Opticon Livestream — from New York
I was able to listen to two of the afternoon talks, both of which were engaging and filled with useful information. I have been reviewing my notes from my Cornell Program (Certificate in Marketing Strategy), so the Opticon Livestream was one of many ways to stay up to date.
Future State of Personalization by Jeriad Zoghby
He felt strongly that it is not so much what songs someone listens to or what shows someone watches, but instead, why a particular song or show. He used the term “customer genome” to describe a consumer’s preferences and needs, that describe why a consumer chooses things. He urged intense listening to customers, and noted that CMS is full of helpful data.
Of course, since it was Opticon, his focus was on optimization. He stated that the conductor is optimization, and everything else follows it. What I liked best about his talk was actually his response during the Q & A about creepy versus cool as it relates to personalization. First, he noted not to overwhelm the customer — which I agree with because it is a temptation. Second, he stated that to keep it “cool” a company needs to be transparent, give the consumer control and provide a service to the consumer.
Optimize Everything: A Framework for Solving Your BIGGEST Problems Through Optimization by Matthew Wishnow
What I really enjoyed about this talk was how practical it was. He started out by listing 10 “solution traps” — things like: ‘without x, we cannot succeed’, go for the low hanging fruit, make it responsive, do what competitors do, using new exciting software, build it first and then test it, do it because it worked for ‘them’, and more.
As to focus, he noted that companies need to solve BIG problems because value is created in direct proportion to the problem that is being solved for customers. He then explained Problem Solution Mapping. What I liked best was his ending — that the aim is to solve problems, not just finish projects. Since I am a problem solver at the core, this was marketing music to my ears!
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