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Experience optimization | Personalization | Content operations

Welcome to Bucket List, an interactive newsletter

The 3 keys to assessing business opportunity from connected experiences.

Don’t tell Gartner this, but what’s daunting does not need to be difficult.

Like anything that makes the complex clear or simplifies what normally overwhelms, implementing personalization is uniquely perplexing.

The same is true of any sufficiently advanced content machine, as one of my clients likes to call the “factory floors” of the content offerings we’ve delivered together in automated, customized, or personalized settings.

Personalization itself is an advanced set of technologies, and off-the-shelf products and services, that are both very familiar to end-users (especially in B2C settings), yet simultaneously daunting for their range, versatility, and power in the hands of any organization.

The number one question I get from people on the topic of automated, customized, or personalized experiences is how does one wrap their arms around a solid strategy?

What I always tell people is what I’ve shared below.

Budget is not your blocker.

(Poor scoping will be.)

There are a raft of well-regarded solutions outside the pricey enterprise tier of marketing automation and content management vendors, including suite products as well as standalone freemium ones.

Personalization and marketing automation are no longer upmarket technology.

"The right content to the right person at the right time" is the death knell for many connected experience efforts. Why? Because it grossly oversimplifies a complex set of decisions.

While the tools are increasingly accessible and easy to use, the actual strategy and mechanics of personalized UX—what to tailor, for whom, and when—remain daunting. This is where expertise has value, and some seek external guidance.

The great challenge for personalized experiences today relate largely to trust, empathy, and thoughtfulness. Where design thinking and research is applied, personalized UX can thrive—and so can businesses' bottom lines.

Between jobs-to-be-done and customer journeys, design can ensure the best feedback loop and a most user-centered approach: delivering holistic balance in your program, while driving intended business results.

As a related bonus, traditional information architecture has already solved some of the most knotty decisions for how to decide what content to personalize, and how.

What do you think? What have I glossed over here? Come find me online (see the socials below) and let’s keep the conversation rolling, and I’ll update this post with the best feedback I receive.

Thanks again for joining me in these important conversations in how we design our connected experiences.

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Selected thinking

Progressive Personalization: Designing a Better Personalized Experience
A framework to design for personalization today.

You Don’t Need Personalization 
So you say. A zoology of naysayers and naysaying.

Navigating the Personalization Gap: A Field Guide (Updated 2019) 
Success in a personalization initiative requires understanding the solutions landscape—and the true place of your needs within it. 

Notification Schemes are Raw or Cooked
There are two ways of looking at how to work with notifications. One is right.

Stay in the loop with Bucket’s efforts, and we’ll do our best to provide assistance—incorporating tips and techniques on ways to address challenges you share with us (anonymously, of course) through our existing speaking and publishing activities.

—How to uncover business opportunity in personalized experience

—How to design for personalized experience

—How to get started with personalization

—Where to get started with personalization or marketing automation

—How to master connected CX in a large organization

Feed us your best ideas.

Want to connect on something specific? Book a time to talk today or find us on Twitter.