I wrote a post a while ago about Consumer Translation. In it I talked about how it doesn’t matter if you have determined how best to guide your business based on consumer insights if your organization lacks the skills to translate what the insight and direction means to them as they do their day-to-day jobs.
Since then, I’ve been seeing more and more examples of these messages getting lost in translation. Strategic directions are mapped out and explained, criteria for the success of new products and services are explained, and even the final executions of products that satisfy the criteria are determined with good consistency. And then the products get built. And they end up not being very different from the products and services they have always built.
As with most things, the success all comes down to the details. Little decisions get made that put people back in the comfort zone of doing what they have always done, for the same reasons. In the next few posts, I’ll explore what I see as the main areas of focus that can help to facilitate successful translation.