue generated and ease of implementation we used t-shirt size to measure the level of complexity. These were then sorted by now, next and future which gave us the pipeline.
What I learnt from this exercise:
Estimating revenue is difficult, but expert help was a lifesaver
Using t-shirt sizes simplified the comparison between projects
Using now, next and future not only gave us a pipeline of activities but helped unify the team under a roadmap
First project – the first win
I believe it is important to take baby steps as the team comes together. Our first project was simple to implement and likely to be successful. This gave us an early win and time to come together as a team.
MVP (minimum viable product)
An MVP is a concept from Lean Start-up. A proof of concept is built and tested with the results of the test determining what action the squad takes.
What I learnt from this experience
MVPs do save time and effort in the long run but in the short run, they can add more work for the squad.
A successful MVP is not a complete product. There is usually duct tape holding it together.
Running a retrospective
The developers run a retrospective at the end of every two-week Sprint. In our Agile squad, we don’t have Sprints, but we still use retrospectives. The purpose of the retrospective is to take stock of what has been achieved, the good, and the bad. This gives us the ability to improve.
Everyone answers three questions
What should we continue to do?
What should we start doing?
What should we stop doing?
Once everyone has spoken, we then get a vote on the top 3 areas of improvement.
What we learnt from this experience
Look for themes in the feedback
The value of the retrospective is to act
Post retrospective report back on improvements made
Dealing with priorities and overload
As the squad member had other priorities and other projects it is easy to pile on the work without understanding the impact it has. In my experience, it is better to set a target deadline that is an unrealistic fanciful deadline that looks great on a Gantt chart. More importantly, regular check-ins can help to maintain, build or slow down the momentum.
If a key person cannot deliver:
Do they need help to prioritise?
Can we assign the work to someone else?
Should we focus the team on the next top priorities while we wait for them to become available?
Definition of done
To end I wanted to mention the importance of the definition of done. In Scrum, the definition of done is an artefact. The Scrum guide states:
The Definition of Done creates transparency by providing everyone with a shared understanding of what work was completed as part of the Increment. If a Product Backlog item does not meet the Definition of Done, it cannot be released or even presented at the Sprint Review. Instead, it returns to the Product Backlog for future consideration.
In our squad, as we come from different specialties what we see as done can be very different from each other. This is something we are working on.
Burnout is a state of emotional, mental, and often physical exhaustion brought on by prolonged or repeated stress. Though it’s most often caused by problems at work, it can also appear in other areas of life.
According to a recent Gallup study of nearly 7,500 full-time employees found that 23% of employees reported feeling burned out at work very often or always. An additional 44% reported feeling burned out sometimes.
Burnout is attributed to long hours, little downtime, and continual peer, customer, and superior surveillance. Source
Signs of Burnout
Chronic fatigue
Insomnia
Physical symptoms like headaches and stomach aches
Anger
Detachment from co-workers and customers
Extreme dissatisfaction with your work
Causes of Burnout
Negative work culture
Lack of work-life balance
Lack of control over the direction of your career
Why does burnout exist within an organisation?
Reasons include
Lack of prioritisation so everything is done at once
Lack of a coherent strategy and direction
Not distinguishing between what is urgent and what is important
Poor management
Putting short term profit above people
Treating staff as a factor of production rather than a human being
What are the implications of burnout to an organisation?
Work-related stress costs British businesses over £26 billion a year in absences, sick leave and disability benefits.
We can look at the impact of burnouts at three levels:
Individual cases
Team level
Organisational level
Individual-level
Work-related burnout can be devastating to the individual. It can take time to recover and it can leave long term mental and physical damage. For some, it may even mean changing careers or being away from work for long periods.
Team level
If a team or department exists within a high-stress environment then the following issues may be seen:
Drop-in productivity
High staff absenteeism
Demoralised teams
Increased staff turnover
More mistakes are made
Organisational level
Burnout leads to low staff morale, turnover of staff, lower product quality and ultimately impacts the bottom line. This also can negatively impact the company culture, increase the workload for all staff and could lead to legal cases as well as negative press.
Time, product features and quality
Before we look at sustained development it is important, we consider the idea of delivery.
In every project there are three factors:
The deadline to deliver the project
The product features that the project will deliver
The quality of the features that are built
If the deadline is fixed and it is not possible to deliver all the features in time then we may be faced with two possible scenarios:
Apply pressure on the team to deliver regardless of the impact it has on the team
Compromise quality which impacts the user and builds tech debt for the technical team
Commonly the team would be expected to work longer hours to deliver. Working longer hours and trying to squeeze everything in can impact impact quality. Compromises are made to meet the deadlines, QA may not have sufficient time to full test and any feedback may not get actioned by the development team.
From an Agile perspective quality (the definition of done) is not compromised rather we limit the number of features that can be delivered in the timeframe given. The product roadmap then maps out the order of the features that will be developed.
What is Sustained Development?
Sustained development is one of the principles from the Agile Manifesto. According to the Agile methodology, the pace of development is set by the development team and not by managers or external parties. The team understand their capacity so they can scale up and scale down according to their circumstance. Therefore the pace of development can be continued indefinitely because it adjusts to the particular needs at the time.
Pace of development
One of the aspects of sustained development is the ability to say no. The team has a capacity and anything above and beyond that capacity may not be done straight away. This introduces the idea of opportunity cost. Opportunity cost is the loss of other alternatives when one alternative is chosen. If you work on one story then the cost is the lost opportunity to work on another story.
One of the features of Scrum is the team is self-organising. The development team will decide what it will work on per Sprint. The product manager can set the priorities in the product backlog and explain their rationale but ultimately the developers decide what will enter the Sprint backlog. The Sprint backlog determines the pace of the development which is agreed upon by the development team.
If the developers are on annual leave or ill, they can adjust the number of stories they commit to in that Sprint. If the dev team are trying to implement a story in new technology in the Sprint planning session can award the story a higher Fibonacci story point because of the uncertainty of a new language. This helps to protect the well-being of the team. The opposite is also true, as the team become experienced they are able to complete my stories per Sprint.
If during the Sprint an urgent and important story is presented to the development team, the product manager and the development team will negotiate what needs to be removed from the Sprint to focus on the urgent story. This also helps to protect the well-being of the team and ensures that only the stories with the most value are developed first.
The final example in this section is the idea of velocity and story points. Stories points are not compared between teams and it is something that is consumed within the team. What one team may classify as 5 points another may see it is as a 13-point story. It is the team that defines the amount required to deliver a story and it is not imposed upon them by an external party. They may seek external expert advice but it is the team who ultimately decide. This helps to reduce unnecessary expectation to deliver because each team is different.
Why are development teams motivated to deliver?
While the cat’s away the mice will play. (proverb)
If a manager is not supervising a team, it could be argued that the team will ultimately become demotivated and lose focus and not deliver.
Within an Agile culture, we look for leaders rather than have people supervisor what other’s do. The product manager job is to motivate the team through the product vision. A team that believes in the product vision is more likely to consistently deliver than a team that is faced with a long list of to-do without any context. The product vision creates a shared value that people aspire to.
What is the benefit of sustained development?
To illustrate the benefits of sustained development we can look at three audiences within the organisation.:
Company-level
At a company level one of the key benefits to sustained development is a more stable workforce. Having a culture where crunch time is expected may in the short to middle term increase the output by staff as they are working longer hours. In the long run, such a culture leads to burnout with higher staff turnover and staff sickness. In such scenarios, it becomes rather then fully focus on growth the organisation there is a continuous demand to backfill positions.
One of the best ways to recruit new staff is how current and staff who have left the organisation feel about the organisation. A simple search on Glassdoor on a company’s name can easily attract or repel potential employees.
A company ability to be agile and pivot quickly in an ever-changing environment is vital. Sustained development is a part of Agile methodology which lends itself perfectly to support MVPs, lean and methodology like Evidence-Based Management.
Team
A team that is based upon sustained development understands that there is an opportunity cost for any work that is carried out. There needs to be a ruthless focus on the most important because there is limit of what can enter a Sprint.
Under high-pressure environments, the focus for the team is the here and now. With sustained development time can be allocated to work on future projects because not everything is about completing the backlog. Having time to focus on future projects gives autonomy to the individual to directly influence the direction of the business, and gives variety.
As a final example is the idea of removing impediments. An impediment is something that will slow down or stop a developer delivering a story. It could be technical or non-technical, it could be an internal or external factor to the team. Impediments can causes stress to the team members and one of the objectives of the daily stand ups is to highlight impediments. The Scrum master will identify, track and help remove impediments. It is common that the impediment may be removed by the team, but sometimes it is beyond the team. The Scrum master will then work with other teams or external parties to remove the impediments.
Individual
In this section, we will look at two examples. Sustained development on the wellbeing of the individual and how it can help to create a growth mindset.
Managing wellbeing – a team or an organisation that adopts sustained development as part of an Agile framework looks to give autonomy to the employee, a feedback loop as well as a more balanced workload. These features help to reduce the possibility of burnout.
Growing as an individual – in a safe environment where the workload is manageable and everything is not required yesterday gives space to the individual to experiment, learn and take on more responsibilities.
Practical ways to avoid burnout using sustained development
This section will look at practical ways to avoid burnout.
Avoid making commitments that do not come from the development team. This avoids putting unnecessary strain on the team.
When Sprint planning allocates 10-20% for non-committed time to unknown impromptu meetings etc.
Have meetings in blocks rather than spread out through the day. Developers as well as those who create content require uninterrupted focused time. Having meetings spread out may not give the necessary to get into the flow.
Make sure there are clear targets for each sprint.
End a sprint on a Friday morning. Have the sprint review and retrospective in the morning and have sprint planning on the following Monday. This leaves Friday afternoon for the team to work on something else.
On the Sprint planning meeting ensure the developers are given time to walk through each story so reasonable know what can be completed. The team should be comfortable saying no.
Schedule and ensure time is set aside for the team to improve their technical skills.
After every three Sprints have a week where developers can work on side projects that provide business value.
Ensure the feedback from the retrospective is acted upon to improve the lives of the team.
If not every Sprint, every other Sprint or after a few Sprints the Sprint backlog should contain stories for technical debt and quality of life (QOL)
The focus must be placed on impediments that stop or slow down delivery.
Keep the Sprints fun. It helps to bring people together and helps destress potential stressful situations.
Health Check Model
One way to check the well-being of the development team is to do what is called a health check of the team. An example of a health check can be found on the Spotify engineering blog.
“In God we trust. All other must bring data” W Edwards Deming
In our previous posts we have consisted Agile as a way to find solutions to complex business problems or Agile as a company culture. The purpose of this post is to look at Evidence-Based Management, an Agile framework that looks to unify an organisation under a single strategic goal and applies Agile processes to work towards achieving that one strategic goal. It was developed and sustained by Ken Schwaber and Scrum.org.
Evidence-Based Management and Empiricism
Evidence-Based Management is based upon empiricism and looks to optimise an organisation using an incremental and iterative methodology. Empiricism is a theory that states that all knowledge comes from sensory experience rather than innate ideas or traditions. It was developed in the 17th and 18th Century and expounded by John Locke, George Berkeley and David Hume. Within Evidence-Based Management (EBM) there is no such thing as a guaranteed success , rather everything needs to be tested to prove its value.
What is meant by iterative is doing something again and again with the intention to improve it. Whilst incremental is making minor improvements to an existing product or service. Incremental and iterative go hand in hand as one looks to make minor improvements and the other looks to build on each improvement with another round of Improvements. Empiricism ensures that the improvements are tested to ensure that they actual improve the product or service.
Goals within Evidence-Based Management
EDM similar to North Star Metrics focuses an organisation and its staff under one overarching strategic goal. Under that single strategic goal there are multiple intermediate and immediate goals to help to pave the way towards fulfilling the strategic goal.
The three different types of goals within EDM are:
Strategic goal: this is something that the organisation seeks to achieve that is both aspirational and far in the future. As it is far in the future there are uncertainties, an organisation will create intermediate goals to help navigate the uncertainties.
Intermediate goals: these are goals when completed help that the organisation move towards their strategic goal.
Immediate Tactical goals: are near term goals for a team or a group of teams which works towards an immediate goal.
Before embarking on the journey, it is important for an organisation to know its Starting State i.e. where the organisation is relative to the strategic goal when it starts its journey. During the journey it should be aware of its Current State where the organisation is relative to the strategic goal at the present time. It is important to remember that for a goal to be achievable it must be both measurable.
Progression towards to the Strategic goal
As the strategic goal is far away and the path to achieve it is uncertain, an organisation will run experiments and use the results to determine their next steps. Setbacks are part of the journey and so it may change direction (intermediate and immediate goals) as long as we keep the strategic goal as our destination point.
It is also important to state without have a strategic goal guiding the direction of an organisation it is easy for the organisation to get lost and focus on non-essential areas or vanity goals.
Real-life examples
Using two examples, one in the private sector and another in the charity sector we can illustrate how a strategic goal can guide an organisation’s strategic direction.
Charity sector example
A charity defines its strategic goal to eliminate death by preventable diseases in Kenya, East Africa. That is both a difficult goal to achieve and it is inspirational.
Its intermediate goals could be to:
Provide safe drinking water in the cities and villages.
Run educational programs to promote good health.
Set up and run medical clinics throughout Kenya.
Its tactical goals would take the intermediate goals and break them down into tasks that can be done by the team(s).
As an example, if our intermediate goal is to promote good health through education one of our tactical goals for a team could be:
Book a venue for an event.
Develop marketing material to promote the event.
Find someone to present the event.
Once we run an event, we take the learnings from running the event and look to ways to optimise the future events. Our yardstick for optimisation could be, does the change help to eliminate preventable diseases through education?
By having different teams working on and fulfilling different tactical goals the organisation moves towards fulfilling its intermediate goal of promoting good health. Promoting good health moves the organisation towards its strategic goal of eliminate death from preventable diseases.
Private sector example
Using the private sector let us take the example of a mobile application that helps students organise their college’s lives. It generates revenue and has a product roadmap with several exciting features planned. The organisation decides it is will adopt an EDM framework and defines its strategic goal as:
To ensure all students regardless of background or disability to get the support they need to complete their education.
Let us consider what is the impact on the product road map by adopting this specific strategic goal.
A new proposed feature within the roadmap matches with the intermediate goal and the long strategic goal of the organisation.
There is an existing tactical goal can be fulfilled or partial fulfilled by building this feature. The product manager must decide the priority of this feature relative to other items in the backlog.
There is no existing tactical goal to match the new proposed feature. The product manager must decide if they should recommend that a new tactical goal be created now or is better to complete the current tactical goals before looking at the possibility of creating new ones.
If the new proposed feature does match any intermediate goals of the organisation it should remain in the product backlog until it can.
The other aspect to consider as it builds it looks to get feedback often and early to ensure what is developed is inline with the user needs.
Measurement within EMB
In the previous section we showed how Evidence-Based Management can be used to determine the goals of the organisation and how through an agile framework of testing we can work towards to fulfilling those goals.
In this section we are going to look at how EMB recommends measuring the value of the organisation and how the organisation can therefore optimise for value.
Organisations may measure value by looking at:
Activities: these are things that individuals do. For example, an individual may design an image, write code, attend meetings or perform tasks.
Outputs: these are things that the organisation produces. It could be reports, products, new product features or even scientific discoveries.
Outcomes: Outcomes are of two types: positive and negative. Positive outcomes happen when our customers or users benefit from using our product or service. For example, establishing a platform for C2C (consumer to consumer) trade like eBay or Etsy allows consumers to trade. A user of these platform benefit being able to generate an income stream. By focusing on the user needs, the positive outcome for the user is also a positive outcome for the company. Negative outcomes are undesirable and can happen when a user is no longer able to achieve something they were previous able to. Sometimes an organisation may retire a product or service which can cause a negative outcome.
EBM is focused on outcomes rather than outputs or activities. It believes that true value is realized by serving the user and not by producing more product or doing more activities. By focusing on the user, we build a product that our users want more then they just need. That in turn improves customer retention and customer referrals.
How is value measured within Evidence-Based Management?
Value can be measured in multiple different ways, some looks at EBITA, others look at ROI whilst others may care about NPS. EBM defines value in four different areas, these are called Key-Value Areas (KVAs). They are:
Current Value (CV)
Unrealized Value (UV)
Ability to Innovate (A2I)
Time to Market (T2M)
Current Value (CV)
The current value is a measure of what the organisation can deliver to its customers and stakeholders today. Current value is not limited to revenue generated or size of the paid database but also considers the levels of happiness of the customers, the staff and the investors/stakeholders.
Questions they can be used to assess it values could include:
How happy are our employees? Would they recommend working there?
How happy are our users/customers with our product or service? Is their happiness on the incline or decline?
How happy are our investors and stakeholders? Is their happiness on the incline or decline?
By measuring employee happiness, we can optimise for it because an incline or decline in the level of happiness has ramifications all across the organisation. An engaged and happy employee is going to contribute more to the company success then an employee who is unhappy and disengaged with the company.
Levels of user happiness for the product or service acts as an indicator of what needs to be improved in the product to retain customers. Looking at how often a feature is used, and for how long, is a way to understand what a customer value in the product. It is also important to compare user level of happiness to the past to determine if it is on the incline or decline.
ROI is important for investors but so is the direction and the vision of the organisation. If they are concerns, then they must be addressed. Continuously engaging stakeholders to determine what concerns them and then working to deal with the concerns is essential for the success of an organisation. By measuring for it, we can optimise for it.
It is important that an organisation continuously reassess its position.
Unrealized Value (UV)
Current value measures the value of the organisation today, unrealized value is the potential future value of the organisation. These values represent the difference between what is possible today and what is possible in the future. This difference is the unrealized value.
A start-up may have high unrealized value and a low realized value as it is recently started its journey to greatness. Investing at this stage can help unlock the Unrealized Value and increase the Current Value of the organisation.
An organisation within a mature market that is either a monopoly or an oligopoly may have a high realized value but a low unrealized value as the opportunity to grow is limited.
The type of questions that an organisation can use to assess and reassess its unrealized value could include:
Is it possible for the organisation to generate additional value in this market or another market?
What is the opportunity cost of pursuing these opportunities?
What level of investment would be required to realize the unrealized value?
Time-to-Market (T2M)
An organisation may build an amazing product or service but not until it is available on the market can it deliver value to the customer. Time to market is a measure of how quick an organisation can deliver new products, new services or develop new capabilities. What is important for an organisation is to improve or sustain its time to market.
By maintaining a schedule of regular releases with maybe a smaller number of features per release can improve T2M as well as the Current Value of the organisation relative to having larger releases with more features but release less often.
Having the ability to deliver a product on time but then spending several months fixing the problems that the release created limits the ability for the organisation to launch new products.
Questions that the organisation can ask to assess their T2M can include:
How fast can an organisation test a hypothesis with users?
How fast can the learnings from the test be understood and adopted by the organisation?
How fast can the learnings from the test be implemented?
It is important to optimise the time to market to ensure what is learnt can be implemented in the time frame where it can add value. Being late to market may mean a new feature is no longer consider as adding value but rather becomes what is expected but still important, to no longer required as users has moved to another solution that is more preferable.
Ability to Innovate (A2I)
Innovation is the ability to improve a product or service for its users. The ability to innovate is a measure of ease at which an organisation can innovate.
The type of questions that an organisation can use to assess and reassess its unrealized value include:
What are obstacles that stop an organisation from innovating?
What can be done to remove these obstacles?
What are the factors which can impacts users from benefiting these innovations?
What can be done to ensure users benefit from these innovations?
It is important for organisation that follows a hypothesis, experiment & measure, inspect and adapt model to improve the organisation value. Competitors may be a good example of what is possible, but the real competition is about constantly growing by asking what could you do better.
The interaction between the four values
Realized value is the unrealized value in the past that was achieved and acts as an indicator of how the organisation can innovate and the blockages and stumbling blocks it circumnavigated during its journey.
Unrealized value carries risk as there is no guarantee of unlocking it. By breaking down the unrealized value into tactical and immediate goals as we achieve each goal, we can unlock unrealized value. By adopting a short iterative approach, we can ensure if something does not yield the results we are looking for or is no longer valid, we simply try something else or pivot in a totally different direction. This helps us to achieve our goals and saves time and resources by not pursuing activities that do not yield the optimal results.
Our ability to innovate is how we can unlock unrealized value. Innovation is seen by some by a single eureka moment. Innovation under an Agile is a process by where we test multiple different hypothesis and look to what works best, and once that is found something we continue to optimise it further through further iterations. The speed of innovation is depending upon our time to market. Optimising time to market, increase the number hypothesis we can test, which helps realize the unrealized value that is available.
To learn more EBM I would recommend reading the guide, which can be found here.
May 7th 2020 marked the first Inside Xbox event to show off gameplay running on the Xbox One X Series, Microsoft’s latest gaming console. There was much hype surrounding this event, unfortunately, many felt disappointed by what was shown. Aaron Greenberg the General Manager of Games Marketing had to say about this:
Had we not said anything & just shown May Inside Xbox show like we did last month, I suspect reactions might have been different. Clearly we set some wrong expectations & that’s on us. We appreciate all the feedback & can assure you we will take it all in & learn as a team. 🙏🏻💚
— Aaron Greenberg 🙅🏼♂️❎ (@aarongreenberg) May 8, 2020
Is failure bad?
We live in a world where success is celebrated and failure is seen by some as a disaster. Not scoring that point, not passing that exam, or getting that deal can hurt but it can also stop someone from trying again.
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 1,000 ways that won’t work.” Thomas Edison.
Thomas Edison is regarded as America’s most recognised and prolific inventor. In his pursuit in developing an efficient incandescent lamp, he tried over 1,000 different ways with each one failing, only to finally succeed. Sometimes in life, the greatest opportunity to learn comes from failing, getting up and trying again.
In Agile, failure is just a result of a test, there is no social stigma or negativity around it. By failing and you have learnt something you may not have learnt otherwise.
“What good is an idea if it remains an idea? Try. Experiment. Iterate. Try again. Change the world.” Simon Sinek Together is Better
Failure in an Agile Environment
The purpose of this post is to show how we can leverage user research coupled with a testing mindset to help to exceed user expectation and create a buzz around the Xbox One Series X and its games.
Agile can be defined in two different ways:
The ability to react to an ever-changing environment. When technology introduces new opportunities, markets collapse, or new markets open up, having the ability to react quickly amd take advantage of the opportunity is being agile.
To take what you don’t know (the known unknown) and use a systematic approach to test different hypothesis to make it become a known known.
In this post we will look at the second approach, that is to develop a set of hypotheses, build a minimum viable product (MVP) to test and use the results for either iterative or deliver to the end users.
The importance of user research
It is sometimes very easy to forget the maxim,
“you are not your customer”
To help eliminate such biases, user research helps to understand user behaviour, their needs, their motivations through testing, observation and interviewing.
What is user research within Agile?
If Agile is the process by which we can develop and test new ideas, user research is the way we can help generate ideas to test from the users.
What are we looking to test?
Jerret West, CVP of Gaming Marketing at Xbox said, “starting with the May 7th episode of Inside Xbox, we will be showcasing what happens next in the world of Xbox, every month, which is why we’re calling it ‘Xbox 20/20.’”
By having an event every month until release provides the perfect opportunity to test and iterate.
To illustrate the idea of using user feedback and iterating we will look at two different examples:
Ray Tracing – a hardware feature for the Xbox Series X.
Halo Infinite – the launch of a new game.
Hardware – Ray Tracing on Xbox Series X
The Xbox Series X is the first Microsoft console to feature Ray Tracing which has traditionally been reserved for high-end PCs.
What questions do users have and where does the information exist?
Gathering information online
In this example, we are looking for users who are discussing ray tracing. This may include content on Quora.com, Twitter, Microsoft Answers and the comment section in YouTube videos. What is important is to identify what questions are people asking? What makes people excited about Ray Tracing? And how are people justifying the purchase of a new graphic card or a next-generation console to experience Ray Tracing?
Asking questions – slicing and dicing data
We have all seen Twitter polls, voting in Instagram Stories, emails with questionnaire etc. there are many ways to get answers to questions. We may want to ask questions to specific audiences which can be done by using different social accounts, time of day of posting or paid postings where we have even more control on who participates.
What if we took this a stage forward? Microsoft has significant amount of user data on which games are played, which apps are used and which consoles have been purchased by user. We could create different audience segments:
Users who have purchased Xbox S and Xbox X.
Users who buy multiple games per month.
Users who play less than 4 hours of gamer per month.
Users by gamerscore.
It can then be possible to target user in console (having surveys on the dashboard) or over email. Questions can be asked can include if they know what Ray Tracing is? How important are graphics relative to other feathers a new console has to offer? Or if they have any specific questions on Ray Tracing?
In terms of the audience we can take two approaches:
Select the audience which is most likely to purchase the Xbox Series X and target those.
Look for the audience that share similar properties which is largest in in size relative to other audiences. By optimising a campaign for this audience will also have the greatest impact on the whole audience.
Developing a hypothesis and MVP
Now that you have data, it is about developing hypothesis from the data and finding, ‘quick and dirty’ ways to test. What is important to remember:
A hypothesis is just an idea, not every idea will work. Don’t become attached to an idea until you have data to prove its validity.
Your hypothesis may not be the best.
It is all about getting feedback and iterating.
The solution may not fit all (e.g. ways people learn or consume media.)
The endpoint is a decision based upon on data you currently have on how to present Ray Tracing for the Series X launch period. Things change over time.
Let us for a moment walk through an example to see how this could work. We may for example have a segment of the audience who does not know what Ray Tracing is but regard improved graphics as the most important factor when buying a new generation console.
We could test showing videos of Ray Tracing on and off versus screenshots of games with and without Ray Tracing, to see which one better communicates how Ray Tracing can make graphics look better. Or is there a place to show both video and images? Taking that a stage further by iterating, what if we had an engineer talk how Ray Tracing works before or after showing the video/images? Rather then using an engineer what if we used a studio head talked about the power of Ray Tracing in building games? The objective here is to test multiple different scenarios with users to find the one that is most optimal. This format can then be used at the reveal event.
Halo is a system seller and the second biggest IP after Minecraft. We know that Halo Infinite will be shown at the Xbox 20/20 event in July and the game is due to be released this year.
Let’s set ourselves a different question, post the reveal event how quickly can we adapt to user feedback and produce marketing material? Usually, in any marketing campaign, we define all the marketing materials required in advance and have them ready for the event. What if we took a different stance, and decided we needed to be flexible and respond to user feedback during the actual reveal?
The following is a an example how we can build a team that has the capability to respond rapidly to user feedback.
Predict
We are going look at two sources to try to predict how fans will react to the reveal. Internal users and historical reactions to new video game reveals.
Internal users
Bring together employees from Microsoft/Xbox who are experienced in storytelling but have not worked on the Halo reveal in a ‘room’ together to show the Halo reveal to. The objective is to highlight potential problems with the reveal.
I would recommend using the format called ‘Braintrust’ pioneered by Pixar, where everyone’s’ opinion is equal, no one is to be blamed for failure and people are encouraged to use Radical Candor to identify the root causes of problems. To learn more about Braintrust I would suggest reading this article on fastcompany.com or reading the book Culture Code by Daniel Coyle
Having this critical feedback can be used to identify which problems need to be resolved before the reveal and which are a potential problem that we need to help mitigate during the reveal event.
Historical reactions
There have been many First Person Shooters in the past, there include previous releases of Halo including the more recent release of Halo Master Chief Collection on the PC. There have had reveals, trailers, gameplay videos with lots of user feedback. Take all that user feedback and identify common questions, common disappointments, recommendation I.e. ‘I wish we could see more of….’
Building a multi-disciplined team
The idea is to put together a team with different skills so they can act independently from all the other teams. The team should consist of people who have the necessary skill and experience to produce any marketing material they require. The team may include graphic designers, video designers, content writers, engineers, video editors etc. The team should be independent and able to self organise in a way that works for them. In software development we would call this team a Scrum team. In our example we can say we have an Agile team.
Their first objective is to understand what the Halo Infinite reveal contains, take the feedback from the internal users and the data from the historical reactions and understand possible pitfalls.
Building a content library
Once you have all these possible scenarios, the scenarios need to be ranked according to the chance of it happening on the day of the reveal and the effort required to produce something. Let’s look at a possible example of this playing out.
Let’s say the July event is 90 minutes long. Halo Infinite is shown in the first 5 minutes and there is space reserved for the last 5 minutes for a follow up to the Halo Infinite reveal. Within minutes of the reveal the feedback online is negative indicating an area of disappointment, for example, the lack of multiplayer gameplay. The team has 80 minutes event to rectify it and present something at the end of the show.
It may seem scary at first producing a something in a very limited time-space but with all things, it is all about practice and having retrospectives to see how you can improve. Questions that could come up in the retrospective could include:
What additional content needs to be added to the content library, that we can repurpose?
Which Halo staff need to available to interview on the day if needed?
What skills does the team need to learn?
How does the team perform under pressure?
What can we do to ease the pressue?
What are the impediments that need to be removed?
What backs up can we put in place?
Each time you run a scenario the team become quicker because they know what works. Through the retrospective they have highlighted the bottlenecks and subsquent dealt with them. And on the day of the reveal and they become aware of what is needed, they function like a well oiled machine, relaying on each other’s capability to deal with what ever hit’s them.
Conclusion
The post looked at two different ways we can apply a framework of taking user feedback, testing and optimising as we learn. What is key to note, there is no absolute right solution, it taking the data you have, making educated guesses and testing with real users. When you build a business that Agile in both senses it will learn from it mistakes and takes it successes and look to amplify them.
Image Credit
Thanks to Zohre Nemati for sharing their work on Unsplash.
The world of today, is not the world of yesterday and the world tomorrow is not the world of today. The rapid growth in technology, communication and changes in society has meant that traditional businesses which stood the sands of times have crumbled away and new businesses have taken their place. And even these businesses with eventually crumble as innovation and disruption creates new opportunities and new businesses.
To be successful in the 21st Century a business needs to be nimble enough to innovate and close enough to its customers to listen. The objective of this post is look at one possible methodology the Agile framework and how it can foster an innovative culture.
A definition of culture :
“the total sum of the values, customs, traditions, and meanings that make a company unique.”
What is Waterfall methodology?
To understand Agile, it is important to understand the Waterfall methodology. Waterfall methodology is also referred to as the linear-sequential life cycle model which focuses on completing a task before moving on to the next phase. Waterfall methodology works well when requirements are well documented, the product definition and technology is stable, and the project is short. Where Waterfall struggles is when requirements are not fully known, product definition or technology regularly changes. This can lead to significantly delays and costs that escalate.
Early in the 2000s, Agile was conceived for software development as an alternative to software development lifecycles methodologies such as Waterfall.
What is Agile?
Agile is an iterative approach to software development using empirical evidence. There are three pillars to empirical evidence:
Transparency: This means presenting the facts as is. All people involved—the customer, the CEO, individual contributors—are transparent in their day-to-day dealings with others. They all trust each other, and they have the courage to keep each other abreast of good news as well as bad news. Everyone strives and collectively collaborates for the common organizational objective, and no one has any hidden agenda.
Inspection: Inspection in this context is not an inspection by an inspector or an auditor but an inspection by everyone…. The inspection can be done for the product, processes, people aspects, practices, and continuous improvements….
Adaptation: Adaptation in this context is about continuous improvement, the ability to adapt based on the results of the inspection. Everyone in the organization must ask this question regularly: Are we better off than yesterday? source
The focus is to deliver functional code at the end of each Sprint. A Sprint typically lasts two weeks. The Sprint begins by agreeing on what work can be accomplished within the Sprint from a backlog of tasks. The objective of the Sprint is to deliver functional code this can be rolled out to users to be tested. By getting the code in front of users, feedback can help shape future Sprints.
Agile software development principles
The Manifesto for Agile Software Development is based on twelve principles
Customer satisfaction by early and continuous delivery of valuable software.
Welcome changing requirements, even in late development.
Deliver working software frequently (weeks rather than months).
Close, daily cooperation between businesspeople and developers.
Projects are built around motivated individuals, who should be trusted.
Face-to-face conversation is the best form of communication (co-location).
Working software is the primary measure of progress.
Sustainable development, able to maintain a constant pace.
Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design.
Simplicity—the art of maximizing the amount of work not done—is essential.
Best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.
Regularly, the team reflects on how to become more effective and adjusts accordingly.
The benefits of Agile within software development
Speed to market – By delivering working code at the end of each Sprint and embracing ideas like MVP allows the product to get into the hands of its potential users in weeks, rather than months.
Higher customer satisfaction – engaging users and taking feedback that is incorporated into the product backlog can produce software or features that users actual want.
Control – Agile teams are self-organising and responsible. They establish their own ways of working together based upon their context, experience and any other organisational constraints. They don’t require a manager and have the trust that they will get the job done. This has been shown to motivate teams to push the boundaries.
Higher quality output– getting daily feedback and testing regularly reduces mistakes and oversights.
Transparency – providing visibility in the product backlog and active Sprint creates accountability, helps eliminate office politics and provides visibility to the organisation.
Velocity – The daily stand-ups, the retrospectives help eliminate impediments which in turn increases the velocity of the team.
Examples of Agile methodology outside software development
We have covered the principles and the benefits of Agile in software development, we can now want to look at how an Agile framework can be utilised in marketing and product development.
Growth Hacking
Sean Ellis coined the term ‘growth hacking’ in a blog post in 2010. A growth hacker is focused one single metric, how to grow a business. Using an Agile framework, in each Sprint the cross functional team develop, prioritise and test ideas for growth. The results from these tests are then used to further develop ideas to test i.e. an iterative approach. Those interested to learn more should read the growth hacking blog at growhackers.com
Design Sprints
Developed by Google Venture the design sprint is a “five-day process for answering critical business questions through design, prototyping, and testing ideas with customers.” source
A Design Sprint is split across five days with time allocated to:
Defining the problem you wish to solve.
Designing possible solutions.
Creating a hypothesis for testing.
Developing a high-fidelity prototype.
Testing with users.
What makes Designs Sprint successful can be summarised in three factors:
Using time-boxed events to streamline defining the problem and developing possible solutions.
Creating an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) from one of the possible solutions.
Testing the MVP with real user to measure success.
To learn more about Design Sprint I would recommend reading Jake Knapp bookSprint: How to solve big problems and test new ideas in just five days. Or read the post on Lego’s implementation Design Sprints at scale
Minimum Viable Product (MVP) vs Minimal Desirable Product (MDP)
A minimal viable product (MVP) is a technique where a new product is created with the least effort possible used to validate a hypothesis. MVPs allows for rapid learning at the lowest possible cost. The concept of MVP was popularized by Eric Ries, the author of the Lean Startup. He explains an MVP as,
“the idea of the minimum viable product is useful because you can say: our vision is to build a product that solves this core problem for customers and we think that for the people who are early adopters for this kind of solution, they will be the most forgiving. And they will fill in their minds the features that aren’t quite there if we give them the core, tent-pole features that point the direction of where we’re trying to go.
So, the minimum viable product is that product which has just those features (and no more) that allows you to ship a product that resonates with early adopters; some of whom will pay you money or give you feedback.”
A minimal desirable product (MDP) is focused on testing a great user/product experience with the least effort required to test. For example, creating a high-fidelity prototype would be an example of a minimal desirable product used for testing.
The North Star Metric is a concept that has emerged from companies from Silicon Valley who invested in long term sustainable growth by creating and optimising that ‘a-ha’ moment with their customers. The North Star Metric is a single metric that focuses on the product’s core value. It defines the relationship between the customer problems that the product team is trying to solve (the ‘a-ha’ moment) and then the revenue that the business aims to generate by doing so. It has helped teams move beyond focusing on surface-level growth to long term customer growth as everyone and everything is focused on a single metric.
A North Star Metric may not be the flashiest number, nor is it a vanity metric, such as Facebook likes or Twitter followers. Getting one hundred new Twitter followers doesn’t equal growth. Likewise, focusing all your effort on free trial signup, will not provide insight into whether those people will actually use your product, or whether they’ll stick around when the free trial period has ended. North Star Metric is a leading (not lagging) indicator of a future business outcome that your company cares about.
Why do you need a North Star Metric
The North Star Metric provides three essential benefits:
It provides the company and its staff clarity and alignment on what needs to be optimised and what can be left alone.
It communicates in a simple single metric the progress of the product to the whole company.
It holds the company accountable for an outcome.
An Agile Culture
In this section, I want to look at how concepts of Agile can be used to define the culture of a company. By Agile I mean:
Using data over opinion – a culture that looks at market trends, carries our user research or analyses user data to make decisions over personal opinions can be seen as a culture that has adopted concepts of Agile.
Willing to test to find answers – rather than make decisions based upon on experience or decision by committee, an Agile culture focuses on validating a hypothesis.
Willing to fail – a company who is willing to test must be willing to learn when things go wrong. There is much to be learnt from failure if your is willing to listen.
Adapt to change – what worked yesterday, may not work today and tomorrow could be considered to be detrimental to the organisation. A willingness to change is essential for an Agile culture.
Start small and grow – Before allocating resources to anything, it is about iteratively testing to look for those 5mm gains that can scale.
Self-organising – an Agile culture gives autonomy to staff to make decisions and take risks.
Collaboration – an Agile culture encourages staff to share their learnings and collaborate to help move the business forward.
Flat structure – rather than having multiple levels of hierarchy and slowing down the decision-making process, Agile promotes a flat structure empowering a team to make decisions.
Performance Orientated – An Agile culture see success not as single decision or action but rather building a team who continuously strive for success. It is this relentless pursuit that drives performance.
Transparency – an Agile culture fosters a culture of sharing information and best practises, results are documented and shared throughout the organisation so the learnings can benefit all.
Servant leadership – happens when a leader primary function is to serve, putting the needs of the employees first. When staff feel valued and trusted they are motivated to perform at their best.
Standard ways of working – facilitate integration, including common languages, processes and meeting formats help to improve communication between teams
An example of an Agile Culture – Spotify’s’ Squad, Tribes and Guilds
Spotify the popular music app was launched in 2008, they owe part of their success to Agile methodology. As they scaled the business, they scaled the way they used Agile. They believe to have rules at the start and then later break them to adapt to the team’s need, giving them a firm foundation with the ability to adapt based upon needs.
The method they developed is known as Spotify Tribes. Spotify organisation is structured into Squads, Tribes, Chapter and Guilds.
Squads – Spotify staff are divided into teams consisting of 6-12 people focusing on one feature area. Each squad acts like a start-up, they are autonomous and accountable. They use MVP to release often. They resemble the Scrum team as they have Product Owner and an Agile coach, front and back end developer to deliver.
Tribes – Squads working on a related feature area form a tribe. A tribe may consist of 40 – 50 members with an upper limit of 100.
Chapter – A chapter consists of individuals from various tribes at the horizontal level of the functional organisation.
Guild – an informal group of people from different tribes who have a common interest.
The chapters and guilds allow for cross-training, problem-solving and aligning between teams.
Within the Spotify model Agile, each squad has the autonomy to decide what they would like to build, how to build it and how they will work together. Squads will also communicate with other squads to help develops solutions. As the squad is part of a tribe, there needs to be alignment with the mission, product strategy and the short-term goals.
Developing an Agile Culture
Organisations are different because they exist to fulfil different needs, exist in different verticals and have different histories. Some may be public, some may be private, some may hire less than 5 people, whilst others will have over 100,000 staff.
Developing an Agile culture can be initiated by internal or external factors.
What factors may cause a culture to change?
External factors can include:
Economic
Legal
Changes in society.
Technological changes especially when it is disruptive.
The availability of information.
Internal factors can include:
Change in management.
Internal dissatisfaction including high staff overturn.
Increasing losses or dwindling profits.
Hiring decisions.
Ways to bring about a cultural change
In this section we want to look at two different ways we can bring cultural change:
Use a top-down approach when there is change is instigated from the highest level of management within the organisation.
The bottom-up approach where you start from the grass roots to prove the value of the Agile framework and grow.
Taking a top-down approach
A top-down approach occurs when changes are made from the highest level of management which then impacts every individual throughout the organisation. Changes to culture and the direction of the organisation are complicated and can face resistance at many levels, so a key feature is a buy-in at all levels.
One of the modern-day approaches to get buy-in is to galvanise the direction of the organisation by defining the why of the organisation. The why or the purpose of the organisation helps to create a sense of belonging and meaning which is key to culture change.
The video below is Simon Sinek talking about starting with why.
An inclusive approach to determining the Why of the organisation is to allow staff from across the organisation to participate in workshops to share their uncerstanding. Everyone has a perspective and by sharing each other’s understand can lead to a common understanding of what the organisation stands for. To learn more I would suggest reading Find You Why by Simon Sinek. Once the organisation has a reason for being (it’s why) it needs a way to measure if it is moving in that direction. That’s where the idea of North Star Metric comes in. The North Start is that one metric that matter most to fulfil the why of the business.
At an organisation level, it is about setting OKRs which then feed into the North Star Metrics. Staff and then organised cross-functional teams and give them the freedom to define how to achieve their OKRs. At this level it is about fostering a mindset that will think:
I do not know the answer, but I will iterate until I find it.
I will provide visibility so as I learn the organisation will learn.
I will be authentic in my communication and being.
I will critically learn from the mistakes I make.
I am responsible for all our successes.
I will focus on the things that move us closer to the North Star Metric and not move away.
The fostering can be achieved through:
Having Agile coaches who support the transformation.
Define expectations.
Removing impediments or obstacles which delay or stop progression.
Lead by example. Organisational change comes from when what is spoken matches what is believed in the heart and acted upon.
Reward staff for innovating and working smart and not working long hours and achieve mediocre results.
Over-communicate the organisation purpose, expectations and alignment of people though Agile practices.
Establish trust throughout the organization.
Hire the people who have the right culture fit i.e. they believe in the same values of the organization.
Celebrate success.
Taking a bottom-up approach
This approach is about starting small, proving the value of the Agile framework to the organisation and scaling.
It can be started by identify an area of the business that you want to improve. Define the one key metric that matters the most to that business area. It could be a performance metric, a revenue number or something else. As long it can be measured and it is important to that area of the business.
To create a single cross-functional team who have the expertise to make it happen, doesn’t even need to be their full-time job. What is required is that the members of the team will need to:
Understand what and how an Agile framework works.
Be able to implement Agile framework within an organisation that follows a different approach.
Accept that data is more important than opinion.
Able to motivate and lead and effectively work within a cross-functional team where there is no hierarchy structure.
Be able to learn from failure.
It may take several sprints to achieve success and tools such as GV Design Sprint can be utilised. What is important from every success or failure, something is learnt. Some of the best learning can be derived from what failed. Every test, every result, all learning should be documented and shared within the organisation.
Once you have a string of success. It is needs to be decided how do you best communicate your achievements? Who do you show, and how do you show your results? Some may want a summary, some may want details, some think in numbers and graph, others on the impact on the bottom line.
To scale Agile within the organisation it is about understanding what resources are required to scale and then working with management, business leaders to acquire those resources.
In both the top-down or bottom-up approach the following three factors needs to be taken into consideration:
Focus on the customer and their needs and wants.
Keep communication open between teams. Communicate regularly and early on. With larger teams this is especially important as there are dependencies and opportunity if the teams collaborate and work together.
Keep an eye open for new opportunities or new threats and be agile and adapt.
Conclusion
Agile as a framework is based upon principles but at its core it is about trusting staff to self organise and make decisions on what should be built and tested. An Agile culture takes those principles and applies it to the organisation as a whole, giving the staff the freedom to innovate, to fail and to learn. Through testing, success can be uncovered and amplified iterative testing other possible solutions.
The purpose of this post is to provide ideas on how Microsoft can leverage the powering of streaming (xCloud) to gain access to the two billion gamer who game on mobile, tablet devices or other devices.
Mobile Gaming and its Significance
According to a report published by newzoo.com mobile gaming represented 18% of total gaming revenue in 2012, by 2014 it had grown grew to 34%. Mobile gaming revenue is estimated to represent $70.3 billion in 2018 nearly double console game revenue in the same year.
According to a report by limelight.com gamers play on average 5.96 hours per week with mobile devices globally being the predominate device of play.
Gaining Traction in the Mobile Space
As the market is moving toward mobile gaming, companies like Sony, Google and according to rumours Amazon and Verizon are all investing in game streaming technology. Microsoft could take a number of different paths to gain traction within the mobile gaming space that include:
Microsoft could produce games on Android and iOS, an example of this would be Gears Pop.
Become a platform holder, the Microsoft Phones was an example of this position.
Providing services to the mobile space. Services like Azure, Xbox live or the Havoc engine can be used my mobile game developers.
Provide a cloud gaming platform that runs on mobile devices. Microsoft Project xCloud is an example of this.
What is Project xCloud?
At E3 2018, Phil Spencer Microsoft VP of gaming announced a cloud gaming/streaming project that Microsoft has been actively working on.
Project xCloud is enabling Console Native games to stream through our Azure-hosted game servers and streaming clients. Any Console Native game currently shipping in the Microsoft Store on Xbox will be capable of streaming to a mobile device. Project xCloud is an open platform with a customizable Client UX where streaming starts with Xbox game developers not having to modify a single line of existing game code. source
Competitor Space – Google Stadia
Google in March 2019 announced their cloud gaming platform – Google Stadia.
Engaging Mobile Gamers by leveraging Project xCloud
I am going to use the AIDA model developed by E. St. Elmo Lewis to illustrate how Microsoft could create engagement with gamers.
Introducing the Purchase Funnel – AIDA
The AIDA model is used to describe the steps or stages a consumer goes through to make a purchase. The stages are:
A – Awareness – the customer is aware of the existence of a product or service.
I – Interest – actively expressing an interest in a product group.
D – Desire – aspiring to a particular brand or product.
A – Action – taking the next step towards purchasing the chosen product.
Creating Awareness of Project xCloud – Gaming with You at the Centre
Using Google Trends comparing search volume for Google Stadia vs xCloud shows that Google achieved significantly more search volume/interest for the Google Stadia platform then Microsoft has for Project xCloud in the last 12 months.
Building awareness is essential when a product or service is new and unknown in the market. Here are some suggestions to create awareness.
Idea 1 – xCloud Event
Separate the presentation on Project xCloud from other Xbox announcements at E3. Have its own event, use a time to achieve maximum day coverage throughout the world. For example, 9am PST, is 12pm EST, 5pm GMT, 6pm CET, 9pm GST and 9pm IST. It may not need to be live or in front of an audience, reach is more important.
A separate event allows for breadth and depth within the presentation. Media can focus on reporting on xCloud, rather then juggle xCloud, new hardware, new studios, new IPs or in depth story about Halo/Gears of War.
A separate event also gives marketing an opportunity to build top of mind awareness for the event and project xCloud. The focus of the event should be:
Why game in the cloud?
What makes Microsoft solution unique?
What games do they expect to see?
What can they do to learn more about xCloud? Get an email address or a follow in Social Media.
The road map for the future i.e. what to expect.
Post event, measure online sentiment, search volume and ensure the conversation continues. Marketing tools such as YouTube Ads, Banner ads, ads over social media, press releases, exclusive interviews or outdoor advertising can be all used to keep the conversation going.
Idea 2 – Website
Searching on Google or Bing for the keyword ‘project x-cloud’ brings up a blog post from the Microsoft blog site and a news posts from the Xbox site in position 1 of the SERPs.
As of April 2019, I could not find a sub-domain or an entire site or a social media handle owned by Microsoft about Project X-Cloud. Having a website and being social activity has numerous benefits which are established and beyond the scope of this article.
Idea 3 – Mobile Game Discovery
A typical model for mobile gaming:
Discovery -> Download -> Play a freemium game -> Pay
What if we took a existing game or created a game title that was optimised for mobile devices (included touch control), wrapped it in an app and launched on the App Store. Optimise the app to rank within the store and marketing the game (banner advertising, influencers, reviews etc).
The marketing model would be:
Discovery -> Download -> Play for limited time -> Pay subscription for that title to unlock game.
Now that we have a paying user for single title, it would be all about upselling full access to xCloud or selling access to other games.
Creating Interest for xCloud
Awareness is the doorway to interest. The purpose of this section is to how to generate interest for xCloud.
Idea 1 – Demos and Previews
Let users see the technology running on their devices. This will allow them to actualise what is possible. Give access to press, influencers to generate reach and hype and then the general public.
Idea 2 – Hands on Events
Organise hands on event in major cities. This will allow users to try the technology and help maintain top of the mind awareness.
Idea 3 – Content Marketing
Using different content types (audio/video, written, visual, Q&A) develop material on the following areas:
What is Cloud Gaming?
How does it work?
Will it work on my Internet connection? (Giving the ability to test)
Can I play whilst I am travelling?
What do I need to play? And how do I sign up?
Which devices will it work on?
Is it safe for my children to play and how do I ensure they remain safe online?
Can I play on my TV?
Can I play co-op?
What kind of games can I play?
The cost of freemium games vs xCloud.
How much does it cost?
Creating Desire
The purpose of this section is to provide recommendations to help create desire for xCloud.
Idea 1 – Leveraging Existing Titles
Take a popular mobile game and develop and optimise for the xCloud. This could be improved AI, better graphics, the removal of freemium content, new and unique content or improved multiplayer/co-op options.
Idea 2 – Cost Calculator
Playing a AAA games at its highest fidelity requires investment, especially if you looking to play it on a PC. Over time additional investment will be required. Having a simple cost saving calculator showing how much money will be saved over time will help build desire, Also including other benefits to cloud gaming e.g. time to install, hardware scaling to meeting the demand of developers, freedom to choose where and how you play will also help.
Idea 3 – Playing Together
Gaming can be very social. Make it easy for users in a single location to share a device eg a 4K TV, tablet (e.g. split screen gaming), allow users including guests to drop in with a simple sign in process so they can play together. Save the set-up to make it easy to replicate in the future. Taking this a step further; based upon the users and the location recommend which games to play, pick up from a previous game played game, keep score on a leader board, create videos of key moments to share (scoring a goal or point in a sports game).
Idea 4 – Game Challenges
Allow gamers and game manufacturer to set up unique challenges to test the players skills or for fun by sharing a link to a game in play. For example having a baseball game in the last round when you team is down, or a fighting an end of level boss whose difficulties has been tweaked. The idea is to take an existing game and extend the experience for players.
Idea 5 – Game Demos
For an Xbox player having the ability to demo a game on the cloud before buying the physically or digitally helps achieve two things:
Help the user make an informed decision about the game.
Let a user experience the benefits of cloud gaming.
Idea 6 – USPs, IPs and Gaming Franchises
When consumers have the option to choose from multiple different cloud gaming services, every distinguishing factor can lead to a competitive advantage for one service over another. There is no doubt a soccer game like Fifa will be incredibly popular on the cloud especially if cross-play is supported, but in many ways seen as must have. An exclusive game can be seen to an competitive advantage as it helps create desire.
Some gamers would be interested in Marvel games, some would want remakes or sequels, some new IPs and others new experience that could only be possible due to the power of the cloud. It is all about understanding what consumers are looking for and providing titles to match that desire.
Like the stock market you make an investment today with the belief that tomorrow would be even more bountiful. A platform like xCloud needs a strong catalogue of games across the various genres, a transparent pipeline for games in the short term and an understanding of the road map for the future.
Idea 7 – New Types of Games
Taking this genre of games further. Subscription services offers a way to fund games that may not exist in the freemium or the outright purchase model. Cross referencing games that are played vs the audiences that play them could reveal genres that need to be strengthened or types of games that should exist. This insight can then be used to build games that may not exist without a subscription model. Educational games could be one example of this.
Idea 8 – Social Media
With user consent show which xCloud games are popular amongst your friends on social media. It could as simple, your friend X is playing Y would you like to join them? Make it easy for them to try a game.
Idea 9 – Make it Easy to Set Up
One of the use cases for xCloud is to be able to game on a home television without the need of a console. From a user perspective the application should be readily available on Smart TVs, TV dongles or Android boxes. From a marketing perspective is all about convey how easy it is to get up and running.
Taking Action
The purpose of the final section is to look at ideas on how to move the users from desire to taking action. Taking action is to provide a compelling reason to buy and removing any lingering doubts.
Idea 1 – Tailoring the Offer
Not one shoe size fits all. Some users would require a free trail, other a heavy discounted first month, others a discount over a longer period. Some would only want to pay when they play (pay per day), others monthly, other quarterly/yearly. It is all about testing and giving a user the ability to build a bundle that works for them. At the same time, it is important to consider that too many options can lead to confusion which reduces the chance of a sale.
Idea 2 – Bundling Offers
Bundling or providing offers are a great way to provide value to a potential customer and adds additional leverage to help acquire a paying customer. Examples could include:
Buy 12 months of xCloud and get a free digital Xbox game worth $60
Buy the Deluxe of a game and get 3 months of xCloud.
Gift a month of XCloud to a friend and receive a month for free.
Buy 6 month of xCloud get 6 months of Xbox Live for free.
Buy a game and get the xCloud edition of the game for free.
Idea 3 – Set up costs
Owning an Xbox controller could be a barrier to signing up. It could be the price of a controller or the size of the controller relative the size of a mobile phone. Including the cost of the controller within the monthly fee of xCloud or offer a 50% discount on a controller from Xbox Design Lab could help the cost more attractive to a potential xCloud user. Having a smaller Xbox controller may appeal to some users as it will be easier to carry and use whilst travelling.
Idea 4 – Mobile Data
Playing on the go using a mobile network will consume data from the user’s phone package. Build relationships with mobile phone networks to provide uncapped data on mobile phones for gaming on xCloud. This will help remove a barrier to entry.
Conclusion
I have outlined a number of different strategies that can be employed to help Microsoft grow the user base for xCloud. With every idea it is all about testing and taking the learning to iteratively improve.
Running a business has always been a challenge and especially today with all the possibilities and challenges that globalisation creates. Businesses can run 24/7, 365 days a year so having real time or near real time data helps in decision making, but the number of different metrics available can make it difficult to decide what to optimise for. Should it be revenue? Repeat business? Time spent of Site? Facebook Likes?
Optimising for some KPIs may have little to no impact on the success of the business. Sometimes different departments within a company may choose different KPIs to optimise for, but these departmental KPIs could negatively impact other departments. Simplifying metrics and creating an overarching metric not only makes decision making easier, it also help focus a company in a single direction. This is where the idea of a North Star Metric comes in.
Product Core Value and an ‘a-ha’ moment
An ‘a-ha’ moment is a moment of sudden realization, inspiration, insight or comprehension, when something was unclear or uncertain becomes clear, we call that an ‘a-ha’ moment. For example, when a customer realizes that your product resolves a problem that they are facing they have an ‘a-ha’ moment, they see can see how the core value of a product helps resolve their problem.
To illustrate with an example let’s take a look at Instagram.
Once the founders identified Burbn/Instagram would be all about photographs, they removed all other functions in the app. Photo and photo sharing became the core value of the product. Instagram launched and within a few hours became the number app in the app store.
Imagine for example Instagram after becoming the number one photo app focused on generating revenue rather than optimising and improving its core product, would it still exist today? This is where the idea of a North Star Metric comes in; it focuses a company to optimise their core value over any other priority. Businesses which optimise for their core value have great customer engagement, lower acquisition costs, higher retention rates and stronger referral rates.
What is a North Star Metric?
The North Star also known as Polaris sits almost directly about the North Pole. It isn’t the brightest star but before we had GPS or even road signs, the North Pole would be a reliable indicator of where North is, and once you know where North is you can calculate where South, East and West. Sailors or travellers once they located the North Star in the sky that could reach their destination safety.
The North Star Metric is a concept that has emerged from companies from Silicon Valley who invested in long term sustainable growth by creating and optimising that ‘a-ha’ moment with their customers. The North Star Metric is a single metric that focuses on the product’s core value. It defines the relationship between the customer problems that the product team is trying to solve (the ‘a-ha’ moment) and then the revenue that the business aims to generate by doing so. It has helped teams move beyond focusing on surface-level growth to long term customer growth as everyone and everything is focused on a single metric.
A North Star Metric may not be the flashiest number, nor is it a vanity metric, such as Facebook likes or Twitter followers. Getting one hundred new Twitter followers doesn’t equal growth. Likewise, focusing all your effort on a free trial signup, will not provide insight whether those people will actually use your product, or whether they’ll stick around when the free trial period has ended. North Star Metric is a leading (not lagging) indicator of a future business outcome that your company cares about.
What do you need a North Star Metric?
The North Star Metric provide three essential benefits.
It provides the company and its staff clarity and alignment on what needs to be optimised and what can be left alone.
It communicates in a simple single metric the progress of the product to the whole company.
It holds the company accountable to an outcome.
A north star metric should consist of 2 parts:
A statement of your product vision
A metric that serves as a key measure of your current product strategy.
Examples of North Star Metrics
Before we provide some guidance on how to define your own North Star Metrics I believe it would be beneficial to provide examples of different North Star Metrics.
Amplitude on their blog in an article called Product North Star Metric define their vision, their Key metric and North Star Metrics.
Airbnb
Core value: Connecting people who need a place with people who can host.
Core value: Facilitate the sharing of knowledge in the world.
North Star Metric = Number of questions answered.
Amazon
Core value: Online shopping made easy.
North Star Metric = Sales
Medium
Core Value: Where people share ideas and stories.
North Star Metric: Total Time Reading.
Other examples of North Star Metrics include a real estate agent: number of open houses, restaurant: average meal check size, or a car salesman with number of test drives per day.
How do you define your own North Star Metric?
“Your product north star should be specific to your product and what your customers value.” Amplitude
To understand what your North Star Metric should be, look at how your product adds value to your customers. The data could be qualitative or quantitively. What is the one thing that they would miss the most if the product no longer existed?
Product Manager for Growth at GrowthHackers Hila Qu gives five points to keep in mind when selecting your North Star Metric:
The metric should be used to measure if a user has experienced the core value of your product.
It should reflect user’s engagement and activity level. The more they are engaged the higher the value, and vice versa.
It is the single metric needed to indicate that the business is heading in the right direction.
The metric should be easy to understand.
It may not be possible to have the perfect North Star Metric. What you are trying is to find here is a metric that makes the most sense for the entire business to focus on. It might take a few iterations to finally find the right one.
Areas of the business that can help define what the North Star Metric could be, can come from the customers, the customer service team, the sales teams, analytics, marketing material or even a competitor.
When looking for a North Star Metric it should be the focal point of the business, a statement of your product vision, a persistent metric for real growth opposite to a vanity metric.
Following on from the article 10 Simple Hacks to Improve Conversion Rate on a Mobile Phone I wanted to dedicate a Friday afternoon on improving customer retention. This article will focus on hacks that you can done in an afternoon or at least set in motion.
What is customer retention?
Customer retention refers to the ability of a company to retain its paying customers who continue to buy over a specified time period.
Why is customer retention important?
According to a data by KPMG in 2014 a survey of 100 senior US retail executives revealed that customer retention will be the most significant retail revenue driver in next 12 to 36 months.
According to Econsultancy, 70% of respondents from a cross channel marketing report believed it was cheaper to retain then acquire a customer.
A retained and happy customer is more likely to refer other customers to the business, increasing the customer base and further grow the business.
What can we do drive customer retention?
Hack 1
According to a report from RightNow Technologies, 89% of customers begin doing business with a competitor following a poor customer experience. Take the afternoon and sit and listen to the customer calls, read customer emails or visit online review sites that talk about your brand. Make a list of common problems and score them on the impact on the business and the amount of effort required to fix it. Find the sweet spot where effort to resolve the issue is minimal and the impact is greatest, and go resolve those issues or begin the process to resolve them.
Hack 2
Transpomo emails come from the terms transactional and promotional. A transpomo email is when a promotion piggybacks on an existing transactional emails such as order confirmation, shipping confirmation or your account has been created email. Transactional emails have the highest open rates, so it makes sense to piggy back of these.
If you already do transpomo review the results. What can be improved? Can you create a schedule to promote specific events or products. For example in June you could have a banner for the Summer sale, in November Black Friday. Or add a special offer.
If you do not do transpomo email, create a offer banner and get it added to a transactional email and test.
Hack 3
Leverage customer feedback (good and bad). Once a order has been shipping, it is common to ask the customer to leave a review. If the review is positive, send a follow up offer. It could a store wide percentage discount, money off discount, a promotion for a related product or a promotion for a popular product.
If the review is negative, get the customer service team to follow up with the customer to resolve any issues they may have. Once the customer is happy, give them a special discount for their next purchase.
What can be done on a Friday afternoon? You can place an order, follow the process and see what happens over the coming days, arrange a meeting between customer service and marketing or put a plan together how you think it should work and how it can be tested. A simple hack could be to take customers from both pools (those who left a positive review and those who left a negative review but have had their issue resolved) and send out an offer. Measure the uptake on the offer. Test different offers to see what works best.
Hack 4
Provide incentives for the second purchase. Once a customer has made their first purchase it is common to treat the customer no different from a loyal customer who has bought several times from your business. For a first time purchaser, give them the opportunity to leave more about your company, what makes your company special or the values that the company believe in. It could involve giving them a free gift on their second purchase, free delivery/shipping on their next order or a free upgrade. Spend the afternoon defining what you could offer and a way to test to determine the most popular offer.
Hack 5
Social media and TOMA (Top of Mind Awareness). Being in regular communication with your first time purchasers helps develop TOMA, which increases the possibility of a second purchase. A first time purchaser may follow a brand over social media for different reasons (latest offers, for fun, new products or to communicate with the brand). Check if you have a program to introduce social to you first time purchasers. If you don’t, spend Friday afternoon developing a plan how you will to connect to first time purchasers and how it can be tested. Look for a quick and an easy way to test the impact of social on first time purchasers.
Hack 6
Subscription Service. A subscription service allows a customer to select a product and determine how often they want to receive it. The benefit to the customer is convenience and knowing it is less likely to run out. Examples of subscription services include contact lenses, food or beauty products. Not all products lend themselves well for a subscription but being able to identify the rights one can lead customer going from single time purchasers to multiple time purchasers. Spend Friday afternoon identifying what product you can currently sell that could be sold on a subscription service or new products that be sold. Find a quick way to test it (having a product page with the option to sign up to a subscription, just a banner advertising the service and monitor the clicks).
Hack 7
Packaging Insert program. An insert program can be a discount offer, it could include a product sample, a small gift like sweets, a thank you card or a request to share on social media . Creating a delight or surprise with a first-time purchaser can help to generate that second sell. Spend Friday afternoon defining what are the possible options you can test in an insert program.
Hack 8
Loyalty program. Loyalty programs not only can help achieve that second sell, it can also help strengthen the brand affinity and build long term benefits. Make a list of all the loyalty programs that the people in office subscribe to. Identify the characteristics of the most popular programs and how they could relate to your ebusiness. Once you have some ideas run them by the team. See what resonates and develop a way to test it out. For a hack, invite a handful of customers into you office on a Friday afternoon and walk through each of the offers. See which one is most popular and why.
Hack 9
Complimentary products campaign. If I have purchased a pair of jeans, a pair of trainers, an iPhone over an Android device or a book there will be a complimentary good or goods that a customer could be interested in buying. Look at what your competitors offer and compare to your offering for your top selling products. Do you see a gap? Is there something you could add to your product category? Is there something that could differentiate from your competitors? Make a list. Also make a list of how you target these customers? In basket as a cross sell? On the order confirmation page? As a transpomo email? An offer email? Paid social? For a hack, if you have a customer service team who take phone orders, test different complimentary offers when customers call to place an order.
Hack 10
CRMs have a wealth of customer insight if you ask the right questions. For example, what can you learn about your loyal customers that could be applied to first time purchasers? On a Friday afternoon make a list of open ended questions that help you determine the key characteristics of a loyal and regular customer. For example, what are the commonly purchased products for loyal customers versus those single time purchasers. What is the average frequency of purchase for loyal customers? What was the time gap between the first and second purchase? Did they full price for the second purchase or was it discounted? Did they purchased through an offer on email or social? For a hack, if you know which products are commonly purchased by loyal customers determine which ones can be tested over email on first time purchasers. Put together a test plan.
“The world is being re-shaped by the convergence of social, mobile, cloud, big data, community and other powerful forces. The combination of these technologies unlocks an incredible opportunity to connect everything together in a new way and is dramatically trnsforming the way we live and work.” Marc Benioff
The focus of this article is to suggest how we can utilise the convergence between social, mobile, big data, AI and community to build a more profound and deeper user experience. The article will look at the purchase funnel, the impact of the Internet on the flow of information, a strategic model for Microsoft and then propose ideas on how to improve the user experience.
The Purchase Funnel – AIDA
The Purchase Funnel was developed by St. Elmo Lewis in 1898. It is a consumer-focused marketing model that illustrates the theoretical journey that a customer takes towards the purchase of a product or service.
AIDA stands for:
Awareness (A) – the customer is aware of the existence of a product or service.
Interest (I) – the customer expresses an interest in the product or service.
Desire (D) – the customer aspires to own that product or service.
Action (A) – taking an action towards purchasing the product or service.
If there is no awareness of a product there cannot be an interest in the product. Without interest, there is no desire to buy, and without desire, no purchase will be made.
If we can optimise awareness, for example, running a banner campaign introducing a new game, we get visitors into the funnel. If the visitors watch a video or read an article about the new game we can generate interest. We can then run a retargeting campaign over social, web or in-app to generate desire. Once we have desire we can follow up with a direct response campaign to lead to a sale.
Before the Internet
Before the Internet, if you wanted to learn something you would attend a lesson, read a book, visit the library, buy a magazine or talk to someone. Yes, in those day people used to talk.
If you wanted to know about a video game you would buy a computer magazine. Information flowed from the software houses to the magazine writers and then to us, the readers. The information was managed, controlled and in one direction.
The dawn of the Internet
The Internet allowed information to flow in real time to anywhere in the world. Search Engines like Google and Bing crawled the Internet to discover new information that could be accessed in the blink of an eye through a simple search.
Platforms like YouTube or microblogging sites like Twitter gave anyone the ability to express their opinion and be heard globally.
With the Internet, information became accessible for free, models for generating revenue for reporters had to change. One such model of generating revenue was the use of click bait. Click bait is content whose sole purpose is to attract attention and encourage visitors to click on a link. It is a form of journalism that presents little or no well-researched news, rather focuses on eye-catching headlines that exaggerate news events or to cause sensationalism. Katherine Viner, editor-in-chief at The Guardian wrote in How technology disrupted the truth, “chasing down cheap clicks at the expense of accuracy and veracity undermined the value of journalism and truth.” Journalism can take the backseat if it is more profitable to create sensation.
As humans, we all form opinions and they do not always agree with each other. When it is done in person it usually carries a level of understanding and respect. In the online world, someone can easily create an anonymous profile and troll someone else. So rather than encourage an environment of learning and respect it can lead to a witch hunt where differences of opinion is crushed or humiliated.
The Internet has provided gamers with the ability to access a wealth of information but can also contain elements of bias and the distortion of facts.
Starting with Why
Before we discuss how we can leverage the convergence of technology I believe it is important to have a framework or foundation for such a discussion. For this blog post, I intend to use the framework suggested by Simon Sinek in Starting With Why.
The Ted Talk by Simon Senek was published in September 2009 and is the 3rd most watched Ted Talk of all time.
Some organisations and people are more innovative, generate more profit, are able to retain customers and staff longer than other organisations, but why? According to Simon Sinek the way they think, act, and communicate are in line with each and the opposite of what everyone else does. Most leaders talk about WHAT they do – the products or services that generate money. Some leaders talk about the HOW – the process they use that differentiate themselves. Very few leaders talk about (or even know) their WHY – the reason the business exists in the first place (money is a by-product of the WHY).
Simon Sinek argues that when we start with WHY in everything that we do, we inspire action in a way that WHAT does not. That is because WHY engages our emotions, while WHAT engages our logical brain.
As an example, which of these statements is more compelling:
I write code (the WHAT)
I create magical gaming worlds (the WHY)
If you want to inspire others, always communicate your why first. If the why resonates with them, they will be inspired. Simon Sinek said, “people don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it.” Employees who are inspired by the why are the best resource for any business.
Benefits of Starting with Why?
Organisations live or die by their culture. A toxic culture eventually kills the organisation, the confused culture is like taking two steps forward and one step back. A culture based on a Why where the employees rally around it would lead to several benefits.
Speed– Every decision can be seen in the light of whether it is in line with the objective of the organisation or not. This makes it quicker to make decisions and decision making can be decentralised.
Direction– Everyone within the organisation knows the direction the company is headed towards.
Motivation– If an employee believes and is motivated by the company’s Why they will be more motivated then somebody who is motivated to make money.
Trust– A leader of an organisation whose actions are in line with the Why will generate trust amongst their employees.
Recruitment & Retention – Everyone is passionate about something but we are not all passionate about the same thing. When an organisation takes a stance, and defines its Why some people will be attracted towards that organisation whilst other will not. Those who are attracted will both want to work for the company and want to stay with the company longer.
The External Benefits to Microsoft include:
Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony all make consoles to play video games. Demand is influenced by changing prices, improving technology or adding exclusives. Having an identity (the Why) that resonates with gamers can be a more significant factor in the purchasing decision than price, technology and exclusives.
Starting with a Why establishes trust. If someone trusts a brand they are more confident to invest more time and money with Microsoft.
A mistake or an error of judgment by Microsoft is more likely to be forgiven and forgotten.
Brand advocates. A company with a Why is likely to have a greater number of promoters. And a promoter has two distinct benefits. They can take a detractor and help them so they become either passive or a promoter. Or they can help attract new customers to the brand.
Millennials and identity- By 2015 the millennials became the largest generation in America overtaking the baby boomers.
According to a blog post from Oracle by Michael Svatek, “millennials are particular, easily distracted, and more demanding of brands than any other generation, that is, when they choose to engage with them.” Millennial marketing state over 50% of millennials would be more willing to make a purchase from a company if their company supports a cause, and brands that stand for more than their bottom line receive greater millennial brand love. By Microsoft having a Why it stands a greater chance to be relevant and engaging with a millennial.
Does Xbox need to have a separate Why to Microsoft?
I believe Xbox should share the same Why with Microsoft for the following reasons:
As much as Microsoft Excel is a Microsoft product so is the Xbox. Brands need to speak one language and be consistent, so the customers will view all products as one.
Xbox does not work in a silo, resources sharing works better when the individual has a single and unified direction.
Both Xbox and Microsoft are in the technology business and bring people closer together, so it makes sense to have the same Why..
My Suggestion for a Possible Why?
This is my suggestion for a possible why:
We believe through technology we can bring the World closer together
Microsoft’s 5 key principles are:
Discover Together
Work Together
Play Together
Watch Together
Be Together
Xbox’s 3 key principles are:
Discover Together
Play Together
Watch Together
The Xbox App: the centre of the new AI, Social and Chat Bot Experience
The focus of this section is to show how the Xbox App can leverage AI, user content, user input, and Cortana to create a richer and deeper user experience. This will be highlighted in the following sections:
Guide a user through the pre-purchase funnel.
Setting up the Xbox for the first time.
Extend the current feature set of the Xbox app.
The history of the Xbox App
Xbox Smartglass was originally announced at the 2012 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). It was the second screen for the Xbox 360 promising ‘new ways to interact with your Xbox 360.’ With the release of the Xbox One it is simply known as the Xbox App.
The Second Screen – Discovering Together
Current scenario –If someone wants to learn about the Xbox, they can ask their friends, do a search on Google/Bing, read a review on Amazon or search in social media/YouTube. There is no doubt there are lot of positive reviews, comments, videos, and tweets on Xbox but at the same time there is a lot of content that would create FUD (Fear, Uncertainty or Doubt), and for every positive Xbox story, there is going to be another that is negative.
Proposed solution – to create an environment where a user can learn more about the Xbox One console and its family. Using an app, we can integrate analytics, a chatbot to respond to user queries and AI to deliver a highly tailored experience (Discover Together).
Pre-purchase Funnel – DiscoverTogether
In this section, we are going to assume we have a user who is interested in purchasing the Xbox One and has installed the Xbox One App.
Guiding a user through the pre-purchase funnel
Different ways people learn
Before jumping into the app and how we can apply the idea of Discover Together it is worth mentioning the different ways people learn:
Visual. Learning through diagrams, charts and watching videos.
Auditory. Learning by listening through audio files, live transmission or listening to a video.
Experiential. Learning through reflecting on doing. It is a form of active learning.
Kinesthetic. Learning by carrying out physical tasks.
Read/write learning. Learning by either reading or writing.
We should ensure as best as we can to cover as many content types as possible when we put together content for the Xbox App. These could include:
Video interviews
Video reviews
Graphs/Chats
Articles
Podcasts
Ask questions (active learning)
Modelling and predicting the user’s journey
Bryan Eisenberg defines four different personality types:
To be inclusive the user journey must appeal to all four personality types, so, for example, we need pages that:
Have a call to action above the fold (competitive and spontaneous).
Talk about the benefits of the Xbox One (spontaneous and methodical).
Talk about the Why of Xbox e.g. Play Together (spontaneous and humanistic).
Have detailed specifications, FAQs, video, reviews etc. (methodical)
Data mining customer QAs and AI
There is over 16 years of queries from customers, retail, e-tail and online discussions. Compiling all the data together will help determine what are the common questions that a potential customer may have. These questions and answers can be incorporated into the Xbox App to help with the user journey.
Launching the Application
The more we learn about a user, the better we can tailor the experience. Putting too many hurdles in front of the user will result in frustration and then exiting the app prematurely. My suggestion is to ask three simple questions with the option to skip.
Question 1 (Yes, No)
Have you ever owned an Xbox?
Question 2 (Multiple Choice)
What is your prime reason to buy an Xbox?
The new Xbox One X
Playing online with friends
Playing Xbox exclusives
The price
Looking for a gift for friends or family
Question 3 (Textbox)
What would you like to know about Xbox?
Taking the answers from these questions, we can build a personalised experience for that user. If I said I have owned an Xbox in the past, interested in buying the Xbox One X and wanted to know more about 4K games then an experience optimised for me would include content (video, text or auditory) that was centred around:
Xbox One X being the most powerful console
The 4K difference
Xbox One X building upon the Xbox heritage
The biggest franchises in 4K
Xbox live reimagined on Xbox One X
Xbox Game Pass, EA Access and Play Anywhere
If on the other hand, I said I have never owned an Xbox, am interested in playing online and wanted to know about which games I can play online, then an experienced optimised for me would include:
What makes the Xbox unique
An introduction to the Xbox family (S and X)
Xbox Live – the most powerful platform for online gaming
Play the best franchises on Xbox Live
Xbox Live and Games for Gold
Xbox Live in 2018
The home screen should contain the information that could encourage a spontaneous and competitive person to act.
Discover Together
Having integrating analytics would allow us to understand which content resonates (read or watched to the end, shared or upvoted) and which content does not. If I have a user who is interested in getting an Xbox to play Xbox Live who reads an article about Xbox Live – the most powerful platform for online gaming and then watches a video on Xbox Live in 2018, I could offer the user a bundle with an Xbox One and 12 month of Xbox Gold and EA Access to that user. As another example, if I know a user is interested in Xbox Live when they are reading an article on the Xbox Elite controller, there should be a section on how the elite controller is the best controller for online gaming. If they were interested in Fifa 2018 and read an article on the Xbox Elite controller, there should be a section on how the elite controller can be optimised for Fifa 2018.
In addition to answers from the user questions from the original survey, I envisage having multiple tabs with different themes. These could include:
An introduction to the Xbox family.
An introduction to Xbox Live and Xbox Gold.
Playing with younger children and safety online.
Exclusive Xbox games.
The best place to play multiplatform games.
What is 4K, HDR and Dolby Atmos?
Xbox Apps and non-gaming activities
Buying an Xbox
ChatBot
To take the interaction further, having a chatbot who can ask and answer questions could provide valuable insight to the user. For example, after reading an article or watching a video I have a chatbot asking me if I found the content useful and relevant?
If I answer Yes
The chatbot would suggest other relevant pieces of content. For example, if I watched a trailer for The Witcher it could recommend a video about The Witcher running on the Xbox One X and its improvements (especially if I stated I am interested in the Xbox One X) or similar games I may be interested in.
Taking this a stage further, if the Chatbot knows I am interested in Xbox One X, the Witcher in 4K and Rise of the Tomb Raider, it could create a special bundle of the fly and ask me:
Would you be interested in an Xbox One X, The Witcher and Rise of the Tomb Raider for a special price?
If I say yes, it then takes the user to a shopping basket and checkout.
If no, then it needs to understand what is missing – is it the price? The offer?
Use of Push notification
Buying an Xbox could be a single use of the app (competitive or spontaneous), but there are others who will use the app multiple times before deciding to buy an Xbox (humanistic or methodological). To encourage the user, we could use push notifications to highlight relevant pieces of content. The idea is to get the user to use the app on a regular basis to become more familiar with the Xbox.
Purchase and Set-up
In this section, we have assumed a user has now bought an Xbox One and our objective is to introduce the user to the Xbox family.
Setting up the Xbox
Setting up an Xbox for the first time and installing a game can be a long wait, anything we can do to make the experience more enjoyable will help.
Suggested Steps
As soon as the Xbox is on the local network (wireless or wired) it pairs with the Xbox App.
The Xbox App welcome the user to the Xbox family and explains what will happen next (updates, user account login etc.).
The App has a countdown timer and pushes notifications to tell you when the Xbox is ready. This gives freedom to the user to step away from the Xbox.
Any sort of text entry on Xbox can be done using the smartphone keyboard (much quicker than using a controller).
Once the dashboard is ready and the user is logged in. The next steps are all about welcoming the user to the Xbox family.
What We Want to Achieve
Help the user to connect with their friends and family.
Help the user to understand the benefit of Xbox Gold and sign up if they wish to.
Help the user to understand the benefit of Xbox Game Pass and sign up if they wish to.
Help the user to understand the benefit of EA Access and signs up if they wish to.
Help the user understand Xbox clubs and sign up for any relevant clubs.
If the user uses twitter ask them if they wish to connect to the Xbox Twitter Account of @xbox, @xboxuk, @xboxP3, @majornelson, @xboxqwik and @xboxSupport.
Ask the user if they are interested in subscribing to the Xbox YouTube channel.
Forcing a user to sign up to multiple accounts all at once may leave the user overwhelmed. If done gradually using the Xbox Dashboard, push notifications, emails and the Xbox App, there may be a higher chance of engagement and sign up. Taking inspiration from gamification and lead page generation it is all about getting the consent of the user and then rewarding their action.
We could build a program that starts with an email to introduce Xbox Gold – if they agree to learn more, the next time they open the Xbox App or play on the Xbox, they get the option to watch a video on the benefits of Gold. If they do not open the email, then we can use a push notification asking them if they would like to learn more about the benefits of Gold.
As another example, adding friends and family can be time-consuming, but we could leverage the Xbox app to search out friends and family from the phone contact list or social media. We could reward that action with a free 7-day extension to Xbox Gold once we get their consent.
We could use banner adverts within on the Xbox Dashboard or the app advertising the benefit to follow us on Twitter e.g. latest news or win a game of your choice.
What if we could recognise when a user has set up their Xbox for the first time, finished a game or had not played a game for a while and promoted Xbox Game Pass or EA Access through multi-touch points?
We could create an introductory series where each day the Xbox app has a new topic. Day 1 could be adding friends and family, day 2 the benefits of Gold. Opens, clicks and views could all be tracked and follow up emails and Xbox Dashboard banners can be used to facilitate action.
Extend the Current Feature Set of the Xbox app.
The purpose of this section is to suggest some additional features for users who have an Xbox One.
Idea Number 1 – The Second Screen
I am a great fan of watching E3 and Gamescom – what if the Microsoft event could support a second screen (the Xbox App)? Whilst a game is being presented on stage I could get extra information about the game, the ability to pre-order online, save the game in the recommended tab (more later) and the ability to share a screenshot or a trailer on social media.
Idea Number 2 – The Xbox Button
There is a game I really want to buy. I saw at E3 2017, it looks like Blade Runner but I have no idea what it is called or who is making it. I searched for ‘Blade Runner type game for Xbox One’ but I didn’t find anything. I searched on Twitter, I found a tweet that linked to a list of all E3 games on the Xbox news blog. I found the name of the name, but I, unfortunately, have already forgotten the name before I could pre-order it.
What if, whenever I come to an advert or a mention of the game, be that on YouTube, a web page, a live event, a billboard or TV advert, I press a button and the details of the game is stored. The game information can then be stored in the recommendations tab and updated whenever there is more information available (previews, pre-orders etc.)
Idea Number 3 – Email and In-App notification. Talk to me
I have been playing the Xbox since the original OG Xbox so there should be a lot of information about me:
What games do I own?
What games have I played?
Which games have I pre-ordered?
Which games did I get Day 1?
Which games do I buy on sale?
Which games have I finished?
Which games do I delete and which games I keep?
Do I buy digital or physical? Or do I buy both?
How often do I play?
For example, I own Forza Horizon 2 and Forza Horizon 3 but I do not own Forza Motorsport 7. I own Halo 1 all the way to Halo 5 but do not own Halo Wars 1 or 2. There is an opportunity to generate a multi-touch campaign around Forza Motorsport or Halo Wars. What if the game is discounted on the Christmas Sale, it could be beneficial to highlight this to me. What if I installed a demo of Forza Motorsport 7 but never played it? I could get an email about how Forza Motorsport takes what’s best about Forza Horizon 3 and improves on it. What if that email arrived on the day I am most likely to play on the Xbox?
With a little AI, my game preference can be figured out. Or a Chatbot can ask me what my favourite games of 2017 were.
This information can be used in the following ways:
Games that I have yet to buy but may have a potential interest in. Offer free play days, demos, discounted prices or bundle offers. Making it unique and personalised to me.
Games that are coming out soon, let me know the ones I would potentially be most interested in. Create anticipation and excitement.
Predict what type of games should be produced and when they should be released. With enough data and knowing the general schedule for other multiplatform and exclusive games, it should possible to predict the type of games people would want to play and when they would want to play it.
Idea Number 4 – what game should I buy?
There are Indie games, backwards compatible games, AA and AAA games, so sometimes it is easy to miss a game.
Ideas on recommending a game:
List the games my Xbox friends have played that I have not, ordered by popularity or review scores (recommendation tab).
Have Cortana predict what I want to play next or have a conversation with me (see below).
The recommended tab (see below)
The review tab (see below).
Idea Number 5 – Cortana and what game I should buy next?
Cortana or any AI agent is as good as the data available to it. If I ask what is the weather like today, the AI will check my IP address to determine where I am and return the weather in that area. Cortana, given the right level of permission and support from game developers, can easily build up a picture of my gaming preference.
Do I prefer single player games? Do I pay for DLC? Do I play at a professional level? Do I play multiplayer games? Have I watched, read or listened to any content of any upcoming game?
Cortana could ask, have you considered buying Mass Effect Andromeda (knowing that I like Sci-Fi games)? If I say no, the follow-up question is why? If I give a reason why, this information can be used to find a suitable piece of content to read or sent to the developer as feedback.
Cortana could inform me of the latest DLC for Destiny 2 either when I reach a certain point in the game or if I have stopped playing Destiny 2 to re-engage me.
Or I could tell Cortana I am a fan of Portal 2 or Capcom’s Power Stone therefore any game like these could be recommended even if it is two years in the future.
As a final example, I am a fan of Dishonoured but never really played Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell. What if Cortana could create the association between the games and ask me if I am interested in Splinter Cell? And if said tell me more, it would show me a video, an article, a developer interview etc. If I showed interest, the Xbox backwards compatible team would be informed or even Ubisoft can be told.
Idea Number 6 – The Recommendation Tab and what game I should buy next?
Scenario – Knowing what game to play next can be difficult at times.
How to get games added to the recommendation tab?
Through the Xbox Button.
What my friends are playing or have played.
Cortana’s recommendations.
What information on the game should be available on the recommendation tab?
Video content (previews, reviews, behind the scenes)
Written articles about the game.
People playing the game on Mixer
Images of the game
A link to demo links if available.
How to buy?
What can I personalise?
Whether I am interested in that specific game or not
How much am I prepared to pay for it? if it reaches that price I will get an email, push notification or a dashboard notification.
Share the game details with a friend.
Idea Number 7 – The Review Tab and what game I should I buy next?
Scenario – Spending $60/£45 on a game is a risky affair for some and for others it is the opportunity cost of playing one game over another. What if I could find someone whose experience and taste in games was like mine and see how they feel about a game I am interested in?
Two possible ideas:
I build my own query i.e. I want to see a video review of Gears 4 from someone who prefers single player story games AND has completed all the other Gears games (including Judgment AND Gears of War Ultimate Edition) on the most difficult setting. (it is beyond the scope of this article on how we can generate user content, but I have a couple of ideas).
What if you took my preference in games, my Gamerscore and what I have unlocked and apply some AI and then look for similar patterns with other gamers/reviewers? Cortana could get my feedback on reviewers (things like watching the review from start to end, or whether I follow the reviewer or unfollow, comments left could all help to build up a picture of what I like) and then improve its recommendations based upon this. What if I could use the Xbox button to tag a reviewer on YouTube I like. Their content, assuming permission is granted, is now available for me for on the review tab. What if a friend of mine likes a specific reviewer – could that not be recommended to me as well?
Idea Number 8 – help me get into a game
Scenario – I buy a game based on hype e.g. it’s a Microsoft exclusive. I install it, play it for 5 minutes, get stuck/confused or face a bug then move onto another game.
Impact – The games developer and Microsoft have my money but the possibility of future investment including DLC or microtransactions is uncertain.
A possible solution – track where I have reached in a game, understand what achievements I have not unlocked (micro-conversions) and the time I have not played the game. If the time not played is above average or usual for my usual gaming preferences send me a notification (an email or Cortana asking me a question) guiding me on what to do next. Imagine a conversation with Cortana for example:
Cortana: What do you think of Destiny 2? (instead of Cortana asking me I see you have not played Destiny for 7 days, 8 hours and 10 seconds and did not pass the first mission, are you stuck?)
Me: This light score thing does not make sense to me.
Cortana: I know an excellent guide to light score in Destiny written by one of your favourite reviewers:
Me: Please show me.
Play Together
The purpose of this section is to focus on playing together. Usually, when we talk about playing together we think about multiplayer games, but I want to focus on how we can play together on single player games.
Single Player Games
Why would we want to play together on a single player game?
Competitive – adding the element of competing against a friend can make the experience more enjoyable
Working with friends to get through a tough section of a game.
Competitive Single Player
A single player game is usually played by one person, so running a competition between friends is either ad-hoc or post-event. What if Xbox Live allowed developers to build competitive elements into the game with minimum effort? Microsoft would do the heavy lifting and the developer and ultimately the user would benefit. Every game is different but there are common features that could include:
Real-time updates when you are playing against a friend (they have just unlocked an achievement and you have this much left to do, they have 90% accuracy with a rifle vs your 72% accuracy with your rifle, you just defeated the boss, whilst they just died or they just unlocked a hidden feature which you have yet to find). The idea is having real-time updates so there is always competition. We can even take it a step further and set up tasks, the first person to defeat x number of zombies, or keep possession of the ball for more than a minute etc.
What about creating a video of shared gameplay e.g. this is me jumping and landing safety vs my friend falling off the cliff and falling to his doom.
End of level section updates compared to your friends. Your friend did this section in X minutes, 2 attempts and 4 headshots. Here is a video of them doing it.”
I am Stuck – Help Me Out
There are times when you are stuck in a game and do not know what to do next. Usually, that means figuring it out or leaving the game and finding a solution on YouTube or online. What if you could ask a friend? Xbox would need to be able to determine who could help me in my circle of friends and help me connect with them. Once connected I would want to share my screen and have the option for them to take over my game and either commit their action into my game (once they get through the bit I am stuck on) or let me redo it myself. I may want them to guide me on what to do, or I may want them to do it for me. The idea is I have the option.
Co-operative – Team Battle
Microsoft clubs are a great way to organise a meetup, but it does it still involve organising a number of people to agree a time to play together. What if we could add some AI with an understanding when I play and access to my diary/calendar? I can create a simple query:
I want to PLAY Halo 5 with my friends (A, B and C) Cortana to set TIME and DAY.
Cortana would have to understand my day/time preferences and my friend’s day/time preference, offer options that are localised to each user. For example, my friend A gets a notification: are you free to play Halo 5 on Friday night @ 11 pm GMT, B at Friday evening @ 6 pm EST and C @12pm CET. Once we have reached an agreement a calendar appointment is created and a reminder is set. Taking this a stage further, Cortana would have to manage cancellation, lateness and no-shows. For example, finding last-minute replacements if needed. By Cortana managing the event the gamers can focus on what they enjoy. Let’s say for example we agreed to play at 2 am – I would want Cortana to set my alarm on my iPhone just in case I fall asleep.
As another example I can ask Cortana who can I game with now? Cortana would understand who I game with usually and who is online now. It could send invites for me and provide options of what to play. I could be on the bus and be asked, would I be free at 8pm to play with X, they are interested in playing Destiny 2 or COD.
Who can I challenge? Getting better at gaming
To improve your skills involves playing people who are better than you, so they stretch your capability. We could analyse user performance on a game to create a global ranking system. For example, I want to get better at Killer Instinct, I would want to be able to identify who would be the best people to play based upon the characters I use or the experience I want to gain (I want to practise fighting against Character X). It would return a list of users and invite them to play Killer Instinct even if they are playing a different game at that time.
By having a ranking system, you have regional champions, for example being the best Killer Instinct player in London. Having such an award and the ability to defend it would take the game to another level.
Watch Together
Watching a movie or a TV show can be a solo experience or at least shared with the people in the same physical location as you. What if you could watch a movie or TV show with friends at the same time but in different locations?
Examples of how it would work
I rent a movie from Xbox with the option to allow for one or more of my friends to watch it at the same time as me. I pay a higher price (but still lower than each one of us renting it), but can share the payment between the users and we can watch the movie at the same time.
Xbox could then facilitate text chat on screen or in the app or allow us talk to each other. The idea is to allow people even if they are 1000s of miles away to share the experience of the movie/show together. Taking it a stage further what if you could add gameshow/quiz elements during or post the show or movie?
I really hope you have enjoyed reading this article and found at least some of the ideas useful. If you want to discuss this with me further, please drop me an email, leave a comment or DM me on Twitter.
It may just be me, but there are times when I look at Google Analytics or look at an A/B test and the page in question does not convert. So I rack my brain looking for ideas, the page loads fast on a mobile device, the call to action is clear and above the fold, the audience is relevant but no one wants to buy. I Google, I look at competitor sites and I even consider changing the colour of the button but nothing seems to works.
Then one bright sunny day (ok it wasn’t that sunny or that bright) something changed. A clever algorithm recommended that I buy a book. Not just any book but a book that The Economist reviewed as:
“Profound . . . As Copernicus removed the Earth from the centre of the universe and Darwin knocked humans off their biological perch, Mr Kahneman has shown that we are not the paragons of reason we assume ourselves to be (The Economist)
The book is called Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
Before I explain the link between the book Thinking, Fast and Slow and why visitors may not convert, we should first discuss how classical economics views the rational man.
Homo Economicus
Homo economicus, or the economic man, is the concept found in economic theories that portray humans as rational and narrowly self-interested/self-focused agents who pursue their subjectively defined ends optimally. If any decision is sub-optimal then over time, the economic man will learn from his mistake and choose better. In other words, humans are intelligent and self-benefit focused.
How to sell to Homo Economicus
If Homo Economicus are rationally motivated, then the following factors will impact conversion:
Price – the lower the price or the bigger the discount, the higher the demand for a product.
Quality – if the quality of a product is better then a competitor’s product it will sell more.
The greater the features or benefits that a product has, the more it will sell.
Delivery – if delivery is fast and reliable, it will sell more.
Introducing Behavioural Economics
Behavioural economics postulates the idea that man makes ‘irrational’ decisions because they are influenced by psychological, social, cognitive, and emotional factors. Behavioural economics is therefore primarily concerned with the limits of the rationality of economic agents.
There are three prevalent themes in behavioural economics:
Heuristics (is a mental short cut to problem-solving or learning that not guaranteed to be optimal based on previous experience): Humans make 95% of their decisions using mental shortcuts or rules of thumb.
Framing: The collection of anecdotes and stereotypes that make up the mental emotional filters individuals rely on to understand and respond to events.
Market inefficiencies: These include mispricing and non-rational decision making.
Introducing Thinking, Fast and Slow
In 2011 Nobel Memorial Prize Daniel Kahneman published the best sellerThinking, Fast and Slow. It was winner of the 2012 National Academics Communication Award for best creative work that helps the public understand science, engineering or medicine.
A Summary of the principles within the Thinking Fast and Slow
There are two different systems for thinking. Daniel Kahneman called them System 1 and System 2. Each has their own unique characteristics and each has unique advantages and disadvantages.
System 1
Automatic System – is a fast, automatic response system based on intuition, past experiences and it is commonly impulsive. It’s the decision making and recognition you do every waking moment, even though you may not be aware of it. System 1 drives your car while your thoughts wander. It’s how you recognise a friend’s face from afar in a crowd. System 1 is effortless in its management of these tasks. Other examples include:
Locate the source of a specific piece of sound.
Determine which one of two objects is further away.
Answer questions based upon memory e.g. 8 times 5 is 30 (eight fives are thirty).
Read a car number plate.
Understand simple sentences.
System 2
The Effortful System – is slow, calculating, takes energy, factors in restraint over impulse. System 2 is what we call deep thinking or mathematical calculations. System 2, corresponds to our idea of rational reasoning, it is slow, deliberative and effortful.
Daniel Kahneman has said, “thinking is to humans as swimming is to cats; they can do it but they’d prefer not to.” Humans default to using System 1 over System 2 as it requires less effort and energy.
A human may believe that they have made a rational decision but often, the conscious mind is merely post-rationalising decisions that have already been made using System 1. This can be a problem if you are trying to understand why your customers took a certain action as they don’t have full introspective insight into their decision making process and what they claim motivated them to take action could be inaccurate.
Illogical decisions can occur choosing System 1 over System 2 or vice versa.
Heuristics – are simple, efficient rules which people use to form judgments and make decisions. They are shortcuts that usually involve focusing on one aspect of a complex problem and ignoring other aspects. System 1 thinking associates that aspect to an existing pattern or thought rather than develop a new pattern for a new experience. An example of this would be to consider every tool in a tool box to be a hammer because they all have flat edges. The resulting errors are known as cognitive biases.
Anchoring – influenced by irrelevant numbers. Most people, when asked if took over 200 litres to fill a bathtub would give a much larger estimate than those who were asked if would take over 35 litres of water.
Availability – judging the probability of something occurring based on how easy it is to think of examples of it. In other words, the easier it is to recall the consequences of something, the greater we perceive these consequences to be. If someone has read news reports of a recent fire, they are more likely to believe a fire will occur then a flood.
Substitution – if you were to be asked the question, “how popular will the Fidget Spinners be six months from now?” You may have thought about it, you may have even researched into the topic, but usually, an answer will appear in your mind straight away. Even though there are uncertainties about the future and without considering them at length, you have reached a conclusion. What has happened is you have substituted the question to how popular is the Fidget Spinner today?
Optimism and Loss Aversion – this bias generates the idea that we have substantial control in our lives. That is, people overestimate their ability to control events and dismiss the chance of loss. System 1 also responds more strongly to losses than to gains. This is called loss aversion. For example, losing a penny/cent is more important than gaining a penny/cent.
Framing – involves processing the same piece of information in different ways, depending upon the context it was presented in e.g. as a loss or a gain. Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman explored how different phrasing affected participants’ responses to a choice in a hypothetical life and death situation.
Participants were asked to choose between two treatments for 600 people affected by a deadly disease. Treatment A was predicted to result in 400 deaths, whereas treatment B had a 33% chance that no one would die but a 66% chance that everyone would die. This choice was then presented to participants either with positive framing, i.e. how many people would live or with negative framing, i.e. how many people would die.
Treatment A was chosen by 72% of participants when it was presented with positive framing (“saves 200 lives”) dropping to only 22% when the same choice was presented with negative framing (“400 people will die”).
Sunk Cost – throwing good money/time/effort after bad, because of the belief that one is already too committed at this point to change direction.
How to apply the lessons of Thinking Fast and Slow to m-commerce
Don’t make me think – use simple language and keep things easy to understand. Less mental effort means greater buy in.
Don’t confuse me – confusion leads to doubt and doubt requires System 2 thinking to resolve. So rather than resolve the confusion, a visitor may visit a competitor site.
Don’t make me speculate – if I have a question about a product, I know I have to put effort in to find the answer, so it may be easier to go to a competitor site. Ensure all relevant information about the product is available and easily accessible.
Giving too many options – have multiple options on a product page can lead a drop in revenue, as choice requires System 2 thinking. Reducing the options available can lead to an increase in conversion rate as the decision is easier. Taking this a step further, offering upsells and cross-sells is a way to increase the value of the basket (AOV). Test to see if conversion rate improves by reducing the number of options in the cross and upsell or eliminating it completely.
Running limited offers can lead to impulse buys. Many people do not like losing out on an opportunity to save money. You can tap into their FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). Voucher codes with expiration dates also tap into user emotions of FOMO. Daniel Kahneman writes about Loss Aversion and how the fear of loss is a much stronger driving force in human behaviour than the evaluation of gain and this can lead to irrational behaviour.
Consider limiting product availability. Both McDonalds and Nintendo do this.
Providing solutions to problems that are currently trending – these are more likely to sell than solutions to problems that are less known about.
If selling a product requires thinking, simplify it. Uber simplified moving from A to B.
If there is uncertainty buying a product (will it be suitable?), leverage trust. Providing expert advice, independent reviews or being in the field for many years builds trust. Generating trust reduces the need for System 2 thinking. In order to build trust in their products, Zappos use 365-day return to eliminate the fear that the shoes they sell may not fit.
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