It’s #FutureFridays and today we talk about one of the latest innovations from tech giant Samsung.

Imagine, what if you are living in this current age, but you lack the ability to see the world around you, hear the people talk to you, nor speak back to your family or loved ones.

What would your world be like?

That’s the kind of world a Deaf-Blind person lives in.

Thankfully, Samsung has come up with their latest innovation to solve this problem.

Read on to see how it works, and watch the video demo. I assure you, it won’t disappoint.

And if your eyes don’t swell in tears after watching it, you have no emotion.

The app is called Samsung Good Vibes.

It translates Morse Code into text or voice and vice versa.

If you are Deaf-Blind, you communicate using Morse Code, which is the interface you will be using on the app.

A short tap represents a dot, and a long press represents a dash.

People you are communicating with who can see and hear can receive messages and respond back via text or voice, which the app will convert into Morse Code vibrations for the Deaf-Blind to understand.

Check out the video below.

The Samsung Good Vibes App

Video ©Samsung India

Ending Note

Now of you want to learn the skillsets that will allow you to Innovate with a designer’s mindset, even if you’re not a designer, here’s how you can take action:

• Learn Design Thinking today
• If you haven’t yet, download a copy of my book for FREE (for a limited time only) – The Business Optimization Blueprint, and learn how you can improve your business process and take it to the next level.

The post Innovation: How the Deaf-Blind can use a Mobile Phone. Or can they? appeared first on Robbie Agustin.

For today’s #transformationtuesdays I will be sharing with you a case study of how Design Thinking saved the struggling Oil of Olay brand.

In the early 1990s, Proctor & Gamble’s Oil of Olay brand reached a point where it was seen by the public as a brand meant for “older” women.

They have lost their competitive edge as a top skin care brand.

In short, they were in trouble.

At that point they had 3 choices:

1. Scrap Oil of Olay and just launch a new brand
2. Buy out a competitor
3. Innovate and reinvent the Oil of Olay brand

The use case below talks about how they applied Design Thinking to put themselves in the user’s shoes, empathize with them and find out what their pain points are.

And this allowed them to decide which of the 3 choices made the most sense.

Check out the use case below.

How can Design Thinking Re-invent a Brand

What I like the most about this case study was how they looked at their non-customers in order for them to Innovate.

The use case has a lot of gold nuggets as well. It talks about the 3 types of non-customers, which of the 3 you should focus on to get ideas for innovation, and how you use observation rather than questions in order to locate them.

So if you want to find out how Oil of Olay went from struggling brand, to once again being a powerhouse in the skin care industry, with the launch of the “Olay Total Effects” product lineup and more, then click on the link below to see the use case now!

How can Design Thinking Re-invent a Brand

The post How Design Thinking saved the struggling Oil of Olay brand (Use Case) appeared first on Robbie Agustin.

It’s #wisdomwendesdays and it’s time to share something I learned.

Have you ever been in a situation where someone presents you with an idea, and you just don’t know whether you’re going to laugh or cry at how dumb or stupid the idea is?

Yeah, we’ve all had that.

And our challenge, as leaders, is how to respond to that in a way that will not be demeaning to the people, so they will not be discouraged from coming up with other, hopefully better, ideas.

There’s a simple 3-step method I would like to share with you called the LCS technique.

LCS stands for Like, Concern, Suggest

How it works is that when someone gives an idea which you disagree with, you respond as follows:

1. Like – First of all, say something to acknowledge, agree, or like the idea. e.g. “I like what you’re thinking. I think you’re on to something.”
2. Concern – Now you can say what you don’t like about the idea. e.g. “My only concern is that it might be detrimental to the customer downstream.“
3. Suggest – Finally, you can say what you think should be the right approach, or perhaps even build on the initial suggestion. e.g. “May I suggest that we do this instead?” or “Do you think it makes sense to do this instead?”

You’ll find that this will be super useful during brainstorming and ideation sessions as instead of exchanging objections, people will start building on each other’s ideas.

Did you find this useful? Share it! Your colleagues will thank you for it.

The post How to Respond Positively and Make Suggestions when someone gives Stupid Ideas appeared first on Robbie Agustin.

Did you know that when Stan Lee first came up with Spiderman, he publisher told him that it was a stupid idea?

Watch the video below to see Stan Lee sharing the full story.

Remember, just because someone said your idea is stupid, it doesn’t mean that it’s wrong.

The same is true in Design Thinking. There’s a time for divergent thinking as well as for convergent thinking.

When brainstorming for ideas, it’s when you’re on divergent thinking mode. No such thing as wrong or stupi ideas, it’s just all about exploring possibilities.

After which, it’s time for convergent thinking to zoom-in and make choices.

Without further ado, watch Stan Lee’s video below. This is my share for today’s #motivationmondays.

And if you want to learn Design Thinking, click here for details.

https://www.instagram.com/tv/B3aCwNnjvpb/?igshid=xsday6j10xui

The post When they say your Idea is Stupid – Learn how Stan Lee pitched Spiderman appeared first on Robbie Agustin.

If you’re a watch guy like me, then you will understand.

What’s one of the biggest problems a WIS will always have to face apart from picking the right watch for the occasion?

It’s picking the right strap.

And it always sucks when you find yourself in a situation where you have to get your wristwatch wet, but you’re wearing a leather strap.

This company recognized that problem and knew how to empathize with WIS like you, and designed a product that solves all your woes about getting a leather strap wet.

Just when you thought leather watch strap making was very traditional, here’s Rubber B disrupting the industry.

I am not connected with Rubber B, but I sure love their products, and I think this new innovation will set the bar on the watch strap industry.

If you want to learn how to up your problem solving and innovation skills, then you have to learn the art of Design Thinking.

The good news is, you don’t have to be a designer to think like one.

Enroll in Design Thinking for Innovation today. Go to https://robbieagustin.com/courses to Enroll for FREE (as of this writing), courtesy of the University of Virginia.

If you want a blueprint on how to optimize your process or business further, download my FREE (for a limited time only) eBook – The Business Optimization Blueprint, and start bringing the best value to your clients and stakeholders.

P.S. You will thank me later.

The post How to Innovate if you have a Traditional Product appeared first on Robbie Agustin.

After all the feedback, responses, and inputs I got, I’m very close to finishing the long-awaited program which will be called TRAIN MY PROCESS IMPROVEMENT PERSON. I have been working on this for almost a year, and I’m planning to release it in the next few weeks.

This program will be entirely focused on how you or your process improvement person can acquire the highly-valued skillset of being able to find and solve for opportunity areas to improve, streamline, and automate areas in your business to reduce cost and increase revenue – skills that are absolutely essential in the field of Management Consulting.

It will include a private coaching community as an add-on, which will allow you to:

1. Get to talk to me, Robbie Agustin, the creator of the program
2. Get to connect with other people in the community to cross-pollinate ideas and share best practices
3. Get your specific questions answered

It will be a complete brain-dump of everything I know about Business Optimization. If only I can do a download straight to your brain like The Matrix, I would. But our technology today isn’t exactly there yet.

This program will cover all of the strategies I’ve used to optimize the Fortune 500 businesses I have worked with, where normally the opportunity to learn these skillsets are only made available to those who can be backed by large corporate funding.

But I would like to change all that by making all this available to entrepreneurs and employees like you, to help take your business and/or career to the next level, and get you one step closer to achieving the life you have always been dreaming of.

However, I need your help. Before I finalize everything for production, I would need to make sure I’ve covered everything.

That is where you come in.

Please take a few moments to answer this. We’ll, there is really just one thing I want to ask you.

When it comes to Business Process Improvement, what’s your BIGGEST CHALLENGE or FRUSTRATION that I absolutely need to answer in the program – TRAIN MY PROCESS IMPROVEMENT PERSON?

Reply with a comment.

The post I need your help – TRAIN MY PROCESS IMPROVEMENT PERSON appeared first on Robbie Agustin.

“If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.” – Henry Ford

Imagine, how different the world would have been if people like Henry Ford did not do any innovation?

What if Steve Jobs did not innovate to combine a phone, an iPod, and an internet communicator into the first iPhone, which revolutionized the mobile phones industry?

If Uber and Airbnb did not innovate to disrupt the transportation and tourism industry, what would day-to-day and vacation travel be like today?

You see, sometimes, if you just ask your customers what they want, yes you might provide answers to their short-term goals, but the truth is, the concept of “customer is King” may be a flawed mentality.

They may not know what they really want, until you actually create their ideal future state. It’s all a matter of perspective. Instead of focusing on their problem, focus on the solution.

For example, in the case of Henry Ford, he says that if he asked his customers what they wanted, they would have simply said that they wanted faster horses. It’s all surface level.

But if you focus on the solution, and base it on their paint points e.g. the quickest, easiest, and most efficient way to get from Point A to Point B, then you’d end up with a different solution. In Henry Ford’s case – revolutionizing the definition of transportation.

In order to find out what your customers really want, there are 3 layers you need to penetrate in your customers’ minds:

1. What they SAY
2. What they THINK
3. What they DO

Until finally, you’ll get to the downright truth – their HOPES, FEELINGS, DREAMS, and ASIPRATIONS. That is what they really want.

The question is HOW do you get through those layers? It’s called Design Thinking. And the good thing is that you don’t have to be a designer in order to think like one. There’s a science behind it, and it’s a skill that you can learn.

If you think this was of value and want to know more, Learn Design Thinking today, and transform your business to take it to the next level.

And if you haven’t yet, download your FREE (for a limited time only) eBook – The Business Optimization Blueprint. Learn how to optimize your business with a simple 5-Step process.

The post Customer is King, but what if I told you they DON’T really know what they want? appeared first on Robbie Agustin.

So I was conducting Design Thinking training, and when we were doing the Customer Personas, apparently some of the groups were creating personas of themselves as the customers being the recipients of goods or services from an upstream process.

There is a valuable lesson here that I would want to share with you.

This will only work if you are your best customer, and you’ve created a business to cater to your needs, and your customers have similar needs as yours.

If this is not your case, then you must create a persona for your actual customers, whether they are internal or external, so long as they are recipients of your goods or services.

Here’s an example scenario:

You are in a mobile telecommunications service company called “Fonavode.” You work with a company who supplies of mobile phones to you called “Sungsam.”

Now “Sungsam” is always delayed in supplying you with the most in-demand mobile phones that your customers really want, which causes you to get a lot of customer complaints, and your customer experience is starting to suffer.

An example of a wrong way to do it, and I’ll be making up company names as we go along, is to create a persona of a “Fonavode” manager who is trying to solve the customer complaints due to the delays caused by “Sungsam.”

The right way to do it is to create a persona of a “Fonavode” customer who wants to remain as a customer of “Fonavode” while getting his hands on the latest “Sungsam” device.

See the difference? Had you taken the wrong approach, you would have plotted your own paint points as a “Fonavode” manager. But how would you solve it? By creating a new process for “Sungsam?” That’s completely outside of your control.

Whereas if you were to take the right approach, you’d plot the pain points of a “Fonavode” customer, and create a solution by finding out the ideal future state that your customer would like to achieve, and you’ll be doing that based on what’s within your control – your own business process.

Who knows, maybe the “Sungsam” units your customers were demanding for weren’t really what would be best based on their ideal future state. Maybe it should be a “Phone-eye Laxagy,” or a special “Fonavode” variant of the “Sungsam.”

The point is, you wouldn’t have known this if you took on the wrong persona.

Want to learn Design Thinking to Innovate and be a game-changer? Enroll today at https://robbieagustin.com/courses

The post How NOT to do Design Thinking appeared first on Robbie Agustin.