In 2001, all business and tech publications were saying Steve Jobs just made a big mistake. Jobs announced that he decided to change Apple’s retail strategy. Up to that point, Apple had partnered with electronic retailers like Best Buy and Circuit City to sell its products. But it never worked out as Apple expected. Apple…
Category: Problem Solving
Framestorming: How A Simple Focus Shift Saved T-Mobile (And How To Do The Same):
In 2010, T-Mobile US executives had one question in mind: “How can we salvage the assets before things get even worse?” T-Mobile was the fourth telecom company in the US. AT&T and Verizon were crushing them. So T-Mobile executive team decided to look for buyers and sell the company. AT&T jumped at the opportunity like…
Double Diamond Model: How Ogilvy Made Dove Great Again
In 1957, Unilever was about to introduce a soap — Dove. But they had a problem. Soap is a commodity. All soaps from different brands do the same thing. Hence, it’s hard to differentiate a soap brand. So they asked for David Ogilvy and his advertising agency’s help to figure out the positioning of Dove.…
The Iceberg Model: Solve Business Problems The Right Way
What Is the Iceberg Model? Most people react to problems. They see the apparent reason and look for quick fixes. But in complex systems —like a business— problems usually have deep root causes. Like what? Like the processes, structure, or people’s beliefs. Not fixing these reasons causes issues to occur again and again. And turn…
RICE Scores: A Simple Method For Project Prioritization
“This is done, what’s next?” That’s what you ask yourself after finishing a project. It seems trivial, but it’s the most important question that defines your results over the long term. Why? Well, most people believe productivity is doing a lot. But that’s an illusion. Real productivity comes from doing the work that brings you the best results. So it’s…
Steel-manning: How Better Arguments Can Make You Succeed
Steel-manning is a mental model where you strengthen opposing arguments to understand them better, so you can make the right decisions. Mike presented his project to Jane, the head of marketing. He had prepared for weeks for this presentation. User feedback, technical details, strategy… He had a solid plan for a new product. And he already had…
Think Laterally: Apple’s Ad Masterpiece and How to Think “Different”
Lateral thinking is a mental model to find creative solutions to complex problems. In 1997, Steve Jobs returned to Apple to revive the company from the ashes. And they wanted a new campaign to announce Apple was back. Apple’s competitor IBM’s slogan was “Think.” So as a response, the ad agency came up with the famous…