Technologies don’t have to be cutting edge to make a profound difference in people’s lives. Check out these 10 incredible low-tech inventions.
1) Better woodstoves
Deforestation is a major problem in much of the developing world, as is the harm to human health that comes from breathing in the particulate matter in smoke from woodstoves. Better-designed stoves like the Berkeley-Darfur stove use only half as much fuel to cook a comparable amount of food, and they cut the particulate emissions in half as well.
2) Simple, effective water filters
Hundreds of millions of people around the world lack access to safe water. Simple, cheap water filters use ash combined with silver nanoparticles to filter out impurities and pathogens; they have improved the lives of hundreds of thousands.
3) Hippo roller
Hundreds of millions of people, usually women, have to walk every day to get enough water for their basic needs and transport it home in buckets. The Hippo roller is a heavy-duty plastic barrel that can be flipped on its side and rolled home, via an attached handle, over rough terrain.
4) Jet injections
Vaccines are crucial for public health. But in the developing world, distributing the vaccine to where it’s needed is only part of the problem. How do you administer it in a place where sterile needles might be scarce? One fix is a jet injector, a decades-old invention that can send a high-pressure, directed stream of fluid through the skin.
5) Paper microscopes
Microscopes are crucial for diagnosing infectious disease. But in some ways they’re the worst possible device—heavy, expensive, and hard to maintain. Paper microscopes, also known as foldscopes, contain all the crucial parts within one foldable sheet of paper. They can be optimized for different diseases and cost less than a dollar.
6) Disaster communications system
Cell phones are common even in poor countries, but when a natural disaster strikes, the communications networks these devices rely upon can fail. Developed in Chile, SiE is a system that encodes text into high-frequency audio tones that can be distributed over broadcast radio waves and received on any smartphone without requiring any internet infrastructure. An app on the phone listens for these tones and transforms them into a text message.
7) Portable malaria screener
Malaria kills 1,200 children a day. Quick diagnosis and treatment is crucial, but that typically requires a microscope and a reliable technician to analyze blood samples. A quicker, simpler system developed last year at the University of Southern California is portable and detects levels of hemozoin, a by-product created by the malaria parasite, which reveals how far the disease has progressed.
Steve Jobs was the most astonishing business speaker of his time. Bill Gates once called him a “wizard” who “cast spells” on his audience. Fortune magazine proclaimed that his keynotes could set “hardened hearts aflutter.” Jobs is one of the few CEOs whose presentations have a dedicated Wikipedia page; his keynotes alone could spark a surge in Apple’s stock.
But if you pull back the curtain, you can understand why his presentations were so magical: practice, and lots of it. “Most people don’t realize that what looked spontaneous was rehearsed over and over and over,” John Sculley, the former Apple CEO, told me. “Steve thought about every word, every step, every demo.”
The best speakers make presentations look effortless precisely because they put so much effort into perfecting their delivery.
For nearly 20 years I’ve worked with leaders at some of the world’s largest brands — including Amazon, Coca-Cola, Intel, and McKinsey — to transform them from good speakers into great ones. They’re often surprised when I share this advice, but rehearsing is the single best use of time before a critical presentation. More preparation means less panic and more confidence.
Think of it this way: Astronauts, airline pilots, and Navy SEALS are not born with the ability to remain calm in a crisis. They train for pressure-packed situations under conditions similar to those they’ll face in the field. In the same way, repetitive exposure to public speaking will reduce the anxiety that often precedes a big event. Far from making you appear robotic or canned, rehearsing frees you up to enjoy the moment and deliver your message with passion and energy.
These five guidelines will help you get the most out of your rehearsal time.
Commit to 10x Improvement
The “gospel of 10x” is a popular business philosophy that traces its origin to Google cofounder Larry Page. Where most leaders are happy with a 10% improvement, Page expected his team to create products 10 times better than the competition’s. Anything less, Page reasoned, meant the product or company looked like all the others. The same strategy applies to public speaking. If you want to deliver a spellbinding presentation, one that’s significantly different from your competition’s, be prepared to rehearse far more than you’ve done in the past, and 10 times harder than your peers.
One executive I worked with was preparing to kick off an annual sales meeting. He planned to practice his 20-minute presentation about 15 times beforehand. I told him that Jill Bolte Taylor rehearsed her 18-minute TED Talk about 200 times before stepping onto the stage — giving her a 10x advantage. Her speech, “Stroke of Insight,” has been viewed 25 million times on the TED site alone.
Committing to 10x rehearsal is not as intimidating as it might seem. Repeating the first few minutes of your introduction as you drive somewhere or take a walk counts toward your goal. If there’s an especially complex or technical section of the presentation, spend more hours practicing those slides out loud.
Start as Strong as You End
At this point, you might start to fear that you sound too rehearsed. This is where communication becomes more art than science. Your goal is to feel confident without memorizing every line, and to leave room for spontaneity.
Remember that the two most important parts of your presentation are the beginning and the end. The intro sets the stage for the rest of the presentation and gives your audience a reason to care. Your conclusion determines what parts of your idea people will walk away with, and how they will feel about the presentation overall.
A TED Talk is one of the few cases where it makes sense to memorize each and every word, because there is a strict time limit of 18 minutes. For a general business meeting, nail down the first two minutes and the last two minutes of your presentation, as well as the first and last lines of each slide you share. If you do, you’ll be far ahead of your peers in practice time.
Practice Under Mild Stress
Susan Cain, the author of Quiet, is a self-described introvert who has battled a lifelong fear of public speaking. Accepting a TED Talk invitation was far outside of her comfort zone. On the Friday night before her talk, Wharton professor Adam Grant, a friend of Cain’s, gathered about 30 of his students and alumni to watch her practice. Rehearsing under “real-world” conditions gave Cain an opportunity to expose herself to the thing she feared and to face it in manageable doses. Cain’s talk on the power of introverts has been viewed over 24 million times since, and today she enjoys a career as a public speaker.
Researchers agree that the best way to deliver the presentation of a lifetime is to practice under stress. For her book Choke, Sian Beilock examined individuals who perform their best when it counts the most. “Even practicing under mild levels of stress can prevent you from choking when high levels of stress come around,” she writes.
Remember, going over a presentation in your mind is not the same as delivering the presentation in front of a crowd. The more you practice doing so, the less chance you will crack under pressure. At first, your body may react the way it was built to: Your heart rate may increase and your palms may sweat. But as you grow accustomed to being in front of an audience, even if it’s just one or two people, your body will stop exhibiting fight-or-flight symptoms. Soon enough, you’ll think of your speech as an opportunity instead of a threat.
Record Your Rehearsal
The most valuable practice tool you have fits right in your pocket: your smartphone. Set your phone on a tripod or prop it up against a book, press record, deliver your talk, and then play it back.
By watching your presentation, you will instantly catch distracting habits such as fidgeting, averting eye contact, or flipping your hair. Look for areas where you seem unsure of yourself or fumble your words. Those are the sections you’ll want to rehearse out loud or on the drive home.
Ask for Feedback
Before delivering his first TED Talk, author and podcaster Tim Ferriss practiced delivering his presentation to a small group of strangers in a friend’s house to put himself under pressure. But what he did afterwards was even more critical. He asked the crowd for feedback and incorporated their suggestions in his next rehearsal.
John Chambers, the former CEO of Cisco, has a similar practice. In his book, Connecting the Dots, he writes that it “stuns people” to find out how much he prepares for every presentation and media interview. Chambers is a Silicon Valley legend and was considered an effective communicator during his 20 years at the company. Humility, he says, is an attribute that served him well. Everything about his presentations was meticulously rehearsed — body gestures, delivery, messages, interactions with other speakers on stage. He would spend hours upon hours practicing, recording his sessions, watching them back with his team, and asking them for feedback — and still does so today. “As in sports, practice always pays off, and it doesn’t matter how long you’ve been a pro,” he writes.
There’s no magic involved in delivering a great presentation, but if you rehearse effectively, your audience will be mesmerized. Steve Jobs made presentations look easy because he put in the time, and his keynotes eventually became his competitive weapon.
An effective presentation can be your competitive weapon too. A great presentation can do so many things: launch careers, inspire employees, attract customers and investors and partners. Set aside hours of rehearsal time before your next critical presentation. It will pay off more than you can imagine.
Carmine Gallo is the author of Five Stars: The Communication Secrets to Get from Good to Great (St. Martin’s Press). He is a Harvard University instructor in the department of Executive Education at the Graduate School of Design. Sign up for Carmine’s newsletter at carminegallo.com and follow him on Twitter
Every leader knows they shouldn’t play favorites — it can lead to dissatisfaction and discord on a team. There are even some surprising disadvantages for the person who is the focus of the boss’s special attention. But there will always be team members who want to make it into your inner circle, and sometimes a subordinate can be singularly focused on pleasing you and gaining your favour.
This kind of courtship usuallycomes from fear, and is often a misguided attempt to protect their self-image and their job status. Unfortunately, while they’re obsessing over keeping you happy and tending to nonessential tasks that they hope will reinforce their relationship with you, they may be neglecting their real work and creating friction with their peers. Here are four ways you can redirect this attention back to their performance.
Avoid feeding their need to please.Because of your power and their fear, you may have towatch yourself more carefullythan you do with other subordinates. I’ve observed relationships in which pleasers were willing to eat, watch (TV and movies), or wear what the boss liked, all in an effort to create a sense of companionship.
This kind ofsucking upcan become dangerous if the boss succumbs to affinity bias and gives the pleaser more attention because of their supposedly shared likes. One of my clients came to enjoy this kind of “tending” by a subordinate several levels down and it was a tough habit to break. It wasn’t until multiple members of her leadership team came to her and expressed their concerns about the subordinate’s influence that she realized that she had gotten sucked in and needed to reestablish a more impartial relationship.
Structure your interactions to balance special attention with objectivity.If you have weekly one-on-ones with your direct reports, make sure everyone gets the same amount of time (even if the pleaser requests more) and be sure you’re givingkind and simultaneously rigorous feedbackto everyone. Relying on concrete scheduling and project management tools can be especially important, if you work in an office where people drop in for ad hoc discussions and the person could monopolize your time.
At another client company, a vice president and the CEO both worked on the design side of the business, and spent much of the workday together, brainstorming and collaborating. The vice president purposefully buttered up the CEO to gain special privileges and to deflect attention from the fact that she sometimes didn’t meet project deadlines or budgets. The CEO enjoyed the VP’s attention but eventually some of the subordinate’s weaknesses had real costs for the business.
The CEO started setting specific dates and times for meetings rather than casually spending most of the workday with her, and also began holding her to milestones and other commitments, expressing dissatisfaction when she missed them. As he continued formalizing and distancing their relationship, she became more stressed, couldn’t deliver on her obligations, and eventually left the firm. As a result, the CEO became more available to other employees, who were able to implement projects more efficiently.
Guide them to develop their own decisions.Ingratiating employees may beoverly worried that’s you’ll be unhappy with them or their work; the thought of disappointing you can become overwhelming for otherwise competent, experienced people. One senior leader I worked with was so concerned about failing to fulfill the CEO’s expectations that she was sometimes afraid to move forward with her own judgments and proposals. The CEO became frustrated with the subordinate’s small tentative steps and constant checking. As an interim solution, I worked with the CEO to be clearer about project requirements and with the subordinate to give the CEO sets of options that included clearly differentiated assumptions. By gauging his reactions to these differing scenarios, she was able to better understand his thought process. Over time, the subordinate developed more confidence in being able to generate proposals the CEO would accept, and the relationship became less fraught for both of them.
Assign them to work with other leaders or project teams.This will take the pressure off the unhealthy dynamic between youandincrease the potential for them to collaborate better with others. In fact, research has shown that fawning on the boss candiminish self-control; pleasers may put so much energy into observing and interacting with you that they exhaust their capacity to deal with others, particularly when they’re stressed or frustrated. By explicitly directing their attention away from you, you’ll learn whether they have the capacity to behave better with their colleagues.
The owner of a company I worked with hired a family friend who viewed him as the sole power source. The friend assumed that if he kept the owner happy, he wouldn’t have to bother taking anyone else seriously. When it became clear that the subordinate was flattering and deferential to the boss but high-handed and uncooperative with teammates, the owner agreed to reassign the friend to report to the company president.
The president and I developed an action plan to clarify the subordinate’s responsibilities and performance expectations. Even after reducing his scope of work, the requirements for collaboration turned out to be too much pressure, and the subordinate eventually left the company on his own.
It’s better for everyone when subordinates’ competence and performance earn them recognition and regard, rather than special status with the boss. By adopting these four approaches, you’ll have a much better chance of getting your pleasing subordinate on a more independent path that will serve you and the organization.
Biotechnology company Amgen is leveraging machine learning and emerging technologies to try and predict and prevent disease.
We’ve heard it before: Artificial intelligence (AI), with its giant data sets and rapidly evolving technology, is transforming health care into a science capable of preventing illness and prolonging life.
We believe this will be true over the long term, but the pace of this change needs to be incremental in order to get things right.
In the meantime, humans will continue to age as we always have. As we grow older, we’re more susceptible to serious illnesses such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, lung disease, and Alzheimer’s, which areleaving their markon countless lives. At Amgen, we’re pioneering a 21st-century approach to developing and bringing life-saving therapies to patients living with these diseases.
Improving diagnosis and treatment
When managing serious illness, a correct diagnosis must be present for successful treatment. We’re applying machine learning to help predict the risk of specific serious illnesses before they manifest, partnering with medical research and data science startups to develop predictive algorithms.
Let’s play out an example of an absent or incorrect diagnosis.
Familial hypercholesterolemia(FH) is a genetic condition that causes high levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol beginning at birth, potentially leading to events associated with early aging.
Though the prevalence of FH is thought to be at least one in 250, 90% of people with the condition have not been properly diagnosed and are therefore undertreated.
When people withFH are not treated, they are at 20-times greater risk of having an early heart attack. Eighty-five percent of men with FH will have a heart attack by age 60, some as early as in their 40s. Women with FH have a similarly increased risk, with heart attacks striking as early as in their 50s.
Recognizing this high unmet diagnostic need for patients and families, Amgen developed FH Score, an online clinical diagnostic support tool for health-care providers that leverages the Dutch Lipid Clinic Network criteria, a clinical diagnostic standard for FH. Currently used in 11 countries, FH Score helps identify patients at risk of FH before a cardiovascular event such as a heart attack takes place.
Supporting persistence to therapy
Another key variable for treatment success is simply staying the course. For patients with chronic illness, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)identified medication adherenceas critical to improving outcomes. According to arecent meta-analysis, non-adherence to chronic disease medications accounts for approximately $290 billion of health spending in the United States.
One reason for nonadherence? Forgetfulness.
So, we’re developing approaches to serve patients where they are when taking medications—at home—with a simple, user-friendly reminder system.
Patients prescribed self-injectable biologics—medicines developed from living cells—must store their medications in the refrigerator. With this in mind, we are creating a refrigerator-mounted device that provides smart reminders based on proximity sensors, designed specifically for these biologics. Preliminary results show that most patients find the device easy to use, noting that it fits into their daily lives—promising signs for incorporating it into their routines.
On the horizon
With everything we do at Amgen, we’re working to deliver on our mission to serve patients. We’re inspired by the progress we’ve already made in realizing a 21st-century approach to treating serious illness and energized by the work still to be done in bringing AI applications to modern health care.
A quantum computer harnesses some of the almost-mystical phenomena of quantum mechanics to deliver huge leaps forward in processing power. Quantum machines promise to outstrip even the most capable of today’s—and tomorrow’s—supercomputers.
They won’t wipe out conventional computers, though. Using a classical machine will still be the easiest and most economical solution for tackling most problems. But quantum computers promise to power exciting advances in various fields, from materials science to pharmaceuticals research. Companies are already experimenting with them to develop things like lighter and more powerful batteries for electric cars, and to help create novel drugs.
The secret to a quantum computer’s power lies in its ability to generate and manipulate quantum bits, or qubits.
What is a qubit?
Today’s computers use bits—a stream of electrical or optical pulses representing 1s or 0s. Everything from your tweets and e-mails to your iTunes songs and YouTube videos are essentially long strings of these binary digits.
Quantum computers, on the other hand, use qubits, which are typically subatomic particles such as electrons or photons. Generating and managing qubits is a scientific and engineering challenge. Some companies, such as IBM, Google, and Rigetti Computing, use superconducting circuits cooled to temperatures colder than deep space. Others, like IonQ, trap individual atoms in electromagnetic fields on a silicon chip in ultra-high-vacuum chambers. In both cases, the goal is to isolate the qubits in a controlled quantum state.
Qubits have some quirky quantum properties that mean a connected group of them can provide way more processing power than the same number of binary bits. One of those properties is known as superposition and another is called entanglement.
What is superposition?
Qubits can represent numerous possible combinations of1 and0at the same time. This ability to simultaneously be in multiple states is called superposition. To put qubits into superposition, researchers manipulate them using precision lasers or microwave beams.
Thanks to this counterintuitive phenomenon, a quantum computer with several qubits in superposition can crunch through a vast number of potential outcomes simultaneously. The final result of a calculation emerges only once the qubits are measured, which immediately causes their quantum state to “collapse” to either1 or0.
What is entanglement?
Researchers can generate pairs of qubits that are “entangled,” which means the two members of a pair exist in a single quantum state. Changing the state of one of the qubits will instantaneously change the state of the other one in a predictable way. This happens even if they are separated by very long distances.
Nobody really knows quite how or why entanglement works. It even baffled Einstein, who famously described it as “spooky action at a distance.” But it’s key to the power of quantum computers. In a conventional computer, doubling the number of bits doubles its processing power. But thanks to entanglement, adding extra qubits to a quantum machine produces an exponential increase in its number-crunching ability.
Quantum computers harness entangled qubits in a kind of quantum daisy chain to work their magic. The machines’ ability to speed up calculations using specially designed quantum algorithms is why there’s so much buzz about their potential.
That’s the good news. The bad news is that quantum machines are way more error-prone than classical computers because of decoherence.
What is decoherence?
The interaction of qubits with their environment in ways that cause their quantum behavior to decay and ultimately disappear is called decoherence. Their quantum state is extremely fragile. The slightest vibration or change in temperature—disturbances known as “noise” in quantum-speak—can cause them to tumble out of superposition before their job has been properly done. That’s why researchers do their best to protect qubits from the outside world in those supercooled fridges and vacuum chambers.
But despite their efforts, noise still causes lots of errors to creep into calculations.Smart quantum algorithms can compensate for some of these, and adding more qubits also helps. However, it will likely take thousands of standard qubits to create a single, highly reliable one, known as a “logical” qubit. This will sap a lot of a quantum computer’s computational capacity.
And there’s the rub: so far, researchers haven’t been able to generate more than 128 standard qubits (see our qubit counterhere). So we’re still many years away from getting quantum computers that will be broadly useful.
That hasn’t dented pioneers’ hopes of being the first to demonstrate “quantum supremacy.”
What is quantum supremacy?
It’s the point at which a quantum computer can complete a mathematical calculation that is demonstrably beyond the reach of even the most powerful supercomputer.
It’s still unclear exactly how many qubits will be needed to achieve this because researchers keep finding new algorithms to boost the performance of classical machines, and supercomputing hardware keeps getting better. But researchers and companies are working hard to claim the title,running tests against some of the world’s most powerful supercomputers.
There’s plenty of debate in the research world aboutjust how significant achieving this milestone will be. Rather than wait for supremacy to be declared, companies are already starting to experiment with quantum computers made by companies like IBM, Rigetti, and D-Wave, a Canadian firm. Chinese firms like Alibaba are also offering access to quantum machines. Some businesses are buying quantum computers, while others are using ones made availablethrough cloud computing services.
Where is a quantum computer likely to be most useful first?
One of the most promising applications of quantum computers is forsimulating the behavior of matter down to the molecular level. Auto manufacturers like Volkswagen and Daimler are using quantum computers to simulate the chemical composition of electrical-vehicle batteries to help find new ways to improve their performance. And pharmaceutical companies are leveraging them to analyze and compare compounds that could lead to the creation of new drugs.
The machines are also great for optimization problems because they can crunch through vast numbers of potential solutions extremely fast. Airbus, for instance, is using them to help calculate the most fuel-efficient ascent and descent paths for aircraft. And Volkswagen has unveiled a service that calculates the optimal routes for buses and taxis in cities in order to minimize congestion. Some researchers also think the machines could be usedto accelerate artificial intelligence.
It could take quite a few years for quantum computers to achieve their full potential. Universities and businesses working on them are facinga shortage of skilled researchers in the field—anda lack of suppliers of some key components. But if these exotic new computing machines live up to their promise, they could transform entire industries and turbocharge global innovation.
Innovation is a top priority for almost every organization. But to achieve success through innovation, companies must put as much energy and investment into marketing new offerings as they do in generating them.
The role of marketing in some companies seems to have diminished in recent years, with the growth of artificial intelligence-driven algorithms and predictive analytics that offer up information, goods, and services to customers. The popularity of private label goods and products from companies like Brandless and others that seem to eschew marketing also seems to make the argument for less marketing, rather than more.
But marketing is and should not be executed merely through tactical functions of acquiring and retaining customers, as many companies practice it today. The search, content, and loyalty campaigns that most managers call marketing these days are common downstream tactics for generating or maintaining awareness or repeat purchase; the full, business-growing power of the marketing function comes way upstream — from creating markets. Understanding people’s fundamental needs and drivers, identifying customers, and developing the entire go-to-market and usage ecosystem are the essential aspects of marketing — and the ones that the success of innovations, especially breakthrough ones, hinge upon. Marketers need to be included in development discussions earlier in the innovation process.
Consider what has happened when a revolutionary product or service has been launched without the full power of marketing: Google Glass. These smart glasses were a stunning technological advancement — which ultimately failed. Among its missteps, Google didn’t identify the burning consumer needs that would drive Glass adoption. It needed to know the “can’t-live-without-it” use cases that would motivate people to overlook or work around the product’s early shortcomings. Plus, the product was initially sold only to “Glass Explorers,” a group comprised mainly of tech geeks and journalists who were important in the industry, but not the kinds of aspirational role models that mainstream consumers wanted to mimic. The company failed to create a robust and durable market for the product, it had to discontinue it less than two years after its launch.
Strategic, upstream marketing that is incorporated into the innovation development process can clearly define who to sell the new offering to and how to sell it in ways like this:
Identify unmet and even unknown customer needs. Oftentimes, people don’t know they need a new-to-the-world innovation — and sometimes they have been settling for a workaround or poor substitute for so long that they don’t realize an alternative is possible. Before the smartphone, for example, people thought nothing of having to wait to use their computer to access the internet and use email. The marketing disciplines of anthropologically-based research and needs-based segmentation uncover the most significant holes in people’s lives that new products can fill. So instead of making assumptions about potential customers and their needs, marketing might help identify entirely new or different customers for innovation teams to consider.
Understand the deep-seated drivers of perceptions and behavior that are relevant to a product’s appeal. A robust marketing trend analysis reveals the cultural, social, and psychological dynamics that should be addressed in the development of and communication about an innovative product. For example, the adoption of virtual reality has been much slower than technologists expected it to be for many reasons, not the least of which is the design of existing headsets. They’re big and clunky — not something mainstream users want to wear much. A greater emphasis on the marketability of VR products, instead of their capabilities and content, could focus VR innovators on improvements that would make their products more appealing.
Engage with customers through use cases and benefits instead of functionalities and features. If an innovation is truly breakthrough, people need to be educated on how to use it and why — particularly mainstream customers who are compelled less by what a product does and more by what the product helps them do. Marketing helps companies address this through 1) customer research, which tests the appeal of various use cases and often uncovers new ones; 2) insight development, which explores beyond the functional benefits of use to identify the higher-order, more valuable ones; and 3) positioning work and communications framing, which determines how best to convey those uses and benefits to customers compellingly.
Develop the entire customer experience ecosystem. Innovators usually become so wrapped up in what they’re developing that they overlook all the other elements necessary to make delivery and experience of the offering successful. Take the first e-reader to be developed, the Sony Reader. The product was a technologically-advanced product, but it failed because Sony didn’t enlist the book publishing industry as a partner to provide the content the hardware required. Sony hadn’t tapped the customer and customer experience orientation inherent in marketing to ensure the ecosystem around its product would be as well-developed and well-designed as the product itself. When Amazon later launched its Kindle device, it offered an integrated experience of hardware, software, service, and content that made it seamless for the customer to buy and use it — thus producing a successful launch.
Use a go-to-market strategy appropriate for the innovation and its customer. The lackluster performance of the Sony Reader also resulted from the company’s misguided channel strategy. Sony tried to sell the device through traditional consumer electronics stores such as big box technology retailers instead of channels that book readers naturally use. Marketers know the importance of attending to all “4 Ps”: price, place, and promotion, in addition to product.
Another example of integrated marketing and innovation is the story of the K-Cup coffee pod from Keurig. One of the K-Cup inventors, John Sylvan, was motivated to solve a common problem: the stale, bitter sludge that coffee becomes after sitting in a pot in the office breakroom all day. People had been tolerating the problem for years. But Sylvan understood that there must be a solution and, after he and Keurig co-founder Peter Dragone developed one, they convinced office managers, their wisely-chosen target market, of the possibility too.
Sylvan and Dragone also were keyed into people’s emotional connections to coffee enough to recognize that coffee preferences varied significantly by region and that local roasters had locked in loyal customers. So they enrolled regionally-known coffee roasters such as Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Diedrich Coffee, and Tully’s to provide the coffee for the K-Cups. By appealing to different customers’ flavor preferences, they not only tapped into the broader context of coffee culture, but also increased the perceived value of coffee made a single cup at a time.
They pitched their machines to corporate accounts on the benefit of saving costs (money on the coffee itself as well as the loss of productivity of employees leaving the office to get a fresh cup from the local coffee store). Keurig developed partnerships with other players in the K-Cup product world, enrolling existing local distributors to install machines and subsequently entering into distribution deals for its K-Cups with coffee retailers Dunkin’ Donuts and Starbucks. It is also developing more eco-friendly products. These are the kinds of strategies that help get innovative products in front of the right customers at the right time.
Today’s advanced innovations such as 3D printing, bitcoin, and virtual reality have gotten some traction, but they and other revolutionary products and platforms like them need the right marketing expertise to generate the depth and breadth of market engagement they seek. Innovation alone may be enough to initiate the adoption life cycle, but marketing remains the bridge necessary to cross the chasm between early adopters to the wider group of people who will form a viable, valuable customer base.
The bigger the innovation, the bigger the risk of failure. Because marketing can reduce those risks, it matters as much as innovation — perhaps even more.
Google is about to release an app in Africa that will help internet users overcome obstacles such as the lack of high-speed connectivity and the cost of data on the continent.
The release of Google Go is the U.S. technology giant’s latest attempt to extend its reach into emerging markets such as sub-Saharan Africa, where Facebook Inc. is also making inroads. The Alphabet Inc. unit has laid fiber-optic cable on the continent, eased access to cheaper Android phones and trained a workforce in digital skills.
The new app reduces the amount of data needed to display search results by 40 percent and allows previous searches to be accessed offline.
Image Source: Nigeria360.com – Map of Africa Broadband Cable
The internet giant has also adapted the voice function to work better on slow connections, and has partnered with pan-African wireless carriers MTN Group Ltd. and Vodacom Group Ltd. to make it work on even basic 2G connections, according to Google Africa Chief Marketing Officer Mzamo Masito.
“Weak data connectivity, high data costs and low storage space often make it hard for people to get the most out of the internet,” he told reporters on Thursday. “Google Go is built to handle these challenges.”
U.S. tech giants see Africa as a relatively untapped market for smartphones and services such as web search and social media. Younger consumers in sub-Saharan Africa are increasingly demanding quicker internet speeds and cheaper phones to go about their business, while MTN and Vodacom see the digital space as their fastest-growing market.
The new app will be available in 26 countries in sub-Saharan Africa and will be pre-installed on all Android Oreo devices.
The company also plans to make it available in other emerging markets, including India, Brazil and Indonesia, Masito said in an interview.
The mobile app and smartphone ecosystem have grown exponentially in the last seven years, mainly driven by user experience, technology and investment. Technological advancement on mobile platforms is still in full force. We are seeing new innovation with every OS update. These innovations can be the key to making your mobile apps stand out among millions of others just like them.
Voice Recognition
Once limited to Siri and Google, voice recognition capabilities have taken a huge step forward with Apple’s Speech Recognition API launch for iOS 10, giving mobile apps voice recognition and voice assistant functionality. Google has also made its speech recognition function faster and more reliable.
Voice functions can add extraordinary value to mobile apps. Customers can control certain functions while driving, take advantage of voice-based search, schedule meetings with voice commands, dictate commands and take notes. It has become easier than ever to build apps that can convert voice to text and text to voice. Soon, voice commands could control every app.
2. Biometrics
Most smartphones already include fingerprint scanning, iris scanning and even facial recognition. While not all devices support biometrics yet, you can use biometric capabilities on mobile to build nearly foolproof personal identification for secure payments, certain location access, secure file and server authentication, and identity management. This will be a boon for enterprise customers, government agencies and other security-conscious organizations that can replace external biometric hardware with smartphone biometrics to reduce costs and seamlessly integrate it across appsBluetooth 4.0/5.0
We have seen so much advancement with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE 4.0) on mobile platforms. This year, BLE 5.0 will bring longer ranges, higher speed and less power consumption to the mobile ecosystem. According to Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), Bluetooth audio on smartphones (which still utilize Bluetooth classic technology) will also be able to transfer to BLE. BLE advancements will allow mobile apps to control your home, cars, computers, robots, drones, sensors and other external devices with longer ranges and more reliability. Improved BLE can create more app and product opportunities in IoT, beacons and hardware devices.
3. Augmented Reality
Pokemon GO came and went in 2016, but the way it capitalized on augmented reality in mobile devices sparked a tremendous interest in AR’s potential. Augmented reality, the ability to superimpose computer images and information over real-world views, has existed for years. Pokemon GO’s immense success is inspiring new AR-based apps. AR functionality can make apps more engaging, informative, entertaining and educational. It can be used not only to increase brand awareness but to educate users about products and store locations, giving you the availability to add a third dimension to the mobile user experience.
4. Home Automation
Apple launched a much-improved HomeKit in 2016. Developers are now using that software development kit (SDK) to build apps that can control multiple smart devices in your home, such as smart lights, speakers, thermostats, detectors, electrical outlets, blinds, locks and sensors.
The HomeKit makes it easier for apps to discover devices, connect to them and control them without writing any big code. This year, we will see a variety of home automation apps that allow activity-based control. For example, if a user walks out of a room, the lights will automatically turn off. Or if all occupants leave a house, alarms, locks and other security measures will be automatically implemented. Google’s Brillo, a home-automation platform announced earlier this year, will likewise increase the ease of developing home automation and IoT device control apps.
5. Virtual Reality
Google recently launched a virtual reality platform for developers that introduced an affordable VR device called “Google Cardboard.” Apple is also rumoured to be working on a VR project.Android allows developers to build VR apps with an immersive experience that can be used in a variety of industries, including gaming, entertainment, education and tourism.
While the education industry can use it to build apps that educate students on complex subjects like Einstein’s theories, the gaming industry can use VR to build interactive sets that require physical movement. The tourism industry can provide a 3D experience of a location thousands of miles away, and the entertainment industry can use it to deliver entertainment to your doorstep. Although still under wraps, VR has the potential to make the future even brighter for mobile app development.
These mobile technologies will play a big role for startups or enterprises that want to build apps to solve a problem. As the masses have become accustomed to existing mobile apps and features, these technologies will provide the needed impetus to innovate the mobile user experience. If you are planning to build a mobile app this year, consider implementing one or more of these features.
If you own an iPhone, you may have noticed something odd in the Messages app: Some messages are blue and some are green. What’s the deal with that?
Short answer: Blue ones have been sent or received using Apple’s iMessage technology, while green ones are “traditional” text messages exchanged via Short Messaging Service, or SMS.
Does this matter? In the grand texting scheme of things, should you care whether your messages are blue or green?
The Colour Question:
Maybe yes, maybe no. Let’s start by making sure you have all the necessary information. A standard SMS text message is delivered over the same voice networks used for phone calls. Back in the bad old days, carriers charged by the message. Then they bundled a fixed number of messages into your calling plan, and now most of them offer unlimited messaging.
In the interim, Apple unveiled iMessage, which looks and acts like standard SMS but actually relies on data networks (cellular or Wi-Fi, whatever you’re connected to). That affords two benefits: freedom from carrier rates for SMS (if you’re paying extra for it or have a capped plan) and a wider set of messaging features.
Indeed, iMessage allows you to do things standard SMS can’t, like share your location, send walkie-talkie-style voice messages, check message delivery and even see if someone’s in the process of writing you back (indicated by those three little dots that appear below your last message).
With the arrival of iOS 10, Apple added even more iMessage goodies, like apps, stickers and bubble effects.
Blue FTW
Ah, but here’s the rub: You can only use iMessage with other iDevice owners. If you have an iPhone and you use the Messages app to contact an Android, BlackBerry or Windows Phone user, iOS recognizes there’s no iMessage at the other end and switches (downshifts?) into SMS mode. Your indication that has happened? Green word bubbles instead of blue.
However, you may end up seeing green even if you’re corresponding with another iPhone. There are three possible causes:
• iMessage isn’t activated on your device. (Tap Settings, Messages, then check to see if the feature is switched on. If it is, you should also activate “Send as SMS.” Note that you may need to perform a one-time sign-in using your Apple ID.)
• iMessage isn’t activated on the recipient’s device.
• There’s no data network available. If your phone can still connect to a voice tower, it will default back to SMS.
So, is there any reason you should disable iMessage and rely exclusively on SMS? Only if data is at a premium: Although text messages are very small, picture and video messages can consume a fair bit of data — and if your service plan offers unlimited texting but limited data, you may prefer to switch off iMessage in favor of SMS.
On the flip side, if you’re corresponding with fellow iPhone users but still seeing only green messages, ask them to enable iMessage at their end so you can enjoy the various benefits of the service. Many users have no idea iMessage is even a thing, and don’t realize it’s not enabled.
Editors’ note: This article was originally published on Feb. 24, 2015, and has since been updated.
Source: C|NET
“A person’s success can be measured by the amount of uncomfortable conversations they’ve had.” – Tim Ferriss
The Design Thinking for Startups Module have been very educative, challenging and interactive. But one unique lesson that I will never forget is to always put focus on the people, not the product.
The module have taught me to think and work differently, empowered me with tools needed in solving not just business related problems, discovering opportunities, and generating innovative, human-centered solutions.
From my experience during the module, creating and lunching a new product is frightening and a challenging task. But adopting a human centered perspective and an attitude of continual experimentation makes the whole task easy to manage.
One thing I have also discovered during this module is the fact there is never a one size fits all mold of how to design and launch new products into the market. Questioning things and going against the grain to understand the underlying process helps to bring any product to the market.
Below are five things I have learnt and I will apply in the near future.
1. Solve a Real Problem:
Solving business related problems involves identify the problem. Consumers or end users of any product and service will always have problems, people will always look for innovative ways or product to accomplish everyday tasks.
But as long as consumers have problems, they will always search for solutions.
Coming up with a solution does demand market testing. It’s important not to create a solution to a problem that does not really exist.
A clearly defined problem does help expedite the path to finding the right (product or service) solution.
2. The Role of Prototyping in Solving Business Problems:
The problem of finding the right modern business solutions have made prototyping a necessity in lunching new product. One effective way of presenting a conjecture of solution to the end users is through prototyping.
As stated in one of my blog post, in “ the primary purpose of rapid prototype is learning – which assumptions make sense, which ones don’t”.
Prototype helps disentangle complex business problems or need. It allows you gather feedback or opinions needed for product or service alteration. Increases and improves stakeholder engagement. Furthermore, the beauty about using prototyping as a tool for product development is the cost of prototyping is just a fraction of the solution cost.
My business group was able to implement a business idea into a wireframe prototype within two days of conceiving it due to the advice we received in class to keep the idea simple.
3. Designing for your Customer:
It very imperative to have a good knowledge and understanding of your potential customer requirements. To effectively sell to your customers it important to identify and manage their expectations at an early stage of product development process.
Engaging with consumers is also an important aspects of knowing your customers. Some of the Business trade show and exhibition organised was geared at us first, understanding the needs of our potential customers.
Image Source: http://www.technologystudent.com/joints/prddes1.htm
It’s also essential to engage with your potential customers directly rather than basing your understanding of them on market research findings.
4. Simplicity is Key!
“You’ve got to start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology.” – Steve Jobs
In the words of Richard Branson, “Keep it simple, stupid!” It is important the keep the initial product design simple. Focus should always be on the core premise of the product.
Image Source: http://theprofitablefirm.com/tag/website-design/
The customer should be able to know how the product works without them getting frustrated due to complicated design of your product.
5.Role of Good Value Proposition
A truly good value proposition should paint a picture of your brand. It’s should also describe the benefits customers can expect from your products and services. It literally tells your audience:
• How your product or service solves/improves problems
• What benefits customers can expect
• Why customers should buy from you over your competitors
It should also introduce you to prospective buyers and helps you make a strong first impression. Finally, a good design value proposition helps tackle the core challenge of every business — creating compelling products and services customers want to buy.
6. Role of Personas In Design Thinking Process
Applying personas to design thinking process will help you take a step back and build empathy with users, helping you to properly listen and walk in their shoes.
Personas are “not real people or average users but user models described in detail to have the key attributes, needs, values, lifestyle, culture and personal background of the group they represent” (Giulia Piu).
A persona shows attitude, behaviour, emotions and anything that will give more context to understand the personas behaviour.
“Personas were informally developed by Alan Cooper in the early ’80s as a way to empathize with and internalise the mindset of people who would eventually use the software he was designing.”
How Are Personas Created?
Personas can be created in a myriad of ways, This includes;
• Interview and/or observe an adequate number of people.
• Find patterns in the interviewees’ responses and actions, and use those to group similar people together.
• Create archetypical models of those groups, based on the patterns found.
• Drawing from that understanding of users and the model of that understanding, create user-centered designs.
7. Role of Finance and Pricing in Business
The ultimate goal of financed and product pricing is to achieve three benefits: business support service, lowest costs and effective control of the business environment.
Money is the lifeblood of a business and accurate profit and loss, balance sheet and cash flow is needed to promote a successful business enterprise.
Reference
• Designing for the Digital Age: How to Create Human-Centered Products and Services, Kim Goodwin
• The Essential Persona Lifecycle: Your Guide to Building and Using Personas, Tamara Adlin and John Pruitt
• The User Is Always Right: A Practical Guide to Creating and Using Personas for the Web, Steve Mulder
• Personas and the Advantage of Designing for Yourself,” Joshua Porter
• “Personas: Practice and Theory” (PDF), John Pruitt and Jonathan Grudin, Microsoft
• The Persona Lifecycle: Keeping People in Mind Throughout Product Design, John Pruitt and Tamara Adlin
• “Losing Yourself in a Fictional Character Can Affect Your Real Life,” Jeff Grabmeier, Ohio State University
• “Real or Imaginary: The Effectiveness of Using Personas in Product Design,” Frank Long, Frontend
• “The Personas’ New Clothes: Methodological and Practical Arguments Against a Popular Method” (PDF), Christopher N. Chapman and Russell P. Milham, Microsoft
• “Putting Personas Under the Microscope,” Suzy Thompson, Cooper Journal
• “Quantitative Evaluation of Personas as Information” (PDF), Christopher N. Chapman
It was thrilling being part of 1st Trade fair in 2017 which took place at Kingston Business School London. This was a great chance which we displayed and get on the spot answers right away about our prototype product. It was also an opportunity to engage with potential customers.
The Trade Fair also provided us opportunity to give consumers a first-hand experience of products; team members were on hand to showcase our product experiences and more.
Pitching our business idea to a panel of professional judges was nerve-racking. This might be due to the fact our product was still at the prototype stage. Nevertheless, the presentation was also an opportunity to test our business idea and gather as much feedback as possible.
Furthermore, our prototype product (chopstick trainer) accurately demonstrates the key features and functionality of the final product.
The team main objective is to let the judges quickly understand what we do and be excited about it with a well thought out presentation.
Getting ready for our presentation, rehearsing for the last time
George Uka with his team members pitching our business proposition to a judging panel mix of successful entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists.
Our product strategy from start has always been creating a product which is “simple”.
We took our time in class to work on the product value preposition. Its was imperative we clearly communicates the benefits of our product to a potential end users. As Chris Guillebeau once said in the $100 Startup, “a business ultimately succeeds because of the value it provides its end users, customers, or clients.”
During our presentation we were able to:
Describes the problems solved by our product.
We explain the benefits the end users will derived from our product.
Lastly, we categorically spell out how our product differs from the competition.
A truly god value proposition should paint a picture of your brand for prospects. It’s must describe the benefits customers can expect from your products and services. It literally tells your audience:
How your product or service solves/improves problems
What benefits customers can expect
Why customers should buy from you over your competitors
Image Source: wileyasiablog.com
It should introduce you to prospective buyers and helps you make a strong first impression. for example, Apple is believed to have a great value proposition, one that is particularly impressive is its statement for the MacBook.
The company emphasises how lightweight its product is (its biggest differentiator), while also speaking how advanced its technology is.
Finally, a good design value proposition helps tackle the core challenge of every business — creating compelling products and services customers want to buy.
Elon Musk is often labelled a dreamer, the closest we could get to a real-life Tony Stark. He is an innovative and motivational leader that uses his passion for technology to repeatedly deliver breathtaking results. Now, he is coalescing the various articulations of his business empire to create comprehensive solutions to climate issues and beyond.
The Frontline Against Climate Change
Upon completing a $2.6 billion acquisition of SolarCity, Musk secured a future where he can sell electric cars and solar roofs to customers under the Tesla brand. Although a few skeptics deemed this a risky move, his ‘dream big or go home’ attitude quickly silenced critics by unveiling an entire island run by solar power.
The island of Ta’u in American Samoa is more than 4,000 miles from the United States. Power outages are a regular occurrence in this remote location that heavily relies on diesel generators. It’s the perfect example of technology stepping in to improve the old way of doing things.
“Would you like a roof that looks better than a normal roof, last twice as long, cost less and by the way generates electricity?” – Elon Musk
Tesla’s microgrid of solar panels will supply nearly 100 percent of the Ta’u’s 600 residents’ energy requirements. The 5,300 solar panels along with 60 Tesla Powerpack batteries illustrate how the future is already here.
These technological advancements will particularly have a positive impact in the developing world. We have already seen this happen with nations skipping telephones and computers by going straight to smartphones. This is another huge reason that mobile browsing has officially overtaken desktop recently.
Renewable energy is an economical solution that could transform developing nations from no power to solar micro-grids within a few years. Removing the dreaded expense that surrounds our current energy infrastructure seems to be where the biggest leap forward has been made.
Sure, Ta’u is an easy test case, with its perfect weather and relatively uncomplicated energy needs. But, it is undeniably a shining example of what is possible. For those who reject the science of climate change, Elon Musk presents an alternative incentive: money. This is a cheaper option that concurrently benefits the planet and consequently its people. How can you argue with savings, high-quality products, and public interest?
Let’s Charge Forward
Why are so many people still doubtful of Musk’s ideas? I don’t understand the pushback. Yes, he is radical, but he consistently proves naysayers wrong. There is something objectively exciting about lowering the carbon footprint on an island where the residents have experienced global warming first hand.
And there is something admirable about tackling a problem that the future administration of one of the world’s most powerful nations deems a fiction. He needs our support to continue his good work. Those of you who believe in the urgency of climate change should support him as one of the few companies championing this cause.
In Sum
The reality is that harkening to the past is good only for inspiration rather than re-creation. We cannot go back in time. We can build a brighter and better future by learning from our mistakes and continuing to evolve together with the public good in mind. To make America great again, we should strive to support those among us who champion the causes we believe in—whatever they may be.
If history has taught us anything at all, it’s that those who dare to throw caution to the wind to change the world are usually the ones who do. After proving that Tesla can power an island for three days without sunlight, it appears that Elon Musk has given us yet another reason to believe
Hi, its me again.. have you ever wanted to understand patterns in behaviour of buyers of a product? are you looking to innovate (something new) or to improve an existing service?
Applying personas to design thinking process will help you take a step back and build empathy with users, helping you to properly listen and walk in their shoes.
Personas are “not real people or average users but user models described in detail to have the key attributes, needs, values, lifestyle, culture and personal background of the group they represent” (Giulia Piu).
Alice Comi a Lecturer in Business Design in the School of Strategy, Marketing and Innovation at Kingston Business School, London categorically stated that ” Personas are not specific users but rather ideal types that are built upon observation of multiple users.”
A persona shows attitude, behaviour, emotions and anything that will give more context to understand the personas behaviour.
“Personas were informally developed by Alan Cooper in the early ’80s as a way to empathize with and internalise the mindset of people who would eventually use the software he was designing.”
How Are Personas Created?
Personas can be created in a myriad of ways, This includes;
Interview and/or observe an adequate number of people.
Find patterns in the interviewees’ responses and actions, and use those to group similar people together.
Create archetypical models of those groups, based on the patterns found.
Drawing from that understanding of users and the model of that understanding, create user-centered designs.
Conclusion
Designers don’t always know what is best — but sometimes users do and that is what personas are for: to stand up and represent real users, since real users can’t be there when the design process takes place.
I was part of a group of #Mace16 student that attended a 3D workshop induction class at the Faculty of Art, Design & Architecture Kingston University London on the 25th of October 2016. This is a well-equipped modern workshop facility with everything you’ll need to build a product prototype. The support staff took us through the workshop facilities and equipment’s.
We were introduced to both traditional and latest contemporary design tools at the workshop. We were also instructed to maintain high standards in safety practice since a workshop must always be regarded as a place of relatively high risk. The workshop houses fixed machinery and portable power tools that can maim or kill in moments of negligence, the greatest care must be taken at all times.
The workshop induction learning experience focuses on practical techniques for designing a new product that combines aesthetic and functional requirements.
Design thinking means working differently, it also a set of processes for solving problems, discovering opportunities, and generating innovative, human-centered solutions. At its heart, design thinking is about adopting a human-centered perspective and an attitude of continual experimentation.
Five Key Steps of Design Thinking
Step 1 – Empathy
Any social endeavour begins with the human element. It involves identifying the molecules that make up your target audience, getting under their skin and finding out what they value, what they want and how they look at the world.
Step 2 – Define
Every cogent work of design requires something of a mission statement to bring clarity and focus to your work. What exactly are you trying to convey? What and who are you addressing? What are you bringing to the table? Sometimes, a problem statement can be condensed to a word, almost a mantra that acts as a guiding principle and other times it might be too complex to condense into a paragraph even.
Step 3 – Ideate
What separates design thinking from other empirical forms of thinking is the primacy placed on thinking wide, being obtuse if you must, until you arrive at interesting solutions.
The first rule of brainstorming dictates that there are no rules, all ideas are welcome and encouraged. Ideation gives us better answers to our problems and gives us a better idea of a prototype that can delight it’s users. Thinking creatively, having many voices and solutions helps us conjure up the best product for the user.
Step 4 – Prototype
How does one gauge the reactions of one’s users before the final big reveal? The design thinking process, in all it’s stages poses many nagging questions “Will it work?” or “How will they respond?” or even “Will they even get it at all?”. The best way to allay these fears is to come up with a prototype, a demo or a test model if you will. This can be pretty much anything that he user engages with, which is precisely why the ideation process often gives us interesting ideas for a solid prototype.
Step 5 – Test
Once you have sent out your prototypes, the next natural step is to solicit feedback from you users about their experience interacting with it. The way you choose to do this can even get you closer to your users, making yourself more personable and relatable. As mentioned earlier, it’s all about empathy!
