Must Design

Objectified Primer In Product Development & Design
If you want to make stuff sit down this weekend and watch Gary Hustwit's Objectified.  Hustwit's film is one of the best walk through the design process we've seen. We've developed a handful of products and the process to turn an idea from murky thoughts to physical reality isn't described well in books. 

The product development journey is simultaneously individual and universal. Each designer's take is different but elements of the design process stay common such as:

* Vision.

* Prototyping.
* Testing.

* Design.
* More Testing.

* Launching.

* Modification and evolution.

If you want to make stuff watch Objectified this weekend.  

Here is how Beyonce Explained her SURPRISE album:

Beyonce called the project a "visual album" and said "I see music."

"It's more than just what I hear," she said. "When I'm connected to something, I immediately see a visual or a series of images that are tied to a feeling or an emotion, a memory from my childhood, thoughts about life, my dreams or my fantasies. And they're all connected to the music."

Internet marketers and web designers should read Beyoncé’s note slowly since the visual marketing tsunami is impacting everything now as Beyonce proved.

How VISUAL is your content? How AWESOME? Up to Beyonce levels? When Beyonce introduced the album on Instragram with a single word image social media all but melted down. Here are stats from Jeff Bullas blog:

The tipping point?

With the evolution of the web there are some events that are small but significant. One of those happened on December 13, 2013. It was when Beyonce launched her latest album with an update on Instagram just captioned as “Surprise”

This broke convention.

Normally millions are spent on traditional media. Lady Gaga hyped her latest album by spending millions on bus advertising, billboards, 2 pop up stores and performed countless interviews. The result. She sold 305,000 copies in 2 weeks.

Beyonce, who has 8 million Instagram followers and over 53 million fans on Facebook decided to go straight to her fans. She decided to give the bus a miss. It was launched directly to iTunes and social media. She invoked the power of  ”World of Mouth”

The results:

* It sold 828,773 copies in 3 days

* Twitter reported 1.2 million Tweets in 12 hours

* It was the largest single week ever in the Apple iTunes store

* It was iTunes fastest selling album worldwide

Product developers, Internet, content and social media marketers need to understand the core TIPPING POINTS in the middle of Beyoncé’s results:

* Marketing is about the SOCIAL/VISUAL now.
* Rework creative if necessary to be more SOCIAL and VISUAL.

* Helps if you look like Beyonce.

* If YOU don't look like Beyonce, FIND SOMETHING that does!
* Weave SOCIAL and VISUAL into product development.

* Think about VISUALS as you go.
* Find visuals that work & double down.

* As for HELP as User Generated Content is GREAT if you don't look like Beyonce (They Might & Even If They Don't They Will Support).

Product Development
Creating stuff is FUN and HARD. I've created about 10 products and none of them are going to be nearly as successful as my friend Drew Baird's Silver Dragon headphone Cables.

The linked story discusses the beginning of our Music Is A Movement revolution. A revolution that I understand better today after listening to the difference in tone, sound and quality Drew's cables make.

OMG, this is like a DRUG and if your product is lucky enough to have that reaction when you create it you half half a chance to do what you love. Take a lesson from our friends at Moon Audio and introduce your favorite music to Drew's pet Dragon.

If you read this, buy Drew's cables and don't fall in LOVE then you need to get some THERAPY fast (lol).