The societal impact of technology cannot be overstated and has again come into the public focus through disastrous events. Social media, specifically, foremost Facebook and Twitter, have been the focus of scrutiny for the last years. Beyond the tech circles, where their algorithmic injustice has been debated for a decade or more, these discussions are mainstream. With documentaries like “the social dilemma”, the talking points are very much on everyone’s mind.

While fighting existing problems is essential, we also need to grapple with the questions around avoiding them in the future. At least avoid the massive scale and negative impact they had to reach before being addressed. As often stated, the people working on these products are rarely ill-intentioned. …

Happy New Year

A year ago, we started a new decade. And no quote can better sum up the start of this decade than this:

“There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.”

The year 2020 was, besides many other things, an accelerant in many areas. The last year was also filled with lessons and reminders:

I — We are all connected.

What affects one of us affects all of us. National boundaries do not divide us. Neither does religion, wealth, politics, race, gender, or anything else. Despite all the lines we draw, there are no boundaries powerful enough to keep our fates apart. …

Better Storytelling

by Sebastian Mueller and Marc Seefelder

Last year we stumbled over Donald Miller’s book “Building a Story Brand” and it was eye-opening. Donald Miller is a screenwriter, and in his book, he takes a lot of inspiration from Campbells Hero’s journey — but he gives everything a different spin. His angle is: How can we make use of Storytelling for our business? What is so compelling about this book is that Miller gives us a clear plan on how to apply this story structure to brands to clarify their message so people will listen — like in design, crafting a story follows a particular process. And yes, there is a canvas for that (or 7-part framework). …

Better Design

In large corporations, great ideas and projects are often killed before ever seeing the light of day. We sure had our fair share of such failures, and I know first-hand that they are a very regular occurrence. As designers and innovators, we have to face the fact that our work is often not evaluated based on its strength and merit, but based on someone else’s preconceived notions. “Corporate Politics” is the name of the game.

I previously wrote about the importance of empathizing with stakeholders to win them over. As designers, we cannot reserve our empathy purely for the customer or user. We need to invest time to understand key stakeholders and work with them. …

Future Problems

Latest since the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook can’t seem to get out of the headlights (and headlines for that matter). In the recent hit documentary “The Social Dilemma”, which Netflix recently released, another big target is drawn on Facebook’s back. That barely seems to have an impact on users and employees, however. Facebook usage is at an all-time high, continuing to rise at pre-PR-crisis numbers.

All those #DeleteFacebook posts have proved to be the virtue signalling everyone expected, with little action and no bite.

Facebook employees seem unfazed by what is playing out in the global headlines. And speaking to individuals or looking at their reactions only makes one thing clear — no one feels responsible. And that goes all the way up to the top. Mark Zuckerberg’s testimony in front of congress can only be summarized as a farce. Acknowledging only the most basic responsibility levels and pointing to the complex world of malicious actors while preaching Facebook values as something laudable. …

Better Pricing

What this article covers:

- An overview of the four biggest mistakes you can make in pricing

- A framework that will help you think about pricing more strategically

Pricing can often feel like something of a dark art. There are many indicators to look at, yet no best way to go about it. Further, it seems that often those who defy conventional wisdom win — while, of course, many who do defy conventional wisdom actually end up shutting shop.

At the same time, figuring out your pricing is incredibly important to your whole organization. It determines the operations you can build, the margins you can realize, your product’s perception, and much more. …

Design Maturity

With topics like component libraries, role-and-permission models, workflow automation, design systems, and more, we currently see a lot of push towards design and product maturity. Publications like Design Better by InVision are packaging the insights from leading product organizations and are showing us what the higher levels of maturity in this space are today.

Working towards higher design maturity levels is a long journey that includes many trials and tribulations. Yet, there are many repeatable patterns and learnable tools and skills that can be used. A significant factor in moving towards higher maturity levels in a design and product organization is their vision. …

Startups

The headlines in 2019 have been dominated by the US-China trade conflict, protectionist tendencies and actions against the global interests of Chinese companies. One could easily get the impression that Chinese companies are retrenching, yet the opposite is actually true.

A 2019 study by PwC found that over 70% of Chinese startups valued at over USD 1 billion have concrete global expansion plans. Many of them are supported or driven by Chinese government initiatives and incentives. As a result, more than half of the companies surveyed are looking at expanding within ASEAN or countries along the Belt and Road connection.

In 2004, Chinese non-financial outbound investment stood at USD 5.5 billion. …