Desirability Feasibility Viability Simple right? These three things are what make up the Balanced Breakthrough Model. The model highlights the core requirements to become a successful innovation. Here is a quick breakdown of each element: Desirability - Is there an actual need for this idea? What specifically is the problem you are solving for people? Feasibility - Can you actually build / implement the solution? How hard is it with your current context? Viability -  What is the investment required to create the solution? Is it really worth it? Can you derive long term value from the product or service you develop? A lot of this may seem obvious, however so many people look to invent or innovate something and then start looking for the problem. Trying to create the context or need for your product to be required is never a good place to be in. What gets interesting here is when you factor in timing, and this is something that A LOT of people miss. The three elements above ...

  We live in a world that is obsessed with solving problems with a system or technology. How many times have you hear someone [basically] say "let's get an app for that"? Crazy. I'm all for shiny new things. I love my toys as much as you do.  Rarely however does that new systems, application or software suite fix any of the underlying issues. When was the last time you started using something new, either in your personal or professional life, and it immediately fixed your problem and you changed nothing about what you are doing. Often, what ends up happening, is that as businesses look to implement some new tech, they also end up having to change HOW they are doing things. The changes that are made to core processes is what drives the success. Using your phone to track your steps, your sleep, your workout or to even help you write. Pause for a second, think about any of those situations.  Tracking your steps and setting daily goals means that you are actually walking ...

    I'm writing today inspired by a post I saw by Chris Walker - on LinkedIn . It resonated with me personally and professionally. There is a dichotomy between having a vision and seeing what others don't while also needing their approval and trying fit in. We are often asked to solve problems and come up with new and innovating solutions to what we see in front of us. Rarely are you asked to implement a dated and by the book strategy, everyone wants to be on the cutting edge. Oddly enough, the more your ideas or approach differ from the status quo, from what the people within the organization has succeeded on, the harder it gets to take those new roads. It feels like most of time, people want you to take the same path and miraculously see something that no one else before you saw, hang a right and boom ... you are at your perfect oasis. Ridiculous.   Here's a fun list for you: Apple Tesla AirBnB FedEx KFC Evernote Blogger Amazon   Wondering what the list is about? A...

  I had an interesting experience the other night that level me surprised and questioning some assumptions. I saw an article on LinkedIn that was written to support route optimization and highlight differences between different types of final mile (last mile) deliveries. As I went through it, I couldn't help but feel like it was a little off. Not that the information was wrong per se, more that the frame didn't quite capture all of the nuances I felt it should (I appreciate I am a touch opinionated - I prefer to call it passion). It dawned on me later that evening, a question that might explain why I was feeling off after reading the article. In an on demand world, that is based on dynamic orders and routing, is knowledge being lost that supported the previous "traditional" models. The major difference I am making between dynamic and traditional models is that traditional models are/were built on fixed and planned service schedules. This could be five deliveries per w...

  Do you know what I did last week? This will sound crazy and you might think I need help (honestly maybe I do!). I have been struggling to manage my time and responsibilities lately. Not so much in terms of knowing what I need to do, more balancing what I need to do with what I want to do. What had been happening was that too many things were pushing off, "Oh, I'll get to that tomorrow" or I was allowing myself to think that "I don't have time for that". The consequence was that every few days, things would stack up and the biggest place that was suffering was my sleep. Now, I appreciate off the bat that might sound lazy AF to some people. Thinking "Is this guy really whining because he's not able to sleep ... come on dude". I get it, our society has created a culture around how much you can do on the fewest hours of sleep. I bought into that, big time ... hell I was captain of the team. At one point in my life I was flying 50-100 times a year...

  While reading today, I came across the following comment: Is a high service level necessarily bad? No. However, if your service levels do not vary by type of customer or if your customers are not willing to pay for better service, you are potentially over servicing your customers. Our experience across industries shows that companies seldom segment their service offerings, thereby allowing all of their customers access to the same high level of service. While working in the food industry, responsible for the organization's direct delivery (B2B), this topic was an area that we started to explore more and more.  One comment from a former peer who I respect greatly was that, in logistics, you can do anything as long as you are willing to pay for it. This was true then and it remains true to this day. As you begin to optimize and improve your operations, you soon realize what you are actually providing to customers. You look at what you have to do, what your processes are, what ...

I wanted to share some thoughts today with respect to Experience and Relevance that was, in part, inspired by this quote from Leo Tolstoy “Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.” That resonated with me and I thought it would resonate with a lot of you as well right now. Pretty much everyone is talking about what changes the coronavirus will being to our societies and businesses. There’s a lot of discussion with respect to change and doing things differently; so that got me thinking about the ideas of experience and relevance. Humans make thousands of decisions every day; but, our brains don’t give each decision one of those decisions equal attention, our brains take all kinds of mental shortcuts. These shortcuts are known as “biases.” They’re not necessarily good nor bad; they just are. When I was younger and closer to the start of my career, I always struggled with having “experience” thrown at me as a way to just...

  I have always loved the idea of time, which is probably why I have a solid sci-fi geek streak that runs through me (but you may have already guessed that if you recognized my title!). Really understanding and appreciating the nuances of time, isn't something I feel most people are really into. There's all kinds of authors and books who reference time and that it is just a man made creation that has infected our lives; something that stresses people out as they keep feeling like there isn't enough for all of the things they "have" to do. If you haven't seen them yet and want to twist your mind up with time, check out The Arrival & Interstellar . So the question ... why am I writing about time? With all of the talk of Supply Chains in the news lately, with story after story about the stress on them, how some are failing, pressure to perform, etc, talking about time resonated with me. Effectively managing any operation is about effectivel...

What does "customer experience" mean to you? Or maybe better yet, the real question should be what is "customer experience" to your customers? I often see two types of streams when this topic comes up, and you can usually see which a business adopts pretty quickly. The first I would say is a functional one.  Under this model, a business prides itself on their processes and creates good workflows for the fact that they deal with a lot of different customers, and try to be something for everyone. This business pride themselves on their clean invoices, their simply payment options, their execution of basic services ... all in all, they are essentially easy to deal with but still relatively impersonal. The second type is more personalized. Here, you will find a business that leverages their people and their ability to create connections with their customers (on top of focusing on be great at what they do) in order to "wow" their customers. Wowing y...