Forge the Sword 🗡 Slay the Dragon 🐉 Pierce the Noise 💥

Photo by Carlos Cram on Unsplash

If you’re here for fantasy folklore advice on how to defeat fire-breathing dragons, this article has very little insight on how to do that 😂.

However, it does have some unconventional wisdom on how your organization can creatively rally behind a focused human-problem to unlock business growth and help people slay the metaphorical dragons that they face everyday while navigating the shaky grounds of our times.

From hyperconnected, but deeply lonely lifestyles to the eco-social pressures of preserving the planet, the past decade has accelerated an exponential number of pervasive dragons that people and organizations can’t slay on their own… Both big and small, seen and unseen, there are too many dragons to count… Even something so common as milk can be a dragon (if you’re lactose intolerant, vegan, trying to lower the carbon footprint, etc.).

Dragons come in all shapes and sizes… At the start of any client engagement I always ask: What are the most frequent + intense dragons that they and their constituents experience?

For organizations, equipping their constituents with a SUPER SWORD that can slay the dragons who haunt them should be a fun, mnemonic, and effective approach to three-horizons business growth…

But more often than not, many of the presumptive sword-smiths in our Humans vs. The Dragons saga over-index on over-engineering dull and diluted solutions that lack the sharp and to-the-point-of-the-problem blade-tip required to pierce through thick scaly skin of a dragon (and the loud noise made by all the competing swords swinging, swaying, and saying “CHOOSE ME!”).

A sharp and to-the-point-of-the-problem blade-tip is required to pierce through the thick scaly skin of a dragon and the distracting sound barrier that surrounds it. Explore the glossary below for an in-depth overview of each part of the dragon-slaying equation above.

— The Handle: is how users experience and control the sword while slaying the dragon. The best handles (in sword fighting AND commercial innovation) are intuitive, ergonomic, and tailored-to-the-behaviors of the sword-bearer. If a user can’t wield their sword in the manner that is most natural to them, then they can’t slay the dragon — no matter how strong the base or how sharp the tip. This is known in professional terms as a solution’s UX/UI …

— The Blade Base: is the foundation of the sword and supports the SUPER SHARP blade-tip. The base of the blade should be made of a SUPER STRONG alloy steeped in a bespoke understanding of the sword-bearer’s personal, cultural, and categorical beliefs, as well as, the sword-smith’s own organizational strengths. This is known in professional terms as a diagnostic of the problem-at-hand’s 4Cs landscape (Consumer = Sword-Bearer, Culture, Category, & Company = Sword-Smith) and then a formulation of findings into actionable insights and RTBs (reasons-to-believe)…

— The Blade-Tip: is the point of the blade capable of piercing the distracting noise and thick scaly skin surrounding the dragon. This blade-tip should be centered around a provocative point that gets the heart of the dragon / human-problem while rectifying it with a head-on solution (e.g. Method Cleaning Products vs. their dragon – “Dirty”). This is known in professional terms as a solution’s Performance Differentiator…

For Method and its constituents, “Dirt” is the dragon and refers to the literal grime that Method wipes away, but also the “dirt” of the category (e.g. ugly aesthetics and artificial formulas of conventional cleaning products such as 409) and the “dirt’ of consumer culture (e.g. the pollution caused by Consumer Packaged Goods that is leading to further global warming). Rallying around “dirty” as the dragon in their saga, Method continues to forge sharp and to-the-point-of-the-problem blade-tips that resonate with their audience and slays their dragons.

— The Noise: People are exhausted by an overload of stimuli that competes for their limited mental real estate. I call this “noise” and it’s the day-to-day collection of distractions (for-better-or-worse) that occupy the minds of potential sword-bearers.

Sword-bearers are a crucial integer in the dragon-slaying equation and without them you have a SUPER SWORD that’s as useful as a ROCK. That’s why it’s important to not only create a solution sharp enough to slay the dragon — but also to pierce the “noise” that surrounds it… What good is a sword that no one knows exists?

In my opinion, this is best achieved by BOLDLY AND DIRECTLY calling out the dragon(s)… By doing so, you quickly pave a mental shortcut in the hearts and minds of your audience that gets them to understand the core of the problem and see you as the obvious solution.

In a world where the truth doesn’t publish itself, the most frequent + intense dragon of The New York Times and its constituents is Misinformation. In this battle, the SUPER SHARP blade-tip is the The New York Times’ original, high-quality, fact-checked journalism that helps people understand the world around them. In our current times of uncertainty and upheaval, Times journalism has become more crucial than ever. This is the central idea behind their “Life Needs Truth” campaign, which embodies the NYT’s mission, cuts through the noise, and shines a light on how reporting can help us navigate life, especially as it becomes increasingly unpredictable.

To pierce through the saturated sound barrier of huge corporate water brands who over-engineer their solutions / communications with all kinds of testing, focus groups, and empty promises… Liquid Death blazes its own trail and equips drinkers to fearlessly slay their most frequent + intense dragon (dehydration) HEAD-ON with an edgy, rebellious blade-tip that cuts through the noise (and bullshit). When you hire Liquid Death to complete the job of hydration… They don’t just boringly satisfy your thirst with some over-engineered filtration process like conventional bottled water… they MURDER YOUR THIRST with bold, badass refreshments sourced from the coldest of liquids (Mountain Water from the Alps) and encapsulated using the coldest of mediums (cans have a superior thermal conductivity perception compared to plastic that’s apparently backed by science). By doing so, they turn hydration in some of the most judgmental places (e.g. a bar or college party) into a cool, envious, and ice-breaking behavior — “If you’re walking around a bar with a Liquid Death and you bump into a stranger, it’s going to start a conversation,” Co-Founder Mike Cessario says. “There’s really no other water that can do that”…

At the time of writing this article, Liquid Death has a $525 million valuation

— The Dragon: Is the human-problem(s) that haunts sword-bearers, sword-smiths, and the world they live in.

For Nike and its constituents, the dragon is physical + emotional adversity… By wielding the Nike SUPER SWORD — athletes* are empowered with a JUST DO IT mentality and equipped to heroically combat the unique difficulties, challenges, and inertia that they face in sport / life.

A little ironic that there is a sword in this picture, but the sword I’ll be talking about it the Nike Pro Hijab on athlete and champion fencer Ibitihaj Muhammad’s head. This sword helped Muhammad with the physical and emotional adversity that she uniquely faces as a Muslim woman in sport (e.g. Amongst numerous other competitive performance hurdles caused by her traditional hijab, Muhammad was carded for false starting many times because she couldn’t hear through the thick sweat-drenched fabric… The Nike Pro Hijab also “helped advance the conversation around hijabs and Muslim women in sports … it further made sports an inclusive space,” says Muhammad.)

Nike vs. The Adversity of being New to a Sport

Nike vs. The Adversity of being a Woman in Sport

Nike vs. The Adversity of Free Speech in Sport

Nike wants its constituents to achieve greatness, but they must first slay the Dragon of Adversity

The desire to conquer physical and emotional adversity is what every Nike Athlete* has in common.

In my trade as a sword drafter (known in professional terms as an Innovation Strategist), I have found that the best swords have a sharp, to-the-point-of-the-problem blade-tip followed by a strong, bespoke alloy steeped in a deep understanding of the sword-bearer’s universe and their relationship with the dragon / themselves.

Below is a 4-step approach to crafting swords capable of puncturing the most vulnerable points of any dragon and the distracting noise barrier that surrounds them.

• Identify the Dragon(s): Before you Forge the Sword, you must first identify the dragon(s) and steep the blade’s alloy in a deep understanding of the sword-bearer’s personal needs, cultural beliefs, and categorical tensions, as well as, the sword-smith’s own company strengths.

• Forge the Sword(s): Informed by the most frequent + intense dragons that your constituent’s face, develop and then prioritize numerous solutions that address the sword-bearer’s most valuable unmet needs, the dragon’s most vulnerable point(s), and the internal interests of the sword-smith’s business objectives.

• Slay the Dragon(s): Next, it’s time to see if our blade-tips actually work. In this phase, we prototype and test different performance differentiators live in-market to validate consumer demand and purchase behavior prior to building full sword functionality. Through these experiments, we should be able to identify the most desirable, viable, and feasible blade-tips that we would like to turn into customer generating MVPs fully capable of slaying the dragon(s) and piercing the noise that surrounds them.

• Pierce the Noise: With our SUPER SWORD(s) forged and already slaying dragons in-market… it’s time to really pierce the noise, grow the user base, and build positive traction. I believe this is best achieved by BOLDLY AND DIRECTLY calling out the dragon(s) in campaign communications… By doing so, you quickly pave a mental shortcut in the hearts and minds of your audience that gets them to understand the core of the problem and see you as the obvious solution.

Thank you for reading. Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn and let’s slay some dragons!