I’ve been pleased to see the creative ways new SaaS solutions are being marketed recently. Notably, marketers are doing a better job at making their users feel valued from the moment they register for a service. Less and less I’m receiving blaring “buy now” offers. For me personally, this has resulted in deeper levels of engagement with their products, and I find myself evangelizing their brands much more than in the past.

Past pioneering efforts included Google’s Gmail, which allowed access by invitation only. I remember feeling somewhat special when my friend selected me to be an early user of their email system. Anther example of good marketing leading to engagement occurred when I recently signed up for Evernote, which is like Post-It Notes on steroids. Once I logged into my free account, my dashboard showed a “current monthly usage” bar. This gracefully implemented indicator reminded me that my free account is a gift and that it has its limits. What I like about these marketing approaches is that they encourage me to personally use or share the product with others without such overt advertising that I typically tune out.

What excites me more is where this will go next. Although the previous examples encouraged me to engage and share, they were still only one-way communications from the company to me.  The really savvy SaaS Marketers out there are changing the dialogue to a more equitable two-way communication model such as my new favorite online back up and file sharing service, Drop Box. After signing up for a free two-gig account, they offered me 250 Megs of extra storage just for attending their training class. Wow, paying me to learn their product? Awesome. Then, they tell me that I can invite up to 3 friends and get 250 Megs for each acceptance. Now I’m hooked. Needless to say, it took me less than 2 days to pester 3 friends into trying the product. And at least one of them is now an avid user as well. What I find so smart about Drop Box is that they have figured out a credible way to reward people for learning their product and inviting new members.  Maybe more importantly, they have found equity on their side for giving out these rewards.

Simple answer: consumers want it. Consumer expectations around the capabilities and interfaces of handsets, PCs, netbooks, DVRs, set-top boxes, Blu-ray players, game consoles and TVs have changed. Now, consumers embrace connected devices as a way to simplify their lives. The web on a PC gave us access to any information or content we desire. Mobile handsets added the benefits of immediacy and portability to the equation. Today, simplification for the customer seems to be focused on adding multiple functionalities to one device and creating a cohesive experience across multiple devices. Some basic examples include:

• Purchasing songs on iTunes and listening to those songs on your iPod or in your car. (Much easier than carrying around 200 CDs.)
• Selecting a Netflix movie from your queue on your PC or handset and watching it on your TV. (The other option is driving to the nearest store.)
• Receiving emails through a BlackBerry while on the road. (Makes responding to an urgent question easy.)

Consumer electronics manufacturers know that only useful and usable products sell. They also know that the era of launching siloed products is over because part of making compelling products is making them capable of easily synching with other devices. Ultimately, the manufacturers that are most successful will be the ones who can best understand consumer challenges and who create content experiences that the consumer will find useful and usable enough to purchase.

This serves as an opportunity for ALL brands. Whenever consumers expect to be able to do something that will make their lives easier, the brands that allow them to do so will meet or exceed expectations. For example, Pizza Hut was one of the first companies to create a compelling pizza ordering app for the iPhone. The app has been downloaded over a million times and for many customers is now the preferred method of ordering pizza. The means of access to information or branded entertainment can be a differentiator.

Moving forward, integrated digital marketing strategies will go far beyond a web or even a mobile strategy. If we see a customer need or expectation that is not being met, it’s our job to do so using the method that is easiest for the customer. Research from Forrester and eMarketer as well as the examples discussed earlier all indicate that the connected age is not coming: it’s here. That is why the connected home concept matters to consumer electronics manufacturers and all other brands. Developing digital strategies that include multiple devices requires an understanding of cross-channel branded experiences, technology platforms, application development and the consumer… all things we’ve got a strong pulse on here at LEVEL.

I’ve had the fortune of creating strategy documents for some of the most exciting and innovative companies in the world. Using a plethora of strategy tools that are communicated in many formats, these strategic roadmaps aim to define a differentiated market position that gives promise for improved ROI and sustainable results.

If successful, these roadmaps generate the enthusiasm to move an initiative forward with key stakeholders all in agreement. I wish I could say that is all that is needed to realize the expectations that have been set forth; however, there are a few key ingredients often left out that one should consider keys to success.

Transformative leadership starts with having purpose. It sounds easy, but knowing precisely what kind of company you want down the road is often not clear. Although financial objectives are great measurement tools for evaluating investments and progress, don’t forget that real value creation in the marketplace has nothing to do with making your numbers. Without a clear purpose behind your business, it is impossible to link proposed investments to the long-term strategic position of the company.

Nothing works without a clear identity. Once you have a purpose, you need to take stock of the core competencies in your company. These are the things that are difficult for your competition to imitate and they are what differentiate your brand. Most importantly, they aren’t your end products; rather, they are what make your products desirable. Are you the best at design? Are you the most efficient at manufacturing? Make sure you know what you do best and retain those capabilities no matter what unexpected challenges arise as you move your initiative forward.

The world isn’t a static place. As you execute your strategy, macro economic conditions change and your competition reacts. This all happens while your customer’s expectations and needs evolve. The roadmap that once seemed clear and logical may not have the accuracy it once had. It is now time to learn from your experiences and adapt your strategy as needed – even if it means discarding a piece of your once perfect roadmap.

* This blog entry was inspired by the following Harvard Business Review articles:

Cynthia A. Montgomery. “Putting Leadership Back into Strategy”

C.K. Prahalad and Gary Hamel. “The Core Competence of the Corporation”

November 12, 2009 marks World Usability Day, an international event with a mission “to increase the public’s awareness of the need to make services and products important to human life easier to access and simpler to use.” This day is special to LEVEL because of our focus on user-centric design, an approach that puts the goals and needs of users in the forefront of everything we create. This year’s World Usability Day theme is “Designing for a Sustainable World.” The theme challenges us to think about design that is both usable and sustainable.

Making sure a user’s experience with a website, application or other product is truly usable involves three tenets:

• It must be easy to use
• It must be useful
• It must be desirable

One could argue that the fourth tenet is “It must be sustainable.”  Thinking about sustainability forces us to look at what we do in a larger context and over a longer period of time. How will something we create be used not only now, but in the future as its users change and the world changes? How long is it meant to last before it will be discarded?  What impact could it have that may not be immediately apparent? LEVEL is recognizing this day externally with a sponsorship and internally with an awareness campaign that encourages us to think about these questions.

Right now is an exciting time the LEVEL User Experience team. We are currently building processes, standards, and tools that not only allow us to design products and services with the highest level of usability, but also enable us to provide our clients with user experience design and consulting that is both innovative and data-driven.

Incorporating research with users into the design process is the best way to achieve optimum usability. Here at LEVEL, we have the technology and expertise to provide a unique service offering:  eye tracking. This is an advanced usability testing technique that uses a special camera to record an individual’s eye movements. The recorded scanpath demonstrates how people interact with a web site or other product. We leverage the recorded information to identify strengths and weaknesses of a specific media or interface and then offer recommendations to create an optimized user experience.

Some of the other usability research and evaluation methods we use are:

• Focus Groups
• Heuristic Evaluations
• Surveys
• User Profiles and Personas
• Usability Testing: in lab, in the field, and remote

We are looking for experienced Information Architects to join our team in our San Jose and San Luis Obispo offices. Interested candidates should go to the Careers section of our site to learn more and apply.

I found this interesting leaf impression on a recent evening walk to a local coffee shop.

I happened to return a couple days later and it was gone.  I found myself disappointed because I had been rather moved by the original discovery.  But, I took away a simple inspiration.  The power of impression, even in the smallest things we do, is crucial to how we are perceived. So never miss an opportunity to positively affect the outcome of a situation no matter how trivial.  If you’re lucky, the impressions nurtured will become indelible.