American author and lecturer Marty Neumeier specializes in writing on brands, designs, innovation, and creativity. He presently serves as the Director of CEO Branding for the branding firm Liquid Agency in San Jose, California.
According to conventional wisdom, developing a successful business or brand strategy might take anywhere up to 18 months, depending on the size of the business. It requires using a method similar to this to carry out a succession of actions one at a time:
1. Evaluate your current situation
2. Examine dangers and possibilities in the market.
3. Visualize several possibilities.
4. Find consensus on a course of action.
5. Create a logical vision
6. Define strategic objectives
7. Convert the objectives into strategies
8. Set up financing
There is a lengthy number of steps that are all sequential and build on one another.
But what if you took the steps concurrently rather than in order? Wouldn't that quicken things up?
It both would and does. It's called agile strategy, this is the secret of Marty and his consulting firm is one of the best in that matter.
It is confirmed that Agile Teams can create a framework for a new company or brand in less than six weeks by taking a more collaborative approach to strategy and working concurrently. Six weeks as opposed to 6–18 months.
Can you believe that? I do!
But agile approach has yet another advantage. Results are frequently more true to the original intention. Why? because the different jobs have the ability to influence one another instantly. The work is kept as long as possible in a "liquid state."
The previous phase must be "sealed" before the subsequent step may be constructed in the conventional sequential procedure. Therefore, because step 7 has already been approved and sealed, an X designer who discovers a crucial concept there won't be able to change the overall vision.
Marty's guide is intended to offer the tools we need to quickly develop our own plan while maintaining the highest level of integrity to our strategic objectives.
Read his BOOK SCRAMBLE and learn how agile strategy functions in a real life. Learn how a CEO and his staff have five weeks to revamp their corporation.
THIS IS JUST A SUMMARY OF AN AGILE STRATEGY
Use the five design thinking tenets, or "five Ps," to answer the five strategic questions (called the five Qs).
Agile Strategy = 5Q x 5P
The Ps and Qs are not inflexible rules. They are adaptive, versatile, and personalizable. You can take them as a starting point and then modify them for your particular circumstance.
Design thinking: What is it?
Prototyping is a method used in design thinking to solve creative problems. It may be described as thinking through creation.
Comparing design thinking to conventional business thinking makes it the most clear what it is and how it differs. Knowing and doing are the two basic stages of conventional thinking. You act after knowing something—because you've read about it, used it effectively, or believe it to be best practice. You take it up.
However, there are three stages to design thinking: knowing, making, and doing. Prototyping and testing new ideas during the intermediate stage of the creation process both challenges and modifies what you already "do." It presents unexpected choices that you weren't aware of. You're more likely to choose a safe, middle-of-the-road answer if you skip this intermediate stage. Safe solutions have their place, but if you want to innovate, you should avoid them.
The design thinking five Ps
The five Ps are intended to push your thinking past the apparent.
Problematizing, pinballing, probing, prototyping, and proofing are the five Ps. Together, they offer a structure for locating beyon-the-apparent concepts.
1. PROBLEMIZING
Instead of fixing problems, problemizing involves framing them. Never take a situation at face value. Asking a few questions will help you to identify the real issue—the issue that is causing the problem—instead.
Is it appropriate to address this issue?
Is it deserving of our best efforts?
What additional issues could we resolve that would benefit the business or our clients more?
Problem-solving consists of three steps:
Identifying the problem
Listing the benefits of solving it
Describing the penalty for ignoring it
Here is an illustration of how a business could problematize a circumstance:
FIRST PROBLEM STATEMENT
Our consumers are being taken by our greatest rival. Due to this, we had to cut our pricing, which compelled us to lessen the caliber of our services. Service degradation makes it easier for our rival to take our clients.
RESULTS BENEFIT
With the correct approach, we might be able to keep our clients, maintain our prices, and deny our rival market share.
OPPORTUNITY COST
If we don't take action, our business will continue to spiral downward as a result of reduced costs, declining service, and disappearing customers.
Whenever you are thinking about a problem, hold off on offering a solution. By rephrasing the issue, you can make sure you're addressing the appropriate one. Here's another way to think about the same circumstance as an example:
SECOND PROBLEM STATEMENT
Our main product is out of date. Its underlying technology is aging, which has given one of our rivals an opportunity to join the market with a superior, more affordable alternative. Our initial response was to reduce the price, which led to a negative spiral for us.
SECOND SOLUTIONS BENEFIT
We can recover market domination and maintain strong profit margins by replacing our current product with one that is more advanced.
OPPORTUNITY COST
If we don't take action, the cycle of decline will continue as we lower our pricing, compromise the caliber of our services, and watch as our market share and profit margins erode.
Both of these descriptions might be accurate. The second one is product-focused, whereas the first one is competitor-focused. It is important to get the problem's framing right since it will affect how you solve it.
2. PINBALLING
Concepts can bounce off barriers and other ideas in the same manner that a pinball does when it hits other pinballs and barriers. How many solutions can you think of now that you are aware of the issue? Marty's team employs a variety of methods to spark original thought, but these are the top three:
CONSIDER METAPHORS
Making a comparison between two unconnected items using a metaphor. For instance, "All the world is a stage." Even while the globe isn't exactly a stage, there are certain similarities.
SET BLIND DATES
By combining two ideas that have already been thought of but were not previously introduced, new ideas can be sparked. What results from the union of a computer shop and a museum? A charitable online shoe store? A circus and a Broadway production? The Apple retail stores, Toms shoes, and Cirque du Soleil are examples of successful business models.
REVERSE THE POLARITY
An assumption can be reversed to liberate conceptual energy. Consider that you are attempting to develop a brand-new retail banking business model.
Start by making a list of all your presumptions regarding retail banks:
Customers wait in line for the next available teller.
When customers open accounts, they sign multi-page agreements they can't understand.
To apply for a loan, customers must make an appointment with a loan officer.
Tellers and loan officers work in retail banks.
They have large downtown and suburban locations.
They have traditional-looking interiors with wood paneling, desks, and teller windows.
Banks reduce interest rates and minimize fees to compete for clients.
NOW, Reverse these presumptions:
It features polished concrete floors, café tables, and no teller windows.
A sign on the window reads, "No shoes required, Bring your pets, and Join us for a snack." Our new bank has a modest footprint that can fit into any retail location.
Consumers are greeted at the door and offered a drink
A one-page, straightforward agreement is signed by customers opening an account
They can easily submit a loan application via their phones, or they can ask a professional to help them through it right now.
Bank employees are constantly looking for ways to make their customers' life easier Instead of cutting interest rates, our bank competes for clients by making their lives better.
This is essentially how Czech company Airbank created a successful new retail banking model. Reversing the polarity and other pinballing strategies can be used to launch a company, develop a brand, or create a new good or service. The objective is to present new possibilities that weren't previously available.
3. PROBING
With fresh concepts in hand, you and your team may start exploring their potential. Six Thinking Hats, a fundamental work by Edward de Bono, offers a great method for forming new ideas. It is founded on the concept of parallel thinking, a technique in which all participants in a brainstorming session think simultaneously in the same direction. You use the six hats to examine a notion you had while pinballing.
Information is represented by the white hat, emotion by the red hat, caution by the black hat, optimism by the yellow hat, and creativity by the green hat. The leader, who chooses which hat the group will wear at any given time, will wear the blue hat.
Members of the group who are wearing the white hat provide useful information—marketing statistics, consumer insights, competitive evaluations, sales patterns—without making any recommendations for solutions or ideas.
They are asked to assess a notion in light of their emotions when they are wearing the red hat. As long as they convey an emotion and not a judgment, they are free to say they are delighted, disgusted, encouraged, happy, apprehensive, skeptical, interested, doubtful, and so on. As team members identify each feeling, the team leader writes each one down on a huge piece of paper. When people face their emotions head-on rather than burying them under convincing justifications, you'll find that people make better decisions.
The yellow hat symbolizes optimism. People are given the opportunity to investigate the results they would want to see. It represents imaginative wishing.
The black hat represents caution and disapproval. What is the flaw in this concept? How could it possibly fail? What consequences might there be? Most of us are predisposed to prioritize risk over opportunity, so black-hatting comes naturally to us. The devil's advocate wears a black hat, which is considered to be unfavorable. Usually, the leader can write enough criticism to cover several huge sheets of paper. More is always better. Bring them into the open. While wearing the black hat, no repairs or workarounds are permitted.
The green hat is the headgear of innovation, to finish. Only new, constructive ideas are accepted when everyone is wearing green. The objective is to turn green-hat answers into black-hat worries.
The six-hat method can be used to go deeper into particular features. The group can use the same rigor to evaluate and shape a particular feature of a new company idea, such as a lifetime guarantee.
4. PROTOTYPING
The secret to design thinking's superior strength to conventional thinking is prototyping. Making is a new step that is added between knowing and doing. It's the distinction between building the future based on fundamental ideas and making decisions about the future based on pre-existing habits.
A prototype is just a crude representation of whatever it is that you are inventing, whether it be an idea, a product, a service, or a process. A story, a prototype, a model, a sketch, or some role-playing may be used.
The idea is to keep it straightforward, put it together quickly, and take notes on the outcomes. Following that, you use what you've learned to improve the following prototype, and so on.
Design professionals, authors, and financial modelers are frequently in charge of prototyping since they have the knowledge and experience to move swiftly and intuitively. However, almost everyone is capable of drawing a rough representation of a product, taping a few items together, or folding a piece of cardboard. Check out Dan Roam's book The Back of the Napkin to discover how effective quick doodles can be. It's amazing what occurs when intangible concepts are made tangible.
5. PROOFING
For testing and learning, prototypes are crucial. You can test out your ideas on potential clients using a prototype. You can see what's working, what isn't, and where improvements might be made. They can be used to solicit feedback from coworkers, superiors, or customers.
However, you should avoid making assumptions. We all have preconceived notions about how the world operates, yet these notions might prevent us from seeing possibilities or even reality itself. The quickest way to compare your assumptions to market realities is through proofing.
Test two or more prototypes against one another to make the most of proofing. When you administer tests one at a time, your respondent must decide whether to give you a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down.
You can have a more in-depth conversation on the relative advantages of each prototype if there are two or more of them. This is particularly valid when pitching your idea to your own business.
Never place yourself in a situation where you need a yes or no response. Always incorporate your prototypes into ongoing discussions.
KEY NOTE: Your ideas are fantastic. But how can I persuade my managers (or coworkers or teammates) to support them? This inquiry is predicated on two premises.
The first presumption is that concepts must be marketed like finished goods. This presupposes a customer who is passive and an active seller. In actuality, most breakthrough ideas are supported by believers rather than being purchased by bosses.
Colleagues are more receptive to fresh ideas when they recognize their value. They start to see the potential advantages for their business or their own life.
The second supposition—is that your concepts are excellent. They might be, but who can say from the viewpoint of an outsider? how did they find out? Using what standard? Suitable for what? If you don't address these issues, it shouldn't come as a surprise if your ideas encounter initial opposition. The more novel the idea, the more opposition it will face.
What should you do?
Produce prototypes. Test them out on people. Gather proof from your tests. Support your claim. Use the knowledge you've gained to create new prototypes. Share tales from your travels. Draw a successful picture. enlist the assistance of accomplices. Form an alliance. The most significant inventions resemble mini-movements more than they do the brainchild of a single genius.
But how can you move from design thinking to a practical business or brand strategy? by using the five design thinking principles to the five questions listed below.
THE 5QS STRATEGY
Business strategy and brand strategy once existed on two distinct planes. While brand strategy, if it even existed, was produced at the marketing level, business strategy was developed at the top of the organization. No longer is this true. The DNA of a company and its brand are two interconnected threads. The brand strand symbolizes the exterior company (how customers see you), whereas the business strand represents the inside company (how you conduct business). Any business that doesn't see its customers as essential to its existence is likely to become irrelevant in today's customer-centric industry.
For all intents and purposes, you may model a business in the same way that you would frame a brand. The crucial issues of purpose, customer, category, positioning, and culture are addressed by the five Qs of strategy.
1. What is the goal of this?
There is no compelling reason to operate in any given business without a specific objective in mind.
When there are significant headwinds, leaders are more prone to give up. Months before they actually depart, employees begin to go. This is less likely to occur when there is a rich, meaningful goal. Everyone who is a part of it feels energized and motivated, even the consumers.
Asking precise questions is the first step in defining your purpose:
Why are we in business beyond making money?
How do we want the world to change because of what we do?
What are we passionate about?
Where do our core competencies lie?
How strong is the need for our products?
Is this a worthy challenge?
Is it broad enough to encompass everything we’ll want to do in the future?
A purpose that is well-designed never changes. Create a culture centered on it. Start formulating a specific mission, a distinct vision, and quantifiable objectives. They are all driven by a cause.
People talk about vision, mission, and purpose interchangeably, but they are not the same thing.

Purpose sits at the top of the pyramid. Beyond producing money, your company's purpose is the reason you are in business. Everything else is driven by it, and it never changes.
A corporation is by definition a different company if it changes its mission.
Mission and vision are two connected ideas that are located in the middle tier, beneath purpose. These two both have a purpose.
A mission is a bold objective with a specific aim. In contrast, a vision is a representation of your mission.
2. To whom do we serve?
Naturally, you provide client service. But who are the clients? What features do they share? How do they interact with one another? How likely is it that they will create a tribe around our company? What are the tribe's unwritten laws?

3. Where should we compete?
A game of categories is branding. Your chances of winning depend heavily on the category you decide to compete in as well as the goods and services you offer.
It pays to ask challenging questions, whether you stay in the category you're in or branch out in a new direction.
* Do you have the requisite talents to compete in this area and with this product or service?
* If not, can you quickly pick up the necessary skills?
* Do you already have a solid reputation with clients in this field?
* Does the product or service you're offering have a positive impact on the other goods or services you offer?
* Will joining the category put you in direct opposition to more powerful brands?
Which types of management systems would you require to support your new product?
* Are you able to afford to do it right?
4. How can we triumph?
This leads to the most fundamental query of them all: Why will consumers select our brand over competitors in the same category?
If "because our product is better" is your response, you might be deceiving yourself. Rarely can customers determine which product is superior. They typically base their purchases on secondary factors like price, popularity, customer reviews, tribal affiliation, or popularity. Performance-based evidence is typically not as persuasive as you may imagine.
Alternatively, you might be misunderstanding the objective of branding if your response is "because our product is less expensive." The goal of branding is to persuade more people to purchase more goods for longer periods of time at a higher price.
A major branding objective is defeated when you try to win by cutting the price, unless of course your brand is built on discounts. If so, you'll need a strategy to make sure your discounts don't create a vicious cycle of declining profitability.
The most popular brands are neither better nor less expensive. They are unique. More importantly, customers find their differences to be compelling.
Positioning is a practice that focuses on making a strong distinction. It involves the art of securing a key position in your customers' minds. A customer can never be told what to think or which things to love. However, you can create the kinds of goods, statements, and actions that support a favorable standing in a customer's thinking.
What Marty refers to as the "onlyness assertion" is the optimum positioning test. Try it out right here. Simply complete the blanks.
THE ONLY _______ THAT ________ IS OUR BRAND.
Fill in your category in the first empty field (see the third Q above). Describe your compelling distinction in the second blank. For instance, the only circus with Broadway refinement is Cirque du Soleil. Only JetBlue offers comfortable business class travel at coach fares. Safaar is the only online travel service in Scramble that creates complete itineraries for travelers with bucket lists. You most likely lack a strategy if you are unable to provide a distinct, compelling difference for the second blank.
Even if you succeed, strategy alone does not guarantee victory. Getting the proper idea and getting the idea right are the two components of brand building. The first part is the trickier one to do right. Why? Because building a cohesive brand requires the coordinated work of many different specialists, both inside and outside the firm. Many businesses are not equipped to handle the demands of branding.
5. How can we expand?
Many of the successful businesses won't be relevant in 20 years. In today's unstable economy, innovation and constant adaptation to changing conditions are essential for growth and success.
More than just a quality product is required for a business to be sustainable. It need a culture that is constantly innovative. With relatively little input, the appropriate kind of culture can gain momentum and then quickly unleash tremendous amounts of energy.
The term "flywheel effect" refers to this. But simply telling people to "be more imaginative" won't make it happen. It requires consistent expenditures on training, compensation, and human resources.
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