I was thinking this morning about co-created service experiences in today’s world. For the most part devices have become objects apart of the experiences from start to finish. People are doing a host of social interactions with other individuals and some are creating digital artifacts as they engaging deeper into the experience. But I’m wondering if presence of devices removes some of the perspective of the service awareness? What’s more valuable to a business that someone checks in on Foursquare and is constantly on Facebook or is engaged throughout the experience creating a deeper, valuable memory?
And if the latter is true how does a business shape the path to have users fully engage.
Zack Perry Uncategorized co-create, experiences, servicedesign
Nothing too much happened yesterday. Was able to spend about an hour wireframing the experience. Hope to finish that possibly this weekend before a travel week ahead.
The one thing I’ve been thinking about is levers within the business model that can be pulled to create new business models. I’ve got a loose plan to expand and move towards a networked platform concept. Not sure how I will be able to make it work and what it will take but I guess that’s the beauty of the business model prototyping.
Zack Perry Uncategorized
Yesterday was a good day. Finished sketching the first round of screens and began evaluating other apps that have solid user experiences in my opinion. Using these as guide I went through a couple iterations on the sketches finally settling in on a decent, somewhat end to end experience. I still think I have a ways to go before the UI is optimal but at this stage it’s simply a prototype.
The one thing I’ve been focused on is how to leverage the phone’s capabilities. I feel like there is a richer experience beyond GPS detection. The one thing I’m really looking forward to seeing is near field communications becoming real or what exactly the mobile wallet will allow us to do beyond just paying for products or services. My startup will leverage this capability. I want to draw it into the experience now but feel i’m being a tad ambitious. Isn’t this the startup curse of trying to do too much the first go around. What I’m hoping is I can sell a vision in my business model deck.
Zack Perry Design, Experience, Ideas, Innovation Start Up
After pure neglect and using Twitter more to voice my thinking I’ve decided to once again attempt to keep my blog on the foreground instead of the background of my life. Part of the reason is I’m finally bucking up and attempting to get an idea off the ground. I’ve never been confident in myself enough to actual pursue any budding ideas I’ve had over the years and find myself frustrated when I see a startup butchering an idea similar to my own. I’m also slightly injured with a knee stress fracture so my normal training is on hiatus for the next 6-8 weeks. So I’ve finally got some time to make this work.
I can’t say what it is that’s changed. Maybe just growing up a bit more or coming to design school. Either way I feel more and more positive the time is coming for me to spread my wings.
So today, in between all the other crap I have going on, begins the road forward. I sketched part of my future app out last night, talked to a few close friends about the idea, and started using the business model canvas as a framework for some of the big things I need to start thinking through. The major decisions I’m focusing on this week is completing the UI experience and trying to figure out how I’m going to pay for this to get developed or which friend of mine I’m going to bribe.
Here’s to day 1.
Zack Perry Design, Future, Ideas, Innovation
One of the more interesting classes I took this A session was Diagram Development. I’ve always thought of myself as a somewhat descent comm designer but was a bit nervous going into this class. The class really pushed me in my conceptualization, thinking through the data points available, and rending something useful.
I’ve attached my final deck: Diagram Development Assignments
Zack Perry Design
Well, it’s official racing is officially done for the year. Or at least I think:)
Yesterday I did the Hobo 50k trail race in Rockford, IL. I was really excited for this local race primarily because I wanted to end my season on a high note. This year has been a pain trying to get through multiple injuries and trying to break into the ultra trail racing scene. With that I approached this race strategically by getting acquainted with the course, taking care of myself, tapering and resting, and building a race plan. The taper week didn’t go quite as well as I wanted with tons of stress between school and work over the course of the week. My training was reduced to just two runs, one short tempo run on Wed and a super easy 3 mile run Fri afternoon. I felt really good going into Sat as my body felt hydrated and my calf-achilles injury appeared to be in control.
So the travel to Rockford is about an hour from Chicago. With that in mind Lauren and I dragged ourselves out of bed around 5:30am and made the commute up. After registering for the race, I did a few short runs to loosen up and get everything together. The start of the race looked good as I hit the starting line along with the other runner. My goals were simple for this race 1. break 4 hours 2. finish top 10. If these appear in order then I would go for the 3:41 course record. With my calculations mapped out it looked like I could do a 3:45-3:50. That gave me good perspective that I could break this record.
And the race begins! I quickly decided to push the pace a bit from the start. The first 3/4 mile was on pavement so I hammered it a bit in thinking if I could set a quick 2-3 minute gap then I could go on cruise control. Well, it happened. I was so dialed in that at about a mile and half I came into a straightaway and saw no one behind me. I kept the hammer down which felt super comfortable and easy. As I came into what I thought was to be the first mile check in at 2.5 miles I found nothing. No markers, people, etc. OMG I freaked out. I must have missed a turn. After trying to imagine the course, I figured I didn’t know exactly where I was so I decided to backtrack. Apparently, I missed the small plate with an arrow. So now I see on my watch I had gone 1.5 miles off course. I tried not to freak out but I did. From this point I began calculating what it was going to take. 1.5 miles is easily an 11-12 minute gap I would have to make up. If this had been a 50 miler I wouldn’t have freaked but a 50k, yes! I kept hammering as hard as I could manage trying to keep in mind I still had 26 miles to go.
I came into the 5 mile checkpoint to see Lauren and quickly grab my fresh water bottle and gels. I told her what happened and for her to keep up with times. It appears I was around 10 minutes down. I kept going strong and much harder than I ever expected to push. I came into the 10 mile checkpoint still feeling pretty good going through multiple gels trying to keep my energy going. By this point I was pushing under 9 minutes to the leaders. Going into mile 14 all of my efforts came back to me. At this point I was to begin eating real food. I suffered trying to get down two fig newtons and my stomach began filling on the brink of breaking down. Coming down close to 15.5, the course turn around, I passed the leaders, marking my watch I was roughly 7 minutes down. I was pumped but suffering. My immediate goal was to just maintain this pace and gap and work on getting my stomach solid again to pick up my pace.
Some where between 17-19 I realized this wasn’t going to happen. I was worn out and now my immediate goal was just to finish although seeing Lauren at mile 20 seriously made me want to drop out. But I figured I would just cruise. As I began to get more gels down by mile 26 my stomach started coming back and I picked up my pace and ran somewhat steady the rest of the course. While not completely thrilled with my performance and knowing I had the chance to win a race I was happy to finish overall in 9th.
I’m excited to rest and recover for the remainder of the year and keep myself fit and begin the preparation for next years big trails races.
Zack Perry Uncategorized
I’m amazed at the insightfulness of long runs. It seems every long run I do I learn a little bit more about what my body can handle and needs. Within just a few minutes of a run I can sense what this run is going to be like and how I need to approach it. That’s something that takes such a long time to develop. I think back to a couple of years ago when I would just burn through runs of all distances at a minimum of a 70% effort. Through the course of two years of injuries as a result I’ve come to understand my body and what it can handle for the day.
I still act like a moron 50% of the time but I’m beginning to give up control and let my body guide me. What’s been interesting is I feel like my speed workouts have been faster and my form has greatly improved. For the last 2 months I’ve been really conscious of my form. Most runner pay no attention to this only focusing on getting through a run or monitoring pace. Trust me you can go out on Lake Shore Trail and watch runners with the most ridiculous forms ever. I can testify that when I control my hips and focus on foot placement I’m actually going a hair faster. I noticed yesterday during a long tempo run were I was running 7:30 miles that when i locked down my form, over the course of 2 miles I looked down and saw I was running 7:10 miles. That was such a huge mental boost and proof I need to keep focusing on this regardless of my workout load.
I’m really glad my training for the HOBO 50k has finished and I’m going into a taper week. I’ve always been suspicious of taper weeks not really knowing if they really rest & recover my body. The last thing I want to do is be rusty for next Sunday. Since I’ve done a big load over the last 3 days i’m going to give myself 2 days of rest and do a few short runs wed, thur, and possibly fri.
Zack Perry Uncategorized
After 3 weeks off from running I’m finally starting to run again. I put all my marbles into a cortisone shot in my hip that did nothing so I finally gave up and decide i should rest and stick to physical therapy. It’s mentally frustrating not to be achieving your personal goals for the year, ice age 50k and big horn 50m, but I’m hoping this injury helps me really dial in my focus for Leadville 100.
It’s a weird feeling when you are 60% recovered and you are extremely gun shy in your gate and pace. 3 runs this week at a miserable 8 minute pace left me almost bored. I was happy to finally pick up my pace today and run 730s. while I’m only running 3 miles it’s a start.
Zack Perry Uncategorized
I’m slowly getting back into blogging. I have no idea why these days with Twitter and Facebook consuming most of my available thoughts.
But I digress. I have had a lot of thoughts over the last couple days around service experiences and empowerment. So far on this work trip I’ve encountered Starbucks 2x, Hilton 1x, Hertz 1x, Chickfila 2x, and a couple local eateries 3x. Of all these places I carefully thought about and analyzed the level of service provided to me along with how the employee interactions occurred. Last session’s Service Design class we talked about companies who empower employees through principles vs process. There is a movement towards principles that empower employees to deliver on the customer experience within a solutions arena. Vs process that makes employees basically go by the book on how to solve problems that drives a somewhat scientific customer experience. That just does not work anymore as the complexity of our lives continues to grow and expand.
Your brand is on the line these days. Customers have become smarter and they have the tools to let people know.
So who amongst these organizations has scored the best and worst.
Best
1. Local eateries - I want to explore why this is in another posting
2. Hertz - my travel dept didn’t add my gold # to my reservation and the employee took that and resolved the issue
Average
1. Hilton - consistent entry, consumption and exit
2. Chickfila - consistent as always. One of the best functioning food places in the US. Lack of humanic cues though.
Below Average
1. Starbucks - it’s like moving cattle in all stores, a slightly frozen bagel, no cream cheese, and the lack of a warm smile
Zack Perry Uncategorized