1. Denver Startup Week
DON’T ENGAGE ME, BRO!
#servantdesign

2. Ryan Bell
Interface Developer/Lead
@ a local digital/UX agency
@xeroply
#servantdesign
#servantdesign

3. Project Overview
Reason for Engagement
Acme wanted to convert online sales and generate leads from traffic
originating on mobile devices.
• Lost revenue opportunity
ACME MOBILE SITE 3

4. Project Overview
Reason for Engagement
Acme wanted to convert online sales and generate leads from traffic
originating on mobile devices.
• Lost revenue opportunity
ACME MOBILE SITE 4

5. Project Evaluation
Outcomes
Acme saw a major improvement across various Performance Indicators of
commerce and engagement, including:
• 54.8% increase in Time on Site
• 22.8% increase in Click-through Rate
• 31.5% increase in Spend per Visit
ACME MOBILE SITE 5

6. What’s missing?
Click-through Convert
Performance Indicators Traffic
Page Views Devices
Engage
Spend
#servantdesign

7. What’s missing?
The visitor!
And anything they care about.
#servantdesign

8. What’s missing?
Are they getting more value?
Are they happy?
Will they stick with this long term?
Have we improved their lives at all?
#servantdesign

9. It’s not the client or the project team or
the company – this is common in our
industry.
#servantdesign

10. A brief word study
“This may seem like a small and insignificant detail
that doesn’t matter, but the vernacular and words
we use… set a very strong and subtle tone for
everything we do.”
- Jack Dorsey
#servantdesign

11. Compelling
• not able to be resisted; overwhelming
compel:
• force or oblige (someone) to do something;
bring about (something) by the use of force
or pressure
#servantdesign

12. Sticky
• tending or designed to stick to things on
contact
– (of prices, interest rates, or wages) slow to
change or react to change.
• involving problems; difficult or awkward
#servantdesign

13. Sticky
#servantdesign

14. Engage(ing)
• (of fencers or swordsmen) bring (weapons)
together preparatory to fighting.
• enter into conflict or combat with (an
adversary).
#servantdesign

15. Absorb(ing)
• take in and assimilate
• take control of (a smaller or less powerful
entity), making it a part of oneself by
assimilation
• use or take up (time or resources)
• take up and reduce the effect or intensity of
#servantdesign

16. User
• a person who takes illegal drugs
• a person who manipulates others for
personal gain
#servantdesign

17. The underlying attitude
#servantdesign

18. People’s attention and business is increasingly
hard to get.
#servantdesign

19. "Yankelovich, a market research
firm, estimates that a person living in a city 30
years ago saw up to 2,000 ad messages a
day, compared with up to 5,000 today.”
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/15/business/media/15everywhere.html
#servantdesign

20. “The average length of time a [college]
student could concentrate for in lectures was
10 minutes, according to the survey carried
last month… for the technology firm
Olympus.”
BBC, Jan 12, 2010
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/8449307.stm #servantdesign

21. Our natural response
Compelling Absorbing Sticky
#servantdesign

22. Our natural response
Manipulation
Compelling Absorbing Sticky
#servantdesign

23. The problem*
*besides the little moral part
#servantdesign

24. #1: People will come to resent it
#servantdesign

25. #2: Diminishing returns
#servantdesign

26. “The massive inflation of global advertising
impressions over any digital device – up from 172
billion in 1996 to over 5 trillion today – have
decimated click through rates from an average of 7%
in 1996 to less than 0.1% today. Consumers seem to
be reaching a point of saturation.”
http://www.fourthsource.com/general/the-advertisers-assault-why-
marketing-bombardment-will-not-work-with-consumers-8964
#servantdesign

27. A distinction
Entertainment Utility
#servantdesign

28. Beware the temptation to blur
“If participating is clearly just a means to serve a
brand, people are going to feel used. Rather than
providing an organic experience for one's personal
entertainment, gamification always has an
agenda, which makes it difficult for users to want in.”
Chloe Della Costa
http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/31753.asp
#servantdesign

29. Manipulation
Compelling Absorbing Sticky
#servantdesign

30. Service
Helpful Empowering Delightful
#servantdesign

31. OUR GOALS THEIR GOALS
Loyalty Customer Goal
Profit Fulfillment
Conversions
#servantdesign

32. The Servant As Leader
Robert K. Greenleaf
1970
#servantdesign

33. “The servant-leader is servant first… It begins
with the natural feeling that one wants to
serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice
brings one to aspire to lead…
The difference manifests itself in the care
taken by the servant-first to make sure that
other people’s highest priority needs are being
served.”
#servantdesign

34. Servant Leadership
#servantdesign

35. Servant Leadership
Design
The practice of building products and
services to help customers achieve
their goals first and foremost
#servantdesign

36. What does this actually look like?
#servantdesign

37. Servant Design is NOT:
• Letting the customer run your business
• Abdicating decisions to focus groups
• Trying to design infinitely flexible products
#servantdesign

38. #servantdesign

39. Servant Design IS:
A framework that affects every phase in the
product or service lifecycle…
#servantdesign

40. 1. Identify the “real” customer(s)
Flow of value
#servantdesign

41. 2. Nurture relationships
Personas People
#servantdesign

42. 3. Choose success metrics wisely
“Increase page views by 20%”
“Drive lead generation though blah blah blah”
“Improve conversion rates”
#servantdesign

43. 3. Choose success metrics wisely
“How likely are you to recommend us to a friend?”
The Ultimate Question - Net Promoter System
#servantdesign

44. Measuring people can make
them do funny things.
Measuring and Managing Performance in Organizations
Robert D. Austin
#servantdesign

45. 4. Empower your implementers
Why are we doing this?
Tradeoffs in view of the ultimate goal
#servantdesign

46. 5. Live with the results
Go beyond numbers in a dashboard
Use it yourself
#servantdesign

47. 1. Identify the “real” customer(s)
2. Nurture relationships
3. Choose success metrics wisely
4. Empower your implementers
5. Live with the results
#servantdesign

48. Spotting servant design
mentality in the wild
#servantdesign

49. “Above all else, align with customers.
Win when they win. Win only when
they win.”
Jeff Bezos
#servantdesign

50. “…all of our work is in service of our
customers. Period. Therefore, we better
damn well mention them in every
conversation, review, meeting, goal, etc.”
Jack Dorsey
#servantdesign

51. “At Riot we serve each and every
‘player’ that has ever experienced our
game.”
Jason Oliver
#servantdesign

52. “When we have a great brand, because we're
serving customers well, and they are talking
about us, they create an army of promoters
out there that literally acts as a sales force for
our company”
Lanham Napier
#servantdesign

53. A new frame of reference
and a new vocabulary
#servantdesign

54. Project Overview
Reason for Engagement
Acme wanted to convert online sales and generate leads from traffic
originating on mobile devices.
• Lost revenue opportunity
ACME MOBILE SITE 54

55. Project Overview
Reason for Venture
Acme wanted to provide people on mobile devices a more effective way to
learn about their offerings and obtain products that meet their needs.
• Lost opportunity to serve customers on mobile
ACME MOBILE SITE 55

56. Project Evaluation
Outcomes
Acme saw a major improvement across various Performance Indicators of
commerce and engagement, including:
• 54.8% increase in Time on Site
• 22.8% increase in Click-through Rate
• 31.5% increase in Spend per Visit
ACME MOBILE SITE 56

57. Project Evaluation
Outcomes
Acme saw a significant improvement across key measures, including:
• 28% increase in mobile users likely to recommend the site
• 65% increase in mobile users who said they were able to quickly find what
they were looking for when they came to the site
• 22% increase in Revenue per Visit
ACME MOBILE SITE 57

58. The words we use
User Customer
Compelling Delightful
Stickiness Superior value
Conversion Activity
Engaging Meaningful / Worthwhile
Engage Serve
#servantdesign

59. Users who are compelled, stuck, and
converted into engaging with you
#servantdesign

60. Customers who are delighted, offered
superior value, served well, and given
something worthwhile in return for their
active investment of time and money
#servantdesign

61. Thanks to:
SendGrid
Downtown Denver Partnership
Colorado Technology Association
PayPal
Uncubed
For more:
@xeroply
#servantdesign