Megatrends Lifecycles (MLC)

While working on a megatrends research project with a leading international ICT player I realized that there is an interesting parallel that can be drawn between the infamous Product Lifecycle with its four traditionally-represented phases of Introduction, Growth, Maturity and Decline and the apparent lifecycle megatrends go through.

I nicknamed this the Megatrends Lifecycle of MLC and drawing this parallel I termed the four equivalent phases as:
1/ Emergence - convergence of trends to give rise to a megatrend
2/ Prevalence - rapid manifestation of the megatrend and the spread of its effects on business, industries, lifestyles, etc. Legal frameworks strive to catch up to the manifestations of the megatrend and first-mover advantages go to the competitors who are able to "ride the wave" successfully
3/ Predominance - the megatrends effects are felt in all areas of society and on a far-reaching demographic/geographical scale. Legislation has been able to catch up to the phenomenon and its externalities while competition moves to lobbying and influencing/establishing industry standards
4/ Evanescence - the megatrend is so widespread that it begins to dissolve into a new and ubiquitous "normal".

Interestingly, the same critiques that are made of the PLC (notably by T. Levitt of Harvard and marketing myopia fame) also hold true of the MLC, notably the ability to establish the analysis only after the fact with hindsight. Thus it is more useful for understanding the past than anticipating the future - which is what the analysis of megatrends purports to do...

Four-stage feedback model (slightly reworked)

FOUR STAGE FEEDBACK MODEL

The following four stage feedback model can help any manager/professor/mentor better  serve project participants/students/protégés.
The model consists of four parts:
1. guidance, 2. formative feed-forward, 3. formative feedback, and 4. summative feedback.

The following diagram details the approach suggested by the model:
Diagram 1. Four Stage Faculty-Student Feedback Model

© Alon Rozen 2011

1. Initial guidance/instruction: Initial guidance should let project participants understand what is expected of them and, if needed, give them instruction in the skills needed to carry out the project.

2. Formative feedforward lets participants know if they are on the right track and quickly enables them to correct their course of action if they are off track. This stage ensures that the skills required to carry out the project are indeed mastered and, if not, a secondary instruction phase can be initiated.

3. Formative feedback occurs slightly before or after the project's midway point to give participants feedback on their progress to date and to validate that their project is meeting expectations.  This feedback allows participants to proceed with confidence, in the best case scenario, and to make necessary adjustments, in all other scenarios.

4. Summative feedback gives participants overall feedback after the end of the project to help participants know how they did, where they performed well or less well, and where additional work and/or adjustments are needed for future projects.

Project Feedback Structure

As I was thinking about how best to give feedback for projects I started reading about the subject a bit and, long story short, I developed my own structure that I attempted to model which includes:

1. Guidance
2. Formative feed-forward
3. Formative feedback
4. Summative feedback

The following schema details this idea a bit more:

In terms of initial guidance/instruction, feedback should be of a nature to let project participants understand what is expected of them and, if needed, give them instruction in the skills needed to carry out the project.

The formative feedforward, is feedback that lets participants know if they are on the right track and quickly corrects course if they are off track. This also includes ensuring that the skills necessary to carry out the project are indeed mastered and, if not, a secondary instruction phase can be initiated.

The formative feedback, usually around or slightly after the project's midway point is to give participants feedback on how they are doing, to review that which was done and to validate that their production is up to the expected standard. This allows participants to proceed with confidence, in the best case scenario, and to make necessary adjustments, in all other scenarios.

Finally, summative feedback is overall feedback after the end of the project to help participants how they did, where they shined and where additional work is needed for "next time".

This framework appears to have applications in business and in the classroom - and I intend to use it in both settings to see if it needs additional tweaking.

If you have any comments or suggestions let me know.

B2She - business to women and brands to women

This first post will be about a new idea that I have been thinking about and a new term I think that I have coined (maybe someone has used it elsewhere but I didn't find it): B2She.

B2She is not just about businesses selling to women but it is also about the role that women will play, in my opinion, over the coming years, in shaping the face of business, marketing and especially technology.

While until now we expected our technology and most products to be masculine in nature: practical, predictable, functional, resistant, robust... I think we are headed towards a reality in which technology starts to be more feminine: intuitive, adaptive, multi-taskable, spontaneous.

A website in France dedicated to studying the question is womenology.fr. Worth taking a look even if the content is limited to French.

Much has been written about brands who get women and that trend should be playing out for some time. Now it is time for technology to become more feminine (e.g. Apple gets women, while Android, a personal favorite, and Blackberry are more masculine in nature). Less engineering focus and more people focus - we'll see who gets it...