September 1, 2021
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5min read
Coming across the this commercial the other day, I was caught off guard.
Was it for the new Apple watch? Hmmm… I hadn’t heard anything.
Didn’t matter. It was working.
Delivering brief glimpses of a future I remember dreaming about as a kid, I was intrigued. I could feel myself connecting those bits and pieces of naive childhood wonder with my now adult (almost) desire to be part of that future I once dreamed about. “It has to be an Apple commercial,” my wife and I echoed.
In the end? Samsung.
Which got me to thinking about where we are today.
We live at an interesting intersection between technology as a set of tools for improving life and a quality of life that affords the great majority of us the time to think not just about what those tools are supposed to do, but how they should make us feel.
And this is impacting everything.
Which is why we are reading so much about things like design, usability and user experience. While the industrial revolution was about the technology itself and the power unleashed by mass productivity that pushed beyond the limits of the individual, today’s generation is about individualizing the benefits of technology. It’s about forcing technology through the pinhole of humanity and helping us work our way up Maslow's little obstacle course of needs.
So where do we end up if everything looks beautiful and just works? When every car, computer, website, shopping experiences, public bathroom, flight, and everything else that makes up our long-tailed and socially nomadic lifestyle, becomes beautiful, simple, elegant and personally empowering, what will that mean for organizations?
It will mean that people will no longer be buying based on how you deliver because the only organizations that will make it will be those that deliver amazing human-focused experiences. Organizations that don't get it on delivery simply won't be part of the equation because customers won't tolerate the gap.
Instead, consumers will be more concerned about why you deliver, how you go about doing it and how you make sure the world which you share with the rest of us has a equitable share in the world you help shape.
Sounds beautiful to me.
