A keynote on aliens, nuclear waste, wicked problems, and the one big thing that unites everyone working in user experience: AMBIGUITY.
See a video and the full transcript of this keynote at http://www.jonathoncolman.org/2015/05/21/wicked-ambiguity/
How do you solve the world’s hardest problems? And how do you respond if they’re unsolvable? As user experience professionals, we're focused on people who live and work in the here and now. We dive into research, define the problem, break down silos, and build value by focusing on intent.
But how does our UX work change when a project lasts not for one year, or even 10 years, but for 10,000 years or more? Enter the “Wicked Problem,” or situations with so much ambiguity, complexity, and interdependencies that—by definition—they can’t be solved.
Using real-world examples from NASA’s Voyager program, the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository, and other long-term UX efforts, we’ll talk about the challenges of creating solutions for people whom we’ll never know in our lifetimes. The ways we grapple with ambiguity give us a new perspective on our work and on what it means to build experiences that last.
Originally presented as the opening keynote for the 2014 Society for Technical Communication Summit in Phoenix, Arizona. Redeveloped as the opening keynote for the 2015 Confab Central conference and presented on May 21, 2015 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Sine Qua Non: Core Values and Content StrategyJonathon Colman
Core values aren't created; they’re found. They're not selected; they’re discovered. And they’re not your mission or vision; they're what support them. But for most of our organizations or clients, content and design are not—and never will be—core values. Rather, they’re simply just commodities.
Our content strategy work so often focuses on tactics, techniques, and tools that when it comes to creating a core content strategy, we find ourselves blocked. Never for the lack of goals or objectives, but for the values that help us create authentic experiences in support of them. Our values help us find our voice and delight our audience.
Using real-world examples, we’ll walk through the hard questions that you need to ask in order to discover your organization's core values and build them into your content and design.
In this presentation, you'll learn:
- What are core values (and what aren't!)
- How to discover your organization's core values and build them into your brand
- How to align your content with your core values to build lasting results
Based on the works of Jim Collins, Jerry Porras, Patrick Lencioni, and several others. Featuring examples from NatureBridge, Etsy, Moz, Pack, and Facebook. Originally presented at the Content Strategy Forum #csforum13 in Helsinki, Finland on September 12, 2013.
You can learn more about Jonathon Colman at http://www.jonathoncolman.org/ and follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jcolman
Also see 200+ free Content Strategy resources at http://www.jonathoncolman.org/2013/02/04/content-strategy-resources/
Se explican algunos de los elementos necesarios para crear la interfaz gráfica de usuario, navegación entre las vista de una aplicación y el manejo de datos dentro de la aplicación.
Sine Qua Non: Core Values and Content StrategyJonathon Colman
Core values aren't created; they’re found. They're not selected; they’re discovered. And they’re not your mission or vision; they're what support them. But for most of our organizations or clients, content and design are not—and never will be—core values. Rather, they’re simply just commodities.
Our content strategy work so often focuses on tactics, techniques, and tools that when it comes to creating a core content strategy, we find ourselves blocked. Never for the lack of goals or objectives, but for the values that help us create authentic experiences in support of them. Our values help us find our voice and delight our audience.
Using real-world examples, we’ll walk through the hard questions that you need to ask in order to discover your organization's core values and build them into your content and design.
In this presentation, you'll learn:
- What are core values (and what aren't!)
- How to discover your organization's core values and build them into your brand
- How to align your content with your core values to build lasting results
Based on the works of Jim Collins, Jerry Porras, Patrick Lencioni, and several others. Featuring examples from NatureBridge, Etsy, Moz, Pack, and Facebook. Originally presented at the Content Strategy Forum #csforum13 in Helsinki, Finland on September 12, 2013.
You can learn more about Jonathon Colman at http://www.jonathoncolman.org/ and follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jcolman
Also see 200+ free Content Strategy resources at http://www.jonathoncolman.org/2013/02/04/content-strategy-resources/
Se explican algunos de los elementos necesarios para crear la interfaz gráfica de usuario, navegación entre las vista de una aplicación y el manejo de datos dentro de la aplicación.
These slides describe rules for running Architectural Katas, essential for running architectural katas. This was created as part of Software Architecture Meetup January 2019 session.
These slides describe rules for running Architectural Katas, essential for running architectural katas. This was created as part of Software Architecture Meetup January 2019 session.
Enabling Your Ripples: Computers and Software in Church LibrariesAnn Pool
Presented at the 2015 Pacific Northwest Association of Church Libraries (PNACL) annual conference at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Vancouver, Washington.
A presentation on using Creative Commons in the classroom, delivered to the Centro de Formacion de la Cooperacion Espanola in Guatemala in October 2008. This slideshow draws on the excellent "Creative Commons in our Schools" presentation by Mark Woolley: http://www.slideshare.net/markwoolley/creative-commons-in-our-schools/
Presentation given on April 20, 2010 at Columbia University. Introducing concepts around copyright and licensing in art museum and how they interact with Wikipedia's policies. Introducing the concept of "de-accessioning by copyright"
Lecture on the basics of Electrocardiography designed for Applied Physics 195 (Biomedical Instrumentation and Measurement) students of the University of the Philippines, Manila.
This presentation serves educational purposes. I did my best to include all necessary information pertaining the authors of individual photos. If you think that copyright information is included improperly, feel free to contact me. Kind regards.
Content strategists at Facebook plan, structure, and create content for more than a billion people. But they’re not writers or content marketers—they’re interaction designers, information architects, and UX practitioners. They design and build product experiences that are simple, straightforward and human.
And so can you. Content strategy isn't just for big organizations. It's for anyone who's building an experience. And by using our approach, you can start building better content.
In this presentation, you'll learn:
- How content strategy works in a context of product design and development
- A framework for minimum viable content that provides quality and consistency
- How to build and iterate on product content experiences to meet people's needs
- How to stand up and become a better advocate for the people using your products
Stand up for putting The Why before The How.
Stand up for value, ease of use, and craft.
Stand up for meeting (and exceeding) people's needs.
Stand up for BETTER CONTENT!
Inspired by Maria Giudice of Facebook, Ian Lurie of Portent, and Jason Mesut of Plan. Based on the works of Jesse James Garrett, Simon Sinek, A.H. Maslow, Kristina Halvorson, Rachel Lovinger, Dan Saffer/Kicker Studio, Erin Kissane, Michael Powers, Sarah O'Keefe, Hilary Marsh, Wouter De Bres, Matt Toback, Eric Ries/The Lean Startup, Dr. Chun Wei Choo, Libby Brittain, and more. Featuring the design work of the Facebook Analog Research Lab, including concepts by Julie Zhuo, Russ Maschmeyer, and Adam Mosseri of Facebook along with content standards from Facebook's Content Strategy team.
Originally presented at Content Marketing World on September 10, 2014 in Cleveland, Ohio.
You can learn more about Jonathon Colman at http://www.jonathoncolman.org/ and follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jcolman
Also see 200+ free, curated Content Strategy resources at http://www.jonathoncolman.org/2013/02/04/content-strategy-resources/
What is content strategy and what do content strategists do? Isn’t content strategy just copywriting? And why is content strategy so focused on people and systems?
In this presentation, we take a look at content strategy and learn how it can help you build and design better experiences and bring them to market. Content strategy, UX, and product design can work hand in hand to create delight while driving business growth. And when you’re doing it right, it’s hard to tell where content ends and design begins.
By focusing on the entire system and workflow from the beginning, you’ll create better content—which means a better experience for the people using your products or web site.
You’ll learn about:
● What content strategy is (and isn’t!)
● Why “content” means more than just words
● The 8 core components of content strategy
● The 5 key impacts of a strong content strategy
You can learn more about Jonathon Colman at http://www.jonathoncolman.org/ and follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jcolman
Also see 200+ free Content Strategy resources at http://www.jonathoncolman.org/2013/02/04/content-strategy-resources/
Data Sets You Free: Analytics for Content StrategyJonathon Colman
The value of content strategy is hard to measure and even harder to forecast. For many content strategists, the hardest part of the job isn't even the content strategy work itself! It's getting your hands untied so that you can help the organization or client take action.
Data is what sets you free. By learning how to tell the story of your content and audience with data, you'll be able to move onward from just TALKING about content strategy to actually DOING it!
Included in this Content Strategy presentation:
1. WHAT data and analytics mean for our content as well as to our partners, colleagues, and clients
2. WHY content strategists should value and use data and analytics in their work
3. HOW to use the Excellent Analytics plug-in for Microsoft Excel to automate the inclusion of Google Analytics data in a content audit (no more cutting and pasting!)
4. HOW to use conditional formatting in Microsoft Excel to make opportunities for improving content pop
5. HOW to visualize and format data and analytics as you report out the results of your content strategy work, including 8 key learnings from Edward Tufte.
If you're ready to start using more data in your content strategy work, then this presentation includes actionable tactics, tools, and links to more information. Remember: you are what you measure - so start measuring the impacts of your work now!
Originally presented at Confab: The Content Strategy Conference in Minneapolis, MN on June 4, 2013.
For more information and tools that you can use to set your content free, see this associated blog post on the Confab Events blog: http://confabevents.com/blog/data-sets-you-free
You can learn more about Jonathon Colman at http://www.jonathoncolman.org/
Also see 200+ free Content Strategy resources at http://www.jonathoncolman.org/2013/02/04/content-strategy-resources/
What we carry with us in our everyday lives and interactions is just as important for our success as our technical skills and achievements.
This is what I carry with me. What do YOU carry?
Slides designed and produced with Haiku Deck for iPad. Set your story free with Haiku Deck at http://www.haikudeck.com/
You can learn more about Jonathon Colman at http://www.jonathoncolman.org/
Why does so much web content SUCK? And how can we make it BETTER? To find out, we need to question our perspective about content.
Content isn't a feature.
It's not "lorem ipsum" text. It's not something you "bolt on" after design is done. It's not even design or code or even plain text. Instead, content is about brands, audiences, data, systems, processes and workflows. In short, great content is all about PEOPLE.
Which means that content is an EXPERIENCE. Once we understand that, we can get to work on making our content BETTER. Better for users, for businesses, for communities... for a Better Web!
Want to know more about the design and concept of these slides and how I got them to be featured as "Top Presentation of the Day" on Slideshare? See my post at http://www.jonathoncolman.org/2013/02/24/why-our-content-sucks/
Originally presented at the SearchFest conference by SEMpdx in Portland, Oregon on February 22, 2013.
You can learn more about Jonathon Colman at http://www.jonathoncolman.org/
Also see 200+ free Content Strategy resources at http://www.jonathoncolman.org/2013/02/04/content-strategy-resources/
How Introverts Can Survive in This Extroverted WorldJonathon Colman
Our world constantly demands that we share and interact with others. But what if you're an introvert? How can you get along in a world like that?
We'll learn about what introversion is and isn't, why introversion matters at work and at home, and I'll cover five lifehacks for introverts trying to survive in a world that values extroversion.
But simply surviving isn't good enough - introverts can do better than that because they're part of this world. With a new understanding of themselves and others, they won't just survive.
They'll thrive!
Originally presented at Ignite! Seattle 19 on February 20, 2013 at Town Hall in Seattle, Washington.
You can learn more about Jonathon Colman at http://www.jonathoncolman.org/
For more information, please see http://www.jonathoncolman.org/2013/02/20/ignite-seattle-how-introverts-can-survive-in-this-extroverted-world/
Enterprise SEO & Content Strategy: STOP THE PAIN!Jonathon Colman
Why do SEOs and Content Strategists have such a hard time working together when they have so much in common? They don't have to suffer when they can both WIN!
Learn about tricks, tips, tools that content strategists can use to STOP THE PAIN when it comes to search engine optimization. This way, you can focus on the things that matter most: your users and customers!
Originally presented at the Intelligent Content Conference 2013 in San Francisco on February 7, 2013.
You can learn more about Jonathon Colman at http://www.jonathoncolman.org/
Also see 200+ free Content Strategy resources at http://www.jonathoncolman.org/2013/02/04/content-strategy-resources/
Let’s be honest: for most content strategists and other people working with online content, SEO is The Worst Part Of The Job.
It’s hugely technical, it’s shrouded in mystery, it seems to be focused on robots instead of people, there are unspoken rules, everything can turn on a dime, and it never, ever seems to end.
But SEO doesn't have to be this way. It’s time to begin a conversation between these two disciplines – they’re far more alike than you might think. And when they work together on behalf of users and customers, amazing things can happen that will drive your organisation forward.
I can’t promise to change your mind about SEO, but you’ll leave this session understanding how to build the essentials into your work in ways that are simple, make sense, and are pain-free. You’ll see what business impacts and wins for the customer SEO and Content Strategy have had at REI, a major retailer in the US. And you’ll have the vocabulary, understanding and tools that you need to talk with your SEO... or to take it for yourself.
Drive traffic, amaze your visitors, and Win the Internet -- with SEO and Content Strategy working together.
Originally presented at the 2012 Content Strategy Forum in Cape Town, South Africa.
You can learn more about Jonathon Colman at http://www.jonathoncolman.org/
Also see 200+ free Content Strategy resources at http://www.jonathoncolman.org/2013/02/04/content-strategy-resources/
Imagine what you could do if your customer was the core focus of your marketing work, from strategy down to tactics and measurement - Agile Marketing to the rescue!
And what if you were measured on shipping value to customers, not on how well you kissed ass or how politically adept you were? Agile Marketing has built-in mechanisms to help!
How much more time could you dedicate to customers if you had only three standing meetings each month? Agile Marketing focuses on action!
And consider all the benefits of working as part of a cross-functional team that includes design, development, content, analysis, and testing experts so that you have everyone you need to make great things happen all in one place... that Agile Marketing.
In this presentation from SEOmoz MozCon 2012, I'll show you four principles of Agile Marketing and thirteen ways to hack your marketing organization with Agile to make it better, faster, and more accountable for your customers.
You can learn more about Jonathon Colman at http://www.jonathoncolman.org/
Making The Case For Local Search OptimizationJonathon Colman
The key to success with local search engine optimization is to start small and stay focused on your customers. But by building slowly on your success, you can accomplish big things!
In this presentation at David Mihm's Local University at SMX Advanced 2012 in Seattle, Jonathon Colman, the in-house SEO at REI, walks us through how he and his colleagues made the case to pursue local SEO and how REI later bought into a wide-ranging cross-channel customer strategy that had big wins for local search visibility.
Watch out for a special guest appearance by Data the android from TV's "Star Trek: The Next Generation"!
You can learn more about Jonathon Colman at http://www.jonathoncolman.org/
Web Performance Optimization: The Silver Bullet of SEO and UXJonathon Colman
How can companies increase conversion, drive more traffic, and increase customer satisfaction? By focusing on web site performance. It's like the silver bullet of customer experience!
In this presentation at SMX Advanced 2012 in Seattle, Jonathon Colman, the in-house SEO at REI walks us through the business case around site speed optimization and shares five key tips to make your site perform faster for the benefit of your customers.
There's also quite a few references to Twilight, Jacob Black, werewolves, and Taylor Lautner.
You can learn more about Jonathon Colman at http://www.jonathoncolman.org/
Learn Agile Marketing & SEO from Star Wars StormtroopersJonathon Colman
The modern SEO is like "An Army of One", always taking on new roles and responsibilities. But there are many problems and limitations with this model for SEO in large organizations.
We must do better to achieve greater results -- enter Agile development methodology!
In this presentation for the ad:Tech 2012 Marketing Masters panel chaired by Rhonda Hanson from Getty Images, I show how REI used Agile development practices to complete numerous SEO efforts that results in greatly increased organic visibility and traffic.
If you like SEO, the stormtroopers from Star Wars, and shipping iteration after iteration of valuable experiences to your customers, then this is the presentation for you!
You can learn more about Jonathon Colman at http://www.jonathoncolman.org/
SEO in the Age of Entities: Using Schema.org for FindabilityJonathon Colman
How is SEO changing to support microdata like Schema.org? And why is this metadata good for information retrieval and organic search engine optimization?
In this introductory guest lecture for the University of Washington, I present some of the problems in information retrieval for unstructured content ("blobs") and how to solve for these challenges using Schema.org microdata to define "entities".
There's a simple Schema.org markup exercise to expose students to the basics as well as jokes about horror movies, The Simpsons, Keanu Reeves, and even Joss Whedon just to keep things light-hearted and fun.
You can learn more about Jonathon Colman at http://www.jonathoncolman.org/
SEO and User Experience (UX): A Vision of CollaborationJonathon Colman
It’s not enough just to rank highly and drive keyword traffic these days (if you can even do that after Google’s Panda algorithm update). You also need to win over the customer by providing breakthrough experiences that anticipate their needs while providing real, tangible value. The new generation of SEOs understands this, which is why they’re also focused on information architecture and user experience.
In this session, you’ll see world-class examples of how you can bring these disciplines together in your companies and organizations in order to delight your users, plug holes in your conversion rate, and drive more qualified traffic. No “best practices” or baseless theories here – just real-life tactics that solved problems and drove conversion. SEOs and IA/UX pros don’t need to butt heads (or headbutt!) when they can collaborate together to improve the cross-channel experience.
Are you having trouble meeting the needs of your users while growing your traffic? This is the panel for you.
Originally presented by Jonathon Colman, John Goad, Mike Pantoliano, Michael King, and Ben Lloyd at the first-ever Seattle Interactive Conference (SIC 2011) in Seattle, Washington.
You can learn more about Jonathon Colman at http://www.jonathoncolman.org/
Agile SEO - Infrastructure Innovation by IterationJonathon Colman
Originally presented on the "The Really Complicated Technical SEO Infrastructure Issues" panel at SMX Advanced 2011 in Seattle, Washington. The panel included Maile Ohye of Google, Todd Nemet of Nine by Blue, and was moderated by Vanessa Fox of Search Engine Land.
This presentation is a quick introduction to Agile SEO development, a methodology that can help you deliver more value to your customers more quickly. We'll take a look at a few of REI's SEO technical infrastructure optimizations, as well as see what the results were from making these optimizations.
One of the controversial points of discussion in the presentation was REI's use of the "rel=canonical" <link> element to reduce duplicate content caused by pagination.
Download the slide show and see the speaker notes for more information.
You can learn more about Jonathon Colman at http://www.jonathoncolman.org/
SEO Audit Checklist and Worksheet - over 90 SEO checkpoints!Jonathon Colman
Want to conduct a comprehensive SEO audit for your web site but didn't know how to get started? Download this SEO Audit worksheet - it's free, easy to use, and produces great results!
Covering over 90 of the most common SEO mistakes that most web sites make, this SEO audit tool will help you learn the best practices of search engine optimization as well as where to focus your attention so that you can start realizing ROI for all your hard work.
Have more SEO questions? Feel free to connect with me on Twitter at @jcolman - http://twitter.com/jcolman
The Four Pillars of Search Engine Optimization (SEO)Jonathon Colman
Presentation of the four essentials of search engine optimization (SEO) given at the Online Marketing Summit (OMS) regional conference in Seattle on June 14, 2010.
This presentation, aimed at beginners, focuses on four main topics in search engine optimization: understanding your audience, optimizing your content for accessibility and relevancy, building a logical and effective site structure, and taking advantage of off-site factors to drive traffic and rankings for your brand.
You can learn more about Jonathon Colman at http://www.jonathoncolman.org/
Total Search Marketing Optimization: Testing Paid vs. Organic SearchJonathon Colman
This presentation on search engine marketing (SEM) testing scenarios looks at how you can structure a test across the search marketing funnel. In particular, it focuses on the interactions between paid search (PPC) and natural search (SEO) as well as multi-touch/cross-program attribution. Key takeaway: integrate your search engine marketing (SEM) programs in order to realize more efficiency in spending and greater insights into customer behavior and total marketing impact.
Presented as part of Vanessa Fox's "Demystifying Online Attribution" panel at SMX Advanced 2010 in Seattle on June 8, 2010.
You can learn more about Jonathon Colman at http://www.jonathoncolman.org/
Fundraising 2.0: A New Model for Fundraising on FacebookJonathon Colman
Fundraising 2.0: A presentation on how nonprofits, associations and other organization can raise more money for their cause on Facebook by following a new model of cause-related marketing that promises greater results for less staff time. If high ROI is what you're after in your fundraising efforts on Facebook, view this presentation and learn how The Nature Conservancy quickly became the 3rd highest-performing nonprofit on all of Facebook in terms of funds raised.
You can learn more about Jonathon Colman at http://www.jonathoncolman.org/
Social News for Social Good: Building Buzz and Breaking Records with DiggJonathon Colman
A presentation on web marketing and social news media for nonprofits that I'm giving at the National Press Club in Washington DC as part of the Forum One Communications seminar, "Social Sites for Social Change" on February 26, 2008.
You can learn more about Jonathon Colman at http://www.jonathoncolman.org/
Short video marketing has sweeped the nation and is the fastest way to build an online brand on social media in 2024. In this session you will learn:- What is short video marketing- Which platforms work best for your business- Content strategies that are on brand for your business- How to sell organically without paying for ads.
Financial curveballs sent many American families reeling in 2023. Household budgets were squeezed by rising interest rates, surging prices on everyday goods, and a stagnating housing market. Consumers were feeling strapped. That sentiment, however, appears to be waning. The question is, to what extent?
To take the pulse of consumers’ feelings about their financial well-being ahead of a highly anticipated election, ThinkNow conducted a nationally representative quantitative survey. The survey highlights consumers’ hopes and anxieties as we move into 2024. Let's unpack the key findings to gain insights about where we stand.
In this presentation, Danny Leibrandt explains the impact of AI on SEO and what Google has been doing about it. Learn how to take your SEO game to the next level and win over Google with his new strategy anyone can use. Get actionable steps to rank your name, your business, and your clients on Google - the right way.
Key Takeaways:
1. Real content is king
2. Find ways to show EEAT
3. Repurpose across all platforms
Digital marketing is the art and science of promoting products or services using digital channels to reach and engage with potential customers. It encompasses a wide range of online tactics and strategies aimed at increasing brand visibility, driving website traffic, generating leads, and ultimately, converting those leads into customers.
https://nidmindia.com/
For too many years marketing and sales have operated in silos...while in some forward thinking companies, the two organizations work together to drive new opportunity development and revenue. This session will explore the lessons learned in that beautiful dance that can occur when marketing and sales work together...to drive new opportunity development, account expansion and customer satisfaction.
No, this is not a conversation about MQLs and SQLs. Instead we will focus on a framework that allows the two organizations to drive company success together.
Most small businesses struggle to see marketing results. In this session, we will eliminate any confusion about what to do next, solving your marketing problems so your business can thrive. You’ll learn how to create a foundational marketing OS (operating system) based on neuroscience and backed by real-world results. You’ll be taught how to develop deep customer connections, and how to have your CRM dynamically segment and sell at any stage in the customer’s journey. By the end of the session, you’ll remove confusion and chaos and replace it with clarity and confidence for long-term marketing success.
Key Takeaways:
• Uncover the power of a foundational marketing system that dynamically communicates with prospects and customers on autopilot.
• Harness neuroscience and Tribal Alignment to transform your communication strategies, turning potential clients into fans and those fans into loyal customers.
• Discover the art of automated segmentation, pinpointing your most lucrative customers and identifying the optimal moments for successful conversions.
• Streamline your business with a content production plan that eliminates guesswork, wasted time, and money.
AI-Powered Personalization: Principles, Use Cases, and Its Impact on CROVWO
In today’s era of AI, personalization is more than just a trend—it’s a fundamental strategy that unlocks numerous opportunities.
When done effectively, personalization builds trust, loyalty, and satisfaction among your users—key factors for business success. However, relying solely on AI capabilities isn’t enough. You need to anchor your approach in solid principles, understand your users’ context, and master the art of persuasion.
Join us as Sarjak Patel and Naitry Saggu from 3rd Eye Consulting unveil a transformative framework. This approach seamlessly integrates your unique context, consumer insights, and conversion goals, paving the way for unparalleled success in personalization.
Digital Commerce Lecture for Advanced Digital & Social Media Strategy at UCLA...Valters Lauzums
E-commerce in 2024 is characterized by a dynamic blend of opportunities and significant challenges. Supply chain disruptions and inventory shortages are critical issues, leading to increased shipping delays and rising costs, which impact timely delivery and squeeze profit margins. Efficient logistics management is essential, yet it is often hampered by these external factors. Payment processing, while needing to ensure security and user convenience, grapples with preventing fraud and integrating diverse payment methods, adding another layer of complexity. Furthermore, fulfillment operations require a streamlined approach to handle volume spikes and maintain accuracy in order picking, packing, and shipping, all while meeting customers' heightened expectations for faster delivery times.
Amid these operational challenges, customer data has emerged as an important strategy. By focusing on personalization and enhancing customer experience from historical behavior, businesses can deliver improved website and brand experienced, better product recommendations, optimal promotions, and content to meet individual preferences. Better data analytics can also help in effectively creating marketing campaigns, improving customer retention, and driving product development and inventory management.
Innovative formats such as social commerce and live shopping are beginning to impact the digital commerce landscape, offering new ways to engage with customers and drive sales, and may provide opportunity for brands that have been priced out or seen a downturn with post-pandemic shopping behavior. Social commerce integrates shopping experiences directly into social media platforms, tapping into the massive user bases of these networks to increase reach and engagement. Live shopping, on the other hand, combines entertainment and real-time interaction, providing a dynamic platform for showcasing products and encouraging immediate purchases. These innovations not only enhance customer engagement but also provide valuable data for businesses to refine their strategies and deliver superior shopping experiences.
The e-commerce sector is evolving rapidly, and businesses that effectively manage operational challenges and implement innovative strategies are best positioned for long-term success.
Unleash the power of UK SEO with Brand Highlighters! Our guide delves into the unique search landscape of Britain, equipping you with targeted strategies to dominate UK search engine results. Discover local SEO tactics, keyword magic for UK audiences, and mobile optimization secrets. Get your website seen by the right people and propel your brand to the top of UK searches.
To learn more: https://brandhighlighters.co.uk/blog/top-seo-agencies-uk/
A.I. (artificial intelligence) platforms are popping up all the time, and many of them can and should be used to help grow your brand, increase your sales and decrease your marketing costs.In this presentation:We will review some of the best AI platforms that are available for you to use.We will interact with some of the platforms in real-time, so attendees can see how they work.We will also look at some current brands that are using AI to help them create marketing messages, saving them time and money in the process. Lastly, we will discuss the pros and cons of using AI in marketing & branding and have a lively conversation that includes comments from the audience.
Key Takeaways:
Attendees will learn about LLM platforms, like ChatGPT, and how they work, with preset examples and real time interactions with the platform. Attendees will learn about other AI platforms that are creating graphic design elements at the push of a button...pre-set examples and real-time interactions.Attendees will discuss the pros & cons of AI in marketing + branding and share their perspectives with one another. Attendees will learn about the cost savings and the time savings associated with using AI, should they choose to.
10 Video Ideas Any Business Can Make RIGHT NOW!
You'll never draw a blank again on what kind of video to make for your business. Go beyond the basic categories and truly reimagine a brand new advanced way to brainstorm video content creation. During this masterclass you'll be challenged to think creatively and outside of the box and view your videos through lenses you may have never thought of previously. It's guaranteed that you'll leave with more than 10 video ideas, but I like to under-promise and over-deliver. Don't miss this session.
Key Takeaways:
How to use the Video Matrix
How to use additional "Lenses"
Where to source original video ideas
When most people in the industry talk about online or digital reputation management, what they're really saying is Google search and PPC. And it's usually reactive, left dealing with the aftermath of negative information published somewhere online. That's outdated. It leaves executives, organizations and other high-profile individuals at a high risk of a digital reputation attack that spans channels and tactics. But the tools needed to safeguard against an attack are more cybersecurity-oriented than most marketing and communications professionals can manage. Business leaders Leaders grasp the importance; 83% of executives place reputation in their top five areas of risk, yet only 23% are confident in their ability to address it. To succeed in 2024 and beyond, you need to turn online reputation on its axis and think like an attacker.\
Key Takeaways:
- New framework for examining and safeguarding an online reputation
- Tools and techniques to keep you a step ahead
- Practical examples that demonstrate when to act, how to act and how to recover
8. Sebas<an
Mary
(giovannijl-‐s_photohut)
[CC-‐BY-‐SA-‐2.0
(hNps://crea<vecommons.org/licenses/by-‐sa/2.0/)],
via
Flickr
-‐
hNps://www.flickr.com/photos/giovannijl-‐s_photohut/421051338
24. Horst Rittel &
Melvin Webber
René
Spitz
(renespitz)
[CC-‐BY-‐ND-‐2.0
(hNps://crea<vecommons.org/licenses/by-‐nd/2.0/)],
via
Flickr
-‐
hNps://www.flickr.com/photos/renespitz/3383405574/
25. John
Snow/C.F.
Cheffins
(Rewardiv
at
en.wikipedia)
[Public
domain],
from
Wikimedia
Commons
-‐
hNp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Snow-‐cholera-‐map-‐1.jpg
26. John
Snow/C.F.
Cheffins
(Rewardiv
at
en.wikipedia)
[Public
domain],
from
Wikimedia
Commons
-‐
hNp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Snow-‐cholera-‐map-‐1.jpg
27. John
Snow/C.F.
Cheffins
(Rewardiv
at
en.wikipedia)
[Public
domain],
from
Wikimedia
Commons
-‐
hNp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Snow-‐cholera-‐map-‐1.jpg
28. Naw, That’s a
tame problem
René
Spitz
(renespitz)
[CC-‐BY-‐ND-‐2.0
(hNps://crea<vecommons.org/licenses/by-‐nd/2.0/)],
via
Flickr
-‐
hNps://www.flickr.com/photos/renespitz/3383405574/
29. US
Federal
Agency
Centers
for
Disease
Control
and
Preven<on
(CDC),
from
Flickr
-‐
hNps://www.flickr.com/photos/cdcglobal/14723720857
(crea<ve
commons
license:
hNps://crea<vecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
)
30. US
Federal
Agency
Centers
for
Disease
Control
and
Preven<on
(CDC),
from
Flickr
-‐
hNps://www.flickr.com/photos/cdcglobal/14723720857
(crea<ve
commons
license:
hNps://crea<vecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
)
31. OMG WHADDA
wicked pissaH
René
Spitz
(renespitz)
[CC-‐BY-‐ND-‐2.0
(hNps://crea<vecommons.org/licenses/by-‐nd/2.0/)],
via
Flickr
-‐
hNps://www.flickr.com/photos/renespitz/3383405574/
33. By
Ventus
(Own
work)
[CC
BY-‐SA
3.0
(hNp://crea<vecommons.org/licenses/by-‐sa/3.0)],
via
Wikimedia
Commons
34. By
West
Midlands
Police
from
West
Midlands,
United
Kingdom
[CC
BY-‐SA
2.0
(hNp://crea<vecommons.org/licenses/by-‐sa/2.0)],
via
Wikimedia
Commons
35. US
Federal
Agency
Drug
Enforcement
Agency
(DEA)
[Public
domain],
via
Wikimedia
Commons
-‐
hNp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Drugpackscorpion.png
36. John
Warwick
Brooke
[Public
domain],
via
Wikimedia
Commons
-‐
hNp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bri<sh_ar<llery_in_ac<on,_World_War_I.JPEG
37. By
Elizabeth
ArroN
/
VOA
[Public
domain],
via
Wikimedia
Commons
-‐
hNp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:VOA-‐Crimea-‐Simferopol-‐airport.jpg
38. Tim
J.
Keegan
(suburbanbloke)
[CC-‐BY-‐SA-‐2.0
(hNp://crea<vecommons.org/licenses/by-‐sa/2.0/)],
via
Flickr
-‐
hNps://www.flickr.com/photos/49333819@N00/381634787
39. Adam
Fowler
(adamfowler)
[CC
BY-‐NC-‐ND
2.0
(hNps://crea<vecommons.org/licenses/by-‐nc-‐nd/2.0/)],
via
Flickr
-‐
hNps://www.flickr.com/photos/adamfowler/4841559945
43. ScoNer20
via
NASA
[Public
domain],
via
Wikimedia
Commons
-‐
hNp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Terrestrial_Planets_Size_Comp_True_Color.png
44. By
NASA
(Cropped
from
Image:Africa
satellite
plane.jpg.)
[Public
domain],
via
Wikimedia
Commons
-‐
hNp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sahara_satellite_hires.jpg
45. By
NASA
(Cropped
from
Image:Africa
satellite
plane.jpg.)
[Public
domain],
via
Wikimedia
Commons
-‐
hNp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sahara_satellite_hires.jpg
HELLO
46. By
NASA
(Cropped
from
Image:Africa
satellite
plane.jpg.)
[Public
domain],
via
Wikimedia
Commons
-‐
hNp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sahara_satellite_hires.jpg
2 + 2 = 4
47. By
NASA
(Cropped
from
Image:Africa
satellite
plane.jpg.)
[Public
domain],
via
Wikimedia
Commons
-‐
hNp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sahara_satellite_hires.jpg
EAT AT JOE’S
49. NASA/JPL
[Public
domain],
from
Wikimedia
Commons
-‐
hNp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mars_atmosphere.jpg
50. NASA/JPL
[Public
domain],
from
Wikimedia
Commons
-‐
hNp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mars_atmosphere.jpg
EAT AT JOE’S
51. Via
Wikipedia
-‐
hNp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_equa<on
𝑁= 𝑅↓∗ ∙ 𝑓↓𝑝 ∙ 𝑛↓𝑒 ∙ 𝑓↓𝑙 ∙ 𝑓↓𝑖 ∙ 𝑓↓𝑐 ∙ 𝐿
The Drake Equation
52. Via
Wikipedia
-‐
hNp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_equa<on
𝑁= 𝑅↓∗ ∙ 𝑓↓𝑝 ∙ 𝑛↓𝑒 ∙ 𝑓↓𝑙 ∙ 𝑓↓𝑖 ∙ 𝑓↓𝑐 ∙ 𝐿
The Drake Equation
Lower bound:
8 x 10-20
53. Via
Wikipedia
-‐
hNp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_equa<on
Lower bound:
8 x 10-20
Upper bound:
36.4 M
𝑁= 𝑅↓∗ ∙ 𝑓↓𝑝 ∙ 𝑛↓𝑒 ∙ 𝑓↓𝑙 ∙ 𝑓↓𝑖 ∙ 𝑓↓𝑐 ∙ 𝐿
The Drake Equation
54. Oona
Räisänen;
designed
by
Carl
Sagan
&
Frank
Drake;
artwork
by
Linda
Salzman
Sagan
[Public
domain],
via
Wikimedia
Commons
-‐
hNp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pioneer_plaque.svg
55. Alex
Alonso
[CC-‐BY-‐NC-‐SA-‐2.0
(hNps://crea<vecommons.org/licenses/by-‐nc-‐sa/2.0/)],
via
Flickr
-‐
hNps://www.flickr.com/photos/aleiex/2123333438
Carl Sagan
56. NASA/JPL
[Public
domain],
via
Wikimedia
Commons
-‐
hNp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arecibo_message.svg
57. By
Arne
Nordmann
[GFDL
(hNp://www.gnu.org/copyleo/fdl.html),
CC-‐BY-‐SA-‐3.0
(hNp://crea<vecommons.org/licenses/by-‐sa/3.0/)],
via
Wikimedia
Commons
-‐
hNp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arecibo_message.svg
58. By
Arne
Nordmann
[GFDL
(hNp://www.gnu.org/copyleo/fdl.html),
CC-‐BY-‐SA-‐3.0
(hNp://crea<vecommons.org/licenses/by-‐sa/3.0/)],
via
Wikimedia
Commons
-‐
hNp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arecibo_message.svg
59. By
Arne
Nordmann
[GFDL
(hNp://www.gnu.org/copyleo/fdl.html),
CC-‐BY-‐SA-‐3.0
(hNp://crea<vecommons.org/licenses/by-‐sa/3.0/)],
via
Wikimedia
Commons
-‐
hNp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arecibo_message.svg
60. By
Arne
Nordmann
[GFDL
(hNp://www.gnu.org/copyleo/fdl.html),
CC-‐BY-‐SA-‐3.0
(hNp://crea<vecommons.org/licenses/by-‐sa/3.0/)],
via
Wikimedia
Commons
-‐
hNp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arecibo_message.svg
61. By
Arne
Nordmann
[GFDL
(hNp://www.gnu.org/copyleo/fdl.html),
CC-‐BY-‐SA-‐3.0
(hNp://crea<vecommons.org/licenses/by-‐sa/3.0/)],
via
Wikimedia
Commons
-‐
hNp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arecibo_message.svg
62. By
Arne
Nordmann
[GFDL
(hNp://www.gnu.org/copyleo/fdl.html),
CC-‐BY-‐SA-‐3.0
(hNp://crea<vecommons.org/licenses/by-‐sa/3.0/)],
via
Wikimedia
Commons
-‐
hNp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arecibo_message.svg
63. NASA/JPL
[Public
domain],
via
Wikimedia
Commons
-‐
hNp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Sounds_of_Earth_-‐_GPN-‐2000-‐001976.jpg
64. NASA/JPL
[Public
domain],
via
Wikimedia
Commons
-‐
hNp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Sounds_of_Earth_Record_Cover_-‐_GPN-‐2000-‐001978.jpg
65. NASA/JPL
[Public
domain],
via
NASA
-‐
hNp://science.nasa.gov/media/medialibrary/2011/04/28/annsbrainwaves.jpg
via
hNp://science.nasa.gov/science-‐news/science-‐at-‐nasa/2011/28apr_voyager2/
66. NASA/JPL
[Public
domain],
via
NASA
-‐
hNp://science.nasa.gov/media/medialibrary/2011/04/28/annsbrainwaves.jpg
via
hNp://science.nasa.gov/science-‐news/science-‐at-‐nasa/2011/28apr_voyager2/
67. NASA/JPL
[Public
domain],
via
NASA
-‐
hNp://science.nasa.gov/media/medialibrary/2011/04/28/annsbrainwaves.jpg
via
hNp://science.nasa.gov/science-‐news/science-‐at-‐nasa/2011/28apr_voyager2/
71. JJanos
Korom
Dr.
from
Wien,
Austria
(Bécs
219
Uploaded
by
darkweasel94)
[CC-‐BY-‐SA-‐2.0
(hNp://crea<vecommons.org/licenses/by-‐sa/2.0)],
via
Wikimedia
Commons
-‐
hNp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:B%C3%A9cs_219_(8135332496).jpg
72. JJanos
Korom
Dr.
from
Wien,
Austria
(Bécs
219
Uploaded
by
darkweasel94)
[CC-‐BY-‐SA-‐2.0
(hNp://crea<vecommons.org/licenses/by-‐sa/2.0)],
via
Wikimedia
Commons
-‐
hNp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:B%C3%A9cs_219_(8135332496).jpg
73. JJanos
Korom
Dr.
from
Wien,
Austria
(Bécs
219
Uploaded
by
darkweasel94)
[CC-‐BY-‐SA-‐2.0
(hNp://crea<vecommons.org/licenses/by-‐sa/2.0)],
via
Wikimedia
Commons
-‐
hNp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:B%C3%A9cs_219_(8135332496).jpg
74. User:Fasqission
[Public
domain]
via
Wikimedia
Commons
-‐
hNp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Yucca_Mountain_crest_south.jpg
78. By
Ed
Siasoco
(Flickr:
Trinity
007)
[CC-‐BY-‐2.0
(hNp://crea<vecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)],
via
Wikimedia
Commons
-‐
hNp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Trinity_007.jpg
84. Publishers
of
the
1890
Holman
Bible
[Public
domain],
via
Wikimedia
Commons
-‐
hNp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Holman_Priest_High_Priest_Levite.jpg
85. NASA
[Public
domain],
via
Wikimedia
Commons
-‐
hNp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:GPS_Satellite_NASA_art-‐iif.jpg
86. By
Jon
Sullivan
(PdPhoto)
[Public
domain],
via
Wikimedia
Commons
-‐
hNp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Leaf_1_web.jpg
87. Russell
Bernice
(russellbernice)
[CC-‐BY-‐2.0
(hNps://crea<vecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)],
via
Flickr
-‐
hNps://www.flickr.com/photos/russellbernice/2558386173/
88. Alle
(pinkiwinki<nki)
[CC-‐BY—SA-‐2.0
(hNps://crea<vecommons.org/licenses/by-‐sa/2.0/)],
via
Flickr
-‐
hNps://www.flickr.com/photos/55638925@N00/377299306/
90. Nicolas
Raymond
(82955120@N05)
[CC-‐BY-‐2.0
(hNps://crea<vecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)],
via
Flickr
-‐
hNps://www.flickr.com/photos/82955120@N05/13094530583
91. Sandia
Na<onal
Laboratories,
“Expert
Judgment
on
Markers
to
Deter
Inadvertent
Human
Intrusion
into
the
Waste
Isola<on
Pilot
Plant”
(1993)
-‐
hNp://prod.sandia.gov/techlib/access-‐control.cgi/1992/921382.pdf
92. Sandia
Na<onal
Laboratories,
“Expert
Judgment
on
Markers
to
Deter
Inadvertent
Human
Intrusion
into
the
Waste
Isola<on
Pilot
Plant”
(1993)
-‐
hNp://prod.sandia.gov/techlib/access-‐control.cgi/1992/921382.pdf
93. Sandia
Na<onal
Laboratories,
“Expert
Judgment
on
Markers
to
Deter
Inadvertent
Human
Intrusion
into
the
Waste
Isola<on
Pilot
Plant”
(1993)
-‐
hNp://prod.sandia.gov/techlib/access-‐control.cgi/1992/921382.pdf
94. Sandia
Na<onal
Laboratories,
“Expert
Judgment
on
Markers
to
Deter
Inadvertent
Human
Intrusion
into
the
Waste
Isola<on
Pilot
Plant”
(1993)
-‐
hNp://prod.sandia.gov/techlib/access-‐control.cgi/1992/921382.pdf
95. Sandia
Na<onal
Laboratories,
“Expert
Judgment
on
Markers
to
Deter
Inadvertent
Human
Intrusion
into
the
Waste
Isola<on
Pilot
Plant”
(1993)
-‐
hNp://prod.sandia.gov/techlib/access-‐control.cgi/1992/921382.pdf
96. Sandia
Na<onal
Laboratories,
“Expert
Judgment
on
Markers
to
Deter
Inadvertent
Human
Intrusion
into
the
Waste
Isola<on
Pilot
Plant”
(1993)
-‐
hNp://prod.sandia.gov/techlib/access-‐control.cgi/1992/921382.pdf
101. NASA/JPL,
Voyager
1
(hNp://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view_rec.php?id=601)
[Public
domain],
via
Wikimedia
Commons
-‐
hNp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pale_Blue_Dot.png
YOU ARE
HERE
102. NASA/JPL,
Voyager
1
(hNp://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view_rec.php?id=601)
[Public
domain],
via
Wikimedia
Commons
-‐
hNp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pale_Blue_Dot.png
EAT AT JOE’S
121. Sebas<an
Mary
(giovannijl-‐s_photohut)
[CC-‐BY-‐SA-‐2.0
(hNps://crea<vecommons.org/licenses/by-‐sa/2.0/)],
via
Flickr
-‐
hNps://www.flickr.com/photos/giovannijl-‐s_photohut/421051338
124. Tim
J.
Keegan
(suburbanbloke)
[CC-‐BY-‐SA-‐2.0
(hNp://crea<vecommons.org/licenses/by-‐sa/2.0/)],
via
Flickr
-‐
hNps://www.flickr.com/photos/49333819@N00/381634787
Acknowledge them
126. Mike
Bash
[CC-‐BY-‐NC-‐ND-‐2.0
(hNps://crea<vecommons.org/licenses/by-‐nc-‐nd/2.0/)],
via
Flickr
-‐
hNps://www.flickr.com/photos/jbash/4223183281
Take risks
127. But we can
Stop being perfect
Wicked
Problems
We can’t solve
138. And
so
when
we’re
faced
with
ambiguity,
we’re
not
afraid.
We
don’t
run
away
from
it.
Run away
We Don’t
From ambiguity
139. Sebas<an
Mary
(giovannijl-‐s_photohut)
[CC-‐BY-‐SA-‐2.0
(hNps://crea<vecommons.org/licenses/by-‐sa/2.0/)],
via
Flickr
-‐
hNps://www.flickr.com/photos/giovannijl-‐s_photohut/421051338
We Run toward it
144. NASA,
ESA,
Hubble
Space
Telescope
[Public
domain],
via
NASA
Astronomy
Picture
of
the
Day,
hNp://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap101009.html
EAT AT JOE’S
Editor's Notes
Welcome to Wicked Ambiguity.
I’m dedicating this talk to Leonard Nimoy. While he’s best known for “Star Trek,” you may not know that Leonard was also the host of TV’s “In Search Of…,” in which he looked for answers to long-standing mysteries of the unknown.
And you know what? You do that, too. We’re all just nerds looking for answers. Leonard helped make it safe for us to be geeks, introverts, scientists, and artists. And to be fascinated by the universe that surrounds us.
“We’re all stories in the end,” after all, so I won’t say rest in peace, but rather, “Live long and prosper.”
Welcome to Wicked Ambiguity.
I’m dedicating this talk to Leonard Nimoy. While he’s best known for “Star Trek,” you may not know that Leonard was also the host of TV’s “In Search Of…,” in which he looked for answers to long-standing mysteries of the unknown.
And you know what? You do that, too. We’re all just nerds looking for answers. Leonard helped make it safe for us to be geeks, introverts, scientists, and artists. And to be fascinated by the universe that surrounds us.
“We’re all stories in the end,” after all, so I won’t say rest in peace, but rather, “Live long and prosper.”
I’m your host for the next hour while we boldly go through the vast reaches of time and space.
I’ll make sure none of us gets lost and everyone makes it back. But fair warning: the people who return won’t be the same as the ones who leave.
But if you do need to leave early, then no worries—you can find these slides and a full transcript at bit.ly/raycats
Yes, RAYCATS—don’t worry, I promise that’ll make so much more sense by the end.
Note, you need to use all lower-case letters or the link won’t work.
Let’s start with a memory; most things in the past do.
Do you remember being a child and your parents telling you, “Don’t worry, everything’s going to be fine.”
…But you really thought they were lying just to make you feel better because it was dark, you were scared, and you didn’t know what to expect?
Kind of like in this keynote? Well, then: “Don’t worry, everything’s going to be fine.”
It’s a story we tell to project confidence and security.
But it’s a hard promise to make. We can’t even predict the location and movements of a single atom—let alone complex things like world events, the stock market, or whether it’ll be nice out on Friday.
So maybe, just maybe, everything’s not going to be fine. What then?
This symbol is taken from one of the Pioneer satellites launched by NASA in the ‘60s. It was also used on Voyager, the furthest man-made object from the Earth, spinning from out of the blue and into the black.
Today we’ll talk about this symbol and what it means. We’ll also cover a lot of science and math, but almost no science fiction—even though the ideas we’re discussing are fantastical.
But other than quotes from books and TV shows like “Doctor Who,” everything you’re about to see is real. It’s true. And it’s troubling.
Some of you will leave today saying, “This talk has NOTHING to do with content strategy!”
Others will say, “This talk has EVERYTHING to do with content strategy!”
Guess what? You’re both right.
Stephen King once wrote about an idea he calls “The shape under the sheet.”
He says that when you’re alone at night, lying awake, and it’s cold, and the wind is blowing, and the house is creaking… the shape you see at the foot of your bed, the shape under the sheet, could be just about anything. Anything at all.
Except that we know it’s our body making that shape. But we don’t—because for a moment, our fear creates ambiguity as to what’s real and what’s not.
That’s the nature of fear: the unknown. It makes us want to drop everything and run away as fast as we can.
T.S. Elliot wrote about this, too, in “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.” That’s the poem I quoted when we started. You know the story of Prufrock—after all, it’s the story of a nerd.
In the poem, Prufrock is filled with indecision and anxiety. He asks: “Do I dare disturb the universe? Do I dare to eat a peach?”
That’s our special nature as content strategists: we dare. Every damn day.
[[ 5 MINUTE MARK ]]
But let’s shift to talk about real problems. What’s the biggest problem you can think of in content strategy?
Well, I certainly know the one that we talk about the most…
Yeah, everyone thinks we’re just a bunch of writers with a fancy title! They only see your words on the surface, not all the planning, process, structure, and systems that lie underneath.
Pssssht. And what have writers ever done for us, anyway?
I mean, besides Shakespeare. And T.S. Eliot. And Stephen King.
And Jane Austen. And Agatha Christie. And Margaret Atwood.
And Anne Lamott! And Kristina Halvorson!
After all, there’s so much more we can do than just write, isn’t there?
Maybe you’re really a designer, creating new experiences and solving hard problems by focusing on people’s intent.
And I KNOW all the designers in the room are cringing at my use of Comic Sans.
Is it intentional? Or was I just lazy? AMBIGUITY.
Or maybe you’re a developer, engineering sites, apps, and features—the links between systems and experiences.
Or a researcher, asking the hardest questions and practicing empathy to discover how people live and work.
Or an information architect, structuring data for the interfaces that connect people with systems.
Or a content strategist, working with language, interfaces, systems, people, and the connections—and especially the disconnections—between them.
Or hey, maybe you really are a writer and you use language to build narratives and create meaning.
That’s great, too!
Or hey, maybe you really are a creative—that’s great, too! It’s not a dirty word.
Listen: I know this is a problem. And I know it’s something we spend a lot of time talking about.
And we use all of these titles to frame our work, to talk about our impact.
But I don’t think that our differences matter all that much.
Because we’re bound together by something else, a greater force.
We dare. We dare to stand united against ambiguity. That’s really what everyone here has in common.
Abby Covert, President of the Information Architecture Institute, says “We make the unclear clear.”
That’s our secret strength. So forget all these divisions. We solve our problems together—or not at all.
But what about the shape under the sheet?
What if you’re faced with a problem that’s so hard and so complex that you can’t solve it no matter what you do?
What if you encountered a problem that was so massively interconnected that you weren’t even sure how to define it?
[[ 7.5 MINUTE MARK ]]
Here we face different challenges—they’re called “Wicked Problems”.
Wicked problems appear throughout all societies, cultures, and history. Simply put, they’re a special class of problem that we can’t solve because they have no final solutions.
[[ 7.5 MINUTE MARK ]]
Here we face different challenges—they’re called “Wicked Problems”.
Wicked problems appear throughout all societies, cultures, and history. Simply put, they’re a special class of problem that we can’t solve because they have no final solutions.
In 1973, the social scientists Horst Rittel (whose photo you see here) and Melvin Webber coined the term “Wicked Problem.”
They found that wicked problems resist definition because each one is essentially unique. Each of them has constantly changing factors and requirements. And each has, at best, temporary mitigations that can’t be measured in terms of right or wrong… but only better or worse.
Wicked problems are also extremely expensive to take on, they’re impossible to test, and the symptoms and factors of every wicked problem are, in fact, wicked problems themselves.
Let’s look at an example of a problem in the field of public health.
Have you ever seen this map before? Like all maps, it tells us a story.
This is the story of the London cholera outbreak of 1854.
Hundreds of people were dying and no one could figure out why.
Let’s zoom in to the neighborhood where the outbreak occurred. Those little black squares represent the cases of cholera. These yellow circles show all the public water pumps.
A doctor named—and this is true—John Snow linked the disease to contamination of the water at the pumps. He did this with statistics, using math to determine the cause and location of the infection.
Once he made that link, increased sanitation measures were implemented and the disease died out.
Now you might say, “You know nothing, John Snow,” but I’ll tell you what: John Snow knew enough to save London and invent the field of epidemiology at the same time.
But even so, this is what Horst and Rittel call a “tame problem.” Sure, it was hard to figure out, but it has isolatable factors and a clear solution.
A lot of us grapple with tame problems every day. And while they’re extremely challenging and hard to solve, they do have solutions.
But when it comes to truly wicked problems, we’re talking about something entirely different.
Take last year’s Ebola outbreak in West Africa, which later spread to many countries all over the world, including this one. There’s no simple solution here.
As population increases, as resources become scarce, as wars break out, people are forced into developing lands that were once wild. And sometimes, they find disease waiting for them.
When this happens, there are unintended consequences: not just disease outbreaks, but also the destruction of natural resources and habitats, leaving them barren. I saw this for myself when I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in West Africa back in the ‘90s. It was as if the desert swallowed up entire villages while I watched.
When that happens, people are forced to further explore and develop wild lands in order to find ever-decreasing natural resources.
So you see, wicked problems perpetuate themselves.
[[ 11 MINUTE MARK ]]
They aren’t just challenging, they have no final solutions. They don‘t just link to other issues—they’re massively interdependent.
Let’s examine a few common wicked problems. We can find them everywhere. And they’ve been around for a long time because, by their very nature, they hide in plain sight.
They’re present in urban planning, including the gentrification crisis faced by people in most large cities around the world.
When people occupying their homes are pushed out—no matter by what measure, from economic to political—our “War on Poverty” begins to look much more like a real war than a helping hand.
And whether we intend it or not, gentrification increases the gap between rich and poor while decreasing the diversity of our communities.
And if we take gentrification to its ultimate conclusion, then we’re left with this: a shantytown outside of the city where the poor are trapped without access to social services or any hope for advancement.
How can we make sure that all people earn a living wage and have access to proper housing, food, safe communities, health care, education and—most importantly—opportunity?
Wicked problems are also present in our ongoing War on Drugs. Here we see militarized officers conducting an early morning raid of a home where drugs and weapons were later found.
And yet we’ve made little progress in our global “War on Drugs,” curtailing neither trade nor use. But we’ve spent billions—if not trillions—of dollars trying. Worse still, we’ve imprisoned millions of people for what are largely non-violent, victimless crimes.
These seized bricks of cocaine represent the smallest portion of the drug’s manufacture, trade, distribution, and use. All tactics, no strategy.
But, of course, most of our wars are the result of wicked problems.
Although they’re relics today, these howitzers were used by armies fighting in Europe during World War I over a hundred years ago.
When we see them in a grainy black and white photo, it’s easy to dismiss them and their terrifying destructive force.
But our wars over politics, religion, and resources continue to this day.
These soldiers in the Ukraine wear no national flag, but they were still part of Russia’s “annexation” of Crimea just last year.
It’s war in everything but name—a secret war.
We wage war on our planet as well.
Just last year, scientists found that our glaciers are now melting at such a fast rate that we have absolutely no hope of stopping or reversing the damage.
No matter what you believe about its causes, climate change will ensure that the world our children grow up in will be very different from our world. Our time. Family time.
We pull at these problems, trying to work apart their knots. But for every strand we grasp, another slips through our fingers.
We implement some solution and tie it off with a bow, only to see it unraveled by deeper, interconnected challenges. Complexity after complexity, constraint within constraint.
It’s frustrating. But more than that, it’s heartbreaking. It’s tragic. Because these problems pull at us, too.
I know that because they pull at me. They pull at my strings. They make me want to give up.
That’s the poison of wicked problems—they sap our will to dare.
Because when we encounter the shape under the sheet, we know it’s us.
We know the shape of these problems because it’s our shape.
[[ 15 MINUTE MARK ]]
I’m telling you about these wicked problems because I believe that we face them in our work, too.
So today we’re going to look at two of them.
The first is how we should communicate with aliens.
Settle down, settle down. I told you there was going to be a few fantastical moments, didn’t I?
But we won’t be talking science fiction—only science… and a bit of history.
We started with a memory. Now let’s look further into the past.
Back in the 1800s, many people believed that intelligent beings might live on the Moon, Mars, and Venus.
But we couldn’t travel to other planets yet. So people had to come up with ways to communicate with aliens even before radio was invented.
Our story starts in the simplest of places: the desert.
In the 1800s, Joseph Johann Littrow, an Austrian astronomer, proposed using the vast Sahara Desert as a sort of blackboard.
He said that we should write messages that aliens could see as they pass by our planet.
So he proposed digging giant trenches to create shapes and letters nearly 20 miles wide.
Then kerosene would be poured into the trenches and set on fire at night. This would create a huge visual message that could be seen from the sky.
Using this method, a different message could be created every night.
It could even serve as an advertisement of sorts.
But why stop with setting our planet on fire? There are so many other planets out there!
Charles Cros, an inventor, was convinced that pinpoints of light observed on Mars were, in fact, the lights of large cities.
So he spent years of his life trying to get funding for a gigantic signal mirror that he’d use to communicate with the Martians.
The mirror would be focused on the Martian desert. The intense, reflected beam of sunlight would let us burn messages into the Martian sands.
So instead of just using our own planet as a canvas for messages, we could use other planets, too.
I mean, come on—what self-respecting aliens wouldn’t want us to get in touch by SETTING THEM ON FIRE?!
By the way, I want to take a moment here to say something. All these people throughout history who wanted to burn shit up? They were MEN. All men. Every single one of them. Men!
Later, scientists stopped setting things on fire just long enough to ask whether there were actually any aliens to communicate with in the first place.
In 1961, astronomer and physicist Frank Drake came up with this equation. The Drake Equation deals in probabilities as a way of estimating the number of alien civilizations in the universe. After all, probabilities rely on the same kind of math that John Snow used to save London from cholera.
And while it’s imprecise and full of holes, the Drake Equation served as a catalyst to get scientists talking about the possibility of communicating with aliens. It’s impact isn’t in solving the problem, but in sparking creativity in our approach.
Each symbol in the equation represents a variable, such as the likelihood that an alien civilization has invented radio.
So if you plug in the lowest possible number for each variable, you’ll find that the number of alien civilizations in our Universe is very, very low, indeed: 8 times 10 to the negative 20.
But if you’re feeling optimistic and plug in the highest numbers? You’ll find that our Universe is rich with life. There are over 36 million civilizations out there!
Woohoo—party! But, uhhhh… B.Y.O.B. You don’t want to get stuck with the bill for 36 million cocktails. Trust me on this.
So: what lies between those two figures? What makes up the gap? The unknown.
This image is taken from the plaques on the Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft. And that symbol I showed you earlier appears on the left.
Here we see a man and woman, a schematic of a hydrogen atom, our sun’s location in the universe, the look of the Pioneer spacecraft, our solar system, and even the planet where we come from.
What a rich message, so full of science and humanity.
It was designed by a young scientist you’ve heard of named Carl Sagan.
Carl Sagan, as you know, turned out to be one of the greatest content strategists who ever lived.
Both Sagan and Drake would continue to use math as a form of communication, layering data on top of data like a palimpsest.
Here we see a binary message they sent from the Arecibo radio telescope in Peru in 1974.
I’ve placed the binary numbers from that message horizontally. If you squint, you might be able to see shapes emerge from the 1s set amidst the background of 0s.
Let me help with that.
That’s better. Drake and Sagan intended this message to be as simple and human as possible.
See if you can make out any of these things:
- The numbers 1 to 10
- Our Solar System
- A human figure and our DNA
- The shape of a radio telescope
It’s all in there. But will aliens be able to make sense of it?
Later, in 1977, came the two Voyager probes with their Golden Records. They contain sounds, images, and data showing the diversity of life and culture on Earth.
The Voyager probes are the furthest man-made objects from Earth, about 1.2 quadrillion miles away from us.
The scientists who built them solved the tame problems of engineering so well that we’re still in contact with them and they’re still sending us data.
The golden record on Voyager contains photography, natural sounds, greetings and music from all around the world, as well as instructions for playback, which are etched onto its surface.
Also on the outside, you can again see that same schematic of the hydrogen atom along with the symbol that shows the position of our sun. They’re sort of like our calling cards, showing everyone how nerdy we are about astronomy and chemistry.
But that’s just the outside of the record. Inside, the layers of data are far deeper than in previous messages.
Among all that data on Voyager is this: the brain waves of a young woman named Ann Druyan. She was a member of the project team.
This EEG recording of her brainwaves was made right after she and Carl Sagan told each other that they were in love with one another. After the recording, Druyan said that her sub-conscious was “buzzing with the euphoria of the Great Idea of True Love.”
The Great Idea of True Love!
So one of the most powerful feelings we’ve transmitted out into the depths of the cosmos is also one of the most personal, the most intimate.
It’s not meaningful because it represents everyone on Earth. It’s meaningful because it’s a connection shared between just two of them.
It’s beauty isn’t in its scale, but in its uniquity. Only the smallest scope can inspire the greatest empathy.
You can’t stop the signal.
But will an alien civilization understand? Will they be able to decode and replay these messages? Will they hold any meaning?
And what action might they take in response?
So many unanswered questions. What’s the probability that an alien civilization will succeed at solving these problems when we can’t solve them ourselves?
And so we’re challenged by the unknown. We find the shape under the sheet in the signals we send beyond the stars.
And while we might laugh at the historical efforts to create that link, those early scientists and philosophers answered the call of duty of content strategy: to stand united against ambiguity, to make the unclear clear.
They dared.
[[ 25 MINUTE MARK ]]
So! We’ve looked more than 200 years into the past.
Now we’ll leap ahead almost 3 trillion years into the future.
That’s right—it’s Eloi and Morlock time. “Hold on to your butts!”
We’re going to see how content strategists are trying to solve the wicked problem of nuclear waste—and how to communicate the threat it poses to future generations.
Whether they’re used as weapons or as fuel to create energy, the processing of nuclear materials leaves behind waste products.
This waste is dangerous because it emits radiation that destroys all life as we know it.
And yet you can’t build weapons or generate power without it. And using nuclear power keeps us from extracting and burning fossil fuels that pollute our environment, causing climate change.
But wait, what’s this?
See? Even the barrel itself is feeling conflicted!
So how should we communicate the dangers of nuclear waste to future generations?
This is the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository in Nevada. It was intended to serve as a storage site for nuclear waste after a 2002 act of Congress. It’s total estimated cost was $90 billion.
However, it’s since been shuttered and research continues to find and develop a new site for waste storage.
Nuclear waste is so dangerous to life that it must be stored securely in a remote, shielded location deep beneath the Earth.
Here we see the plan for the Yucca Mountain repository and its three bays where waste was to be stored.
So how long would that all that waste need to remain hidden and undisturbed in order to become safe? Let’s find out.
Meet Plutonium-239. It’s a radioactive element commonly used as a nuclear fuel. It has a half-life of just over 24,000 years.
This means that it burns off one half of its dangerous radioactivity over that amount of time. Every 24,000 years, it burns off another half, and another half, and so on.
Let’s say that to become even remotely stable and safe, a chunk of Plutonium-239 needs to pass through four of these half-life cycles, meaning just shy of 100,000 years.
Give or take—I mean, what’s a few millennia between friends, am I right?
On the other hand, Uranium-235, another common element in fuel and weaponry, has a far, far greater half-life.
Over 700 million years. It takes Uranium-235 over 700 million years to burn off just one-half of its radioactivity.
If you go through four of those cycles, you get…
2.8 trillion years. 2.8 trillion years!
So, my friends and neighbors, if you think this keynote is dragging on…
Oh no no no no—that’s nothing compared to the half-life of Uranium.
So how do we keep people safe from nuclear waste over these vast periods of time? At first glance, our content strategy toolbox doesn’t seem to offer much.
Our usual approach of using systems, structures, language, colors, and symbols just won’t be relevant to future generations living thousands of years from now.
Even when we look just 24,000 years into our past, languages and symbols fade away quickly. And who’s to say what could happen in the future.
Which is why the US government, recognizing this wicked problem, created—and this is true—the “Human Interference Task Force” to come up with solutions.
Because there were no experts in this subject, the task force was made up of researchers, historians, futurists, social scientists, and even science fiction writers—all people forced to think beyond their field of expertise.
They were charged with stopping people in the future from coming into contact with nuclear waste generated in the past.
Their approach was to create some form of message, as well as the transmission and reception systems for that message.
Oh, and by the way, their message had to be effective for at least 10,000 years.
They were charged with three outcomes.
The first was to convey to any future recipients that this was, indeed, a message from the distant past.
The second was to show people that the place in which they receive the message is a very dangerous area that should be avoided.
And then—only then—came the hard part: they had to communicate “WHY.”
And they had to do it in a way that future civilizations would be absolutely sure to understand. Because there’s so much on the line, so much life at risk. We can’t fuck this up because we have no right to be wrong.
But it’s so hard to get this right because we can’t test it—the people creating this message have no way of knowing if it will reach their audience or be understood.
A very wicked problem indeed. Let’s see what they came up with.
Thomas Sebeok, a linguist, proposed that we create a new religion.
It would be known as—and this is true—The Atomic Priesthood. It would be like the Catholic Church, but charged with communicating the dangers of the radioactive waste sites over the millennia.
Sure, it sounds funny, but beyond language, colors, and symbols, what’s shown more power to endure over time than organized religion?
But, of course, religions can rise and fall.
Stanislaw Lem, a science fiction writer, wanted to create a global network of satellites that would constantly communicate messages about the locations and compositions of the nuclear waste sites.
But as we saw in the movie “Gravity,” space is no sanctuary. Satellites and other spacecraft are vulnerable to the elements.
Lem also proposed that we alter the DNA of plants to encode messages within them. He called these “information plants”.
They would only grow near waste sites in the presence of radiation. They would serve as a perpetual warning system made of natural, renewable materials. Their DNA, once decoded, would contain messages about each waste site’s composition and other important information.
But what if future societies don’t have the ability to break the cipher to the DNA in these plants? Or what if the plants are destroyed by acts of man or nature?
This is the part you’ve been waiting for.
French authors Françoise Bastide and Paolo Fabbri had an interesting approach.
They said—and, again, this is ALL TRUE—we should breed “radiation cats" or "ray cats.”
These “ray cats” would be genetically engineered to GLOW in the presence of radiation, warning humans that they were in the danger zone.
Seriously, how awesome is that?
Yeah, you’re laughing, but remember: humans have a long association with cats.
Egyptians worshipped them. And we domesticated them over tens of thousands of years.
We even created the Internet to honor them!
So it makes sense that future generations would also keep cats… or be kept by them, from the cat’s perspective.
But what if they don’t?
The task force also proposed many options for communicating through inaccessible architecture and design.
Here we see an artist’s depiction of a hellscape of giant, building-sized thorns that would be grown around a waste disposal site. The message here seems clear: stay out, this place is dangerous, it’s useless for settling or cultivation.
But what if it turns into some sort of adventure sports park instead?
The task force looked at constructing jagged spikes so giant that could be seen from miles away, or possibly from space.
Incidentally, this illustration and the following images come from a government report created by Sandia Labs. It’s one of the most fascinating documents ever produced by or for any government, ever.
If you want to check it out later, there’s a URL in the small text at the bottom of the slides.
Part of what they were trying to achieve was to make the waste repository site look dangerous.
Spiky shapes with sharp angles make it seem menacing, inaccessible, and impenetrable as possible.
Even so, these shapes could decay over time. Or they might be seen as welcoming by future cultures.
Another approach would be to make the site look unnatural. Here we see a huge man-made square of black granite or painted concrete.
An extra bonus would be that the sun would cause the black square to become so hot that it would burn skin when touched.
But colors can fade. Or get covered up as the lands shift.
But perhaps a flat square wouldn’t be enough. What about raised square pillars to block access instead?
Sounds good, but what if an earthquake breaks them apart? Or what it it’s seen as some sort of monument?
But that’s all so large in scale and cost. Why not retreat toward simplicity instead?
Comics could tell the story of the dangers inherent in the area. These panels show how a person becomes sick by accessing the waste site.
But while these seem simple, what if future cultures read them from bottom to top? Then they see a story in which sick people become healthy by accessing the waste.
Long-term communications are complex, far harder than they look at first.
Each of these scenarios has weak points. Each has flaws which, if exploited by man or nature, would cause catastrophic failure, the end of all life on Earth.
And yet we must try to solve this problem nonetheless. Because we have no right to be wrong. Because bowing to inevitability is surely worse than planning for a positive outcome.
Or is it? And so we return to the shape under the sheet.
[[ 35 MINUTE MARK ]]
Over the course of the past half hour, we’ve looked at two wicked problems in long-term content strategy. And I’ve shown how each of them pulls at us even as we pull back.
That’s because they’re rife with ambiguity. And while I’ve turned to fantastical scenarios to illustrate this point, our everyday lives are filled with the unknown.
It greets us in the morning, sits with us at meals, and it’s ever present in our relationships and work.
It hides in plain sight—we know it’s there.
[[ 35 MINUTE MARK ]]
Over the course of the past half hour, we’ve looked at two wicked problems in long-term content strategy. And I’ve shown how each of them pulls at us even as we pull back.
That’s because they’re rife with ambiguity. And while I’ve turned to fantastical scenarios to illustrate this point, our everyday lives are filled with the unknown.
It greets us in the morning, sits with us at meals, and it’s ever present in our relationships and work.
It hides in plain sight—we know it’s there.
This is the “Pale Blue Dot” photo taken by Voyager on its journey from Earth into the solar system. And later, beyond it.
Now it’s gone 1.2 quadrillion miles away from us. Out of the blue and into the black.
Carl Sagan said that “Everyone you’ve ever known or will ever know lives here on this speck of dust suspended in a sun beam.”
We all live and die here, do all our work here, love each other here. Every message we create starts here.
Each one a cry into an indifferent universe, “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
Or does it? While I’ve talked about huge efforts and fantastical notions, ambiguity isn’t just for scientists and engineers working on big problems—we all deal with uncertainty every day of our lives.
Remember what Prufrock asked: “Do I dare disturb the universe? Do I dare to eat a peach?”
As we chip away at our daily, small ambiguities, I believe that we make progress against the greater whole.
Our problems—and our solutions to them—need not last throughout the ages to be significant. That’s not what makes them meaningful.
What makes them truly significant is that they’re ephemeral. They don’t endure, they don’t last.
Sometimes, the things that affect us most aren’t problems of the infinite; they’re curiosities of the finite. The smallest problems, the most constrained in scope, the ones that only we know about…
They’re the ones that inspire empathy. They’re the ones that keep us awake at night. They’re the fears that force us to consider the shape under the sheet.
Or, if not fear, then love. Like the love that Ann Druyan and Carl Sagan felt. The most personal, the most intimate of feelings.
They don’t last.
“In this galaxy, there's a mathematical probability of three million Earth-type planets. And in all of the universe, three million-million galaxies like this.
And in all of that... and perhaps more, only one of each of us.”
So our problems matter. You matter.
I’ve been on this planet for 40 years and I’ve never met anyone who didn’t.
Because we’re ephemeral, too. Everything we do counts. There’s no do-overs.
Remember: “We’re all stories in the end. Make yours a good one, eh?”
Because our stories matter, but our divisions don’t.
We have all of these labels we use to describe ourselves, to classify our approaches and tools and the unique value we create.
And so of course we take offense, we take umbrage, when someone fails to recognize the clarity we bring, the particular sort of meaning we make, our expertise in being experts.
But even so, we all have something in common across these fields, as surely as one star has something in common with another star thousands of light-years away.
Our divisions don’t matter. We solve our problems together—or not at all.
Carl Sagan used to say, “We’re all made of star-stuff.”
I’d add that we all have to deal with uncertainty, with the unknown, with mysteries beyond our comprehension.
We’re all in search of answers. So our minor differences pale in comparison with the shape under the sheet.
Because what unites us will always be far more important than what drives us apart.
And as the shape becomes clear, so do our connections with each other.
Whether we write copy, develop systems and interfaces, research people and their problems, structure content and data, design experiences and flows, or tell stories and earn attention… we have something in common with each other.
We stand united in dispelling ambiguity. We create meaning and make the unclear clear.
“DO I DARE DISTURB THE UNIVERSE? DO I DARE TO EAT A PEACH?”
We dare.
We have to dare, because wicked problems surround us.
Here’s proof of that—this is Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, rendered in math. And like all math, it tells us a story.
Heisenberg’s story is that whenever an object is moving, we can’t tell precisely where it is.
Quantum mechanics proves this principle is built into the fabric of our universe.
I mean, fuck—we can’t even tell where things are! Or where they’re going!
How can we even pretend to know anything about ourselves, or other people, or what they need from us?
Ambiguity doesn’t just surround us—it’s within us.
So we pull at these wicked problems and they pull back. They pull at me. And as I try to adapt to them, they change.
But listen: we’re living “in one corner of one country in one continent on one planet that's in a corner of a galaxy that's in a corner of a universe that is forever growing and shrinking and creating and destroying and never remaining the same, not for a single millisecond.
And there is so much, so much to see. Because it all changes so fast.” And because we change in response.
You’re changing, too. The person you are right now, right at this very minute, wasn’t there a moment before. And the people who hear me say these words won’t be here another minute from now.
And that’s the key—wicked problems change us surely as we try to fight them.
They stoke our genius. They force us to dare.
“Ray cats”? “Information plants”? Inventing pictures out of binary numbers? Communicating chemistry in code?
SETTING PLANETS ON FIRE?
Such creative responses from people who dared to work outside their fields of expertise:
Scientists, philosophers, mathematicians, programmers, inventors, designers, linguists, engineers, sci-fi writers.
CONTENT STRATEGISTS.
I don’t care—I don’t care who gets the credit. But I don’t want to live in a world without wicked problems because they bring out our best qualities.
So I think that we all need wicked problems to solve. Because they ignite our collective creativity.
The force us to shift and evolve. They pull us forward by asking us to think beyond impossible constraints.
And so when you find yourself “making something out of nothing,” grappling with ambiguity to make the unclear clear, you too are tackling a significant problem.
You, too, are part of that greater whole.
Tackling wicked problems doesn’t require fearlessness, but rather the ability to recognize and then overcome our fears. To dare.
Other people without your talents, without your skills, would take one look at the ambiguity you take on and run away screaming.
And that’s what makes you different: when you encounter ambiguity, when you find unsolvable problems, you don’t run away from them.
You run toward them.
[[ 45 MINUTE MARK ]]
So I want to leave you with five ways you can respond to—if not solve—wicked problems in your work and those gray areas of ambiguity that they represent.
Start by being open and direct. When you can acknowledge the presence of ambiguity in your work, you help others recognize it as well.
Don’t let it go unspoken. Instead, be upfront—let people know that you sense the strangeness, too.
One way you can do this is to make sure that you and your partners agree on what the problem is that you’re trying to solve. And dare yourself to take on the biggest problems you can.
And never let other people dismiss your work or the challenges you’re facing. You’re content strategists, after all, and you make the numinous.
Creativity only thrives in an environment where we can suppress our urge to control things.
Instead, to solve the hardest problems, we have to help people think big, sometimes bigger than they’ve ever thought before.
As leaders, we’re responsible for creating the culture that makes this possible.
So the accountability that we establish in our organizations has to be flexible. After all, accountability was never meant to be used as a weapon.
Rather, it should be more like a warm blanket that helps people feel supported and secure enough to try new things, to take big risks.
This is especially true when we face problems that are so vast and interconnected that we can’t see the whole picture or understand their shape.
To make the most progress in our encounters with ambiguity, our accountability must always be counter-balanced by empathy.
Now let me share a secret with you—it’s the only real secret I know.
There’s no such thing as “perfect.” There’s no such thing as perfect!
And the drive to somehow become perfect and to create perfect things distracts us from what we’re supposed to be doing: making things better right now.
The longer we take to solve a problem, the more impact we allow it to have on more people. So we have to become comfortable with taking on risk, with being good enough instead of being perfect. And then getting even better over time.
Perfection isn’t some sort of peak or plateau we somehow reach someday if only we work hard enough.
Perfection is just a barrier to our progress, collaboration, and creativity.
This means that we’re bound to falter from time to time, especially as we take on more and bigger chunks of ambiguity in our work.
The point isn’t to succeed at all costs. I think it’s to fail—and to fail as often and as quickly as possible.
This—and only this—helps us increase our knowledge and understanding of the world and find out what people need from us.
If we can stop punishing failure and start rewarding learning, we’ll incentivize everyone to take on more ambiguity in their work.
So you can build leadership through failure, through humility—I think it’s the only way to build meaningful, empathetic leadership that lasts.
What I love most about our work is not the finished product, not the completed puzzle. I love the journey—the fitting together of all the small pieces into that greater whole.
We can’t solve every problem. We can’t even, perhaps, solve the hardest problems. Or sometimes the problems that matter most.
But we can try.
We can dare.
And that effort, that process… it’s what we do best. It’s who we are.
It’s the journey we’re all on. And it matters.
[[ 49 MINUTE MARK ]]
But for now, we’ve reached a way-station on that road. Our time together is almost complete.
Over the next two days, you’ll attend great sessions from leaders in the industry, people who have made the unclear clear.
Folks like Margot Bloomstein, Rachel Lovinger—COME ON, GIVE IT UP—Gerry McGovern, Ron Bronson, Rebekah Cancino, Noz Urbina, Laura Creekmore, Matt Grocki, Margo Stern, Corey Vilhauer, and many, many more.
But as the clock runs down, as entropy collapses our universe, I want you to keep something in mind.
[[ 49 MINUTE MARK ]]
But for now, we’ve reached a way-station on that road. Our time together is almost complete.
Over the next two days, you’ll attend great sessions from leaders in the industry, people who have made the unclear clear.
Folks like Margot Bloomstein, Rachel Lovinger—COME ON, GIVE IT UP—Gerry McGovern, Ron Bronson, Rebekah Cancino, Noz Urbina, Laura Creekmore, Matt Grocki, Margo Stern, Corey Vilhauer, and many, many more.
But as the clock runs down, as entropy collapses our universe, I want you to keep something in mind.
We have problems. And there are issues and challenges that seek to divide us.
But those divisions don’t really matter.
Because, in a way, we’re all working on the same problem.
And that challenge matters so much more to the people we serve than the trivial things that try to tear us apart.
We’re united in our recognition of this problem, and our willingness to take it on.
After all, it’s the biggest problem there is. And the oldest.
And it hides openly, in plain sight.
When we’re faced with ambiguity, we’re not afraid.
Because we know how to recognize and overcome our fear.
So we don’t run away from it.
We dare to run toward it.
And that’s how our story ends, at least for now.
Not with a bang, nor a whimper, but with a click.
And so you see, everything really did turn out fine—just like I promised at the beginning. I’ve brought you all back, safe and sound.
But as I mentioned earlier, the people who started out on this journey… they aren’t here anymore—we’ve left them behind forever.
So there’s one last thing I want to leave you with before I disappear, too.
A signal that can’t be stopped, heading out of the blue and into the black.