Storycraft, Second Edition


Book Description

Jack Hart, master writing coach and former managing editor of the Oregonian, has guided several Pulitzer Prize–winning narratives to publication. Since its publication in 2011, his book Storycraft has become the definitive guide to crafting narrative nonfiction. This is the book to read to learn the art of storytelling as embodied in the work of writers such as David Grann, Mary Roach, Tracy Kidder, and John McPhee. In this new edition, Hart has expanded the book’s range to delve into podcasting and has incorporated new insights from recent research into storytelling and the brain. He has also added dozens of new examples that illustrate effective narrative nonfiction. This edition of Storycraft is also paired with Wordcraft, a new incarnation of Hart’s earlier book A Writer’s Coach, now also available from Chicago.




Mapping Experiences


Book Description

Customers who have inconsistent, broken experiences with products and services are understandably frustrated. But it’s worse when people inside these companies can’t pinpoint the problem because they’re too focused on business processes. This practical book shows your company how to use alignment diagrams to turn valuable customer observations into actionable insight. With this unique tool, you can visually map your existing customer experience and envision future solutions. Product and brand managers, marketing specialists, and business owners will learn how experience diagramming can help determine where business goals and customer perspectives intersect. Once you’re armed with this data, you can provide users with real value. Mapping Experiences is divided into three parts: Understand the underlying principles of diagramming, and discover how these diagrams can inform strategy Learn how to create diagrams with the four iterative modes in the mapping process: setting up a mapping initiative, investigating the evidence, visualizing the process, and using diagrams in workshops and experiments See key diagrams in action, including service blueprints, customer journey maps, experience maps, mental models, and spatial maps and ecosystem models




Category Creation


Book Description

Lessons from HubSpot, Salesforce, Gainsight and Other Iconic Brands "The Uber of this" "The Salesforce of that" "It's like Instagram, but for..." There is no such thing as an original idea anymore – right? Actually, it turns out that the world’s most innovative companies have created so much more than just brand new products and technology. They've created entirely new market categories. The challenge is that successfully building new categories requires a perfect storm of luck and timing. Or does it? Category Creation is the first and only book on the topic written by executives and marketers actively building new categories. It explains how category creation has become the Holy Grail of marketing, and more importantly, how it can be planned and orchestrated. It's not about luck. You can use the same tactics that other category-defining companies have used to delight customers, employees, and investors. There’s no better strategy that results in faster growth and higher valuations for the company on top. Author Anthony Kennada, former Chief Marketing Officer at Gainsight, explains how he led Gainsight in creating the “customer success” category, and shares success stories from fellow category-creators like Salesforce, HubSpot and others. It requires much more than just having the best product. You have to start and grow a conversation that doesn’t yet exist, positioning a newly discovered problem in addition to your company and product offerings. The book explains the 7 key principles of category creation, including the importance of creating a community of early adopters who will rally around the problem they all share—especially if someone will lead them. · Identify the “go” and “no go” signals for category creation in your business · Activate customers and influencers as brand ambassadors · Grow a community by investing in live events and experiences · Prove the impact of category creation investments on growth, customer success, and company culture Written for entrepreneurs, marketers, and executives from startups to large enterprises, Category Creation is the exclusive playbook for building a category defining brand in the modern economy.







User Story Mapping


Book Description

User story mapping is a valuable tool for software development, once you understand why and how to use it. This insightful book examines how this often misunderstood technique can help your team stay focused on users and their needs without getting lost in the enthusiasm for individual product features. Author Jeff Patton shows you how changeable story maps enable your team to hold better conversations about the project throughout the development process. Your team will learn to come away with a shared understanding of what you’re attempting to build and why. Get a high-level view of story mapping, with an exercise to learn key concepts quickly Understand how stories really work, and how they come to life in Agile and Lean projects Dive into a story’s lifecycle, starting with opportunities and moving deeper into discovery Prepare your stories, pay attention while they’re built, and learn from those you convert to working software




Value Proposition Design


Book Description

The authors of the international bestseller Business Model Generation explain how to create value propositions customers can’t resist Value Proposition Design helps you tackle the core challenge of every business — creating compelling products and services customers want to buy. This highly practical book, paired with its online companion, will teach you the processes and tools you need to create products that sell. Using the same stunning visual format as the authors’ global bestseller, Business Model Generation, this sequel explains how to use the “Value Proposition Canvas” to design, test, create, and manage products and services customers actually want. Value Proposition Design is for anyone who has been frustrated by new product meetings based on hunches and intuitions; it’s for anyone who has watched an expensive new product launch fail in the market. The book will help you understand the patterns of great value propositions, get closer to customers, and avoid wasting time with ideas that won’t work. You’ll learn the simple process of designing and testing value propositions, that perfectly match customers’ needs and desires. In addition the book gives you exclusive access to an online companion on Strategyzer.com. You will be able to assess your work, learn from peers, and download pdfs, checklists, and more. Value Proposition Design is an essential companion to the ”Business Model Canvas” from Business Model Generation, a tool embraced globally by startups and large corporations such as MasterCard, 3M, Coca Cola, GE, Fujitsu, LEGO, Colgate-Palmolive, and many more. Value Proposition Design gives you a proven methodology for success, with value propositions that sell, embedded in profitable business models."










The Art of Director Excellence


Book Description

"How would you compare what you expected of board service versus the reality?" "What do you want to say to lifelong learners of corporate governance?" Compiling wisdom and practical knowledge from interviews with over 40 board directors, spanning board chairs and CEOs at public companies, private companies, and nonprofit organizations, The Art of Director Excellence, Volume 1 presents insightful answers to these questions and more. It explores a variety of important topics in corporate governance, including developing business strategy with management, navigating risks, being a board chair or committee member on different types of boards, and improving ESG and diversity, along with the many differences in how these decisions are handled in North America, Asia, and Europe. While this book is an invaluable asset for both new and existing board directors inside the boardroom, it has use outside it as well. The real-world wisdom and experience in this volume will complement academic textbooks as shown in the appendix, which cross references commonly used textbooks to show how this book matches their contents. Academics, business school faculty and students in executive education, as well as graduate and undergraduate corporate governance classes will benefit immensely from this book. Emerging leaders in investment banking, proxy advisory, and executive recruiting will gain knowledge of the inner workings of the boardroom.




Lean CX


Book Description

In recent years, many companies have realised customer experience (CX) is the new marketing battle ground. Substantial investments have been made to map customer journeys, identify pain points and improve CX to try and create cut-through. Using real world applications to introduce next generation design tools based on proven concepts from strategy, marketing, psychology and creative problem solving, Lean CX: How to Differentiate at Low Cost and Least Risk discusses how to use Lean Management approaches to innovate your customer experience. This practical book describes how the tools from Lean Management can be applied to the CX innovation problem. The authors draw on hundreds of CX design and strategic innovation projects across a range of industries, both B2B and B2C, from primary research through client work and secondary case studies available in the public domain. The examples include many different vertical industry sectors, including those involving hybrid business models. The cases included share what worked really well and where CX failed. The content goes beyond what actually happened to present an idea of what might be possible with the right design approach and committed resources.