Archive for Lean Marketing
Start with Journey Mapping vs Value Stream Mapping
Posted by: | CommentsValue Stream Mapping is process most consider an exercise for finding and removing waste. It is a foundational Lean Tool that typically gets introduced early in a Lean Transformation. A Systems2win Excel template is depicted below: 
In Sales and Marketing you will utilize a Value Stream Mapping process on a project by project basis but it is typically limited for an internal process. It is a difficult correlation for customer facing experiences and as a result seldom used. The preferred method of mapping the customer experience is through a journey map. I prefer two styles one just a basic Excel Template that is very similar to a typical Swim Lane chart commonly used in Lean.
From Smart Cities – A guide to using Customer Journey Mapping
Another being a more circular method demonstrated by the Lego Wheel. Lego uses tool called a ‘customer experience wheel’ to map an existing experience. “We understand what is and what is not important to the customer in that experience and then we design a ‘wow’ experience to improve it.” Though I like the wheel better I have not found a program that could make it easy for me to draw and distribute. 
The advantage of creating this map utilizing the Excel template is that you can easily add notes and drill down further down into a process by adding columns and rows. Drawing in Excel is rather easy once you understand how, Become Proficient Drawing with Excel in 30 minutes! and remember you can do MATH, CHARTS and everything else you already know about Excel. If you want more information on how to create a journey map below is an excellent slide show describing the process. If you want to learn more about Value stream Mapping, drawing in Excel or Swim Lanes, I would recommend downloading the trail templates at Systems2win.com.
The Journey Mapping Guidance Cabinet Office[1]
Related Information: Continuous Improvement Sales and Marketing Toolset Designing for Growth: A Design Thinking Toolkit for Managers (Columbia Business School Publishing) Can Service Design increase Customer demand?
Lean Marketing Lab to Open!
Posted by: | CommentsThe virtual world of the Lean Marketing Lab will open its doors. A gateway for this online community has been created to further the cause of Lean in Sales and Marketing. Reviewing this slide presentation will give you the background on the project. Hope to see you at the Lean Marketing Lab. – Joe
Related Information can be found at Business901.com
It’s not about the things we make, it’s how we use the things we make
Posted by: | CommentsMaster storyteller Malcolm Gladwell tells the tale of the Norden bombsight, a groundbreaking piece of World War II technology with a deeply unexpected result.
This is a superb story for marketers and designers. It is not about the things we make, it how we use the things we make. Sounds similar to SD-Logic (The Service-Dominant Logic of Marketing by Stephen Vargo and Robert Lusch) where the premise that products and services only create the opportunity to provide value. Value is created only when the customer uses the product or service.
Helene Cote comments on Malcolm Gladwell: The strange tale of the Norden bombsight
This is not a story about war. This is the story of humankind and the paradox of our lifestyle, as explained by one given example. And Malcolm’s conclusion is simply that we need to change our patterns of thinking, not invent better ‘things’.
We are trying to invent ‘things’ to solve issues & problems we, ourselves, create, in the futile attempt to get rid of the problem, rather that figuring it out….why the problem even exists. As long as we keep asking ourselves the w r o n g questions, we will continue to create ‘things’ that allow us to impose our power, ignorance, vanity and hedonist attitudes upon others, reaping, of course, the repercussions of those actions, only to create more ‘things’ in response to that…the story goes on and that summarizes everything in our history books.
Whether it be a new pill, a butter substitute, or missile launcher, we just keep reinventing the same ‘thing’. Something to allow us to maintain the very lifestyle that is at the root of the problem. But let’s not look at that, let’s invent something new instead.
And in a way, isn’t it about varieties of spaghetti sauce ?"
Related Information:
Service Innovation – Rethinking Customer Needs
Why the Lean SALES PDCA Cycle was Created!
Can Service Design increase Customer demand?
The Service-dominant Logic of Marketing: Dialog, Debate, And Directions
If all of us need to be marketers, what’s the framework?
