Experience Leader

Show NotesEpisode OverviewIn this episode, Chris Spiek, a luminary in the product development sector,me to discuss the transformative potential of the Jobs to be Done theory in business strategy. Chris shares his journey of collaborating with Apple to bring the innovative tap-to-pay feature to market, and how one feature born out of JTBD Research created a feature single-handedly responsible for 50% of company revenue. Tune in to hear the story.Key TakeawaysCollaboration with Apple: Chris highlights the journey of developing the tap-to-pay feature, which promises to revolutionize payment systems for small business owners.Customer-Centric Approach: Chris underscores the necessity of shifting focus from the loudest voice in the room to the customer's needs and experiences.Implementing Jobs Theory: Begin with foundational knowledge acquired from resources like "Competing Against Luck", and learn the art of customer interviews to gather actionable insights.The Importance of the First Win: Secure an initial success story to demonstrate the effectiveness of the Jobs theory in your organization, fostering a culture of customer-centric innovation.Quotes"Every time you take a credit card payment, people say it's like, I can feel the money going into my checking account, which is pretty magical." - Chris Spiek describing the user experience of the tap-to-pay feature."How do you move the loudest voice out of the center of the conversation and the customer into the center of the conversation?" - Chris Spiek on adopting a customer-centric approach."You're going to have to take a leap of faith based on the findings and learn from the outcomes." - Chris Spiek on implementing the Jobs theory."All you got to do is get one win to prove to the rest of the organization that,  this is worth it." - Devin Smith on the significance of securing the first win.Resources MentionedCompeting Against Luck - A foundational book for understanding the Jobs theory.Rewired Group - Innovation Consulting and courses for mastering Jobs to Be Done InterviewingWays to Connect with Chris SpiekTwitter - Follow Chris for more insights on product development and innovation.LinkedIn - Connect with Chris to stay updated on his latest ventures and collaborations.Connect with Devin LinkedIn X: @devinwsmith Subscribe and Review If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe to our podcast so you'll never miss an episode. We'd also appreciate if you could leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. Your reviews help us reach more people and create a bigger impact.

In this episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Horst Schulze, a visionary leader in the hotel industry. He shared his insights on the importance of purpose and belonging in the workplace, the role of leadership, and how his faith has influenced his approach to business and relationships.Key TakeawaysThe importance of purpose and belonging in the workplace: Mr. Schulze emphasizes that companies should hire people not just to fulfill a function, but to be part of a purpose and offer them a sense of belonging. He cites a large worker survey that found the number one thing employees value in their job is a sense of belonging.The role of leadership: Leaders need to have a strong sense of purpose themselves and be able to transfer that to their team. If leaders lack clarity or conviction, they cannot effectively inspire their team to strive for excellence.The power of service and relationships: Mr. Schulze argues that customer loyalty is built on trust, which is primarily established through relationships, not products. He believes that companies should focus on serving their customers well and building strong relationships with them.The vision of a leader: When Mr. Schulze started Ritz Carlton, his vision was to create the finest hotel company in the world. He carefully considered whether this purpose was good for all stakeholders - investors, employees, customers, society, and his community - and whether it was something that would be approved by God.Continuous improvement: Mr. Schulze believes in the importance of continuously striving for excellence, both in business and in personal life. This involves regularly asking yourself how you can do better in your work, relationships, and moral and ethical conduct.The influence of faith: Mr. Schulze's faith has greatly influenced his approach to business and relationships. He believes in loving and respecting all people, and sees his employees and customers as his neighbors. His faith has also given him a sense of purpose and conviction in his work.ResourcesExcellence Wins: A No-Nonsense Guide to Becoming the Best in a World of Compromise by Horst SchulzeThe New Gold Standard: 5 Leadership Principles for Creating a Legendary Customer Experience Courtesy of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company by Joseph MichelliArch and Tower PlusCapella Hotel GroupConnect with Horst SchulzeLinkedInTwitterConnect with Devin LinkedIn X: @devinwsmith Subscribe and Review If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe to our podcast so you'll never miss an episode. We'd also appreciate if you could leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. Your reviews help us reach more people and create a bigger impact.

In this episode of Experience Leader, Devin talks with legendary hotelier, co-founder of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, and founder of Capella Hotel Group, Horst Schulze. They talk about his remarkable story and how he creates the best hotels in the world. This is the first part of a two-part series that will get you fired up to pursue excellence in your life and work.Enjoy the conversation.Join other industry leaders by signing up for the Experience Leader Newsletter.A production of Experience Leader LLC.LinksLearn more about Horst SchulzeLearn more about host Devin SmithLearn more about the Experience Leader PodcastConnect with Devin LinkedIn X: @devinwsmith Subscribe and Review If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe to our podcast so you'll never miss an episode. We'd also appreciate if you could leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. Your reviews help us reach more people and create a bigger impact.

Some people just get the need for great CX because it’s a part of who they are, and it is definitely a part of Ashley Jones, CEO and Founder of Love Not Lost. Love Not Lost is a non-profit that provides portrait photography for people who have a terminally ill loved one so that they can capture memories together while they still can.In this episode, Devin talks with Ashley about how she started Love Not Lost and the way the organization cares for donors, photographers, and benefactors.Enjoy the conversation.Join other industry leaders by signing up for the Experience Leader Newsletter.A production of Experience Leader LLC.LinksLearn more about Love Not LostConnect with Ashley Jones on LinkedInLearn more about host Devin SmithLearn more about the Experience Leader PodcastConnect with Devin LinkedIn X: @devinwsmith Subscribe and Review If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe to our podcast so you'll never miss an episode. We'd also appreciate if you could leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. Your reviews help us reach more people and create a bigger impact.

Have you ever encountered pure energy?  Devin comes close when he sits down with Nate Brown, Co-Founder of the CX Accelerator and Senior Director of CX at Arise.Nate and Devin talk about their experience at CX Forums Experience Atlanta ‘23 and about why experience matters!Enjoy the conversation.Join other industry leaders by signing up for the Experience Leader Newsletter.A production of Experience Leader LLC.LinksConnect with Nate Brown on LinkedINListen to the Experience Matters (Podcast) with Nate BrownLearn more about hosts Devin SmithLearn more about the Experience Leader PodcastConnect with Devin LinkedIn X: @devinwsmith Subscribe and Review If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe to our podcast so you'll never miss an episode. We'd also appreciate if you could leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. Your reviews help us reach more people and create a bigger impact.

On this episode, Devin chats with his colleague Joe Rapoza, Senior Manager of UX Design at Charles Schwab, about whether UX Designers make good entrepreneurs.Enjoy the conversation.CX Forums ATL 23 is coming. Use Discount Code “Devin20” to save 20% on tickets! Get tickets HERE. Join other industry leaders by signing up for the Experience Leader Newsletter HERE.A production of Experience Leader LLC.Links:Learn more about Joe Rapoza.Learn more about hosts Devin Smith .Learn more about the Experience Leader podcast.Connect with Devin LinkedIn X: @devinwsmith Subscribe and Review If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe to our podcast so you'll never miss an episode. We'd also appreciate if you could leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. Your reviews help us reach more people and create a bigger impact.

On this episode, Devin sits down with Utibe Bassey (Head of Customer Experience, Dominion Energy) to discuss her revolutionary idea of LOVE as a KPI for any business that wishes to dominate its category. She breaks down the tenets as;L - LeadershipO - Offer (Products & Services)V - Value PropositionE - EngagementEnjoy the conversation.Join other industry leaders by signing up for the Experience Leader Newsletter HERE.A production of Experience Leader LLC. Links:Learn more about Utibe Bassey.Learn more about hosts Devin Smith .Learn more about the Experience Leader podcast.Connect with Devin LinkedIn X: @devinwsmith Subscribe and Review If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe to our podcast so you'll never miss an episode. We'd also appreciate if you could leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. Your reviews help us reach more people and create a bigger impact.

Does Design Thinking work? Or does it oversimplify design, misrepresent it to the business world, and try to place designers? Steve Nedvidek joins Devin on the podcast in this episode to discuss it all.Steve teaches design thinking at Wake Forest University, is responsible for introducing design thinking to Chick-fil-A, and is himself a designer.  He is the perfect person to address recent critique of design thinking, in which a well-known designer claims that design thinking oversimplifies what design is, misrepresenting it to the business world, and ultimately tries to replace design itself.  Devin’s own experience with design thinking has been far more positive than this critique suggests, and Steve agrees that there is more to the story than what this critic asserts.Steve can understand the critic’s perspective when design thinking is thought of in one particular way, but Steve conceives of it much differently. Coming from the angle of his own background as an artsy kid having to try to explain to people what he did, Steve explains how design thinking was the language he needed to communicate what he was doing to people who did not know how he did what he did.  In his experience, design thinking most certainly works, and helps facilitate connections between designers and non-designers.  It is a discipline, mindset, and process that both enables understanding between people and helps non-designers to employ design concepts to solve problems - all without making the designer superfluous.  Design thinking, Steve says, calls us to think more deeply about the order of things.  It adjusts the brain to the discipline of knowing what comes next, helps keep teams grounded in the central problem they’re working to solve, and promotes customer-centricity by demanding a team start with the customer rather than the product.  Not only does design thinking foster empathy, but it is a living structure (rather than an equation or rigid set of rules) that also helps businesses to function effectively.  It provides the structure for a business to play the long game, focusing on good solutions and stakeholder value rather than speed and immediate results, and following a methodology that takes one step at a time.    Links:Learn more about Steve Nedvidek.Learn more about the Experience Leaderpodcast.Learn more about hosts Devin Smith and David Antoline.Learn more about episode sponsor Active Digital.Connect with Devin LinkedIn X: @devinwsmith Subscribe and Review If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe to our podcast so you'll never miss an episode. We'd also appreciate if you could leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. Your reviews help us reach more people and create a bigger impact.

How do you create a consistently great customer experience in the SaaS business world? We find out from Sydney Sloan, whose storied career has included serving as CMO of Salesloft as well as senior marketing leadership positions at Adobe and Marketo.Connect with Devin LinkedIn X: @devinwsmith Subscribe and Review If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe to our podcast so you'll never miss an episode. We'd also appreciate if you could leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. Your reviews help us reach more people and create a bigger impact.

Your next star performer might not have the traditional background you're looking for, but you can find them, and Derek Greenacre is with us this week to show the way.Connect with Devin LinkedIn X: @devinwsmith Subscribe and Review If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe to our podcast so you'll never miss an episode. We'd also appreciate if you could leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. Your reviews help us reach more people and create a bigger impact.

How do you apply the Theory of Jobs to be Done to Sales? Bob Moesta is with us this week to talk about how he has done it, as outlined in his book, Demand-Side Sales 101.Connect with Devin LinkedIn X: @devinwsmith Subscribe and Review If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe to our podcast so you'll never miss an episode. We'd also appreciate if you could leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. Your reviews help us reach more people and create a bigger impact.

In today's episode, hosts Devin and David are back for the second installment of this series on sales, marketing, and how both can work better together. Last week focused on marketing, this week is about sales!While sales and marketing may feel like they are from different planets, both have to work together to ensure the best experience for the customer. The main goal for the company is how to orient itself around the customer, and to help the customer make the right buying choice for them. So the question is, how do you make a customer-centric sales process that works hand-in-hand with marketing? Devin and David answer this question in three main steps that will help both sales and marketing win. First, you must make sure you understand the context of the customer. By the time the customer comes to a salesperson, they have already researched and formed opinions about the company. Even so, it is the job of the salesperson to still ask questions, find out what problem the customer is facing and what they’ve done to try to solve it so far. After that, you can better serve the customer by helping them understand what your company offers and the outcomes your offerings can produce to help the customer make progress. The next stop on the customer journey is helping them identify the trade-offs they will face and discussing the service from the customer’s perspective. The customer has too many options and each organization is competing for their time and attention. The point in sales is not to just get numbers, but to understand what the customer needs and give them your opinion on what steps they should take. The salesperson needs to build trust with the customer and help the customer make the right choice for them. You can win trust as a company by helping the customer make the right buying decision, and discussing the ramifications and benefits for the options they have. The last step is having sales and marketing work closely together to receive feedback and adjust accordingly. Just like the customer is researching your company, the sales and marketing team also need to receive intel on the customer to make sure they are the right fit for the company. In order to learn about the customer, you need to have conversations with them and ask questions. Then, you can share those assertions with the sales team, but also be willing to tighten and reframe those assertions about the customer. Both teams need to be able to receive feedback, reset, and try again. If it doesn’t work out with a customer, both teams need to find out why and work hand-in-hand together to improve. In every company, leaders need to give sales and marketing the ability to have conversations and make adjustments. The key to winning on both sides, is to continuously improve and to keep the focus on helping the customer make progress on their job to be done.  Links:Learn more about theExperience Leaderpodcast.Learn more about hostsDevin Smith andDavid Antoline.Learn more about episode sponsorActive Digital.Connect with Devin LinkedIn X: @devinwsmith Subscribe and Review If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe to our podcast so you'll never miss an episode. We'd also appreciate if you could leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. Your reviews help us reach more people and create a bigger impact.

David and I got to hang out with over 350 product professionals at Productfest RVA 2022 in Richmond, VA. It was a blast, and we got to talk with product pros from CarMax, Capital One, and HBO Max. Tune in to hear about the event and the careers of these pros doing big things at major companies.Connect with Devin LinkedIn X: @devinwsmith Subscribe and Review If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe to our podcast so you'll never miss an episode. We'd also appreciate if you could leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. Your reviews help us reach more people and create a bigger impact.

Welcome to the Experience Leader podcast, and to this episode brought to you by Active Digital!  Do you want to de-commoditize your products and services?  Do you want to become a destination brand, increase your revenue, and have more control over your pricing?  If so, you're in the right place! Each week, we'll talk about how to create great customer experience and how to orient your company to enable them.  In today's episode, hosts Devin and David unpack the idea that sales is from Mars and marketing is from Venus. At almost any given company, the tendency for the sales team is to feel like marketing is not doing their best, and vice versa. This can lead to pressure for teams to end up behaving in a way that isn’t in line with the best interest of the customer, and therefore the company. Individually, each of these groups struggle with short term vs. long term, which often ends up with each side feeling they are in opposition with one another. One of the biggest issues within enterprises is having marketers who don’t see how their actions impact sales. However, both sales and marketing should understand that they share the same end goal: helping the customer buy. While it’s necessary to have a method behind the madness of marketing, this isn’t just limited to the number of calls made or how the conversations went. Rather, it needs to be measured by asking ourselves if we are helping customers be more educated on the service and understand how we can be of value to them before they ever make a final decision. Having a goal number to shoot for to incentivize ourselves to grow can be good, but it’s important not to wind up too focused on the numbers. There is the question of looking at these teams and how they operate, and then there is also the question of leadership. Representatives from any field of a company must have a clear vision of who their customer is and what their expectations may be at every touchpoint. Leadership and company culture is really where this all begins. As a marketer, you hold a unique ability to expand someone’s mind by helping them consider other possibilities rather than the ones they already know. The beauty of understanding what somebody is trying to achieve is that you can actually introduce solutions for them to solve their problems at hand. Once the door is open, it is prime time for marketing. Moving forward, Devin and David predict that the line between sales and marketing will continue to blur as people tend to do more research and shopping without human contact. Similarly, we will find that sales will have to be involved in the process of educating without contact.  Links:Learn more about the Experience Leaderpodcast.Learn more about hosts Devin Smith and David Antoline.Learn more about episode sponsor Active Digital.Connect with Devin LinkedIn X: @devinwsmith Subscribe and Review If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe to our podcast so you'll never miss an episode. We'd also appreciate if you could leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. Your reviews help us reach more people and create a bigger impact.

In today's episode, hosts Devin and David discuss customer experience tech, specifically diving into customer relationship management.Since David is our resident CRM expert, he fills the role of guest as Devin runs the interview!  Devin first wants to explore David's history with CRM, which includes experience building a CRM platform.  From his early CRM experiences, including such things as rudimentary efforts using Excel and Access, and onward, David has seen all the flavors of what's out there.  He first became heavily involved in work on CRMs when he participated in building a CRM for a college sports program.  This process, he explains, prompted him to think about the full customer life cycle; for a prospective college athlete, this life cycle actually extends from pre-college athletics through the rest of life as a student and alum.  The question was, how could David and his team build a system for this market to help different aspects of the business keep up with the customers (athletes)?  There were tricky nuances to navigate, especially if the CRM platform was to function smoothly—like an extension of human touch.At their best, CRM platforms work with humans to augment their efforts; thus, they must be designed around the layers of relevant use cases and different aspects of a business.  Since some companies' touchpoints with customers never leave the digital realm, these companies' CRM platforms are the employees' only means of customer interaction.  In these instances, it is especially crucial for the platform to represent customers well and thoroughly.  David explains how business leaders can help employees who feel burdened by the task of keeping up with customer information input, highlighting the need for proper information to meet customer needs and expectations in the moment.  As the conversation wraps up, he and Devin talk about empowering employees to deliver a great customer experience by using CRM for prioritizing, business optimization, and personalization.  CRM is not only good for customers, David goes on to share, but is also a tool by which leaders can empower their employers!  Links:Learn more about the Experience Leader podcast.Learn more about hosts Devin Smith and David Antoline.Learn more about episode sponsor Active Digital. If you have any questions on this episode, send them to Devin@ExperienceLeader.comConnect with Devin LinkedIn X: @devinwsmith Subscribe and Review If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe to our podcast so you'll never miss an episode. We'd also appreciate if you could leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. Your reviews help us reach more people and create a bigger impact.

Welcome to the Experience Leader podcast, and to this episode brought to you by Active Digital!  Do you want to de-commoditize your products and services?  Do you want to become a destination brand, increase your revenue, and have more control over your pricing?  If so, you're in the right place!  Each week, we'll talk about how to create great customer experiences and how to orient your company to enable them.  In today's episode, hosts Devin and David have a conversation about product and service excellence. To begin, Devin stresses the importance of always asking if the main intent of your product is to help customers meet their goal. As someone who has run a product company himself, David shares his thoughts on this. While it may sound obvious, this task is a hard one to do. Small scale businesses have limited resources, so it’s crucial to make tradeoffs which will actually resonate with the customer. That being said, customer goals are rarely linear. You run into big problems when you begin thinking of customer needs as a one-size-fits-all. Customer feedback, both positive and negative, is essential to this process. In both Devin’s and David’s experience, not all feedback is created equally, so it’s important to single out feedback from customers with the job to be done that you are targeting. Similarly, you must have realistic expectations which map to gradual innovation. Innovation is about being able to deliver more in a way that helps the customer solve that problem in a way they couldn’t before. While it is a cultural force, there is a need to give people the latitude to make those decisions. Most companies don’t allow a sufficient amount of time to ask why something didn’t advance progress like it should’ve. If you ask yourself these questions, you’ll often find that you weren’t very far off from success at all. Another way to nail product and service in the software world is to keep employing agile. David shares that if the adherence to the process becomes more important than the outcome of the work done, you need to reevaluate. Most importantly, you need to care about the impact of your product. If you find that your product is not helping the customer reach their intent, you need to feel comfortable enough to stop what you’re doing and find out why. However, it’s never easy to slow the train down, especially in a large organization. Most of the time, it all comes down to how well you understand your customer. David explains that excellence comes from a place of understanding and demands latitude to solve problems. Finally, Devin offers parting advice for achieving excellence.  Links:Learn more about the Experience Leader podcast.Learn more about hosts Devin Smith and David Antoline.Learn more about episode sponsor Active Digital.Connect with Devin LinkedIn X: @devinwsmith Subscribe and Review If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe to our podcast so you'll never miss an episode. We'd also appreciate if you could leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. Your reviews help us reach more people and create a bigger impact.

How well do you know your customers? It's a tough thing to get down to the bottom of what your customer's intent is. It's tougher still to then continuously refresh and refine your knowledge of customer intent, and create awareness of it as an organization. Today, David and I talk about how to get better at understanding your customer.We cover:Customer insight's tie to your purposeForming your organization around customer intentThe importance of using both qualitative and quantitative dataExample CX metricsThis episode is sponsored by Active Digital, where we help customer-obsessed companies become destination brands. Learn more at www.activedigital.comConnect with Devin LinkedIn X: @devinwsmith Subscribe and Review If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe to our podcast so you'll never miss an episode. We'd also appreciate if you could leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. Your reviews help us reach more people and create a bigger impact.

You might think that you can't innovate in the chicken business, but Steve Nedvidek says otherwise. Over his 30 year career with Chick-fil-A, Inc., Steve has done everything from cook chicken to creating an entire innovation center. We talk aboutThe culture of the early years at Chick-fil-AWhat it was like to work for Truett CathyHow Chick-fil-A grew sustainablyThe inflection point that put Steve in the hotseat to start an innovation centerThe cool things Steve is doing now in retirementCheck out Steve's graphic novel series, Jekyll Island Chronicles!This episode is brought to you by Active Digital. We help customer-obsessed companies become destination brands. www.activedigital.comConnect with Devin LinkedIn X: @devinwsmith Subscribe and Review If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe to our podcast so you'll never miss an episode. We'd also appreciate if you could leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. Your reviews help us reach more people and create a bigger impact.

It is the foundation of your company's strategic decision-making ability. It is core to your brand identity. It is the key to motivating your employees. We're talking about your company's purpose. Research has shown that companies with a strong sense of purpose that guides decision-making outperform the S&P 500 by 400%. Interested yet?In this episode we cover the impact of purpose on your company's:Business performanceStrategic decision-making abilityEmployee engagementBrand affinity This episode is brought to you by Active Digital, where customer-obsessed companies go to become destination brands. Learn more at www.activedigital.comConnect with Devin LinkedIn X: @devinwsmith Subscribe and Review If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe to our podcast so you'll never miss an episode. We'd also appreciate if you could leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. Your reviews help us reach more people and create a bigger impact.

This we walk to Joseph Michelli about his work on a massive CX transformation at Mercedes-Benz USA and the book he wrote to chronicle the journey.We cover:How Joseph's involvement with the project came aboutWhat it takes for a CX transformation to succeedHow to get leaders across multiple organizations to believe and join the effortMuch morePick up Joseph's book, Driven to Delight on Amazon or your favorite book store!This episode is sponsored by Active Digital, where customer-obsessed companies go to become destination brands. Learn more at activedigital.comConnect with Devin LinkedIn X: @devinwsmith Subscribe and Review If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe to our podcast so you'll never miss an episode. We'd also appreciate if you could leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. Your reviews help us reach more people and create a bigger impact.