Version 2 of my homework for the creativity course on Stanford's online venture lab platform

1. Find out in this wonderful presentation!

2. Like this:

3. Well, not really…
But that’s what you expected to
see, right?
I’ll tell you the true story in a
minute – I promise.
Anyways, I am Alex, from
Romania (Eastern Europe).
This is me:

4. First things first: I didn’t do my
homework
For “numbers” people: Homework level: 50%
completed
I only went to 3 stores:
House of Art – clothing store with low to medium
priced clothes
Sony Center – electronics store only with Sony
products (I love gadgets)
Baby Star – baby toy store, also with a few baby
clothes

5. This is House of Art

6. This is Sony Center

7. This is Baby Star
Forgot to take photo, sorry.
You can imagine something with a lot of pink and
faded blue.

8. But… (never say this word, it means that you discard everything you or the
person talking to you said before – sales tip #1)
I learned some important stuff, especially in the first
location, the clothes store and the third one, with
baby toys.
I got kicked out of the first store.
I then went to play with gadgets at Sony because I
wanted to feel better.
No, just kidding. Actually I went to observe their
store because they seemed to be nicer than the first
ones. -> I was right!

9. How I got kicked out – the real deal
I went to the clothes store and I wandered around a
little, I pulled out my papers and went to a corner and
started to write the observations – wrong first step,
I’ll tell you why in the next slide.
I found out that I suck at this!
Because I never noticed things previously, I missed so
much!
Now I am more used to catching details and I’m
going to keep practicing!

10. Still didn’t tell you how… :D
After 30 long minutes !!!!! a saleswoman, who had
been standing all this time 3 feet away from me, came
to ask if she could help me. I had just finished my
checklist.
I told her what I was doing and she called the
manager.
The manager told me I am not allowed to observe her
store without beforehand permission from her and
that I want to know things that are confidential –
after she saw one of my questions on the list.
She then asked me with polite words, but very
aggressive body language to get the heck out of the

11. I tried
To have a dialogue and explain to her she doesn’t need to
be worried, but she didn’t understand.
The truth is, I could have asked for permission… My bad
there…
So I told her I could help her, because I discovered some
problems and I could tell her how to fix them.
She asked me: “Do you want to buy something from here?”
I said “No” and she said “Then you are not a customer”
and that they had employees who deal with
customer feedback and that she doesn’t want
to hear anything from me.
So I got out and didn’t look back.

12. Problems I found:
Poor product placement
“For sale” items badly promoted
Company image (art studio / exhibition look – expect
expensive stylish products) didn’t match products
(pretty cheap + medium quality + not stylish +
general wear items, not special occasion clothes)
Salespeople didn’t initiate contact, just waited to be
asked by customers
Salespeople’s uniform didn’t match company image
Very few impulse items near cash-register

13. Easy to fix
As you can see,
most of these
problems were easy
to fix.
Too bad the
manager didn’t
want to find out
about them.
This is the way she
behaved:

14. The second store visit went better
This time I asked the manager from the beginning to
allow me to observe his store.
He was nice and helped me with information also.
I found only one problem, which a customer said out
loud: it was too hot in there, probably from all the
plugged-in electronics.
Lesson: always listen carefully to your customers.
Overall – very well-designed/managed/etc.
experience at Sony Center (maybe because I love
playing with gadgets and big-screen TVs).

15. Baby toys store visit
I noticed that I started observing this a lot faster.
I found lots of issues, most important were these:
- Name could use bigger font, more wiggly and with
more powerful colours
- Music was not in tune with baby theme
- Salespeople didn’t have uniforms, didn’t match store
image
- No “for sale / promotions” items anywhere
- Prices hard to find because products are too colourful
–> need better price tags
- No impulse items

16. Thanks for paying attention
If you made it this far, I congratulate you.
You are about to receive a token of my appreciation
for bearing with my presentation till the end.
Here’s a funny gag to make you smile:
http://9gag.com/gag/5451041
Have a nice day!