Read vs. Become a Vegetable (and not a pretty one).
Morten E. Wulff Aug 14th
Reading is sometimes just plain entertainment. I’ll never forget “American Psycho”, “Lord of the Rings”, and well “Harry Potter” - all very fun to read.
Reading is not always just entertainment, though. In many cases it is about getting smarter; learning new tricks; new perspectives on old tricks and so on. It’s kind of going to school – without the parties.
Only few people fail to understand that it’s important to keep learning. Wisdom and creativity is our most important currency – besides from “getting the job done!”
But many people need to discipline themselves to read and learn and just reading the subtitles of “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids” wont work. It will not make you wise, creative, and problem solving.
If you don’t keep up you’ll become a vegetable. This is is a fact proven by Russian scientist in 1918 in a small town just outside of Moscow … I’ve read it - so it’s true.
Facing this situation we in TraceWorks have put together a small library. It’s growing pretty fast with many different books; typically about something related to our line of business; software development, business development, designing UI, .NET / C# / SQL2005 / Flex 2.0.
I think what (both books / blogs) we read will to a certain degree define us a company why I think I’ll start posting about new books I find interesting.
I’m currently reading:
The Solution Centric Organization
By Eades, Keith M. and Kear, Robert
I’m part of the team in TraceWorks who is responsible for putting together our new communication platform.
“A “solution” is a mutually agreed-upon answer to a recognized problem that provides measurable improvement (value).”
The point is that we need to stop being to much product/price orientated! We need to THINK Differently, COMMUNICATE Differently, and ENGAGE Differently. We need to focus on designing the best possible SOLUTIONS. I think Headlight will be a good example of this and I want TraceWorks to become and stay an example of a “Solution Centric Organization”.
Authoritative and easy to use / read.
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“A “solution” is a mutually agreed-upon answer to a recognized problem that provides measurable improvement (value).”
Yikes! sounds like you are selling me snake medicine. I’ll go fetch my tar and feathers.
I’ve always hated calling our software a “solution”. But sometimes it’s been a necessary evil, because the word software is usually connected to something you install on your computer, and our software is a web application. So in lack of a better word, it’s been referenced to as a solution.
When you need to go from home to work you don’t go buy a solution, you buy a car, a motorcycle, a bicycle, or take the bus. These are all solutions to get you to work, but they are so different that comparison is irrelevant.
By referring to your product as a solution you naturally put it on the same shelf as every conceivable contraption on the planet.
I believe an organisation need to be customer centric. By that I mean; speak to the customer like you would a friend, and make products your customers need when they need them.
I’ve read it in a book, so its true :-).
Hmm … I think you’re getting a bit rhetorical.
Isn’t all about locating problems and solving problems with “solutions”?
All I say is that when design software we need to really define a problem first?
E.g. File chaos in the marketing department + Brand inconsistency = Digital Asset Management.
I don’t say we don’t do this. I just say we need to be aware of this, always.
This is important when we think and design software as well as when we communicate about it; we don’t talk about features but talk about the problems we solve aka “the solutions”.
BTW - I don’t say that we have to call Headlight a (software) solution. It’s not my point.
I know what you are saying, get your point, and agree.
My point was rhetorical. The quote might be true, but still comes off boring and certainly not selling. I was afraid it would sneak it self into our “communication strategy”.
There’s just so much bull language in B2B marketing, that you can easily be led to believe that’s how to describe your product to be successful.
When it’s really just a smoke screen to hide that they don’t know what good their product does and don’t know who they are selling it to.
I know you know this, not saying you don’t. Providing simple answers to complex question is, after all, what we do.
(now that’s corporate bull you can understand)