Recap of SXSH “Unconference”

It has been a whirlwind since SXSH (Sharing. Exchanging. Social Health.) a few weeks ago! I’m finally getting around to re-capping it from the Think Brownstone perspective, but that’s fine since we had Phil’s take on ePatCon 2011 to tide us over…not to mention the great recap of SXSH from Deirdre at WalkWithWill, whom I was lucky enough to join at the event.

First off, kudos to Shwen, Dana, Kerri, and Jenni for putting together a really engaging event and keeping the spirit of an “unconference” alive in the face of increasing interest and attendance. When you design something to purposely go against the grain, it can be a bit disconcerting when it grows to the point that sanity dictates having to pull in some more of the conventional logistics. These are the good kind of problems to have. Plus, personally, whether or not something is ultimately worthy of the label “unconference” is immaterial to me – what I care about is the substance and the spirit of the day.

It was a brisk single-day event packed with engaging speakers, and I won’t go through an exhaustive recap of each but will instead use this as a place to quickly capture some thoughts and links that I made note to take some time further digging into.

Todd Park (CTO, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services) was a smart choice as keynote speaker and a great way to start the day. If we’re ever going to get to a future state of healthcare that truly works for everyone, we’re going to need to know that there are good, smart folks in the government actively fighting the good fight – and Todd immediately struck me as the type. Lots of great info here on how he’s working with HHS to exploit data and technology to make serious strides – and he’s got quite a track record going for him. I was duly impressed, and made note to get more familiar with the data, functionality, and concepts employed by the Blue Button campaign, The “Direct Project”, Healthdata.gov, Asthmapolis, Doximity, and Ozioma.

Ed Bennett from the University of Maryland Medical Center had a fantastic presentation jammed full of the latest data around how social media is really being used in healthcare – it’s no longer up on his site (that I can tell), but poking around on there will be enlightening all the same. I especially liked his quote that “social media is a conversation, not a lecture” – which is relevant to pretty much everyone using social media tools, let alone every organization that tries to – healthcare or not.

You can, however, find the presentation from Melissa Davies (“Healthcare Social Media By The Numbers) – and dang, if you want to dig into the numbers, and you want REAL numbers, leave it to someone from NM Incite (Neilsen/McKinsey). Fascinating, well-organized and well-presented stuff in here – it is well worth your time to review.

Yours Truly With The Organizers & The Minds Behind WeAreAllPatients.com - Catch Us Together At BlogWorld!

Another quick shout out would be to Mark Bard for founding digitalhealthcoalition.org, recognizing that change has to start with all-inclusive conversations, but requires moving beyond conversations (we’ve got plenty of those) to real action if we’re going to make good on all of this “talk.”

Also, I candidly told ePatient Dave that I had been wondering what his “second act” would be to his powerful patient story after I saw that talk a few times. That story was always about more than just Dave, and he masterfully drew analogues to all patients and thus, all people. But where would he take it from there? Where could he take it, and how would it fly? I’m happy to report that Dave’s new talk came from a place that was more holistic and data driven, and he was as powerful and convincing as ever. Bravo, fella.

A pleasant surprise was the presentation by the folks at ismycancerdifferent.com, who sponsored lunch (which was fantastic, BTW) and gave a talk during that timeslot. That’s usually enough to raise an eyebrow and make you brace for a sales pitch, but what we got was the farthest thing from it. I was extremely grateful to be exposed to their site and their mission, and think that they’ve got a really unique for-profit model that gives them a lot of ammo to do some serious good for cancer patients and beyond.

Finally, I made sure to attend the superhero team-up of Jenni and Kerri who moderated a discussion around patient advocacy and kicked off their “We Are All Patients” campaign that pushed into ePatCon the following two days. Always professional, they surfed the churning waves of differing opinions and made powerful arguments bringing the room back to the inevitable – those differing opinions are valid, but we won’t get anywhere without compromise and understanding that at the end of the day, we’re all in the same camp (like it or not): patients.

Here’s hoping we continue to do more to achieve some real progress and move from talk to action – something we’ll be working on out at the Social Health track of BlogWorld in in Los Angeles this year (11/3-11/5). I’m happy to report I’ll be moderating a session including Jenni, Kerri, and Katie from overflowingbrain.com. Hope you can come out and join us!

E-Patient Connections Recap

Many of Think Brownstone’s clients are in the Life Sciences industry, so it’s critical for us to keep an eye both on how the industry is changing and on how patients themselves are engaging with healthcare professionals, each other and the industry itself. This isn’t the creepy kind of “let’s read what they’re saying and pose as patients” thing.  It’s a genuine desire to interact with people and learn what their needs and frustrations are, then find ways to close the gap. With that in mind, we try to participate in KruResearch’s e-Patient Connections each year.

It’s difficult to do justice to a 2-day conference in a single blog post, so I’ll hit the main themes I extracted from the sessions. As you know, we are fans of single-track conferences, so I was happy to learn that ePatcon switched back to a single-track model this year. If you want to review everything digitally available from the conference, I’d recommend reviewing their slides in slideshare.

Kicking It All Off

I’m a fan of Seth Godin’s blog and his book Tribes, and I’ve been wanting to hear him speak for a while. Although circuit speakers like Seth have a few standard presentations they pull out for speaking gigs like this, clearly Seth studied the goals of the conference and customized his work for the audience. The main themes:

• People like doing what other people are doing
• The general population of a tribe needs a leader
• Leaders don’t necessarily invent anything, they just show up to lead

These were great messages for the crowd, and something to really think about.

Following Seth was a truly inspiring vocal piece and patient story by Charity Tilleman-Dick, a Soprano who has suffered from several debilitating lung diseases and recently went through a lung transplant. Charity’s inspiring patient journey highlights how important it is for patients suffering from chronic diseases to have a laser-sharp focus on their goals. There really is no better way to kick off a conference that focuses on patients than to have an inspiring patient story.

Dr. Internet?

Data from Manhattan Research and Ron Gutman from HealthTap tells us more and more folks are using the Internet as their #1 health resource. Searching for health research increases as reliance on physicians decreases. Not necessarily a good thing, unless we can shore up the quality of the information people can find.

The e-Patient Bill of Rights

In one of the preconference sessions the day before I arrived, a group of e-Patients sat with some industry representatives to begin to spell out what they expect from their digital interactions. The e-Patient Bill of Rights was displayed prominently in the room for users to peruse. Patients want access to their own records, they want efficient communication methods, and they want more trustworthy information.

The Medical Community Reacts

Several presentations from physicians and medical communities showed that there are some progressive movements out there to engage with patients electronically. Julian Bond from the Detroit Medical Center and Ed Bennett from the University of Maryland Medical Center are both doing great things to engage with patients, physicians and medical students through social media channels. While the entire population of physicians have been slow to react to the notion of engaging with patients online, Dr. Kent Bottles and Dr. Bryan Vartabedian of 33charts.com both offered insight into the future of healthcare and the advances of some digitally-engaged physicians. Phil Bauman, a registered nurse from the Mayo Clinic’s center for Social Media discussed several approaches they have taken to pull medical professionals into social media spaces, including engaging in weekly online Twitter sessions under#RNchat and #MDchat.

Industry Lurches Forward

Chris Schroeder of Health Central opened his session asking, “Where are the pitchforks and torches?” – an apt question for everyone in the room. While all trends point to fully engaged e-patients, less-progressive physicians and industries have moved into the digital space at a snail’s pace, often blaming the litigious and regulatory environment. Chris theorizes that true healthcare reform with a strong digital component and a focus on patient empowerment won’t take place until patients scream loud enough.

So, how do we get there? Well, we start following the lead of more progressive organizations like:

• The Lance Armstrong Foundation, who announced the upcoming launch of their new iPad app for Cancer patients.
• Gilead Sciences, who discussed the importance of partnering with patient advocates when creating SpeakFromTheHeart.com in conjunction with Mended Hearts, a women’s heart health advocacy group
• Ignite Health, who discussed merging gaming concepts with health management tools
• Vgo Communications, who developed an internet-enabled robotic telepresence that allows patients to interact with their communities when they are otherwise unable to leave their homes or care centers

In a fascinating keynote, Harris Rosen from Rosen Hotels and Resorts described how he believed he could do better than what the insurance companies were offering. Today, his company is fully self-insured, covering thousands of lives for a fraction of what it would cost to go through a traditional insurance company. His approach isn’t without controversy (a strict anti-tobacco policy causes employees to undergo nicotine tests along with their drug tests), but it seems to be working.  In the very least, it should give health care professionals and providers pause when they gripe about the system. There are other models emerging.

Patients Are There and Are Waiting… Patiently

Jenni Prokopy of Chronicbabe.com and Kerri Sparling of SixUntilMe.com summarized the SXSH event the day before and kicked off their We Are All Patients campaign by stickering anyone who would let them. Jenni and Kerri are active E-patient advocates and good friends of Think Brownstone. Their campaign’s goal is to close the gap between patients and the healthcare system by reminding us that we all came into this world as patients and we’ll all leave it the same way. An atmosphere led by patients could put us all in a better position to get healthy.

Tell me you don't hum the Dr. Pepper theme song when you see this

While the event opened with the inspiring patient journey of Charity Tilleman-Dick, one of the final sessions was Kelly Young’s devastating struggle with Rheumatoid Arthritis. While Kelly struggled with finding the right specialists and securing the right treatments, she learned a great deal about her patient journey. Kelly manages RAWarrior.com to offer insight to patients with RA.

Kelly offered the following advice for the industry to take to heart as we all work to improve healthcare:

Patients are more involved in their own care than ever before. Taking their input in four areas is a critical component to improving healthcare:

• Patients could help create new methods to assess disease
• Patients could help design more effective clinical trials
• Patients could improve the focus and effectiveness of marketing efforts
• Patient-generated data could improve product inserts and warnings

Final Words

This post highlights only a third of the sessions over a two-day conference. Due to time limitations, I skipped a number of engaging speakers covering important topics. For me, the recurring theme throughout the event was that while things are slow to move, change is coming.

Everything To Everyone: Design As A Commodity?

Visit one of your favorite aggregators of design/business articles and do a search for “everything to everybody”, and you’re sure to get an interesting set of material back. Unsurprisingly, what you read won’t be touting the benefits of such a strategy; it’ll be a lot of cautionary tales and advice around focusing on and exploiting your core strengths. But when you’ve got a shop full of really smart, well-rounded folks with colorful skill sets and employment histories…and when you’re frequently asked by clients (to whom you’ve proven your mettle) to tackle wide-ranging projects for them, and succeed, it’s easy to backslide into thinking you can indeed do it all.

Actually, wait a sec…since there’s a part of me that sincerely believes our team really can do it all (owing a lot to our process)…let me rephrase: it’s easy to backslide into telling others who don’t know you very well that you can indeed do it all.

I can tell you from experience that in this situation, the smart folks on the other end of the table will challenge you – and they are right to do so. I should clarify that I believe that our process and our method of design thinking is useful for solving all kinds of diverse and complex problems; some of which we can tackle ourselves start to finish, and some of which we serve better by being part of a broader cross-functional team. That’s a lot different from trying to be, or thinking we can be, “everything to everyone.”

"Yep, We Do That Too"

As consumers, sometimes we are willing to accept the “one stop shop” in our daily lives – an obvious example is the superstore. But when do we accept this? When we are willing to go with the safe, the generic, and the bare minimum of service and attention to detail for the sake of saving time and a few dollars. Sometimes there’s nothing wrong with that, it just depends on whether or not it aligns with your goals. If my family is staying with me over the holidays, I might indeed stock up on paper goods at Giant, because they’re a commodity (to me, anyway – but you may disagree and insist on exclusive use of toilet paper woven by Korean silkworms). But if I want to have good bagels for the New York contingent in the morning (note: nothing you buy in a package has the right to be even classified as a “bagel”), I need to go to a local shop where they make them fresh every morning and not just by punching holes in kaiser rolls.

But let’s up the stakes, and talk about our homes – where most of us have higher standards. If I’ve got the plumber over for an estimate and he happens to notice a small piece of drywall missing and says “hey, I can patch that up for you while I’m here if you want” – I might be inclined to say “yeah sure, that sounds great!” Low stakes, I don’t need to be too discerning, and it’s very convenient. But if I’ve got a few rooms stripped back to the studs and he says “hey, I can drywall all of that for you if you want, run the electric, re-point that fireplace, and fix that antique stained glass for you”, the stakes are a lot higher, I need that stuff done right, and it’s going to take a lot of scrutiny to convince me that he’s really an expert at each of these things let alone the right guy for the job.

So, back to experience design – we’ve been developing some really fantastic partnerships lately, with folks who understand this reality. Many of the places we have partnerships with have small internal UX groups – and for the small patch jobs, they’re more than equipped for the task. But when it comes to heavy lifting, high stakes, enterprise-wide UX work – they know it’s time to get us on the horn. Similarly, when it comes to high level HTML and CSS templates or digital assets that require minimal coding, etc., we’re internally equipped for the task. When it comes to the back end of dynamic CMS-driven applications, HD iPad apps, and other high-tech development, it’s better for us and our clients to call in our dedicated partners.

In theory, a bunch of these focused businesses could be pulled together under a single umbrella and effectively become a one-stop shop, but I’ve worked places before where that was attempted (and know of a few operating right now as well…) and the reality is that I haven’t seen it implemented in a way where the quality was able to be maintained. Operations, logistical overhead, and the inevitability of layers of management overseeing skill sets they don’t remotely understand always seems to result in…well, superstore quality output.

So in the end it just comes back to what you’re trying to achieve…what kind of experience do you want for your customers? What kind of experience do you want to have when working on that project? Knowing whether you’re in the market for toilet paper or authentic bagels will greatly determine where you go shopping.

Experience Review: The BMW Guggenheim Lab

I’ve been told that I missed my calling as a theatre critic.  Most people walk out of shows and say, “Well that was nice.  Where should we go for dessert?”  Not me.  I’m that person who feels compelled to comment on every aspect of the experience, be it good or bad. E-ver-y-thing. That’s probably why I work here.

I was in Manhattan the other weekend and stopped by to check out the BMW Guggenheim Lab, a “mobile laboratory traveling around the world to inspire innovative ideas for urban life.”  While it might not be theatre, it is in fact a stage – with the singular purpose of inviting the audience up onto it to collectively brainstorm ideas for the improvement of urban life; a complex design problem if ever there was one.

So how did it fare? Here’s my official, unofficial review:

Um, Hello?

Entering from Houston street, the BMW Guggenheim Lab has a nice beer garden feel with trees and picnic tables and a chalkboard out front listing the day’s program offerings.  We happened to arrive while a program was underway and found ourselves awkwardly waffling outside, debating between “crashing” the program by walking in or turning around and leaving. Uncertainty led to a sense of unwelcome in a matter of seconds.

Walk into any good restaurant and someone’s there to greet you, make you feel welcome and inspire confidence that this is a place where you want to spend the next hour or so of your life, and you’re not going to get food poisoning.  There was no analogue here, compounded by the fact that as a visitor you aren’t entirely clear what the “lab” even is.  What kind of experience will it provide?  Will it be entertaining?  Are you going to learn anything?  Is anything going to be asked of you?  How long will it take?  Where should you go first?  Is it OK to just walk in?

We stood outside feeling mildly like peeping toms with these and other questions in our heads until I (seeing the glimmer of a blog post) mustered the courage to crash the party and walk in.

Emily at the BMW Guggenheim Lab (2nd From Right): "You keep using that word...I do not think it means what you think it means."

Climbing Over Chairs Is For Weddings

The act of walking in was, in itself, a feat.  The front of the space was loaded with long tables with people huddled around them all engrossed in discussions having something to do with maps and colored pens (we never learned what was going on there).  But to get in, we had to weave through this obstacle course of legs and bags and chairs to arrive at the only landmark I could make out as an official place for information: a podium, with a person standing at it.  Once I reached her, I mumbled something like, “Sorry… is this okay?” I felt like I was interrupting. Like I was in the way.

On the one hand, a crowded room of people earnestly talking about something is a really exciting thing to experience, but it fails if you don’t feel like there’s room metaphorically or even physically for you to join in.

A Breath Of Fresh Air

Next, we crossed a threshold that visually divides the space and entered a completely different realm.  It was open and airy, with people comfortably standing around what appeared to be a chessboard on the floor with sculptural game pieces on it.  It was like emerging from a stuffy, loud banquet room onto a cool veranda where the people you really want to spend time with are hanging out.

We were immediately engaged by a staff person inviting us to play a game.  The game is called Urbanology and you can play it on the Lab’s website.  But what works about it as a live experience is exactly what makes it lackluster as an online experience.  Briefly, Urbanology asks participants 10 yes/no questions on a variety of topics having to do with urban life.  People manning the game pieces (representing innovation, transportation, health, affordability, wealth, lifestyle, sustainability and livability) are asked to respond with their particular issue in mind.  For each question, the majority vote wins and the various game pieces either advance or fall back as a result of the vote.  Along the way, you’re shown the ratio of total votes in favor or against the question that your group just answered.   The game ends by likening the city you’ve created based on the final distribution of the issues on the board to real cities around the globe with similar issue prioritization.

"Urbanology" In Action

What was more fascinating than the game or its results (and why Urbanology as an online single-player game falls short) was how a group of strangers played it together.  Of the approximately 15 people participating, we had a very wide cross-section of ages, races and ethnicities and I’m certain a host of other variables not easily discernible on the surface.  Everyone quickly got into the game.  They offered explanations for their votes.  They asked questions of each other.  They tried to persuade others to see the issue from their perspective. They shared what is important to them.  They listened respectfully.  They engaged.  They gave thought to their position on issues they may have never considered before.  They learned that others, people they might assume were much like them, hold completely different opinions.  They laughed.  They agreed to disagree.  And they respected the majority vote as final. It was democracy in action – albeit a no-stakes version.  Nevertheless, it was a refreshing experience, and reminded me a heck of a lot of the way we design Think Sessions to work.

Unsolicited Design Advice

I can’t say that what I took away from Urbanology was the intended “lesson.” Given the stated purpose of the Lab, my guess is no.  But that’s the beauty of a stage after all, you put something up there and it’s up to the individual audience member to decide what, if anything, they’ll take away from it.

Ultimately, I’d say it was a worthwhile experience cooked up by organizations we admire (though you might want to revisit that website design, guys…) - but if I might make a suggestion: flip the spaces.  Use the game as the entry point, engaging people around the fun they might have spending more time with and learning from the strangers around them.  Then invite those who are hungry for more into the “serious table space” where they can roll up their sleeves, sketch ideas, build off of each other, and – without even being aware of it – participate in the early stages of what is the core of the design process: identifying problems, casting visions, observing and asking, and brainstorming solutions together – another important aspect of democracy in action.

A Website Walks Into A Bar…

I recently met with a project team to talk about content strategy for a website redesign, specifically about the tone and personality that we need to get across in the site. I described the desired state as: “If this website was at a cocktail party, we want it to be the most interesting person in the room without going to the extreme of having a lampshade on its head.”

This off-the-cuff description of the site’s personality made me start thinking about how to actually achieve that effect, and how it can be taken to an extreme.

Who is the most interesting person in the room at a cocktail party? Someone who…

• Invites conversation with both friends and new acquaintances
• Engages you in conversation while making you feel comfortable and important
• Tells great stories
• Draws you in and makes you want to get to know them more
• Has personality!

These are not just what gives people that je ne sais quoi in a social situation; these are all things that give a website personality too. A website that has these characteristics is one that stands out from the crowd, draws users in, and keeps them there.

If Your Website Has "Skip Intro" Anywhere On It, It's One Of These Guys

Certainly, there can be some serious missteps in attempting to infuse a site with personality. Here are some cases of website personality gone bad (we originally toyed with including links here, but decided to let you identify your own – you’ll be able to spot them):

The “It’s Got a Great Personality” Website

This is the unfortunate case where the copy is saying all the right things, and the company has a great story to tell, but it’s masked by poor execution: inefficient site structure, visual design that doesn’t compliment the message, and/or confusing interactions. Common offenders: specialty manufacturing sites, benefits providers, and others with deep data repositories, lots of internal infrastructure reflected in the information architecture, and/or exhaustive customization options.

The “Lampshade On It’s Head” Website

This is the wild and crazy guy website with the equivalent of finger guns that is just trying too hard. These sites want so badly for you to be their friend/customer that they appear overbearing and desperate. They may have sleek or even flashy design, and content that’s more marketing-speak and fluff than simple substance and utility. Common offenders: restaurants, slightly off-the-mark advertising campaigns, and start-ups trying a little to hard to break the industry conventions.

The “Wallflower” Website

This is the site that isn’t quite sure how to best let its true colors show, so it retreats in the corner nursing a lukewarm cup of punch – watching everyone else. They blend in among the noise of the web, coming across as generic and revealing their treasures to a small select few…perhaps coming across as cold and impersonal as a result. Common offenders: content aggregators, government sites, and non-profits that haven’t learned that a little personality doesn’t necessarily equal alienation – and that being milquetoast is often worse.

But of course, beauty (and personality) is in the eye of the beholder. It’s important to keep in mind that the characteristics of a website with great personality will mean different things to different industries and consequently, different user groups. The Lampshade website at a financial industry party may look like the Wallflower at a fashion industry party; it takes some smart market & user research to determine what kind of personality your own little monster should have to be most effective.

So let your customers know who you really are! Invite them to converse with you, make them feel important, and tell a great story. Cheers!

It’s The Little Things

I took a spill off my bike earlier this summer and managed to break my index finger. The intervening months have seen many doctor and rehab visits, but just last week I was at the Orthopedist waiting for my final checkup to ensure everything was as good as it felt.

As a good (and somewhat anal-retentive) patient, I arrived around 10:00 for my 10:10 appointment. I believe they called me back to an exam room around 10:30. There I proceeded to wait for another 25 minutes until the doctor came to see me, 45 minutes after my appointment time. As I passed those 25 minutes, I heard the doctor spending copious amounts of time with the patients before me; explaining (and re-explaining) how a procedure would work, gushing over another’s vacation photos from the lake house, and generally doing every unintentional thing in his power to work me into a good lather.

ARE YOU READY TO PARTAAAAAY?!?!?

When the doctor finally arrived, he was his usual upbeat, friendly, and approachable self. He immediately apologized for his delay, explaining that the morning’s storms had knocked out their power, causing a 45-minute delay to the start of their day. After a quick examination, he dictated some notes into the EMR system on his laptop and I was sent on my way with a clean bill of finger-health.

Driving back to the office, I started to tick off all the key interactions of that visit that built up to my overall experience:

Check In

The receptionist gave no sign or indication of a delay (she barely gave signs of life), missing an opportunity to set my expectations and nip any annoyance in the bud.

No Cellphone Policy

This office has many prominent “Turn off cellphones before entering office” signs. In this day and age, a policy like this is curious. Is it a safety issue? Privacy? Politeness?

• Pro: There was a large variety of (current!) magazines to read, so my boredom was sated. Well-played.
• Con: I heard so many other people’s phones going off that I eventually ignored the ban took a hit off my Designed by Apple in California crackpipe. Many important things happen on Twitter in 45 minutes!

Doctor/Patient Banter:

• Pro: This doctor isn’t just about maximizing throughput. He spends the time to explain procedures to patients. He gets to know them. He has real human interactions with them. This is a guy that can put me at ease when serious medical issues arise.
• Con: Be aware of your surroundings. Bones and joints aren’t the most personally sensitive parts of people’s bodies, but they might not want all the other people in the hall to hear every word of their diagnosis. Also, there’s a time and a place for everything. Maybe you build time into your schedule to get to know your patients, but when you’re running 45 minutes behind, that’s not appropriate. There’s no need to rush, just level with people and they’ll likely understand. We’ve all been there.

Technology

EMR/EHR systems are becoming the norm. There are serious incentives for practices to implement them. However, with that comes new challenges and opportunities.

• Pro: This is the first time I’ve seen a doctor dictate their notes into an EMR. I’d never thought of it before, but what a fantastic thing. Now I know not only what the doctor tells me, but also what he is putting in my file. This is a great way to pull back the curtain that frequently separates a patient from their records. Remember Elaine and her files? No more.
• Con: Power outages mean servers can go down, batteries can run out. Physicians need sophisticated IT equipment to ensure minimal downtime. When your ISP has a better SLA than your healthcare provider things are a little out of whack.

Overall, my visit was a decent one. I got a clean bill of health and despite the delays, I was out of there in under an hour. Having said that, could it have been better? You bet. I spent 45 of those sub-60 minutes waiting to see the doctor. I wouldn’t call that respecting the client’s time. Ideally, I would have arrived and been immediately notified of the delay, giving me an opportunity to step out and make any work-related calls or adjust my day’s schedule. From there I could have settled in to a good issue of Bicycling and been at least resigned to the delay when the doctor finally saw me, instead of the fired-up state I was in after stewing in various holding patterns for three-quarters of an hour.

These are the things we tend to obsess over at Think Brownstone. Many times they’re minor points, but they can also be the straws that break the camel’s back (or the toothpicks that build the bridge). Crafting an extraordinary experience for your employees, customers, or patients is an exercise that requires a holistic approach including time-honored practices, divergent thinking, and above all an intense attention to detail. Luckily, that’s right up our alley.

Love What You Do and Do It Well

If you’ve ever had the misfortune to push the philosophy of “do what you love” while I’m within earshot, you’ve heard me enter into a tirade. You hear it all the time – people promoting the notion that if you pursue a career in something you are passionate for, you will be successful.  As a realist, I have to disagree with this philosophy. There are two main points to my argument:

Point 1: If everyone did what they loved, we’d have a shortage of poopsmiths

All kidding aside, there are some awful jobs out there that are both necessary and undesirable. Remember Russ’ story about his dad? We should always show respect for the folks who do the jobs nobody wants to do. They are the everymen and women who keep the world spinning while putting food on the table. I’m sure every one of them has a passion in life that they’d rather be pursuing, but reality has dealt them a hand they have to play and they’ve found a way to make it work. In many of those cases, I doubt their hopes and dreams included their two full time, back-breaking, thankless jobs.

Point 2: Just because you have a passion for something does not mean you do it well

I’ve pursued my fair share of passions that I never mastered enough to be a pro in: cooking, glass blowing, and writing, to name a few. All I love, all I find exceedingly gratifying, but that doesn’t make me good enough at any of them to eke out even a meager living.

I realize there ARE people who have pursued “do what you love” and were able to either make a living out of it or became wildly successful. There are many in the former category, but to be in the latter is rare. If you’re putting all your eggs in that basket, you are very likely to be disappointed.

Love what you do and do it well

I’m not as cynical as this makes me sound. Nothing is quite as infectious as watching someone who loves what they do while they do it well. Now, there’s a philosophy I can get behind. See what I did there? I turned it around. It’s not “Do what you love” it’s “Love what you do.” We are all good at several things. Your job as a contributing member of society is to find something you can be good at and have a passion for and pursue that. Passion is infectious.

I’m not talking about primal desire, I’m talking about a deep love and respect for your craft. It’s the difference between that couple that makes out on the couch at your party all night (but breaks up a month later) and the old man who gently pats his wife’s hand with a tear in his eye. The first type of passion is what gives us flavor-of-the-month professions, such as “Pumpkin Ice Cream Scooping Specialist” or “Social Media Marketer.” The second type of passion you see every day in the most successful folks in their profession. Here are some examples:

Music

I’ve made a pact with myself to avoid shows just because “I have to see them before they break up or one of them dies.” I prefer to go to shows where I can sense the passion of the musicians on stage. If I have to choose between seeing The Who and Bon Iver again, I’ll pick Bon Iver. Not because Roger Daltrey is getting crusty, but because I don’t sense his passion anymore. Justin Vernon’s passion is palpable on stage. To top it off, he’s surrounded himself with an ensemble that has not only made his work better, but watching them work together is amazing. If you like indy/alt music and haven’t seen them on stage, you should seek them out.

Food

A recent episode of Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations has him revisiting the renowned Spanish restaurant El Bulli before they permanently closed their doors. If you are into food, check out this episode. Bourdain sits down with the chef/owner Ferran Adrià to enjoy one of their 30-some course meals. As each course is brought out, Adrià gives gentle guidance on the dish, then quietly giggles, coos, and moans as he enjoys his own creations. This is a man who loves what he does, is exceptionally good at it, and has made a career out of teaching and sharing his craft with others.

The cage-free peppercorns are lovely this time of year

I love dining out and I particularly love eating at places where the entire staff shares the passion of the restaurant. They’re not just rattling off a script about the farm-raised, cage-free peppercorns in your salad. They want you to love it. I have a friend who never orders his own meal. Instead, he says, “Bring me what you would order.” Some servers find this frustrating; some just bring you the most expensive items on the menu; but when you encounter someone who crafts a meal they honestly love, you’ll know it and you’ll appreciate it.

The Daily Grind

Most of the people I know work because they have to. Many of them have chosen a profession that they are exceptionally good at and have a passion for.  They get that glimmer in their eye when you ask them about their job, but you still know that if they chose to “do what they love” rather than “love what they do,” they’d be playing guitar on the sidewalk, or reading romance novels all day, or sitting in a meadow counting the clouds.

I am known to talk a lot, but one of the things I like to do at Think Brownstone is to sit back and listen to a Brownstoner or a client when they are jazzed about something they’re working on. If they’re truly passionate, the vibe of the entire room changes. Voices get louder with excitement; people start talking with their hands; someone starts sketching on a whiteboard, someone else jumps up to grab the marker, and whatever we’re working on gets better.

Sure, when I’m filling out my timesheets or working on page 53 of a 70-page requirements document, I might think to myself, “I’d rather be in the glass studio.” I can still do that, but in the meantime, I’m grateful that I chose a craft that I love and, IMHO, I do it pretty darn well.

Change: It’s About The Experience (Like Everything Else)

At Think Brownstone, we don’t shy away from the fact that the most common Experience Design targets tend to be applications (mobile, tablet, desktop, etc.) and web technology – there’s a lot of exciting and important work being done there, and it’s the way in which we first engaged with many of our long-term clients. But lately we’ve been having more and more conversations outside of that realm, talking about things like recruiting methods, informal learning strategies, charity events, and non-profit donation experiences (among others).

Recently, we spoke with a client who is anticipating a major organizational change and is looking for strategies to facilitate the shift internally. The change will be on a scale that it will affect every individual in the organization in many different ways. The impacts will be felt on a continuous basis, in a manner that will require quick and agile response to keep the organization in alignment. It’s what you might call, in official terms, a “wicked problem”.

The client team needed to prepare themselves to adapt, react, and shepherd employees through the uncertainty and turmoil to achieve the business goals that are triggering the change. A problem like this may sound overwhelming, intimidating, or even insurmountable. To an Experience Designer, however, it’s the kind of challenge that gets us out of bed in the morning. So, we scheduled a session with the client team, and pulled out all of the stops – including round trip transportation to the Think Space via party bus and free reign of the space after the scheduled portion wrapped up. We were going to tackle some heavy problems, and we wanted the experience with us to be as easy and comfortable as possible.

All Hands On Deck At The Think Space

There are, of course, many different ways to approach this issue and plenty of respected and long-standing organizational theories and models to consider that can help guide the process of managing change. But our natural response to approaching a problem like this, while it may be informed by organizational psychology and related fields, stems from our holistic Experience Design perspective. We truly believe that any challenge can be successfully addressed at a fundamental level by following the design process, even if certain steps might require tweaking based on the specifics (something Carl brought up repeatedly during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill). We also believe that the arguments around Design Thinking being dead or alive tend to boil down to yet another battle of semantics – the fundamentals are sound no matter what you call it – and have learned from experience that teaching our clients the fundamental tenets of Design Thinking gives them some additional arrows in their quiver to point at organizational problems that need solving.

Scratching The Surface

So, that’s what we did – providing a reusable structure that can not only help define the problem, business objectives, and employee needs, and drive appropriate solutions, but it can also help the client team navigate through unexpected challenges and determine appropriate solutions throughout the change process. It’s all in a day’s work for…Think Brownstone! Let us know if you’d like to learn more.

Bastille Day Cheese Day, Episode Trois: Madame Fromage Gets It

For a bit of the history of Bastille Day Cheese Day, read Russ’ blog post from last year.

My Uncle Bernard and Aunt Nadine lived in a suburb of Paris within spitting distance of the Château de Versaille. Staying with them was always a treat. Whenever I visited, I always made it home in time for dinner to enjoy their company and a home-cooked meal. After dinner, Bernard would open the tupperware container that held a variety of cheeses, waft the scent into his face and declare, “Ahhhhh, comme les pieds des anges” which translates to “Ahhhhh, like the feet of angels.” If you were a guest at Think Brownstone this past Thursday, you know what Bernard was talking about. It was the third annual Bastille Day Cheese Day and the Think Space smelled like a locker room in heaven.

There are many signs that we threw a successful event: 1) the party lasted longer than we expected 2) many guests reached out afterwards to tell us not only that they had a good time, but that they learned something 3) while Brownstoners were cleaning up, everyone started to throw out new ideas for Bastille Day Cheese Day 2012.

Guests Mingle Before the Festivities Begin

So I spent some time this weekend reflecting on what made our quirky little event so successful. Here are a few of my thoughts on how we approached the event – not surprisingly, they are very similar to what we do every day at Think Brownstone:

Have a Goal

We never wanted Bastille Day Cheese Day to just be a party; it’s an experience like anything else we do. In this case, we apply our design process to something different from our normal routine, but the first step is always the same: clearly articulate what you want to accomplish. My personal goals for this event have always been to educate friends of Think Brownstone about artisan cheese and make sure that everyone has a great time doing it. Our old venue was getting in the way of some of that. So, this year we moved the event to the Think Space, bought some wine, and invited a guest speaker.

Bring in the Experts

I’m no stranger to cheese. I learned the difference between my bries and my blues by following my father into small cheese shops throughout my childhood, but I’m no expert. So, after two years of being the host of BDCD, I knew we needed to bring in the big guns. That’s why we reached out to the super-talented cheese blogger Tenaya Darlington, a.k.a Madame Fromage. Madame Fromage designed a four-course tasting menu focused on four styles of cheese. Each course paired a classic French with an American counterpart made in the same style. Tenaya worked with the cheesemongers at DiBruno Brothers to ensure we had the best selections at their peak of ripeness.

Madame Fromage and a Perfectly-Ripened Wedge of Humboldt Fog

Tenaya also provided us with the types of wine to pair with each course. Although a few of us at Think Brownstone have been known to enjoy a bottle of wine now and then, we wanted to do this right. So we reached out to a friend to help select the right pairings for each course. The only contribution I made to the selections was the addition of the Belgian ale Duvel, so our beer drinking friends had a good alternative to the bubbly that went with the first course.

Trust

When we first started planning this, I asked Carl, “What’s our budget?” His answer was at first frustrating, but I totally got it. He said, “Let’s do this right.” Every time I was about to commit to spend some money, I went back to him and said, “I want to do this, it’s going to cost this much.” Carl’s response was always something like, “That sounds right. Go for it.”

Carl knew that when Tenaya suggested sparkling wine with the first course, we weren’t going to buy a case of Dom Perignon at $150 per bottle, but we also weren’t going to buy a Andre Brut at $4.50. His direction was clear, “Do it right.” He didn’t want to constrain us and he knew that I was going to check back every once in a while to make sure we weren’t completely off base. Our biggest splurge was that case of Duvel (I was thrilled to see a few bottles left in the fridge for our post-yoga cocktail hour).

Phil Walks the Crowd Through the Wine Pairings

Working with this level of trust is liberating and something I often see clients craving from their leadership. Nobody wants to break the bank, and there are checks and balances in every organization to make sure that doesn’t happen. While being trusted is liberating, it also instills a sense of responsibility.

Have Fun Expanding Your Horizons

We talk about the value of fun all the time. BDCD is a great example of what we’re talking about. We get to show off our skills in designing experiences beyond the typical projects we do every day and we all get to have a great time doing it.

One of my favorite moments of the evening happened with the blue cheese course. Blue cheeses get a bad rap sometimes. When Tenaya noticed a group of people struggling with the Roquefort, she grabbed a bottle of Sauternes and walked them through the blues very carefully. They became fans. When it comes to designing a great cheese experience, Madame Fromage gets it.

We often hear from our friends and clients that Think Brownstone must be a great place to work. Not to toot our own horn too much, but they’re right. We love what we do, we love who we work with and I love the fact that it gives us the opportunity to apply our skills to something quirky, fun and delicious like BDCD.

Russ described the evening best in an email to the company on Friday morning: “BDCD is an awesome tradition… what started as another gentle ribbing of Phil’s Fabulous Frenchness has really become a celebration of craftsmanship, attention to detail, and genuine interest in different cultures and backgrounds…” The success of the evening was due largely to the contribution of Madame Fromage. If you like cheese, want to learn more about cheese or just like good food writing, read her blog (beginners start here) and follow her on Facebook and Twitter.

If you want to recreate your own Bastille Day Cheese Day, download Tenaya’s tasting notes, take it to your local cheese shop and talk to the cheese mongers. They may not have everything in the list, but they will be able to suggest alternatives. For tips on how to lay out a beautiful cheese board, check out our BDCD flickr set. Oh, and if you couldn’t make it this year, hit us up around May 2012 when we start planning it again.

Extreme Makeovers: People & Organizations

There’s some truth in the statement that a good consultant shouldn’t be afraid to tell a client when their “baby is ugly”. If you’ve got evidence to back it up, it does nobody any good to keep quiet in the interest of not making waves.

Some folks take pride in their blunt approach to delivering this kind of news, seeing themselves as uncompromising Howard Roarks and idealistic warriors for their discipline. And yes, there are some clients who are enamored of this kind of audacity (at least at first), but personally I’ve found that far more appreciate your taking the time to understand the political and emotional landscape and be more tactful about how the message is delivered. This measured approach need not be any less confident; contrary to being rendered mediocre by not reflexively shooting from the hip, it’s simply more collaborative and thoughtful.

Plume Publishing's Iconic Cover For "The Fountainhead"

We’ve been talking with a few organizations lately that have a rich history of success but just haven’t kept up with the times. I’ve been trying to put myself in the shoes of a company that, like the nerdy kid in the teen flick, is told that they need to lose the glasses, stop staying in to paint pewter figurines on Friday nights, and learn to dance. It’s an easy and perhaps obvious thing for a consultant to identify, but what must it feel like when you’re on the receiving end? Particularly when your vision and sweat equity created that identity in the first place? It’s PERSONAL.

I’ve come up with a metaphor from my own life, and think there might be a few lessons in it. Music has been on the back burner for me lately, but for a long time it was my main outlet outside of work and a big part of my identity.

Lesson #1: Determine The True Self-Perception

It may not have actually been a big part of how others saw me, but music was a big part of how I saw myself. Even if he/she were correct, and even if deep down I could see the truth in it (I could), someone telling me that music wasn’t as fundamental to my external identity as I thought it was would have at a minimum prompted some major self-examination and redefinition. I wouldn’t have advised anyone to make that statement to me without carefully thinking about how to frame it and having a plan for where to productively take the conversation afterward. Consultants would do well to plan for the same – statements like “we really should think about a new name and logo” are like throwing verbal grenades into the middle of the room…not understanding the emotional bedrock you might be upsetting could be a critical mistake.

Lesson #2: Appreciate The Unique Trigger Points

For years I identified myself as a “Fender Guy”, and in almost all pictures snapped during my years of moderate musical success, I’m wearing a Strat or a P-Bass – that’ll do a lot to influence self-perception. Other musicians will also identify with the fact that the unique feel and weight of those instruments, the way that they looked when staring down at them onstage, the way that they responded to playing them…these things became essential and core to my relationship with the music I made. However, at one point my live setup was becoming cumbersome for a number of technical reasons I won’t go into here, and another instrument and amplification/effects combo become much more logical for what I was personally trying to achieve. Considering a move to a new instrument was agonizing for me. If I wasn’t playing a Fender on stage, who was I? Was I the same musician? Was I even the same guy? Obviously, these were questions that at best baffled and at worst bored my family and friends. “Music is music, who gives a crap? Get the guitar that makes the most sense and get on with it. Does it even matter?” Yes. It does. And every unique person in every unique organization will have his or her own little variant on this theme that it is worth clearly understanding should you travel down this rocky road with them. As an outsider, what you may deem trivial – and may even know to be trivial – may be absolutely crucial to your client, even if only temporarily until their vantage point is altered.

Back In The Day...With A Strat In Hand, Of Course

Lesson #3: Focus On The Constants, Not The Variants

In the end, those who suggested that the instrument didn’t matter were partially right. Like those of us who love the warmth (real or perceived) of listening to music on vinyl, you can’t deny the aesthetic of a favorite instrument…for me, it’s even how the thing smells when I open the case. But for me to achieve what I was trying to make happen on stage – the number of different sounds, ones un-colored by the “Fender sound”, etc., I needed to make a switch. On stage for a while it was a bit like wearing new shoes you’re not completely sure of yet, but eventually I grew into my new “persona” and felt it was for the better. I’m not kidding myself that anyone else out there cared, but it most certainly mattered to me. And I moved through it by staying focused on the core of what I was trying to do, the core of the music, and the things that would always be constant no matter what instrument I was wearing – similar to the core values conversations that are had around branding and rebranding, because on a small scale, that’s what I was doing to myself.

In that way it’s probably similar to a change of wardrobe or hairstyle…it’s a good friend indeed that will pull you aside and suggest an update, and a better one that does it with the required tact, an action plan, and a true understanding of who you are at the core and what’s important to you. A good consultant does that too.