Tag: best practice

Solution mode

Fabrizio2 Comments

Few things we should avoid saying in response to somebody who is coming to us with an issue.

You are wrong.

Don’t worry.

You are looking at it in the wrong way.

Well, that’s life!

What were you expecting?

I have no idea what you are talking about.

It happens to me all the time, but worst.

And it’s not that we should avoid them because they are mean, or wrong, or not helpful. We should avoid them because they do not allow the space for a deep conversation to happen.

The person coming to you will not learn anything new about how they feel and what the issue exactly is. You will not learn anything new about how you feel and what the issue exactly is. And perhaps even more importantly, the next time the person will not come to you to express concern.

Try instead unlocking deeper layers with open questions.

How does that make you feel?

That sounds important, tell me more about it.

It feels like a lot to take, what do you think?

And of course, sit down and truly listen. You cannot solve this right there.

Extend your hand

FabrizioLeave a comment

When there is tension, when you feel those that are not on your side are simply too far away, when talking is arguing, when it seems impossible to find common ground.

Extend your hand.

Building relationships

FabrizioLeave a comment

The way you communicate reality is often more important than reality itself in building bonds. Or breaking them.

Say you have to share a decision with your team, one that is not fully fair, one you were not involved in making, one that will not make them happy.

You can state the fact, and say there is little that can be done to change reality. You can say that “little” is something your team will have to pull off, and that the deadline for it is in one week.

Or you can still state the fact, and say you are sorry for the situation. There is still something that can be done, and you will drive the effort, coordinating the work of the different team members.

Reality has not changed between option 1 and option 2.

Relationships have though.

Bandaid

FabrizioLeave a comment

When you launch a rebrand, it’s often better to just rip off the bandaid.

One piece of evidence.

Google launched Workspace today, as a replacement to Google G Suite offering.

Microsoft launched Microsoft 365 six months ago, as a replacement (?) to Office 365 offering.

Judge for yourselves.

Google Workspace above the fold
Microsoft 365 above the fold

Simplify

FabrizioLeave a comment

This is a very well crafted video that tells of how ahrefs went about redesigning their home page.

It is about the company, but it is not about the product. It is something the target audience wants to know about (web page redesign). It has a twist right at the beginning (the 3 copywriters) that makes sticking around until the end more likely.

And by the way, if you plan to redesign your website, three questions worth asking.

1. When do we show the product? It is a fairly common practice in B2B to feature loads of videos and screenshots on the website, but as the guys at ahrefs realised, perhaps opening the home page with a hero screenshot of a dashboard might put off many visitors who are just problem-aware.

2. How much information is enough? Getting lost in details is easy, and getting lost trying to expres details is even easier. A waste of space and attention, so just stick to what is needed to catch the interest of your target audience.

3. How long should a A/B test be? For many things, measuring the real impact on business metrics takes time. A/B testing in 1-2 week-long sprints is probably focusing on the wrong metrics. Marketing is a long A/B test.