It is exactly the “understanding of the reasoning behind it” that we must focus on. Who cares if Branson writes e-mail. What is important is that he gets out of the way of the folks who do – and as a result, Virgin has been one of the most responsive companies around. His book “Screw it, let’s do it” has many examples of how he backs up an idea, without forcing it into traditional models.

Interesting article. To follow through on the speed metaphor though, I’d suggest that too many people are either driven away from (C-levels) or driven by (us) technology, when we must all remember that we should be driving it.

As someone who works with companies that have often had very little awareness of IxD, I can say that most happily engage if they understand the reasoning behind it. Hey, Branson may allegedly not ever write email, but you can be sure he’ll jump at the chance to use various technologies if they’ll have benefit to his businesses.

Really enjoyed this piece. I was particularly struck by:

“Challenge: don’t talk about how you are going to do the job. Instead, explain why our work will help them achieve both short- and long-term success. Demonstrate the role of the website or application as part of the overall service/branding strategy.”

It reminded me of a TED talk I watched yesterday by Simon Sinek (http://bit.ly/a9sZdE) — his premise is “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it” – The “how you do it” is something he includes between what and why. Very interesting concept about selling strategy from the outside-in vs the inside-out. Definitely worth a watch when you get 18 minutes.

Keep the awesome articles coming, after IA Summit — reading your articles is even more enjoyable since I can hear you speaking through them.

Abby