Book review — X: The Experience When Business Meets Design
Handbook for rethinking our approach to customer experience
When I approached my friend Brian Solis about being a guest on my Infobip-sponsored webinar series, he said sure, but can you tie it into my book?
Of course! Happy to! Hmm, better read the book and quick.
Which is exactly what I did and here’s what I thought of the book
A book re-imagined for the digital age
Before I get into the review itself, let me tell you about Brian’s keynote to a recent BC AMA meeting. In his keynote Brian related the story of writing the book and how ironic it was writing a book to talk about transforming marketing. A book. Linear, regimented, old-school of the highest order. Instead of ignoring the irony, Brian decided to re-imagine how to create a business book. X is intended to be a business book designed for today.
Admittedly, I missed the re-imagining part of the deal because I bought my book to read in the Kindle app. I can’t remember the last time I bought a paper book for myself. I’ve already re-imagined what books are about — I want to have as many as I can on hand. I want to be able to tap into something I read with a quick search. In Brian’s case he wanted to create a book that you could jump around in. Read the sections you need to read, when you need the insight.
I don’t know if this book met the re-imaging goal. Electronic or not, there is a lot building up from chapter to chapter that you need to read to understand the big picture. Not that the book isn’t interesting or valuable, but it’s a tall order to re-imagine how to create a business book. I don’t expect we’re going to see a breakthrough any time soon.
Let’s get into the review.
Bite off in small chunks
When I looked at the table of contents I figured this would be a good read, but not a long read. The book looks easy to blaze through. Nine chapters? I’ll get through most of this book over a couple day’s worth of commutes…
Nope.
The book isn’t hard to read. I read a lot and it hits the sweet spot of covering a complex topic without making your head pop off. It’s not the words that start to get you, it’s the ideas that are going to bog you down.
Not Brian’s ideas. Your ideas.
This book is about opening your eyes to new ideas. This book demands that you think about how you do business. This book challenges you to see that if you don’t change your approach, your competitor will.
That doesn’t sound fun
When you put it that way it isn’t. Hence, bite off the book in small chunks. Have a notebook handy to scribble thoughts down. This is not a casual read, don’t sit down with this book if you aren’t ready for your brain to start doing hard thinking.
Which might be a flaw in the book. I kept interrupting myself to consider a point Brian made and then would lose my place in the book. I’d go back and look at the section again and then another thought would pop into my head.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
In fairness this isn’t the newest William Gibson novel. This book isn’t intended to sweep you into another world. This book pushes you to look at your world and fix how you do business.
This book is supposed to make you think.
My favorite chapters
Since you’re supposed to jump around as you need to, here are some of my favorite sections that you should focus on.
Chapter 3 Circle of Rife builds the mental model that is the core of the book — X itself. This chapter is the one you should drill into. Read this one, think, and then read it again.
Chapters 2.2 and 2.3 continue the course of pointing out what is so wrong with how we’re doing things now. It’s sobering reading.
Chapter 1.2 Medium = The Message highlights the problem of Mediumism where we don’t tailor the message to the medium (or audience). Is the content you post to Twitter exactly the same as the content you put on LinkedIn? Instagram? Facebook? Each network has its own style and if you take shortcuts, you’re missing the whole point.
Chapter 4.3 Human Algorithm highlights one of the biggest problems in business right now: CRMs. Not that CRMs are bad, it’s that we took the relationship part out of the equation. Are you building a lasting relationship with a customer, helping them be the hero at their job? Or are you putting that person off because they aren’t the persona you’re targeting?
Throughout the book are the usual anecdotes about Steve Jobs, Henry Ford, dreadful websites, corporate fails, and the rest. These are the metaphors we exchange to highlight when things are broken. Use these things to make your case for shaking things up.
Chapter 3.1 CX Redux gives you some next steps for restarting your CX practice. Most of us have done some sort of CX already. Journey mapping, social media, blogging, persona interviews. I’d put product-market fit research into this group as well. CX is about understanding customers and delivering to their needs, not yours. Forget that and you’ve missed the point.
What would I fix
There are a ton of great illustrations in the book. While the book’s website has some of them, it would be great to have them listed in the table of contents. I’ve search for the images often to refer back to or make a point (or share, like in this review).
While X is designed to be a business book re-imaged, I think adding a quick start page or two to orient people to using the book would be great. Something like:
What do you want to start with? Digging into what I’m fixing, hit Chapter 3. Need background? 1–2. Jump to the end for a future look? 9.0 This is Water will bring things together.
Key illustrations are here.
Giving a presentation? Here are the parts that will help you make your case.
Yes, I’m suggesting a book should have a user’s guide. Apps have them. A book is a tool just like an app is. The best apps on board you to get the most out of them as fast as possible.
Is it really so crazy to think about a book in the same way?
Ready for more?
I started reading this book so I could tie it into Brian being a guest on my webinar this month. Now that I’ve heard Brian give a keynote on this topic and we’ve chatted about it, I know this webinar is going to be great. Plus you get to ask questions.
