Author: Fabrizio

30 days (and some)

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It’s the last day of January, and this means I have been blogging daily for 30 days (actually, something more).

I am happy I have sticked with it. And what makes me even more happy is that so far I have avoided overthinking – “I should not post this”, “This deserves more editing”, “I’ll post this when I have more information”, and I have never for a second stopped wondering if this or that post would get me more views, likes, visitors or followers.

The overthinking part, at least for me, is particularly precious. Overthinking, overediting, overcriticising my work is something I am prone to. That is one of the main costume resistance wears when it comes dissuade me from doing.

Few of my favourites from the month have been.

Write it down – An invitation to elaborating thoughts, feelings, ideas, and more with words.

We are all main characters .. – A reminder that others are trying to do their best just like we are.

Burning or building – A clear choice we constantly have to make.

On to the next 30, then.

Help and resistance

Fabrizio11 Comments

Resistance is a very interesting concept, one I knew I would talk about sooner or later. It is not mine, and it was very well developed by Steven Pressfield in his book The War of Art.

Resistance is a force that works against getting things done. It has different faces (rationalisation, fear, distraction, procrastination, self-criticism just to mention a few), but very generally speaking it is the story we tell ourselves to give us reasons not to do something we want to do.

If somebody offers their help, for example, in a generous and passionate way, the most rational part of us would say: “Thank you, I take it. Here is what you could do”.

But then resistance kicks in. And here is what it says. “They must be busy”, “Just offering their help to be kind”, “Don’t want to bother them”, “There’s no such thing like a free lunch”, “They don’t really care”, “I don’t have time to tell them what they are doing”, “This is not so important after all”, “I don’t even like them and their work”. And so on.

The point is, will you get what you wanted done or not? If the answer is no, be mindful of resistance. It’s the one talking, not you.

When your idea is not chosen

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When another person’s idea prevails on your, and is chosen to be executed, there are three important things you can do.

Focus on the positive aspects and on the potential of the idea. No idea is completely good or bad, so the idea that was chosen does most likely have positive aspects. Understand them, ask the owner to explain them, and build the narrative of what is happening around them. “This is idea has the potential to achieve this” or “I like this idea, because if well executed could deliver that” is a much better option than “I was not the one proposing it and I think it is wrong”.

Be involved in the execution and deliver your best work. This is not about you, so leave your ego and all your regrets behind and be ready to help the best you can. People will remember your contribution, and even if they won’t, you will feel much better for having done something active and practical about it.

Keep your mind ready for the next round. Ideas are always needed, so there’s no need to tank if your idea is not chosen this time (or the next, or the one after the next). Try to perfect the ones you had if they are still on the table, or come up with new ones for a different situation. Make sure to understand if your presentation was somehow flawed, if you could have done anything better, write down ideas as they come and try to elaborate on them, and eventually your brain will be prepared for the next chance.

Why is AI assuming to know us?

Fabrizio2 Comments

The problem with Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, at the moment, is a problem of use, not of technology.

Companies mainly implement AI in their products and services to maximise economic results, and they fail (mostly) to actually deliver value to their users.

Take the advertising industry, for example. AI and ML are used by platforms to predict interests and needs based on data collected from your online behaviour. It is currently a widely inaccurate utilisation of the technology, that’s why you get exposed for months to ads from that site you visited once while you were researching your competitors for the next management meeting.

It is so because what currently matters is not that you get an ad that is relevant to you or that the advertisers message gets exposed to the correct audience. What matters, at this particular moment in history, is for the platforms to sell as many ads as they can. And since their competition is even less accurate or completely unmeasurable, they thrive with very little conversion rates while they make the rules they feel are more appropriate to achieve what they want.

Now, imagine a slightly different application of the same technology.

We have noticed that in past weeks, you have visited sites of car dealers. Would you like us to push some car offers from local dealers to your timeline?

You have visited this restaurant three times in the last month, would you like me to add it to your favourite restaurants in town? I could push some of their lunch offer to your inbox, if you want me to. Just tell me how frequently you’d like to receive them.

I see you’ve been at events about business and management in the past six months. Here are a bunch of groups you might be interested in. Also, there is a special deal on the Business and Management magazine if you subscribe by the end of the year. Do you want to take it?

Asking questions instead of assuming, is a great rule of thumb for interpersonal relationships. The same should be valid for interactions with a machine.

The product in the background

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There is a common belief, particularly in business-to-business organisations, that in order to be a good marketer you need to know the ins and outs of the product (or service) you are marketing.

That is a myth.

Much more important is to understand what problem the product (or service) is addressing, how high it is in the list of priorities of your potential customers, and what type of benefit it will bring to them.

Having both (knowledge of the product and understanding of customers) might seem ideal. But I would argue it is not. If you are too much into the product (or service), it is most likely so that the customer is somehow secondary, that your main focus is on how to sell rather than on how to match, and that you are already to far away in your assimilation of product-ese to actually speak in a way that is valuable to those who might find what you have to say interesting.

Focus relentlessly on customers, speak their language and understand why they would care. Keep the product in the background, as something to reference when it is appropriate. This is what being a good marketer is all about.