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Trilogy Tidings
July 2017
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in this issue
     Two, typically unrelated, topics this month. The first addresses the groundswell of interest and advice dealing with improving your customers' user experience (UX). This advice from a chorus of qualified practitioners has so far not been widely followed. I relate one likely reason for that shortcoming.

     I also reprise one of the tenants of my consulting practice: Concept Vision.

     Happy Summer! 
Regards,
Joe

UX and VOC: Joined at the Hip             
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     User Experience ( UX) is all the rage these days. That's entirely appropriate, as the ways in which your customers (and prospective customers) interact with your products, your services, and your company are super important. The objective of UX is to improve all those relationships. But the adoption of UX generally is not what it should be.

     There are many reasons why the "UX attitude" is lacking today. One of those reasons is that many companies simply do not understand their customers' attitudes, preferences and needs in the first place. Why? Because they don't implement sound voice-of-the-customer ( VOC) research programs to collect these baseline data. You cannot improve what you do not know.

     In the unlikely event you don't yet grasp the elements of VOC research, here's a primer I put together several years ago.

     So, what's the ideal VOC/UX process? I'm not going to dive into the weeds here because there's entirely too much to say in that regard. Here's the high-altitude view:
  • Execute VOC
  • Execute UX
  • Execute VOC again to measure success and identify shortcomings
  • Repeat as and when necessary
     That's it. Easy, right?
Concept Vision Matters (A Lot)            
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     A budding entrepreneur needs to convey a new-product concept to investors to attract capital. An R&D executive wants to convince his boss to fund a promising development project. A sales manager must sell his reps on the unique value contributed to prospective customers by a new product line. An academic department head wants to float an idea for a new curriculum addition with her dean. All these scenarios - and many more like them - require effectively  communicating a concept  to make something good happen -- to stir innovation.

     The ability to sell your concept is the genesis of essentially any successful business initiative. In essence, you need to share your vision with others in compelling fashion to advance your cause. This is an incredibly important principle. I have written about it in the context of stimulating innovation, not as a general process improvement but as a means to move your innovative idea forward within a company or out in the marketplace. I call this principle ConceptVision.

      ConceptVision is a vehicle for communicating ... a unified message connecting an innovation to a business opportunity ... to multiple internal and external audiences ... touting the benefits of your innovation ... for the purpose of gaining traction for your commercialization program.
 
     I recommend your review of  my thoughts on this subject. If you have a technology concept that needs refinement or redirection, please  contact me for an assessment and some helpful advice.
Resources from our Archives 
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     Check out our Reading Room to view my published articles, presentations and white papers on a variety of topics.
 
     And, you can examine my Newsletter Archive of prior Trilogy Tidings (since February 2007).
 
What does Trilogy do? 
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     Trilogy Associates facilitates business growth and renewal through commercialization of new products, providing the following services:
  • Opportunity assessment
  • Business planning and enterprise growth strategies
  • New-product conceptualization, commercialization and marketing
  • Market research and competitive assessment
  • Business development and partnering
  • Market and technological due diligence
  • Assessment of the therapeutic and diagnostic potential of novel technologies
  • Design of efficient and effective development strategies for early-stage biomedical products
  • Business and technical writing/publishing

     Inquiries to establish whether and how we might support your business initiatives are always welcome.  Contact us.

Contact Information
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ContactInfoJoseph J. Kalinowski, Principal
919.533.6285
LinkedIn Profile: www.linkedin.com/in/trilogy
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