strategy | Peopledesign

Three keys to giving research a life of its own

Understanding the difference between exploratory and reflective research and knowing when to apply each are only half the battle – or maybe only a quarter of the battle. You have not yet truly begun the fight until you have a plan for translating insights gleaned from research into a strategy that can engage your team and your customers. More

Category reinvention in contract furniture

By Chris

The March 2013 issue of Harvard Business Review has an interesting article on the subject of category creation titled “Why It Pays To Be A Category Creator.” As the title suggests, they present the very obvious points that category creation is lucrative and also very hard. Aside from the healthy reminder on this subject, I did find one part of the article both interesting and new. More

The new middle

By Kevin

A bell curve is a simple model for understanding the common relationship between price and sales volume within a market. The top of the bell curve marks the middle of the market, where most customers are willing to pay for a given product or service. The ends represent value and high-end providers respectively. More

Why we ask why

By Curt

We re-frame problems to understand the real problem. A client’s immediate need is often a symptom of a larger problem. That’s why we ask why, and then we ask why again. More

Getting sustainably different

By Kevin

Maturity curves are a well-known convention for understanding the life cycle of products, companies, and industries. These charts also reflect how organizations capitalize on an innovation from breakthrough to commoditization. More

The end of marketing as we know it (and we feel fine)

By Kevin

Obituaries in publications including Harvard Business Review and Fast Company have recently reported the untimely demise of branding and marketing. Get past the headlines, however, and both of these specific articles go on to explain how the practice of branding and marketing is actually being reborn. More

What Bill Moggridge told me

By Kevin

I met Bill Moggridge only once, a few months ago, at his office in New York. I served as President of APDF until very recently and Bill had made appearances at our events. I reached out personally and was thrilled when he graciously accepted a short meeting with no agenda. More