Writings
Select, researched, thought-provoking, and insightful writings and articles on topics related to buying, marketing, sales, business, design, consumerism, society, economic, the arts, and the future.
What Is Human Understanding?
For more than three decades, I’ve been interested in one fundamental question: How can organizations better understand the people they serve? That question began with buyers. It expanded to audiences and communities. Over time, it led me to something broader: Human Understanding. In my previous essay, I made the case that Human Understanding should be developed as an emerging organizational discipline and competency. But that raises an obvious question. What exactly is Human Understanding? At its simplest, Human Understanding is an organization’s ability to deeply understand the people it serves—and to apply that understanding to make better decisions, build…
Why Organizations Need Human Understanding
Every successful organization intentionally develops capabilities. Some invest in Strategic Planning. Others strengthen Organizational Development. Many embrace Design Thinking, Systems Thinking, Leadership Development, or Organizational Learning. These disciplines exist for a reason. They help organizations think better, plan better, innovate better, and lead better. But over the past several years, I’ve found myself asking a different question. What organizational discipline and competency helps an organization better understand the people it serves? The more I’ve explored that question, the more I’ve come to believe something important is missing. Organizations have intentionally developed competencies for planning, designing, managing, innovating, and learning….
Human Understanding Insight
Organizations have never had more information about the people they serve. Research. Dashboards. Analytics. Artificial Intelligence. Yet many people still feel misunderstood. I believe organizations sometimes mistake knowing more for understanding more. They’re not the same thing. Information helps us know people. Understanding helps us serve people. That distinction has been at the center of my thinking as I continue developing the emerging discipline of Human Understanding. Do the people you serve believe you understand them?…
Buyer Personas Began with Buyers. It Was Always About People.
How twenty-five years of Buyer Personas led me to Audience Personas, Community Personas, and the emerging discipline of Human Understanding. Twenty-five years ago, I introduced the concept of Buyer Personas because I believed organizations needed a better way to understand the people they served. At the time, marketing was becoming increasingly driven by technology, automation, and data. We knew more than ever about customers, yet I often felt we understood them less. We could measure behavior, but we struggled to understand motivation. We could describe demographics, but we couldn’t always explain why people made the decisions they did. Buyer…
Join Me For a Talk on GTM Strategy in a Post-Pandemic World
GTM Strategy Requires Deep Understanding of Buyers On Thursday, December 8, I will be giving a 45-minute talk on the importance of understanding buyers today to meet GTM Strategy challenges in a post-pandemic world. It is a pleasure to accept this invitation from BrightTALK and TechTarget. Two supporters on the need for insights and the power of deeply understanding buyers. For the past year, I have accepted no speaking engagements. Choosing to take time to reflect and conduct research on the impact of a post-pandemic world confronted by enormous challenges. Thus, I am looking forward to sharing with you…
The World Must Respond Commercially and Politically to Threats Against a Free World
Commercial and Political Responses Must Resolve to Stop Russian Aggression Nearly ninety years ago, we saw a forceful head of state annex what he called “homeland” territories. Made sham promises to countries such as England. Invade countries under false pretexts such as Czechoslovakia. The threatening clouds of his real designs were visible yet deemed as something he would never do. The world watched. Failing to respond commercially or politically. Such failure did not stop the rise of Adolf Hitler and his aggression that led to World War II. Ultimately, Hitler’s carnage resulted in destruction, devastation, the atrocities of the…