The Investling Theory Of Everything We learn a lot in our lives. Unfortunately, we tend to forget a lot as well. Apparently I’m an engineer. But if you ask me to derive a formula for pultrusion from first principles, you might be disappointed. In fact, I’ve forgotten most of my university degree, and that was only 10 years ago. So how are we meant to remember all those great lessons and insights we gain through our work and education? That was the thinking behind our Investling Theory Of Everything (TOE). Any time we read a great book or article, if we hear an amazing podcast or get to idea jam with a bright spark, we try and record the essence of the insights on our TOE. Then, with any key planning sessions we have, the TOE is brought out to jog our memories regarding the particular stage of a business or project that we are at. We also use it as a form of induction for new senior management, as a learning tool for friends and staff, and as a way to spot the areas where our knowledge needs reinforcing. Navigating the TOE:
service for competitors research, shows organic and Ads keywords for any site or domain Design council interactive business tool - prototype Prediction: Anchor Text is Dying...And Will Be Replaced by Co-citation - Whiteboard Friday The classic ranking signals: links, authority, keywords, and anchor text - have long remained dominant in Google's search rankings. But in the past few years, we've seen the rise of citations for local rankings, and now, we may be seeing more co-occurence of terms and links in search queries, in text content, and in links becoming more of a factor. p.s. I did this WB Friday in a bit of a rush, and will try to write more about co-occurence/co-citation in a more detailed future post. "Howdy, SEOmoz fans, and welcome to a second beardless edition of Whiteboard Friday.
LEGO SERIOUS PLAY - BUILD YOUR WAY TO BETTER BUSINESS Business Origami – The Centre for Citizen Experience Jess McMullin Business origami is paper prototyping for systems design. It uses simple paper cutouts to represent the different parts of a system: the people, the locations, the channels used and the specific touchpoints where interactions occur and value is exchanged as a particular scenario unfolds. These cutouts are arranged on a horizontal whiteboard, which allows participants to show relationships in the system. Update: August 4, 2011 – It looks like the Hitachi Design Centre team now has a brief page up on their site about business origami (Japanese). Here’s a quick slideshare over view of how the components work together. Business origami works best in a workshop setting, with multiple people from different areas of the system you’re exploring. If you’d like to try this yourself, here’s the Business Origami Shapes PDF. If you’re interested in how business origami could benefit your organization, please get in touch.
Brains, Behavior & Design These reference cards are helpful when becoming familiar with basic behavioral economics concepts. This tool is by no means a complete or comprehensive collection of all behavioral economics concepts; they are a selection meant to provide enough depth and coverage to help establish a foundation. Terms on the reference cards are categorized into four decision-making factors and four decision-making shortcuts. Each category includes an index card that provides an overview of the category and suggestions for related design strategies. Introduction to Reference Cards All Reference Cards top
What Are Your Values? - Decision-Making Skills Training from MindTools Deciding What's Most Important in Life Find out how to identify your values, in this short video. How would you define your values? Before you answer this question, you need to know what, in general, values are. Your values are the things that you believe are important in the way you live and work. They (should) determine your priorities, and, deep down, they're probably the measures you use to tell if your life is turning out the way you want it to. When the things that you do and the way you behave match your values, life is usually good – you're satisfied and content. This is why making a conscious effort to identify your values is so important. How Values Help You Values exist, whether you recognize them or not. If you value family, but you have to work 70-hour weeks in your job, will you feel internal stress and conflict? In these types of situations, understanding your values can really help. What job should I pursue? Tip: Defining Your Values What were you doing? Why were you proud?
Gamestorming Click With Me Now - share the web 7 Resources Every Designer Should Know It’s essential for designers to stay on top of the ever-growing list of galleries, apps, and tools that can be found. But at this point, there are so many great design resources on hand that sometimes it can be overwhelming to attempt a survey of them. So instead, let’s focus in on the ones that you’ll really find yourself returning to, day after day. For inspiration, we’ve rounded up three resources with completely different scopes and subjects; in combination, they might be all you need to get yourself going on your next project. For tools, we’ve made selections that reach out to all the different design disciplines; whether you work primarily in print or web, alone or in a group, you’ll find a great timesaver or two. Inspiration Get a Broad Scope: Designspiration Although you can browse through images from any creative field, such as architecture and photography, everything in this huge compendium of inspiration can be brought back to great design. Hone UI Details: UI Parade Tools
Canvas collection I - A list of visual templates - Andi Roberts I have been using in my coaching, facilitation and training work,the very well known Business Model Canvas from the best selling book Business Model Generation, pretty much since it came out. Off the back of that, I got involved in the crowd sourced follow up book Business Model You (spot my photo in the contributors section!). More recently I have been using the template from the book Value Proposition Generation, for work around account planning and product / service innovation. Overall using canvasses is a good thing, but they do have their downsides: Since working with these, I have seen quite a few different canvas variations pop up. I claim no copyright nor ownership to any of these. Be aware that some links may now be dead as it is a while since I created this. Developed with an eye to adapt or create new business models, this is the .canvas that started off the canvas craze. Michael LaChapelle has done a really excellent mini course on the Business Model Canvas. SaveSaveSaveSave