Better a witty fool than a foolish wit

One of the important ingredients of a sound business planning process is that we can report on the results of contacting customers and end-users for our product. Commonly (traditionally) this is done by mailed surveys, distributing surveys and/or interviewing at conferences, and telephone interviews.

Who to approach? Objectives? What questions? What information to give? What information not (trade secrets)?
In general, the focus in these interactions is on the need addressed, not on the technology. And a courtesy will be extended to interviewees.

Wanting to make the most of whatever, and using integrated pull marketing instead of push marketing, we do all of that too. Differently, of course. Next week I will be heading for Bordeaux, together with Raphaël and Manu of Pyxis Paris, for a session at the Agile Tour. An experiment in allied marketing.

Who to approach?

Well, … the people that will appear in our session are the right people!

Objectives at Agile Tour

Our objectives are to test whether the sculpting results meets participant needs and/or might be a valuable tool in their organisation or business contexts.

The sculpt at Agile Tour

After a short introduction to incongruent stress stances, participants experience a preset Pirate ship sculpt named Ship of Fools. Everything goes wrong. Really. The cap’n is drunk, the first mate hesitant, all sails are torn ~ and that is a good thing too, because if sailing, the ship would be heading for a reef. We discuss our experiences, observations, and what to change. The participants set up a changed sculpt, after which we “move” and see what happens as a result of the new set-up, and debrief again.

Treasure!

Now we tie-in the results to real life experiences. All three of us will be open for exchanges afterwards, and will collect feedback and information. Aha! Treasure for all! That’s a lot of loot!

The courtesy extended to our courageous pirates is a part of the loot, coins with company logo stickers. We’ll also have eye patches and brochures to take home. And, if time allows, we’ll ask some people if they would like to star in a short video clip or photo’s for marketing purposes of ship of fools.