Process

Simplex

An ideation, problem solving and innovation process developed by Dr. Min Basadur.

I was taught this process many years ago and still use it. It gives you a very clear way of thinking about where are in the development of any creative project. One of the most interesting insights is that individuals tend to be skew to one of the 4 quadrants in the process: 1. Generation, 2. Conceptualization, 3. Optimization, 4. Implementation. People tend to push things toward or keep them stuck in the area that they are strongest in. For instance, project managers are typically “implementors”, they want to get busy, right away, building and launching the project even if it hasn’t been sufficiently defined. Some creative “generator” types like coming up with ideas and will never get around to building anything if they’re not helped along. Being aware of your team’s and client’s area of dominance can be a very power insight in managing process.

Consumer Insight

You can learn more by spending 20 minutes by actually talking to or observing real people than you can by talking endlessly in conference rooms. Back in 2001 I had a disagreement with a financial services client. They wanted to focus the goal of their website redesign on customer acquisition. I thought our efforts were best spent improving the experience for existing customers. It was my suspicion that high net worth individuals did not find financial advisors by visiting websites, reading marketing copy and then requesting that an advisor contact them.

To test my hypothesis I took a video crew to the train platform in Scarsdale, New York at 3:30 AM and interviewed affluent commuters that were headed to Manhattan for work. We learned a lot from people, in their own words that morning. When asked how they found their financial advisor every person gave us one of two answers: “referred by a friend” or “they’ve been with the family for years”. It’s better to show your client than to tell them.

Your Audience’s World

This video was quickly put together to show to a client how entertaining, chaotic, ridiculous and sometimes obscene the media diet of their average customer is. You have to be provocative and unique to break through this wall of noise and get people’s attention.