I'm curious about people's perspectives on computing security. From what I have been reading about this, there isn't a whole ton of research completed on the subject (and most of what I have read alludes to holding the user accountable for their own security. I'm not sure I agree with that.). If there is more research on the subject, please pass along and send me a comment.
I wanted to get your thoughts and opinions about computing security and the like.
If you have a few minutes, feel free to take the survey.
I thought we were at least friends. How could you be so cold?
I found out today that you left the state of Texas. Not just Dallas - the state of Texas. I needed to make a deposit (basically, bring money to you), so I went to a branch that you claimed on your web site was still a Citibank branch so I could deposit the check in the ATM – and it wasn’t a Citibank branch anymore. It was BB&T.
I had to call your 800-number to find out what happened to you.
Cold – so cold!
But the worst part is that you won’t let me go. Because I opened my account with you in California, I need to stay with you. You didn’t transfer me to BT&T to make my life easier. Why? Why?!?!?
You claim that banking is so virtual these days, but yet you won’t let me deposit a check on my phone app for more than $1000. I have to mail it to you – or express mail it to get my money faster, costing me money to get my own money! And on top of it, I still wouldn’t have my money for a few days.
How does this make my life easier? How does going to a FedEx office and spending $30 of my money to deposit a check and wait a week make my life better? What’s up with that? Isn't that why we have ATM cards?
I signed up with you originally because you had global banking services. I traveled a lot for work and liked the convenience of accessing a branch anywhere – just in case. One time, I left my ATM card at home, and in California I was able to go to a branch, get a temporary card, and when I got home, I there was a new card waiting for me in the mail. It was awesome! The convenience was incredible!
What if I lose my card now? Overnighting isn’t the same as being able to go to a branch for a temporary card that moment. How does this work?
And what if I need some financial services, like a loan or I wanted to close out an account? It’s just weird calling that in and talking to a call center – someone I don't know or trust. True, I don't know someone in the branch, but I know it's a Citibank location, and I trust the person is working for Citibank.
What if someone hijacks your phone line? Or your call center is compromised? Do I get my own banking representative?
I guess this is so shocking because I was getting ready to write a blog post about how Citibank may be a big bank, but it’s a great bank! They are so helpful and open – just generally lovely and helpful. So trustworthy.
Trustworthy my petootie!
Why didn't get a letter about this? Or a notice in my mailbox on the Web site? I'm online, checking my account balance almost every day and I never saw a notice about this. Didn't you notice my mailing address in Texas? Oh yeah, I must have done that so I could drive monthly to Texas to get my mail and visit branches just because. That must be it!
NOT!
(I shouldn't be surprised – during the last storm in Dallas, American Airlines booked me a flight out of Las Vegas, because that's so close. A short 800 mile drive.)
Sure, this was posted in the news, and maybe it was kinda big news, but is that really enough? I don't usually check the local banking news or follow what's happening with my bank because I trust that someone there will send me a letter and communicate what's happening. Apparently, I misplaced my trust.
As a customer, wouldn't you expect your bank to send you a notice about a big change like this when you live in the state? Especially after being a customer for 15 years?
15 years, Citibank. 15 years! Not even a Dear John letter! You just left.
For a company, that means exposing what your processes are, telling a customer what to expect.
Here’s the problem, though: When a company makes its operations transparent, it reveals them not only to its customers but also to its competitors. And since very few companies have cornered the market for raw materials or talent, making processes transparent means making the business easy to copy. That is why so many businesses stop short of revealing everything customers might like to know. And it’s why ideas like trustability, likeonomics, and face-to-face are needed to keep potential buyers from bolting.
Truth be told, customers won’t really trust you unless you’re transparent. But if you become transparent, your competitive advantage proves transient. Margins plummet, and you’re forced to innovate.
There are some flaws in this argument (I’m finishing up a seminar about competition and copying). Copying may be the easy way to get a program implemented, but there are a lot of problems with that approach, especially if you are copying a program from a company that has a very different corporate culture than your own.
And if it were easy to copy a company’s processes from transparency, why don’t more companies do it to achieve the results these companies have?
Zappos is completely transparent – they constantly share how they work (see the video at the top of the page). Even though they are highly successful, not many companies have adopted what they do. They are truly unique.
Further, they have transformed their corporate culture to be transparent so there is no hiding and everyone knows what everyone else does.
During the 4-hour meeting, Hsieh talked about how Zappos’ traditional organizational structure is being replaced with Holacracy, a radical “self-governing” operating system where there are no job titles and no managers. The term Holacracy is derived from the Greek word holon, which means a whole that’s part of a greater whole. Instead of a top-down hierarchy, there’s a flatter “holarchy” that distributes power more evenly. The company will be made up of different circles—there will be around 400 circles at Zappos once the rollout is complete in December 2014—and employees can have any number of roles within those circles. This way, there’s no hiding under titles; radical transparency is the goal.
Hsieh told the crowd on that rainy November afternoon, “Darwin said that it’s not the fastest or strongest that survive. It’s the ones most adaptive to change.”
…
“We’re classically trained to think of ‘work’ in the traditional paradigm,” says John Bunch, who, along with Alexis Gonzales-Black, is leading the transition to Holacracy at Zappos. “One of the core principles is people taking personal accountability for their work. It’s not leaderless. There are certainly people who hold a bigger scope of purpose for the organization than others. What it does do is distribute leadership into each role. Everybody is expected to lead and be an entrepreneur in their own roles, and Holacracy empowers them to do so.”
In its highest-functioning form, he says, the system is “politics-free, quickly evolving to define and operate the purpose of the organization, responding to market and real-world conditions in real time. It’s creating a structure in which people have flexibility to pursue what they’re passionate about.”
Not only is the internal structure being more transparent, they are communicating this change to the world. Wonderful transparency.
Virgin America is also transparent with their customer. Their upgrade policies were revolutionary, especially because there were no secrets about how to score a first class seat 6 hours before a flight. Now, a number of other airlines have similar offers. It's a great way to not let first class seats go empty – and fill up the plane.
They are also transparent about how they save energy.
Virgin America was the first domestic airline to list its carbon footprint according to internationally accepted standards on The Climate Registry. Virgin America established its baseline footprint in its first full year of operations, as a first step in ensuring its operations were transparent to the traveling public. The airline is committed to finding new ways to reduce its footprint per guest, even as it experiences substantial growth both in traffic and fleet.
Apple is also transparent, but I have a personal story to share to tell the transparency story.
My computer was old and dying, I knew it, but I wasn’t ready for a new one yet. One day, I let the battery run out and it just died. It wouldn't turn on. I went to get a new battery, and it still wouldn’t work. I called Apple Care and they didn’t want to tell me the bad news that most likely my logic board was fried, so they tried to get me an appointment at an Apple store. However, this was my work computer - so I needed a solution right away. The Genius Bars near my home were booked solid for 3 days, so the call center recommended that I go to a reseller to get faster service. I didn't know that resellers still existed with the Genius Bar concept – but I was thrilled! I found a reseller who specializes in small businesses and can give me better service and help than going to Apple itself. Now I have someone to call if there is a problem.
By being transparent about how I could get the best solution rather than looking for a sale for Apple itself, Apple made a better deal – they introduced me to a solution I needed more than an Apple Genius bar desk.
Another sign of transparency is to do an experiment how easily a company can be contacted. Companies that have their phone numbers and online chat easy to find means they want to talk to you and they are concerned with their customers. Companies that hide their contact information in some ways, don't want customers to contact them. They would rather that customers research their own answers to questions than help them.
Zappos (see the header – many ways to contact Zappos at the top of the page), Virgin America and Apple all have extensive Contact Us pages. It's wonderful how open they are to help customers solve their problems.
4. And these traits build the greatest trait – Loyalty
Being loyal means being true to yourself, first, and then you are true to others and offer them the right assistance that they need.
Sure, reward systems improve loyalty, but giving gifts is like giving someone a bribe to work with you – it's not being truly loyal.
How are these companies truly loyal to their customers? They all take their responsibility seriously. Being authentic, responsible and transparent makes them automatically loyal to their customers. I could tell countless stories about loyalty for these brands – and I'm sure you could too.
These companies are also loyal to their employees to complete the chain. And these employees are engaged with their employer and it's brand.
Engaged employees are the ones that believe in the brand philosophy and are committed to upholding it on behalf of the company. They have been compared to volunteers who give their time to a cause they are passionate about. They are passionate about the company mission and goals and are willing to put in the extra effort to make sure they are met. When they are faced with obstacles, the think out of the box and come up with creative solutions to overcome the challenges. They are what Lowenstein refers to as Employee Ambassadors.
And how does this extend to how employees work with customers?
They are committed to the customers. Ambassadors understand the customers’ needs and does everything they can in their performance at the company to meet those needs, while delivering the highest values in both product and service.
We trust certain companies because they are authentic, responsible, transparent and loyal – and their employees feel that way about them as well. Without this "perfect storm" present, a company has a hard time earning trust from prospects and customers to provide a trustworthy and good customer experience.
I work with lead gen teams a lot and know way too much about online forms.
And I think we all know that every time you fill out a little form online, you know someone will call you (even my assistant knew this one when he had them call me!).
However, I just had the best experience for downloading a PDF.
(Disclaimer: this may have existed for a long long time, but I have yet to encounter this on my Web travels. If it has been around a while, please comment and let me know. I’m sure this isn’t new – possibly just new to me – but why don’t more places use it?)
These experiences are usually all the same – general form with fields, some with more fields, some with fewer. These forms are always so ridiculous for a user to complete – especially if you are emailing someone in your database for whom you already have information! I mean, users know you know them (how did you get their info? Most likely, from a form!) – why make them fill out another form!?!?
Working on these projects, I always felt like Oscar Goldman in the 6 Hundred Million Dollar man: “…We have the technology. We can make him[it] better than he was. Better, stronger, faster.”
But I was always told, no! We need to have the user fill out the form because we didn’t buy that technology to make it easy like that (or some other nonsense).
However, today, I have proof that this is all possible.
From Adobe’s email, I went to a page that looked like it would have a form on it (see below), it refreshed for a second, and I got to download the PDF.
No form required because they (obviously) already had my information. I have an account with them, I buy from them, there is no need to collect my info yet again.
When I think about trust, I remember Middle School gym class. The teachers organized a segment about trust that included activities such as us leaning back and hope our teammates wouldn't drop us, flying down a zip wire, and other activities that foster a team environment.
The lean back activity was difficult. Not only we were all 12-13 years old, but kids 12-13 years old can be jerks. There was great risk that some of us would land on the floor "in the name of fun." I was chubby and awkward and figured my classmates wouldn't try to catch me, so I didn't stay straight and bent. A few others bent a bit as well. However, the 12-13 year olds weren't that jerky; I didn't fall to the floor.
I learned it is a natural instinct for most people to try to catch someone who is falling over and not let someone get hurt.
And I learned that actions speak louder than words.
Stephen Covey compares building trust to maintaining an emotional savings account. If you are kind and generous and the like, you are completing actions that increase your "value" in someone's bank account. If you do something on the mean side, withdraw from the bank, and that's fine as long as you have enough deposits in the bank to cover it. If you overdraw, then you have issues in your relationship because you are in the negative, and that's when you usually have work to do to make it up to that person.
Sure, you should think before you do anything and stay on the nice side, but we are human, and we all make mistakes. Occasionally we will withdraw from another's bank account, but we need to be sure we don't withdraw too much.
Companies are similar to people in this regard – depending on their actions, they will withdraw or deposit "funds" into the emotional bank account of the consumer.
I think four traits build a trust bank with customers:
1. Authenticity
A company needs to be "itself," meaning that its brand values (or personality) is reflected in its actions.
Examine your business’ processes. Ask yourself: are these systems in line with our core values and organizational identity? Make deletions and amendments where appropriate.
Zappos.com is a great example of a company that is truly authentic. ABC did a segment about them.
Why they are authentic?
“Our whole goal is we want to build the best brand of customer service,” Hsieh said. “Hopefully, 10 years from now, people won’t even realize that we started selling shoes.”
…Hsieh said a tight-knit company culture and quality customer service are synonymous. To that end, corporate culture is every bit as important as the bottom line at Zappos, and the company has an annually published Culture Book that has grown to 480 pages to prove it.
Their brand isn't just external to be used in ads – it's also part of their internal culture, which helps people inside the company act naturally when interacting with customers. Each employee is truly being him or herself in every customer interaction. There is no facade or acting to support the "company line." The processes and the culture are tied to the external brand to ensure maximum consistency. It's beautiful!
Virgin America is another authentic company. If you look at their mission statement:
Virgin America is a California-based airline that is on a mission to make flying good again, with brand new planes, attractive fares, top-notch service, and a host of fun, innovative amenities that are reinventing domestic air travel.
Steve Jobs defined a new way to market products – and re-defined Apple to expand its authenticity beyond boxes.
I think this video says everything about the values that Apple embodies. And they have succeeded – to the point that they have transformed themselves into a media company.
A closer look, however, reveals that Apple not only has a significant media business, it’s bigger than most major media companies — and possibly at their expense.
We often talk about corporate social responsibility, which is important, but I'm referring to a company being responsible for the result of its processes and actions. A company needs to own what it does and how it does it (like people need to own their successes and failures).
It needs to do what it says it is going to do.
Zappos.com, Virgin America and Apple all do this – and this is why they are trusted brands. They make a commitment to their customers in their values and stick to it. Zappos is committed to it's return policy, which is almost any shopper's insurance policy, so to speak, for a purchase she felt wasn't her best. Virgin America commits to great customer service – and they always achieve this. Apple is committed to innovation and making great products – they do this every time.
I haven't had direct experience with Zappos (I have bought from them on occasion, but I don't have a disaster story to share).
I have a lot of experience with Virgin America, and I have found that when they don't deliver the highest level of service quality, they immediately remedy the situation in some way. In the early days of the airline, many of their planes were flying when they weren't quite ready – often the TV or Internet wasn't working at 100%. In those cases, they would provide every flier with a $25 credit (if there were more items missing on the flight, you'd get another $25 credit). At one point I had about $50-100 worth of credits, but the credit offer made me feel that they had higher expectations of themselves to make sure everything was working at 100%. I was willing to let it go that they didn't have the TV or Internet – but they weren't. If they acted this way about a small detail, imagine how they would act about something important?
I also have had my luggage "lost" with Virgin America. Ok, it technically wasn't lost, but it wasn't on the flight I was on. I was going to Vegas. I've had lost luggage many times before this one, but even as a pro at that, it is always unnerving to not have your stuff. I went to lunch, tried to relax, and of course, kept calling and checking on my luggage every hour. Each time I'd talk to a representative, no one lost patience (and a few times I talked to the same person). In fact, they felt a little empathy. My luggage finally arrived at the hotel and Virgin called to let me know – in addition to the front desk staff who got my bags. It was one of the best lost luggage experiences ever (if there is such a thing)!
All technology products have flaws and bugs – there is no way to avoid this no matter how much QA is done. No product is at 100%. However, when a flaw is identified with an Apple product, they will quickly respond to fix it.
As an example, let's look at the security leak that was in iCloud with the photos. A number of celebrity photos were leaked, and Apple had to respond quickly to fix it.
Apple has expanded its use of "two-step verification" checks to protect data stored online by its customers.
I love to doodle. I have been doodling since I was a little kid. Flowers. Geometric shapes. Infinity 8's.
Doodling led to my sketching and drawing obsession, putting my thoughts and ideas on paper to make them more concrete, shareable, and lasting.
I never saw myself as an artist, although a few art teachers tried to nudge me into that direction. I saw myself as a designer – I was on a mission to sketch objects to be used. When I was 10, I was fascinated with fashion design. I spent hours sketching outfits, pushing my imagination to limits to create new looks for my Barbie doll. My dreams of being a fashion designer were dashed when I realized I couldn't sew well and wasn't sure how I could learn.
I switched to do math and engineering instead, and quickly realized that engineering required sketching and drawing as well.
I learned how the engineering pros sketch and draw from my Dad. My father was a draftsman in the Air Force, and growing up I always watched him sketching/drawing plans to fix the house. He would draw elaborate plans for home improvements, from the kitchen to the porch to the bathroom, and determine what's needed for lumber and supplies. He also kept a sketchbook/notebook to jot down ideas and refine them later. He was an early Sketchnoter and infographic creator.
What I learned: sketch often, draw with a pencil, measure twice and cut once.
Sketching makes it real
It wasn't until I started working on the Web that I realized the power of a sketch. In the early days, strategists did information architecture. I hung out with some of the strategists at ATG and learned how to create wireframes and site maps longhand. I think I annoyed them because I asked them a gazillion questions and hung out in their "war rooms", learning how they thought about the Web and why they made certain decisions. I was curious about how they mapped their thoughts about how a Web site should work.
I found it fascinating how a diagram could make a very abstract idea more real and give it life. Until then, I only experienced how words could express an abstract idea in a document. I mean, I was an English major and wrote a bunch of papers through grad school, so that was my only world reference for communication techniques. A diagram was far better – people could see what I was thinking (and research has confirmed that it is easier to process and understand. There is information about this on the SlideShare blog as well.).
I learned that I could sketch a vision and make it real.
Sketching vs. drawing (even electronically)
I like sketching to make my ideas tangible. To me, there is nothing better than feeling the stroke of a pen on paper. You can see it, you can feel it (ok, maybe not feel it so much, unless you can feel the subtle ink bumps on paper), and you can experience it. I like to turn a thought or idea into a physical experience.
We can sketch electronically with different apps, but it just isn't as tangible as a sketch on paper with a pen. Electronic files just aren't permanent; they are bytes and numbers. They can be deleted by accident if your hard drive dies and you don't have backup. If there is no electricity, your idea is locked away for super safe keeping on a device somewhere.
If anything, the electronic tools are more like the pencil with an eraser for drawing. You can easily make adjustments, move items around, and in the end, turn it into a final version by "inking" it, or just printing it.
Why I like pen and paper? Ideas written on paper won't go away unless you physically throw it away or burn it.
(We know our history through verbal and written tradition. Written tradition seems to carry more weight and can be a little more accurate – it records a perspective in time.)
Diagrams can transform into action
I sketch before creating a site map, a wireframe, or even PowerPoint strategy slides. I'll consider the idea I'm trying to present, make sure what I want to express is focused enough to be on one page or two (read the section about Tufte and PowerPoint), and figure out a way to express it visually, without a lot of annotations. Once I feel confident enough, I'll go to my computer and finish the drawing in InDesign, PowerPoint or another visual tool.
Sometimes, the initial sketch will encourage me to split the thought out or reconsider how I'm approaching it. Having a strategy or idea is great, but if you can't communicate it, no one can take action on it. You need to be able to present your idea so that:
it's simple enough that people understand it at a single glance
it's exciting enough in the presentation so that someone will want to work with you on it
it's straightforward enough so someone can easily create a plan from it
When you sketch an idea out, you should walk away from it and come back to it to see if it meets that criteria and then start creating the visual.
How do white boards work into this?
White board sketching is great for a group to express their ideas. Each person can grab a marker and make their ideas and thoughts tangible for that meeting. Sure, the thoughts can be erased, but a picture of the board on a phone can fix that (as does printable whiteboards). Often a white board sketch session needs to be recorded into a PowerPoint slide, diagram, spreadsheet – something. But the white board allows the team to create an idea, everyone add to it, and make it a group contribution.
In the end, one person will create the slides and the group will comment on them, making sure that the information is simple, exciting and straightforward.
Why sketching is great to do?
Make abstract ideas tangible
Gives a long life to ideas
Helps you to clarify how you communicating an idea
Can get you more buy-in for your idea
Becomes an tool to influence others and collaborate
Why do we all need to sketch?
There is such a need for more effective communication, and the best way for us to do that is to include images and text together.
If we are all creating infographics, we need to take a step back, figure out what we are trying to communicate, and experiment with different approaches to communicate it well. Sketching allows for that.
We don’t realize it, but we all make infographics, every day. And if we aren’t working on an infographic, we are looking at an infographic. They are everywhere.
The formal definition of an infographic is “a visual image such as a chart or diagram used to represent information or data.” This could be a simple Excel chart, a Word table, a PowerPoint or Prezi presentation, a well-designed graphic (see a couple below), a map, a flow chart, or even a meme (like the Grumpy Cat one below).
What all types of (info)graphics have in common is that each visually tells a story with a series of text and images. Of course, some achieve this goal better than others, but they generally do the same thing.
You can fiind more templates and examples for your own use at Venngage.com.
4 qualities that make an infographic a successful communication tool:
A strong story to tell
Solid data to back up ideas
Strong points to educate the reader
It is fun to look at and read
Why we need images with text
In many ways, a visually oriented story is a more natural story for us to tell. This is probably why PowerPoint is the tool of choice for most business organizations.
Surprisingly, it’s just easier for your brain to process an image rather than a word. There is a theory that when you hear a word, you visualize it in your head. The parts of your brain that process vision start to operate so you can “see” the picture.
The answer that emerged from this research is that when you encounter words describing a particular action, your brain simulates the experience, Bergen says.
This is partly why it’s important to have an image in your presentation associated with what you are describing, and why drawings help you make your points more clearly. Drawings and pictures make your story easier for an audience to understand (less processing required) and more memorable (because you hear and see the same concept – there is no guessing about context or meaning so you can clearly understand what’s being communicated). If you hear the word “dog” and then see a dog on the screen, it’s a more concrete experience than talking about a dog and allowing the audience to imagine one in their heads. That’s work.
SlideShare consulted with an educational psychologist to create a piece about how the brain processes visual communication. Similar to the study I just described, the brain has an easier time processing information if an image is provided with text.
We make infographics with PowerPoint (we don’t like to admit to it tho)
A class by Edward Tufte taught me how PowerPoint really should work (even though Tufte is far from being a fan).
He wrote 4 books that set the industry standard for presenting information. He often refers to Charles Joseph Minard’s diagram of Napoleon’s March on Russia as being a masterpiece of great information design. I remember taking away from his seminar how a graphic (now infographic) needs to meet a set of communication goals in order to tell a story, like that diagram does. It’s true.
Many believe that PowerPoint is an evil, corporate tool. It’s the tool of business, mainly because it allows people to create their own infographics to communicate ideas to their teammates. However, the catch is that PowerPoint graphics don’t stand-alone – the presentation around it gives it life.
PowerPoint can be highly effective to communicate complex, abstract ideas, of course, if executed well with images and text and narration.
Here are 3 ways creating a PowerPoint slide deck is like designing an infographic:
Minimal use of text. PowerPoint isn’t about reading. Slides are dependent upon you being there to talk people thru the ideas and fill-in the details.
Use graphics wherever possible to illustrate an idea. This is why SmartArt exists. Don’t judge me – I am a fan of SmartArt because it gives a quick way to present information outside of a bulleted list. It’s a great start to go beyond bulleted lists.
Simple and easily understood at a glance. If you need to give your slide a lot of explanation, you have failed at creating an infographic. If you need to include a lot of data and bullet points to support your findings, you have made your argument too complex. Keep it simple.
Sketchnotes – another case of graphics with text
The other day, I downloaded a book titled, The Sketchnote Handbook. I sketch a lot myself, not in a professional/artist way, just my own notes and thoughts. I typically formalize these notes in PowerPoint or InDesign if I need to make them intelligible to others. I also am an obsessive doodler (mainly geometric shapes and flowers).
I observed that the sketchnotes in the book were a type of infographic – they were illustrations of ideas and thoughts summarized in a few pages of text and images. Sure, they were sketches, but they were groups of sketches that had a loose relationship with each other. Each expressed a different idea and told a story.
The drawing created with Sketchnotes improved memory and recall for those doing the drawings because it was a visual map illustrating an idea. It’s not art, but it has a graphic quality that engages you, pulling you into its experience to learn more about that thought or idea.
Sketchnoting on a white board?
Last summer at the Agile 2014 Conference, I attended a session by Lynne Cazaly titled, “The Lady with the Chiseled Tipped Pen.” The session was about using sketchnotes while white boarding ideas in meetings. It was awesome! I left knowing that people remember your message better when they see a visual diagram, or infographic, on the whiteboard rather than only a list. She converted the whiteboard brainstorming experience into an experience of creating an infographic, live.
Infographics make our thoughts relevant
When I create a site map, a flow diagram, or a wireframe, in some ways, I am creating an infographic to illustrate the proposed flow of information on a Web site. When I create a slide illustrating the flow of information using minimal text and a lot images (even the clichéd cloud to represent a conversation) – I am creating an infographic.
When you design a flyer, a menu with pictures and illustrations, a PowerPoint slide, or even a simple table or chart in Word – you have created a type of infographic.
In today’s information glut, we are all competing to be better communicators, for our thoughts and ideas to be heard and remembered through the noise.
I think that is why we are all making infographics – even if it is to refresh our own memories.
