Liza Adams

Hello marketing leaders, strategists, and innovators! 👋 Thank you for dropping by to learn practical AI applications and gain strategic insights to help you grow your business, elevate your and your team’s strategic value as marketers, use business as a force for good, and help advance your career.

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The AI Search Shift: What’s on the Horizon

AI has the potential to disrupt online search, changing both results and user behavior. While the full impact is yet to be realized, forward-thinking marketers should be aware of these possible changes:

► Zero-click searches may become more common, where users get answers directly on the results page without visiting websites.

► Tools like Google’s AI Overview, ChatGPT, and Perplexity could speed up this trend.

► Voice AI might make natural language searches more prevalent.

The potential impact could be significant:

► Gartner predicts a 25% drop in traditional search volume by 2026 as people rely more on AI.

► Insight Partners forecasts that organic search traffic will decline by 15-25% due to AI search.

Balancing AI Preparation with Human-Centric Marketing

As we consider these potential changes, remember that true marketing connects with people, not machines.

Our primary focus should always be on understanding our customers, meeting their needs, and upholding ethical practices.

Andy Crestodina notes some potential benefits of AI-powered searches:

► You don’t see ads (for now.)

► You don’t see pop-ups.

► You don’t accept/decline cookies.

► You don’t decline notifications.

► You don’t have to scroll through SEO copy/paste.

► You don’t get retargeted.

He demonstrated this in his search for a guacamole recipe using traditional search on the left and AI search on the right.

However, these changes bring new challenges for marketers. AI search results often reference their sources, making discoverability important.

If AI systems don’t mention your content, you’re less likely to get visitors. But when they do, and users click through, those visitors are often more valuable because your content specifically answered their question.

A Reminder of What Really Matters in Marketing

As AI reshapes search and marketing, let’s not lose sight of our core purpose. This shift goes beyond SEO, potentially changing how users find information. While being discoverable in AI-assisted searches is important, our true success lies in creating genuine value for real people.

As we adapt, remember:

► Deeply understand your customers

► Meet their needs effectively

► Market where they actually pay attention

AI search is significant, but it’s not everything. The market will likely reward those who balance AI’s potential with preserving human values. After all, we’re still in the business of connecting with real people and addressing their needs.

5 Key Strategies for AI Search Success

Here are some key areas you need to focus on:

1) Optimize for intent, not just keywords – Prioritize creating content that addresses your audiences questions and intent at different funnel stages, using natural language. Make your content so relevant that AI search can’t ignore it and must serve it up or cite it in responses.

2) Invest in PR (Public Relations) – With AI search relying on trusted publications, local media, influencers, and review sites, having a strong presence in these areas is crucial. For those who think PR is a cost center, it’s time to rethink its strategic value in building credibility.

3) Create Content in Various Formats – Don’t limit yourself to text-based content. AI search will be able to understand and showcase content in multiple formats. Video, for example, is ideal for how-to, reviews, entertainment, and before-and-after searches.

4) Deliver Exceptional Website Experiences – If you earn a citation or attract a visitor, don’t lose them due to poor UX. Personalize the experience and deliver what they want. Your traffic will be more qualified, so make it count.

5) Diversify Your Watering Holes (Where Your Customers Hang Out) – As search and ads become more competitive, costs could rise. Don’t rely mostly on search. Explore channels like social media, communities, and marketplaces to connect with your audience.

We’ll dig into the first strategy today.

Stay tuned for deeper dives into the others in future newsletters. Now, let’s get practical.

Here’s how to make sure that you have a better shot at your brand, products, and content showing up in AI search results:

Step 1: Identify Top Questions by Persona

► List questions that customers would ask for each stage of the buyer’s journey.

► Think about different personas: decision-makers, influencers, ratifiers, users, and champions.

► Use the exact language your customers would use.

► Consider analyzing customer surveys, call scripts, reviews, and interview customer-facing groups to identify the questions and language.

You can also use AI to help. For example, customer reviews on online review platforms like G2, Capterra, TrustRadius, and Gartner Peer Insights are excellent places to start. The AI conversation (prompt and response) below shows how I used customer reviews from an online review platform to infer user search inquiries.

Step 2: Complete the Question-Response Sheet

► Fill out the question-response sheets to track the responses from traditional Google search and AI search like Googles AI Overview, Perplexity, ChatGPT, and more.

Here’s a search question-response template that you can use and modify as needed.

► For each question by persona, record the following for the different search methods:

– Search response to the question

– Whether your brand, product, or content was cited/ranked

– Competitors cited/ranked

– Media, communities, and influencers referenced

It can be time consuming to complete the template. One way to make it go faster is to use ChatHub (https://chathub.gg) Big thanks to Isar Meitis for suggesting it.

ChatHub allows you to see responses for up to six AI assistants. So it cuts down the time in research. And it’s cool to see the responses from each one.

Note that neither Isar nor I am affiliated with ChatHub.

Below are screenshots showing the responses for sample inquiries at the top, middle, and bottom of the funnel.

Make sure that you check the responses for inaccuracies or hallucinations like ensuring that the cited sources are legitimate.

Step 3: Analyze the Sheet

► Trend Spotting – Identify which AI platforms frequently reference your brand. It highlights the strengths of your current SEO and content strategy.

► Fill the Gaps – Pinpoint areas where your brand isn’t mentioned. These represent opportunities for targeted content creation.

► Competitor Insights – Observe which competitors are mentioned most and understand their strategies. Use this knowledge to differentiate your brand.

► Source Analysis – Identify trusted key media, communities, and influencers cited by AI. These are your potential content partners.

► Adjust to AI Preferences – Learn which content types or websites AI tools prefer, hopefully aligned to user preferences. Refine your strategy accordingly.

Know that you can use AI to help you analyze the sheets, identify key insights and takeaways, and suggest recommendations for key actions to consider.

Step 4: Take Action

► Optimize Content Strategy – Align your content plan with how people naturally ask questions. Update existing pieces and create new ones to fill gaps in your customers journey, using their words and intent.

As Andy Crestodina said:

Content marketing lets you connect with an audience even before they are looking for your services. It builds awareness and trust very early in the journey. And since a lot of AI prompting is about just finding answers, content marketing will be key to appearing in AI responses.

► Leverage Trusted Source – Team up with respected influencers and media to boost your brand’s credibility in AI search results. Create content that AI is likely to use as a source.

► Enhance Website Experience – Improve your site’s speed, ease of use, and content quality for both AI and human visitors. Use clear structure and make sure it works well on mobile.

► Monitor AI Search Performance – Regularly check how your brand shows up in AI search results. Use what you learn to improve your content and SEO tactics.

► Expand Digital Presence – Stay active on online platforms that your customers trust beyond your website. This helps customers and AI see your brand as more visible and credible.

Remember: While you’re adapting to AI, your main goal is still to connect with real people.

Now that you have a few ideas to optimize for AI search, I’m eager to hear what you think. What do the AI assistants say about your brand? What surprised you? How do you stack up against competitors? How are you planning to better use PR?

Share your thoughts and let’s learn from each other.

The Practical AI in Marketing newsletter is designed to share practical learnings and insights in using AI responsibly for go-to-market strategy, product, brand, demand, content, and digital, and growth marketing. Subscribe today and let’s learn together on this AI journey!

For those who prefer more interactive learning, explore our applied AI workshops, designed to inspire teams with real-life use cases tailored to specific marketing functions.

Also check out this team transformation case study and step-by playbook of how we helped transform a lean GTM team into a human-AI powerhouse with human and AI teammates.

Or, if audio-visual content is your style, here are virtual and in-person speaking events where I’ve covered a variety of AI topics. I’ve also keynoted at many organization and corporate-wide events. Whether through the newsletter, multimedia content, or in-person events, I hope to connect with you soon.

This past summer, I joined 15 of my girlfriends from the Bay Area, Denver, and New York on an adventure travel vacation in Africa. Many of them are former colleagues of mine who are strong leaders and amazing human beings.

It turned out to be a trip of a lifetime that I experienced with people I admire, trust, enjoy, and from whom I continue to learn. We got to know the locals and visited the endangered mountain gorillas in the Virunga Mountains in Rwanda. And we saw the Big Five (lion, elephant, leopard, buffalo, and rhino) in MalaMala, the largest private game reserve in South Africa.

As I reflected on our trip over the past few months, I noted powerful similarities between my work in the technology industry and adventure travel. At a minimum, technology and adventure travel both:

• Unleash potential

• Empower change

• Activate human achievement

Another commonality is storytelling. It humanizes technology and adventure travel and makes them magical because “the human mind is a story processor, not a logic processor.” Storytelling is the new marketing and it’s critical in how we engage and connect with buyers. As Seth Godin said, “People do not buy goods and services. They buy relations, stories, and magic.”

Storytelling, particularly to humanize technology as technology needs less from humans, has been fundamental to my marketing work. Likewise, I feel compelled to share our African adventure because this quote from a world explorer rings true, “Traveling–it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.”

In this article, I’ll share with you a story about our African experience and tips for storytelling in the business world inspired by our adventure.

A Brush with Fate with Endangered Mountain Gorillas

Picture this. Empower Field at Mile High stadium where the Denver Broncos play can seat over 76,000 people. The small ski town of Vail, Colorado has a population of 5,450. It’s hard to believe that there are only ~1,000 mountain gorillas in the world and there are 7.7 billion of us!

Before we began our trek up the mountain, our guide, Francis, instructed us to be respectful of the gorillas–crouch down, don’t look at them directly in the eyes, and don’t run. Indeed, our respect for the gorillas was rewarded with an incredible, magical experience. They shared a bit of their lives and jungle home at ~10K ft as they played, ran around, ate in their giant salad bowl, catnapped, swung on vines, and beat their chests.

We tracked the Umubano family which has 13 gorillas, including a lead silverback named Charles. The gorillas allowed us to get close to them. They even brushed against and touched some of us (including me!) as we followed them through the thick terrain and dodged sharp nettles. Our one hour with the gorillas went by fast, but it was all the time we needed to get to know them, understand their plight, and feel a special bond. I don’t have a video of our trek but this video of another group’s experience is similar to ours.

Francis’ words at the end of our visit made an indelible imprint in my mind. He said, “The gorillas welcomed you into their home. On their behalf, I thank you for coming and for your support. 90 percent of the cost you paid will go towards protecting them and 10 percent for the surrounding communities. Now, it’s on you to amplify their voice. Share with the world the gorillas’ story and be ambassadors for them.”

The Rwandans and gorillas have an interesting tense yet co-dependent relationship. The gorillas face threats from diseases, poaching, and loss of habitat caused by farming and charcoal harvesting. But people need the gorillas because they are the country’s biggest attraction and a tourism cash cow. Likewise, the gorillas need the conservation funds, resources, and efforts.

For me, the experience was life changing. I came as an adventurer and I left as an ambassador. It’s tough to imagine a world without them. Visit the mountain gorillas in Rwanda or learn about them online and be part of the conservation efforts that help both the people and the gorillas. 

The Magic of MalaMala with the Big Five

MalaMala covers 33,000 acres and shares a border with Kruger National Park. It pioneered the transition from hunting to photographic safaris using habituation techniques. It is also the only game reserve in the region where the benefits of tourism directly support adjacent communities. MalaMala is renowned internationally for the quality of its game viewing, the Big Five and more.

Our experience in MalaMala was equally as incredible as in Rwanda, enjoying wildlife in their natural habitat up close, in a respectful way. In our open air safari jeeps, we found ourselves surrounded by a herd of 40 to 50 elephants, including a female elephant with her one-week old newborn trailing behind. We won a stalemate situation with a bull elephant going in the opposite direction as us on a path at night. With a couple of mock charges and one that felt more serious, our skillful ranger, Bens (aka. wildlife whisperer), revved the engine and the bull made way. Otherwise, we, in our 5,000 lb vehicle, would’ve definitely lost against the 12,000 lb bull.

We hightailed it to the Sand River to witness a pride of 17 lions (aka Kambula pride) come down to drink from the river. We watched the cubs drink from ~15 feet away and a few of them walked up against our Land Rover. A lion and lioness showed us their pre-mating ritual with the lion roaring for her from a kilometer away and the lioness sunbathing on the sand, being coy by ignoring him.

We barreled down trees and thorny branches to follow a pack of endangered and elusive African wild dogs, found the hyena pups alone in their den, ogled over a rare ostrich pair sighting, saw hippos grazing near our cottages, witnessed impalas fighting, oohed and aahed over the beautiful lilac-breasted rollers, and so much more.

We learned a lot from our knowledgeable rangers: animal behaviors, the most vulnerable species and the work to protect them, the dynamics of co-existence, the changing climate, and other interesting facts. Did you know that the impala has a natural ability to control its cortisol levels to manage stress? Otherwise, imagine being at the bottom of the food chain and living amongst predators. The impala would live in fear constantly!

The African People

I remember many of the experiences, sights, and sounds of Africa, but nothing is more vivid in my mind as the stories relayed to us by the locals.

One of our drivers told us a gut-wrenching story about his and his family’s struggle with oppression, death, survival, and rebuilding from the Rwandan genocide of 1994. Most of his family was hacked to death when he was a child. He and his younger sister survived but he didn’t know where she was taken. He later on found out that she ended up in the Congo and they reunited years later. I’ve shared a highly abbreviated and much less moving version of his story here. Although I don’t remember exactly what he said and how he said it, I still remember how his story made me feel.

At Virunga Lodge, the villagers entertained us with local songs and a dance called Intore. It is a warrior dance that tells a story of the army’s elite royal soldiers that protect the king and the kingdom’s borders. We became part of the story as they invited us to dance with them. Given the language barrier, it was a unique and memorable interaction mostly through dance and smiles. The photo below epitomizes what Rwanda is also known as–the land of a thousand hills and a million smiles.

In MalaMala, we reveled in the incredible hospitality of our hosts treating us to cocktails at sunset, preparing delicious home-cooked meals, teaching us Xitsonga (the local language), or simply chatting with us on the verandah. They even convinced us to participate in a dried impala poop spitting contest. We never felt like strangers.

There are those we know for years and those we know for just a few seconds. We should strive to make our presence, no matter how fleeting, always purposeful.

I will always be in awe of our unforgettable African adventure. I also marvel at how 16 of us came together to make this happen despite our busy lives and other priorities, just like most people.

Sometimes freeing ourselves of the many excuses not to is all it takes to start a life-changing journey.

To my fellow African Queens, we’ve created special memories together that I will always cherish. I’m grateful for you and for these memories. Where to next?

Storytelling Tips for Businesses

My solo travels in Africa almost two decades ago and this recent African adventure reminded me of why my work in tech has long been grounded in human-centric marketing and storytelling. There isn’t a stronger connection between people than storytelling. Businesses aren’t B2B or B2C, they are H2H (human to human). In our interrupt-driven and distracted society, stories allow us to catch attention, stand out, help others understand complicated topics, become more relatable and memorable, and be more human. Here are some storytelling tips we can apply in our marketing efforts.

1. Go Beyond Conveying What We Make to What We Make Possible.

Let’s pause a bit to think about adventure travel companies that “make” these itineraries. They offer single and multi-day treks, flights and transfers, all-inclusive packages, different levels of accommodations, optional cultural tours, etc. However, absent conveying what the products “make possible,” it falls short of connecting emotionally with potential buyers.

In tech, for example, a product can help teams collaborate more efficiently, build a more dynamic workforce, improve employee engagement, and foster innovation. At a higher level, technology can help find cures for diseases, create new ways of learning, secure our communities, progress careers, improve the way we work and live, and more. The story should also convey how to make it a reality and our role in it.

2. Make the Customer the Hero and Us, the Guide.

People don’t buy what they want. They buy what they want to be. People want to be someone who can make a difference–innovator, game changer, generous leader, mentor, dedicated parent, etc. Let’s market people’s potential, how we can help them achieve it, and the people they can become.

Customers are the heroes and we are the guides in the stories. We encourage, enable, and empower. We are Yoda to Luke Skywalker or Dumbledore to Harry Potter, much like our trekking guide appealed to us with our potential to become ambassadors for the mountain gorillas.

3. Educate, Entertain, Amaze, and Inspire Action.

It’s not enough to educate and entertain (e.g., use humor, daily life analogies, interactions, photos, celebrities, etc.) with our stories. We also need to amaze and inspire action. Amaze our audience by describing the starting point or problem, the journey, challenges and overcoming them, and the ultimate impact or outcome. Highlight how others have been successful with our guidance.

Inspire people to act (i.e., act on their vision and make us a part of making it real) by allowing them to see themselves in a story about a topic they’re passionate about or they place a high level of importance and urgency. Let’s deeply understand our audience, find their passion or what’s most important/urgent, and make it personal. This is critical as we engage to create demand, especially with empowered buyers.

To provide some inspiration, here’s a list compiled by a marketing agency of its top picks of brands that tell great stories. I like Salesforce and Kickstarter from this list. One that’s not on the list that I believe belongs is Smartsheet. The company puts the spotlight on its customers’ human achievements and can-doers. Another good example is Encompass Technologies. The company tells a vision of digitally connecting the food and beverage supply chain to reduce empty shelves and product waste. It’s able to do this by being the innovation engine that powers how its customers and partners make human connections possible with food and drinks, much like sports, music, and the arts bring people together around the world. In the consumer world, think Google’s 2020 Super Bowl ad or the classic Kodak Carousel scene in Mad Men.

I believe that it’s less about what we saw, heard, did, or felt when we travel. It’s more about what we learned, shared, or did for others as a result.

My hope in writing this article is to do a little bit of that. If you found this article helpful, please feel free to share it or click the thumbs up icon below and let me know. Share in the comments section your thoughts and ideas.

Most recently, my business partners at Aventi Group and I helped a progressive and fast-growing SaaS company evaluate a potential market expansion opportunity and strategies for market entry. I spoke with a number of leading-edge companies in various industries globally about their key objectives, challenges, culture, current solutions, what works and what doesn’t work, their buying preferences, and more, to help inform market expansion decisions for the SaaS solution. It was easy to get swept up in the cool ideas and the awesome stories. So it was important for me to remind myself not to take customer input at face value or act upon it without applying critical thinking and good judgment. I’m sharing with you five reasons to gut check customers and what to do about it:

1. Customers tend to project linearly.

Many customers come from a starting point of what they have or what they have experience using. Then they look for ways to make it better in a step-function or sequential manner. They might say something like, “It would be ideal if our solution has features like enhanced analytics, a better dashboard and reports, integration with more workflow applications, etc. so that we can take action on key issues effectively.”

Although their feedback is good, we may end up developing incremental improvements for the product–a better mousetrap–and miss out on the opportunity to solve the problem in new or different ways.

As an example, the product may look totally different with the use of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and predictive analytics. Instead of taking action after the fact, the product may be able to extract data from new data sources and mitigate the occurrence of issues in the first place. The better question to ask the customer may be around the problem they’re attempting to solve rather than how they would want to solve it or what it would take to make their current solution better. Or, help them understand the new way and test the idea and hypotheses.

As with anyone, customers don’t know what they don’t know. Some rely on vendors for technology innovation. This is how we can provide an order of magnitude of improvement, help rewrite old rules, create new categories, disrupt traditional ways, and build a more sustainable and differentiated product. Innovations like virtualization, cloud, software-defined platforms, cognitive computing, hyperconvergence, and more are the result of non-linear thinking. Likewise, there are disruptive business models like freemium, on-demand, subscription, and digital marketplaces in computer software, IT and services, public transportation, retail, marketing and advertising, and other industries that have pushed traditional models aside.

2.    Customers think free is a good idea.

There’s an art in asking customers questions and we need to be aware of the human tendency of asking in a way that gets a response that we want to hear. There are a lot of examples but I’ll pick on testing the notion of freemiums (an offer that provides a limited product for free but charges for enhanced features, more comprehensive scope, or higher usage) which are prevalent in the software and SaaS worlds. Freemiums are generally used to build brand awareness, lower barriers to entry, reduce customer acquisition costs, and more quickly grow revenues as customers convert or upgrade to subscription-based offerings.

Unless there’s a significant downside, most customers will respond positively to a free offering when asked if they’d be open to it. This could lead us to the conclusion that freemiums work all the time. Additionally, with well known and highly publicized freemium successes from Dropbox, Spotify, MailChimp, Evernote, Trello and others, the freemium route becomes more tantalizing. However, for every successful freemium story, that are many unsuccessful ones.

We need to consider what we want to achieve, the competitive environment, types of customers we want to attract, the customers’ challenges and where they place value, what we’re offering for free, and the value of the enhanced offering when evaluating a freemium business model. For example, if our goal is conversion from free to subscription, we run the risk of attracting the wrong types of customers if our free offering is basic and not unique. These free users may not lead us any closer to the actual buyer who will value and pay premium.

Remember that customers will generally pay for what they value. If the potential customer doesn’t find value in a basic offering, the offer won’t get any traction even if it’s free. It provides no way for the customer to experience the value they want. Worse yet, we may end up attracting customers who don’t need the premium, fee-based solution and would be happy using the free service long term. This can consume an enormous amount of support resources and compromise the company’s brand creating the perception of being a low-cost, basic product vendor. Perhaps a trial of the enhanced, high-value product in key target segments may be a better approach.

This Databox blog offers insights on when to use freemiums vs trials. Also take a peek at Hubspot’s blog on freemium best practices and successful implementations.

3. Customers say it won’t work and point out every single problem with it.

As we innovate, we will get feedback from skeptics and perfectionists that could potentially derail our plans or even discourage us from pursuing an idea. Some may even seem to have a problem with almost every aspect of the product. But let’s not abandon or redirect efforts too quickly when we get not-so-rosy feedback. We need to balance the feedback from both naysayers and supporters to make decisions or inform minimum viable product capabilities, product development, or roadmaps. However, naysayer opinions can be valuable in developing positioning and messaging.

The customers’ skepticism and pushback should drive us to create compelling messaging designed to defend our position, turn weaknesses into strengths, as well as anticipate and overcome objections that we may encounter in the market.

Tough feedback will better prepare us and help us be more effective in persuading potential customers, even the most reluctant ones.

Sometimes, their feedback may seem more discouraging when they point out challenges over which we feel we have very little control. I recall a potential customer saying that they’ve never done business with an unproven vendor and would never deploy a new solution that could jeopardize their production environment.

The words never, unproven, and jeopardize may be bullets for the faint of heart but shots of adrenalin for persevering and don’t-take-no-for-an-answer innovators.

So what came out of that experience was a free trial offer in a non-production environment with a satisfaction guarantee—if for any reason the customer is unsatisfied with the trial, we would pay for the first three months of monthly charges for the alternate solution they choose to deploy. We believed and we had something to prove. I’m grateful for that customer feedback because we gained an advocate and true partner with that customer, lowered barriers to entry, achieved market traction with the offer, and never had to invoke the satisfaction guarantee.

Also note that negative feedback may provide much more line of sight of adoption/deployment issues where trialware may be a dead end. So the value of this nay saying may actually be critical input in ensuring that the product is easier and faster to deploy.

4. Customers look more attractive than they are.

More than likely, we’ve been in the middle of a decision to serve or a concerted effort at serving “awesome” customers that turned out not to be as awesome as we originally thought. It may be a big global customer, a well-known brand, an early adopter and fast mover, a firm with significant budget, a thought leader, etc. The customer conversations were highly collaborative, inspiring, and promising.

However, serving these customers and attempting to deliver what they want required us to step way outside of what we do best, caused friction internally, and did not align with the company’s strategy and vision. In some cases, it negatively impacted product delivery timeframes, customer satisfaction, and revenue for the mainstream business. In a highly competitive growth market, discipline in knowing who we can serve well and not well, staying in our lane, and resisting the temptation of shiny objects that are not a fit typically bode well longer term.

Knowing when to say ‘no’ is equally as important as knowing when to say ‘yes.’ It’s easier said than done. When the market is nascent with high competitive intensity, as an example, we can easily get caught up in the massive land grab opportunity and momentum. Also recall from Clayton Christensen’s Crossing the Chasm that early adopters have very different expectations than the early majority (where the real revenue oppty is). So focusing on early adopters for whom good enough isn’t good enough could direct our precious R&D resources on the wrong features.

This is why it’s important to do the segmentation, targeting, and positioning work and continue to use it as our beacon to make decisions and execute accordingly along the way. Please feel free to refer to the section on GTM strategy and approaches to segmentation and targeting in this article.

5. Customers ask for everything but the kitchen sink.

Many of us have found ourselves listening to a customer rattle off a bunch of ideas that all seem so important right there and then. To add to our stress level, the customer even points out, with ease, what competitors have that we don’t. This is the point in the conversation where we take a deep breath and be grateful for all the insights being shared. And then, remind ourselves that this isn’t a big to-do list for today. When something seems too big and complex to make heads or tails of it, breaking it down into consumable bite-sized chunks helps. Here are some follow-on questions and things to consider to make decision making easier:

• Prioritization, Value, and Timing. Get a sense from the customers of the importance of various features and timing. Asking the customers to tell us what requirements are mandatory, preferred, and nice-to-have, in conjunction with conjoint analysis is a good method to force prioritization and tradeoffs. Level of impact on the customer’s business, team, and career is a good indicator of value. Timing is also important as, oftentimes, timing constraints are not just on the vendor’s side but also the customer’s. We all know about being a bit ahead of the market or having something for which the customer is not quite ready.
• Journey Story. Listen for awareness of the problem, motivation to change, commitment to take action, and action plans. These insights provide us a basis for creating a journey narrative to tell the market, in addition to informing our product roadmaps. For example, the journey might have several phases like 1) Evaluation and Assessment, 2) Virtualization, 3) Automation, 4) Intelligence, and 5) Ongoing Optimization. We can then map the various capabilities and features in those phases and align them with our roadmap. I love journey models as companies can position to help customers wherever they are in the journey and as they go through it.
• Fit with the Business. Having a good sample size and evaluating the ideas against key criteria such as market opportunity, strategic value, ability to differentiate, fit with core competency, alignment with goals, etc. will help with prioritization.

Yes, we should always listen to customers and potential customers. Their insights are truly invaluable and powerful. However, just as they can point us in the right direction, they can also lead us astray. It’s important for us to apply our goals-and-strategy filter to gut check what we hear so that we can decide which ones we act upon and how we action them.

If you found this article helpful, please feel free to share it with others or click the thumbs up icon below and let me know! Also share in the comments section your thoughts, experiences, and other reasons and tips to gut check customer feedback.

I’ve always enjoyed building teams in my career—small and big, local and global, permanent and transient, functional and cross-functional, strategy and execution, and more. What I love about building teams is the challenge of putting together the ideal mix of expertise to achieve the best possible outcome. The journey along the way presents many learning opportunities for all and the results, if done right, can exceed goals as well as be career and life changing.

I don’t believe that there is a bulletproof formula that all must follow to a T in assembling teams. In fact, despite years of experience, coaching from my mentors, and understanding people’s strengths, I continue to learn and tweak on a daily basis. For me, the dynamic process is a unique combination of art and science. It requires a vision, strategic thinking, a thoughtful yet agile approach, self awareness, and open-mindedness. The big payoff is when the vision and possibilities turn into reality, recognizing the team for what they’ve accomplished for their company and customers as well as seeing how people have progressed in their careers and in their personal lives. In the business world, not too many things are more energizing than this!

This reminds me of the Justice League, a movie where six superheroes work together to protect Earth from being terraformed into the enemy’s underworld. Batman worked methodically and diligently, overcoming many obstacles (including bringing Superman back to life) and rejection, to put the right team together to fight a powerful evil force. He recruited Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg, Flash, and Superman one at a time. He used each superhero to help recruit the next, ensured good teamwork and dynamics, empowered them, and drove them to combine their superpowers to save the world! Interestingly, Batman’s approach has parallels to what has worked for me (and maybe for you as well). I’ll share some insights on the following:

• Understanding the mission
• Assessing what we need
• Embracing diversity and inclusion
• Overcoming unconscious bias

Understanding the Mission

Before we can build or optimize teams, it all starts with understanding the mission and envisioning what success looks like.

Is the mission to enter new markets and the measurement of success is acquisition of key beachhead accounts? Maybe it’s developing and launching a new innovative product to improve the company’s competitiveness and strategic position in the industry? Or it may be improving the company’s overall reputation by ensuring better customer experience and providing more comprehensive support? Of course, these are simply examples. The main point here is that with this foundational information, it sets us up to assess what resources and expertise we need on the team to be successful.

Assessing What We Need

We will most likely need a variety of expertise or superpowers to accomplish the mission. In some situations, we’ll be deadlifting something off the ground and starting from scratch in building a team. Or, we may have a few resources in place but still have gaps to fill. It’s important to understand the superpowers of the people we currently have on the team and our own superpowers as leaders to determine what expertise we need to bring in to complement what we already have.

Be prepared to constantly assess along the way. People’s personal situations, behaviors, motivations, and career aspirations change. Upwardly mobile employees continually reinvent themselves. We have to be cognizant of these changes.

Furthermore, the market and customers, the business model, the functions, and the goals and strategies may also be evolving, like in digital transformation. Building and leading teams through digital transformation require us to turn traditional beliefs on its head, keep a consistent pulse on the mission, and adjust accordingly. On top of that, this level of agility needs to persist as we evaluate and integrate new talent into the team, from within and/or outside the company.

Embracing Diversity and Inclusion

Find complementing superpowers to get the job done. It’s rare to need a team of people with all the same superpowers. The Justice League is more of the norm.

If we believe that we each have unique superpowers, then it makes a lot of sense to look for people who aren’t just like us.

Batman recruited someone who can communicate with marine life and manipulate water, someone whose golden lasso compels others to tell the truth, someone whose fast movements are undetectable to the human eye, someone who can launch missiles out of his robotic arm, and someone who flies and has superhuman strength! Batman didn’t want or need five Supermen or five Wonder Women. He knew exactly what he needed, masters of their domains that in combination created the ideal complement to his superpowers to accomplish the mission successfully.

Interestingly, one can argue that Batman doesn’t have superpowers unless being extraordinarily rich with a lot of amazingly cool toys counts. I think it’s a superpower. Funding is a must and it has to come from somewhere. But in all seriousness, in my opinion, Batman’s main superpower is leadership.

This is a perfect illustration of the power of diversity and inclusion in building high functioning teams. There have been many studies about the positive impact of diverse teams on financial performance, innovation, employee loyalty, corporate culture, morale and productivity, career advancement, and so much more. The people who conducted these studies are better equipped to backup these claims with data moreso than me. (Here are some prominent studies from LinkedIn, Harvard Business Review, McKinsey, PwC, and Deloitte.) But I’ve experienced first-hand the profound impacts that diversity and inclusion have had on companies, my teams, and on me. Likewise, I’ve also experienced the downside of lack of diversity.

At Pure, we continue to work hard on diversity and inclusion. We have six Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) that are led and operated by employees with passion for the cause.

1. Women. Inspires the success, advancement and sponsorship of women. March 8, 2019 is International Women’s Day. Let’s celebrate women’s achievements and call for a gender-balanced world. #BalanceforBetter
2. Pride. Strives to raise the visibility and inclusion of Pure’s LGBTQ+ employees, as well as connects them and their allies to support LGBTQ+ and human rights initiatives.
3. Coalition. Advances Pure’s efforts to become a more diverse and inclusive employer by creating programs and partnerships that lead to attainment, development, and retention of the most talented minority employees in enterprise technology.
4. Rise. Aims to provide a platform and voice for those early in their careers in the company.
5. Veterans. Builds an inclusive community of veterans at Pure and promotes community outreach.
6. Able. I’m incredibly proud to be the executive sponsor for Able. Able instills confidence in people with differing abilities, visible and invisible, and inspires inclusion and advancement of these employees.

Overcoming Unconscious Bias

Who would’ve thought that the mild-mannered and introverted Clark Kent with the nerdy black-rimmed glasses, combed-back hair, and a slight slouch possesses the power of flight, x-ray vision, and supersonic speed? It’s also hard to imagine that the naïve and innocent Diana Prince is the omnilingual, super healing, and telepathic Wonder Woman who pilots an invisible jet. Barry Allen is an unassuming police chemist with a reputation for being very slow and frequently late. That’s quite the opposite of the Flash we all know. I suppose Bruce Wayne has successfully trained himself to overcome unconscious bias, allowing him to spot the extraordinary out of the ordinary.

However, for most of us, being open-minded and overcoming unconscious bias doesn’t come as easily mainly because it’s unconscious and ingrained based on years of experience. In fact, because we have a functional brain, we all have unconscious bias. It helps us protect ourselves, find our tribe, and make decisions quickly. Unconscious bias is our reflexive reaction to some basic inputs and we don’t realize that we’re doing it. It’s one thing to be aware of unconscious bias – from others as well as our own – but it’s a whole other dimension to think proactively, plan, and execute to overcome that bias. Here’s an article that I wrote that highlights some ways to overcome unconscious bias.

When we allow ourselves to not fear and look at people as equals with complementing superpowers to us, we free ourselves to consider differing points of view, debate openly, collaborate and solve problems together, and innovate better than we ever had before. Moreover, it allows us to lead generously–abundantly giving ourselves so that others may be and do their best.

The Justice League’s tagline is: You can’t save the world alone. However, I would also say: You can’t save the world with people with the same superpowers. Let’s build our teams with these key insights in mind. Expect rather than be surprised by the outcomes. Learn and enjoy the journey.

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I love planning family vacations and maximizing experiences. Go big or go home! So, naturally, when we decided to go on our first Disney cruise to the Bahamas, I turned into one of those Disney cruise fanatic moms who live to spread Disney magic. I joined fish extender and magnet exchange groups on Disboards and Facebook.

I created customized gifts for the exchanges. I had a whole plan for decorating our metal stateroom door with custom, lighted LED magnets. On top of that, we had a pin trading station and a white board on the door. It turned out to be a full, interactive experience courtesy of our door. Our little guy enjoyed delivering gifts and putting magnets on other people’s doors. The kids loved seeing the surprise gifts, new magnets and pins, and notes from other cruisers about their favorite Disney and Star Wars characters every time we returned to our stateroom. For two to three months before the cruise, I felt like I was living more of a double life—Silicon Valley, high-tech marketing executive by weekday and Disney craft mom by weekend. Believe me, not an easy feat!

Taking a Little Break

Selfishly, I was looking for a bit of a mental break and quality time with the family since I had been traveling almost every week for six months straight. And what a great way to get off the grid for a little bit. Honestly, I also thought about being around people who choose to be happy, share the magic with children, and put differences aside, especially in our increasingly divided world.

On top of that, I just had a big birthday and I missed my daughter’s 12th birthday. So yes, there was some degree of guilt that I was trying to allay with this cruise. So I’m sure that many working moms and dads who travel a bit for their jobs can relate to this. I originally thought about writing an article about living a double life and the guilt that working parents feel, but I stopped short of that because of what surprised me on this cruise.

It’s All About the Experience — Love the Marketing Machine!

Although this was our first ever Disney cruise, I knew it was going to be amazing. Our family has been on four Disney World trips, a couple to Disneyland, and now a Disney cruise in a span of eight years. With a Halloween on the High Seas theme, that was also a big bonus for us since Halloween is one of our favorite family holidays. So we knew what to expect from Disney—exceptional customer experience, first-rate logistics, a brilliant marketing machine, and an emotional brand. For us, Disney equals fun, time with family and friends, experiencing the magic through the children’s eyes, being good to ourselves and taking a mental break, being a kid again, making new friends, diet buster, overcoming fears, creating memories, first experiences, being grateful, and simply enjoying life’s special moments.

I’m sure the Disney marketing machine loves it when they hear all this stuff. (As a marketing person, I consider Disney a true marketing Jedi Grand Master while the rest of us are mere Padawans.) There are so many parents willing to pay $25 for a plastic lightsaber or pay 1.5-3x more for a Disney cruise vs other cruise lines. We’re paying for much more than a lighted sword or trip on a ship. As I looked around, I saw all the families wearing personalized, matching Disney shirts. I even got my husband to wear matching shirts with me and our kids despite him saying, “Are we going to be one of those people?” Yes, lots of grown men wearing Mickey Mouse shirts with Dad or Daddy printed on them. Now, where else would you see that? And he even agreed to wear a pirate costume on pirate night! Best of all, he swam in the ocean for the first time (in over 40 years) with his prosthetic leg because Disney made it so easy, relaxing, and non-judgmental. As they say, it’s hard to put a price tag on experiences.

Work and Personal Sacrifices

But here’s what surprised me the most on the cruise. No doubt that it truly brought families and extended families together. Lots of happiness all the way around. But I also thought about the many Disney crew and cast members who sail for five months straight and then get seven weeks off. These include servers and hostesses, spa therapists, cruise security, actors and actresses, etc. They were from all over the world but many were from the Philippines and Indonesia. I know this nomadic Southeast Asian contingent because I was born and raised in the Philippines. Disney has given these people opportunities for a career and better paying livelihood than what some of them can possibly obtain in their third-world, home countries.

The irony was that while we enjoyed our families, they were away from theirs, working to help us enjoy ours. They do this day in and day out, seven days a week, cruise after cruise, for five months straight before getting seven weeks off. And they do it all with a smile, enthusiasm, and energy as if it’s their first day on the job. They go that extra mile–cutting the kids’ steaks, doing magic tricks, catering to special requests, etc. My introspective self felt saddened by this irony. But put into perspective, these crew members are able to feed their families, put their children through school, create better work opportunities for themselves, and live a better life as a result.

We all make sacrifices in our work and personal lives. We might sometimes feel bitter, but it’s energizing and invigorating to think about why we’re making these sacrifices and be grateful for what they’ve allowed us to do for ourselves and others.

From the Adams family to yours, have a safe and happy Halloween!

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