How much time did you spend on the design for your company website? How about your logo? And your products or services? My guess is you spent a lot of time on these items, maybe even hired specialists outside your organization to make sure you got it right.

How much time did you spend designing your company?

As customer understanding becomes the most powerful sustainable competitive advantage, the comparative study of human societies and cultures and their development has become a core business competency. The ability to conduct qualitative ethnographic research, develop insights based on that research then translate those insights into business strategy is as important as the technology strategy the CTO is driving.

The primary tools for customer journey mapping are analog: whiteboards, butcher paper, post-it notes and markers are sufficient. The problem with these tools is that it is difficult to evolve the map that is created. For a customer journey map to grow with the organization it is necessary to transfer it to a digital medium so it can be built on over time. Unfortunately, there are not many purpose built solutions for moving your map beyond pen and paper.

In 2016 context relevance will be most important factor driving customer satisfaction and loyalty. Marketing is currently leading the charge on contextual relevance but customer demand for contextual relevance extends beyond the presentation of offers.

We start the design process by collecting information about who our clients customers are, what our clients customers are doing and why they are doing it.

Industry benchmarking is worthless activity unless the others in your industry are the best. If you compete with mediocre companies you will only achieve mediocrity.

Enjoyable and effective customer experiences don't just happen. They must intentionally and deliberately designed across every touchpoint. This requires a deep understanding of your customers and an unwavering focus on their perspective. There are 5 key principles that help guide the creation of great experiences:

Recent studies by The Economist and Forrester found that great customer experience drives revenue, builds customer loyalty and creates meaningful differentiation. One powerful tool for understanding your customers experience and identifying areas needing improvement is the customer journey map.

Two men were born in 1948. Both were were raised in Great Britain. Both are married, have two kids, love dogs and are wealthy. And both are princes.

On the surface these men would appear to be quite similar. But engagement designed for one would probably fail for the other. One of these men is Charles, Prince of Wales. The other is Ozzy Osbourne, also known as the Prince of Darkness.