RAFFIAPALM

Resources for product teams from industry experts

Excerpts

  • ‘Story’ is defined as ‘a narrative, either true or fictitious, in prose or verse, designed to interest, amuse, or instruct the hearer or reader’. This limiting definition sells ‘story’ short.

    Traditionally, in business and career development, we’ve primarily used our stories as communication tactics — ways to get people to see us — while overlooking the opportunity to leverage them to help us see ourselves more clearly.

    Far from just being a way to differentiate us, our stories can help us to decide, plan, lead, sell, inspire, influence, persuade, rally, create value, build trust, foster connection and succeed by building better, more purposeful organisations and lives. Our stories can shape who we are.

    — Story Driven: You don’t need to compete when you know who you are by Bernadette Jiwa

    Source: Amazon Kindle
    Topics: , , , , , ,
    Read more: untitled post 166

  • A person’s identity is formed by integrating life experiences into an internalised, evolving story that provides him or her with a sense of purpose. We make sense of who we are by piecing together stories from our reconstructed past, perceived present and imagined future.

    ‘In personality psychology, what mainly counts when it comes to the idea of a life story is the narrator’s subjective understanding of how he or she came to be the person he or she is becoming — that is, the person’s narrative identity.’

    — Story Driven: You don’t need to compete when you know who you are by Bernadette Jiwa

    Source: Amazon Kindle
    Topics: , , , ,
    Read more: untitled post 167

  • To transcend means “to go beyond,” but this need not compel us to adopt an ornate dualist view that regards transcendent levels of reality (such as the spiritual level) to be not of this world.

    We can “go beyond” the “ordinary” powers of the material world through the power of patterns. Although I have been called a materialist, I regard myself as a “patternist.” It’s through the emergent powers of the pattern that we transcend.

    Since the material stuff of which we are made turns over quickly, it is the transcendent power of our patterns that persists. The power of patterns to endure goes beyond explicitly self-replicating systems, such as organisms and self-replicating technology. It is the persistence and power of patterns that support life and intelligence.

    — The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology by Ray Kurzweil

    Source: Amazon Kindle
    Topics: , , , , , ,
    Read more: untitled post 168

  • Advertising is not a sledgehammer. It’s more like a light fog, a very light fog that envelops your prospects. In the communication jungle out there, the only hope to score big is to be selective, to concentrate on narrow targets, to practice segmentation. In a word, “positioning.” The mind, as a defense against the volume of today’s communications, screens and rejects much of the information offered it.

    In general, the mind accepts only that which matches prior knowledge or experience. Millions of dollars have been wasted trying to change minds with advertising. Once a mind is made up, it’s almost impossible to change it. Certainly not with a weak force like advertising. “Don’t confuse me with the facts, my mind’s made up.” That’s a way of life for most people.

    The average person will sit still when being told something which he or she knows nothing about. (Which is why “news” is an effective advertising approach.) But the average person cannot tolerate being told he or she is wrong. Mind-changing is the road to advertising disaster.

    — Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind by Al Ries, Jack Trout

    Source: Amazon Kindle
    Topics: , , , ,
    Read more: untitled post 169

  • I think of product culture along two dimensions.

    The first dimension is whether the company can consistently innovate to come up with valuable solutions for their customers. This is what product discovery is all about.

    The second dimension is execution. It doesn’t matter how great the ideas are if you can’t get a productized, shippable version delivered to your customers. This is what product delivery is all about.

    — INSPIRED: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love (Silicon Valley Product Group) by Marty Cagan

    Source: Amazon Kindle
    Topics: , , , , ,
    Read more: untitled post 170

●●●

No more stories or excerpts.