Back in the day, I did a little studying with Gary Becker at the University of Chicago, winner of the Nobel Prize for applying micro-economic theory to criminal behavior. My use of the phrase ‘a little studying’ is precise, because my main lesson learned from this brilliant man was that ultimately economics is advanced math, and [...]

Saw Jerry Seinfeld live in beautiful downtown Fresno recently. In classic form, he did a five minute riff on the idea that, nowadays, life experiences are either Great or they Suck, and there is a mighty thin line separating the one from the other. This is primo wisdom for Customer Service Managers. Your customers have [...]

‘I don’t remember forgetting I don’t seem to recall If I neglected to show you I love you I don’t remember at all.’ Ricky Skaggs Anyone who’s been in a relationship for more than, oh, a fortnight has learned the link between memory and caring. Forget to call: you clearly don’t care. Don’t remember that [...]

“I wish they would only take me as I am” – Vincent Van Gogh Personas are essential to Customer Experience Management. It’s a given that good design begins with understanding the design target. A Persona nets-out as a “word portrait” of a customer type, distilling the essential elements of a market segment. The richer and more [...]

Confession: I believe in superstar Engineers. Nowadays, given the Agile emphasis on Team, reliance on Superstars seems to be roughly as fashionable as fat ties. Embracing inequality of production can also be perceived as naïve by the folks paying their salaries (why pay the big dollars in the Silicon Valley when engineers can be had [...]

New Year is the traditional time to swear off the calories and pledge a leaner you. Recently, the R&D team at KANA has been exploring a different form of getting Lean via the work of Mary Poppendieck. Poppendieck is the author of Leading Lean Software Development . She’s the leading thinker on the intersection of [...]

‘Buzz’ – the word that defines social media is lifted from the world of social insects. But, while we freely employ metaphors from the hive to human interaction, how much are we actually learning from the commonality of nature’s communities to online social networks? As enterprises engage in the Social world, the needed, core and [...]

Saw Bill Cosby the day after Thanksgiving. He told the story of “Phil’s Famous Stuffing”. Phil, a craftsman in Cosby’s employ, is known, far and wide, across the townships of rural Massachusetts, for making the world’s greatest stuffing. Cosby described how folks drive out and line up at Phil’s each turkey day to get a [...]

You can reliably count on Apple to penetrate to the heart of technology’s impact on our life. So, no surprise that they named their introductory mobile app MobileMe (now replaced by iCloud). In the ever-sloshing sea of hype around new technology, separating the ripples from the tsunamis is not as easy as it should be.  [...]

Sure, Gordon Ramsay is too good looking, seems to bask in celebrity, acts like a rude sod, and teaches management by intimidation. But, if, as one suspects, his eponymous London showpiece reflects the man, you gotta like him. Ramsay runs a terrific restaurant. No, we’re not talking French Laundry or Joel Robuchon here, my standards [...]