Optimization From Within - Conversion Conference 2016

Nenhuma nota no slide

What’s the first thing that pops into your mind when you hear optimization?

Exactly. We immediately think of ways to make these digital interactions more compelling, engaging and profitable. If I asked you to optimize a landing page, you would work identify the problem, work through design iterations until you came up with one that worked best and got you want you wanted.

So What If I asked you to optimize you?

Let’s again start by understanding the problem.

Are you happy at work?

Are you motivated and excited to go to work on Mondays?

Do you feel a rush when you’re at work?

Are you doing what you love?

Is this the best version of a job (or life) that you can have?

These are big questions, I know. But designing your perfect job or your perfect life is actually no different than designing a page, a site or anything else for that matter.

First, define what you want. What does that best version look like? What do you see, hear and feel when you are in that job?

Then go get it.

Trust me, I know it’s hard. But this is what I did in 2009.

I had an awesome job at an awesome company, but there was something inside of me craving something new. Something different, exciting, maybe even dangerous. Entrepreneurship was calling and I didn’t let it go to voicemail.

I launched a company and within a few months we were off and running. As my kids arrived, I realized that I need to let go and trust others to do their best work. So I had to make sure that they brought their best selves to work.

In UX design we can’t have barriers in the experience. It ruins it and drives customers away.

In EX design, or the design of employee experiences, the same applies. Politics, gossip, laziness, poor quality, poor standards for quality, restrictions, unreasonable rules all drive away great talent.

And that was ultimately started my career shift from designing engaging apps to designing engaged teams.

And as I built a great team, I realized how awful some of our clients had it in the teams they worked within at their organizations. I would hear things like "My boss won't let me do that.." or "Legal definitely won't approve that.”

People seemed beaten down, frustrated and definitely NOT Motivated.

Let’s go back to the question I asked--how happy are you in your jobs?

Take 3 seconds to think about what that job looks like (PAUSE)

Now take 10 seconds to write down all the reasons you can’t have it. (PAUSE)

Here’s the thing. If you wrote anything down just now, you’ll never get the job you want.

Here’s the good news...what you wrote down is probably just an excuse.

Fear often shows up as excuses. And excuses don’t make us bad, they make us human. They are powerful, pervasive and cleverly disguised. They tap into your deepest fears and insecurities. They make you feel stuck, and when you feel stuck, ideas get stuck.

No one likes to talk about fear. So What if we made it approachable and easy to talk about? We started documenting every excuse people gave us--potential clients, current clients, new staff, interviewees and even us. And after building up a database of hundreds, we landed on 8 themes that kept emerging as the primary reasons why something innovative couldn’t be done to change an experience. Again, we started in talking about changing digital experiences, but have learned that it applies to anything you want to optimize.

These Excuse Personas are designed to help you understand what fears look like and sound like. Personas are fictional characters that are often used in the design world to remind people who we are designing for. They usually include behavior patterns, goals, skills, attitudes, and environment.

We identified 8 and I'm going to go over as many as I can today. Don’t worry, they are all in the book. ;)

[NEXT JUMP STORY]

How many of you think this is ridiculous

How do you know? Brats

There’s nothing that they don’t already know. Brats like to put other people down and bring out the inner voices that prevent others from improving anything, including their life.. It’s as if they assumed that the only great ideas are their ideas. They are judgmental, and that blocks the curiosity and ability to value feelings and outside perspectives.

May not think you have anything to optimize. Beacons of innovation --hard to get them to try something new. [Deloitte and the expensive lunch.] Why would you need to innovate?

My life is better than everyone else’s. There’s always something to optimize.

Victim.

You don’t deserve to have the job you love.

For example, you’re not the best project manager. You’re new to this field. You don’t know all the rules. You are the consummate victims with an “I can’t” mantra. You throw in the towel and give up. You think you are not creative. Or not creative enough. Rather than spending time exploring your creativity, you got busy creating and believing a story around why you’ll never be able to have what you want.

Bottleneckers tend to be more senior or team leads, they're the kind of folks that need to approve every decision and ultimately make your job that much harder.

Being a Bottlenecker helps you avoid feeling empty and alone. It gives significance to your life—”I must be important because I’m so in demand.” You matter, but really you’re afraid to see what happens if you’re not in demand. You force things to go through you, and by doing so, you inhibit innovation.

The Bottlenecker keeps ambitions or dreams or innovations at bay and stays busy doing everything but taking risks.

You have too much on your plate and can’t get around to the big, scary, fun stuff.

Bottleneckers avoid the problem so they never need to solve it.

[Dad’s sleep project and Obamacare]

You make small problems into bigger problems – problems that are so big that they appear to be “impossible” to solve.

I asked you to think about how you can optimize your job. Some of you have already this into some huge undertaking around redesigning your life.

[Entreprenuer Brock and Improv: 2 drinks and a show. this is the way it’s done and it’s killing me and the business. Free rent, talent as partners with no pay and still not making money but getting tons of press. Not happy]

You love the lines that make up a box: rules, regulations, clear boundaries, job descriptions and responsibilities. You use this box to defend why you can’t innovate and do the crazy things that would truly make you happy. You use the truth as your defense. You state facts that no one can argue with: "There’s no way to make money in improv."

What if you got sponsors and held themed events? What if you could change the format so you built a loyal following within the audience you have? What if you rearranged the room to make room for 10 more seats? What if you used the space during the day for workshops or rented it out? What if you sold weed in addition to alcohol?

The facts that make up the square, the one that keeps you boxed in and limits your creativity, is about to be blown to bits. Because, most of these facts that you see as facts are actually beliefs or facts that you can work with rather than against.

As a sheep, you go with the flow, holding fast to a herd mentality. You think, “Hey, this is how everyone else is doing it, so I should too.” You aren’t necessarily scared to put forth your ideas or fight for them, but you are certainly more comfortable with upholding the status quo and making sure it’s smooth sailing. Sheep often wait to chime in after it’s clear which way the room is swaying. This way, you don’t have to worry about being called out or embarrassed if you stick your neck out. More importantly, you don’t have to worry about doing something wrong.

As experts in conversion, you know that if you do what everyone else is doing, you probably will get the same results as everyone else. And maybe that’s OK. As long as you’re happy, it is.

But, if you want something different, something new, something that no one else has, you can’t just follow the standards. You have to break away from the pack and be willing to take risks.

This breaking away is exactly what Sheeps won’t do. And it’s what holds them back.

As a client, this manifests as blaming the politics, red tape, size of the organization, budget, timeline, team, technology (and on and on) as the reasons why innovation can’t happen. As a consultant, you point to client personalities, project scope and power company rules to explain why you have their hands tied. The idea is that you blame something externally when you’re just not pushing yourself internally.

In your life, this shows up in the same way. Who’s fault is it that you don’t have a job you love? Your boss? Your spouse? The college that gave you a degree you “can’t” use? The millenials?

You’re the passive passengers in the backseat of the car. You’re not responsible for the route, the speed, the other cars around them, and you’re certainly not responsible for getting there. You’re procrastinating, worried, scared, lazy, or too cool to take any action. Really, you’re just not confident in your idea, so you ignore it and put it off. If you don’t try, then you’re not risking anything or going to be asked to risk anything. You are waiting for the right time and you use a lot of "later," "soon," "when," "once," and "if" words and phrases in your sentences. For example, "I’ll leave my job once I save more money.”

Good luck with that.

The book takes you through the rest. Today’s talk is about motivating you to try. Change the BS from ull shit to being your Best Self.