Date: Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Time: 7:00
Location: UX Guys (Suite 1190, 340 12th Avenue SW) view map 

RSVP: Via Meet Up (We are making plans to Skype with Scott!!)

About The Book:

How do we know if a hot new technology will succeed or fail? Most of us, even experts, get it wrong all the time. We depend more than we realize on wishful thinking and romanticized ideas of history. In the new paperback edition of this fascinating book, a book that has appeared on MSNBC, CNBC, Slashdot.org, Lifehacker.com and in The New York Times, bestselling author Scott Berkun pulls the best lessons from the history of innovation, including the recent software and web age, to reveal powerful and suprising truths about how ideas become successful innovations — truths people can easily apply to the challenges of today. Through his entertaining and insightful explanations of the inherent patterns in how Einstein’s discovered E=mc2 or Tim Berner Lee’s developed the idea of the world wide web, you will see how to develop existing knowledge into new innovations.

Each entertaining chapter centers on breaking apart a powerful myth, popular in the business world despite it’s lack of substance. Through Berkun’s extensive research into the truth about innovations in technology, business and science, you’ll learn lessons from the expensive failures and dramatic successes of innovations past, and understand how innovators achieved what they did — and what you need to do to be an innovator yourself. You’ll discover:

• Why problems are more important than solutions
• How the good innovation is the enemy of the great
• Why children are more creative than your co-workers
• Why epiphanies and breakthroughs always take time
• How all stories of innovations are distorted by the history effect
• How to overcome people’s resistance to new ideas
• Why the best idea doesn’t often win

See more about the book on Scott’s website.

Available at Amazon | Chapters | iTunes.

Lindsay Ratcliffe believes life is too short for bad experiences. During her career, she has consulted to and collaborated with teams at large corporations and small startups to create engaging online and offline customer experiences for finance, television, government, telecoms, utilities, and manufacturing.Marc McNeill is a visual thinker, experience designer, and agile coach with a Ph.D. in Human Factors and over a decade of working in IT and customer experience consultancy. Throughout this time he has been introducing lean and agile practices into large and small organizations, working with multi-disciple teams to deliver useful, usable, and delightful experiences.

Users, Not Customers: Who Really Determines The Success Of Your Business

by Aaron Shapiro

Date: TUESDAY, Feb 28, 2012
Time: 6:30
Location: Hop In Brew Pub House (213 – 12th Avenue SW)

RSVP: Via Meet Up

About The Book:

If you’re still chasing customers online, you’re looking at the challenge backward.

Aaron Shapiro helps companies build thriving digitally driven businesses. In his firm’s extensive study of the Fortune 1000, a clear pattern emerged: the most successful companies drive sales by focusing on users instead of just customers. This is a fundamental strategic shift.

Rather than trying to get people to buy stuff online, these companies home in on the user experience. They’ve realized that building relationships between people and their brand has huge value, even if those users aren’t spending a dime on their products (yet).

It’s no secret that Internet-based companies like Google and Facebook thrive by building their user base before turning to monetization. Shapiro’s big insight is that offline companies can successfully do the same, integrating offline products with an online presence and building platforms that create a lasting relationship between their brand and their users. Shapiro provides a strategic approach to refocusing your business in every way, from technology infrastructure and management to product design and marketing.

Available at: Amazon | Chapters | iTunes