User-centred HR

The meandering path of the comb-shaped professional means that one can end up doing work that one wasn't expecting. In fact, it's fair to say that most of my work these days falls into this category. And so as such I currently find myself on an assignment looking at the way in which modern cloud-based … Continue reading User-centred HR

Weeknote 327: playing around

This week I have learned: that I have apparently become a product owner (interim) that the key to improvisation is listening (thanks to Neil Mullarky) that Customer Experience should maybe become an optional extra that I bloody love radio Next week: trying to work out what being a product owner (interim) actually means, and a … Continue reading Weeknote 327: playing around

Choosing CX

A good day yesterday at The Focus Group's Customer Experience Digital Leadership event in Holborn. Not only did I get the chance to catch up with BT's Nicola Millard, Postshift's Lee Bryant and WB40's Chris Weston, but I also had the chance to roadtest some of the key concepts from the Play book. At the … Continue reading Choosing CX

The second wave

I was in conversation this week with a senior IT chap from a big, global industrial conglomerate. It's a world away from most of the organisations I've worked for over the years- namby-pamby creative or professional services businesses who wouldn't know one end of a monkey wrench from the other. It's easy to fall into … Continue reading The second wave

The Thinking Duck

A new week, a new book. This week it's Steven Johnson's Wonderland: How play made the modern world. Johnson's thesis is that much technological innovation attend from the pursuit of happiness and distraction rather than from hard-headed economic need. In one of the early chapters he charts how the work of automata manufacturer Jacques dear … Continue reading The Thinking Duck

Hot under the collar

My wife and I argue about thermostats. After this article we'll probably argue about thermostats and my blogging. I see a room or car thermostat as a device to set a target temperature for the space in which it sits. If I'm too cold, I judge whether to increase the temperature a bit. If I'm … Continue reading Hot under the collar

All in a glance

At the end of my street is the reasonably busy road that links the suburbs of Teddington and Kingston. At peak times the traffic can pass slowly, sometimes queuing in one or both directions. Even at non-peak times there is a constant flow of cars in both directions. Taking a right turn North out of … Continue reading All in a glance

New Turing Tests

In conversation yesterday I realised that I've developed an occasional habit of defining alternatives to the Turing Test as ways of understanding quite how far away Artificial Intelligence really is. Here's the compilation... https://twitter.com/ballantine70/status/542986402800365568 An observation that humans are getting quite good at being able to parse complete gibberish that is the result of "AI" autocorrect … Continue reading New Turing Tests

Competition Time!

There's a free ticket available for the Customer Experience World event at which I'm speaking next month. All you need to do is send you answer to the following question: What is the percentage of people using Twitter for Customer Service now? a) 60% b) 70% c) 55% by email to sandie@thefocusgroup.org.uk T&Cs here: http://www.focusgroupevents.com/CEW-Digital-2017/competition