Insight

We’re excited to announce the launch of our new site, along with our new Insight blog.Insight will be our channel to share recent news, changes, experiences, and ideas that reflect our work at Envalent and our perspective on solving business challenges.

In general, we plan to focus on the intersection between three key areas: design, human behavior, and business. Why these three areas?

Fundamentally, business is the process of creating something of value that a customer wants and is willing to pay for and delivering that value where, when, and how the customer wants it. Once you adopt this perspective, it immediately becomes clear that the center of the universe becomes the perception of value in the mind of the customer. If you understand the fundamental drivers behind human behavior that make the customer “tick,” it becomes easier to uncover the optimal way to design and deliver your product or service.

Whether we use Apple’s famous “1,000 songs in your pocket” ad campaign for the first iPod, or Palm’s realization that their true competitor was a paper and pencil (and not other electronics), the focus on the customer’s underlying motivations can unlock tremendous value for your company in the marketplace. In our line of business, sometimes a new executive wants us to remain “invisible” – we play the role of the background advisor to help him or her succeed in a new and challenging role. Other times, an established group needs us to roll up our sleeves and just make a problem “go away,” no matter how visible our presence is. Other times, the entire reason we are hired is to make our presence known; leadership wants people to think twice about the way things are done and consider outside perspectives.

If we confused the reason why our clients wanted us there in the first place, our project would have a very small chance of success. I’m sure it’s the same in your business.

Once the fundamental customer needs are clear, the interaction between the customer and your business needs to be defined, which is what we call business design, or service design. What are the points of contact for your customer throughout the product or service lifecycle? How do they want to buy, where do they need you, and how involved should your relationship be? If you’re an electric utility, is your job to silently provide your customers with reliable power, or is it to partner with them on managing their home’s electricity? It’s critical to uncover customer expectations and design your business accordingly.

And finally, after you understand what your customer wants and where, how, and when they want it, you’re left with the challenge of profitably delivering on the customer’s expectations, which we’re all too familiar with. However, if you can successfully maintain a focus on the underlying customer needs and design considerations, it provides a consistent platform to reassess your business strategy to improve profitability and maintain focus as markets and technology change over time.