How To Create A Digital Strategic Architecture

For Your Company

By Doyle Buehler

Step 1

• Complete the 18 Point Digital Strategy Planning Questionnaire– Email doyle@thedigitaldelusion.com if required

Step 2

• Define your Value Statements– Who are you?– What does your customer want?– What’s on offer?– What are you about?

Who We Are(example)

We are a company that exists to serve…

[example: the young at heart; embodying their perception of self into our products. Purchasing our product is an experience as satisfying as the product itself.]

We use….

[example: technology to enable our clients to impart an image of themselves into a product - technology is only a tool, not our product.]

We offer..

[example: an escape from reality, providing a short-term entertainment experience with the memorabilia to remember and relive it. We render our customer’s fantasies in a way that they can touch, feel, and interact with.]

Our unique value proposition will fundamentally change…

[example: the toy and gaming industry, making personal products for the individual, rather than the mass.]

Step 3

• Define your “domains”.– Review your strategy answers– What concepts or ideas come up regularly?– How do you interact with these concepts?– Do they have meaning?– How do you articulate these core concepts as an “idea

with audience value”?– Select only 3 core concepts

• How do you “progress” along each of these core concepts?

List Your 3 Domains

1. ________________________________2. ________________________________3. ________________________________

Domains (Example)

Personalize

Entertain

Gratify

Provide experiences

worth remembering

Made to order

Creating fun events for individuals

Entertain : InteractiveEmersiveAddictive

Personalize : CustomPersonalAspiration

Gratify : Satisfy special requestInstant GratificationEmpower customer fantasy

Step 4

• Describe each domain in detail– What is it?– Why is it important?– How do you deliver it?– How are you going to get there?

• How do you make progress and improve over time?– Detail the steps along the way in terms of your

value offering over time

Describing the Dimensions in detail Domain 1 “Entertain”(example)

Entertainment is at the core of everything we do.

“An experience that entertains is an experience that is remembered”.

Our products provide for entertainment that is functional and explicit in the outcome of the experience as a self-hero. Interactivity and immersion propagates involvement in the process, further developing entertainment. This process provides an experience that is fundamentally inspiring and addictive to necessitate re-gravitation towards the process.

Describing the Dimensions in detail “Entertain”(example)

Entertain is about fun and involvement in the purchasing experience. This is Enteraction.

Interactive

Immersive

Addictive

Simplified transaction with

walk-through process

Computer interactive process to change product features and

see the changes

Make the selection process a game

Changing process based on user and on previous encounters.

Mattel custom Barbie Dolls, Hallmark Custom CardsX

X Sony, Nintendo, EA sports

Entertain

Domain 1: ______________Detail: __________________

Starting Point of Value__________________

Concluding Point of Value_____________________

Median Point of Value__________________

Describing the Dimensions in detail Domain: “Personalize”(example)

Personalization of our products provides a path for individuals to realize self-conceptuality.

“I Am Famous”.

Through our ability to inherently customize one-off products, we provide a path for customers to embody their personal image and values into their own product. Our customers aspire to the perfect world of themselves.

Describing the Dimensions in detail “Personalize”(example)

Personalization of our products provides a path for individuals to realize self-conceptuality.

Personal

Aspiration

Offer fixed product selection

Offer unlimited choices other than drop-down menu. Embody physical attributes

of individual in product

Link to brands, sports heros, pop culture characters

NokiaX

Subway, Hallmark Custom Cards, Mattel custom

Barbie Dolls

Custom

X

Andgor & Toybuilders.comX

Personalize

Domain 2: ______________Detail: __________________

Starting Point of Value__________________

Concluding Point of Value_____________________

Median Point of Value__________________

Describing the Dimensions in detail Domain: “Gratify”(example)

Gratification of oneself provides an inherent self-identity and need within our product offering.

“What I want is what I get”.

We satisfy our customers’ basic needs to define exactly what they want. Special requests will no longer result in varying costs and quality, but rather define the norm as special in every product. Our products will define the link between the product that the customer desires and the event in which the product is produced. Customers’ fantasy’s and desires become real and physically tangible. Our products will exist to be capable of satisfying unknown needs, defined exclusively through the creativity and imagination of the customer.

Describing the Dimensions in detail “Gratify”(example)

Gratification of oneself provides an inherent self-identity and need within our product offering.

Instant Gratification

Empower Customer Fantasy

Deliver a customized product

Instant output of product or transaction

Link product and event.

Fantasyland HotelX

Satisfy Special Request

DisneylandX

Gratify

Domain 3: ______________Detail: __________________

Starting Point of Value__________________

Concluding Point of Value_____________________

Median Point of Value__________________

Step 5

• Describe “HOW” you are able to interact with all of your domains.– How do they work together?– What skills and competencies do you need?

Describing the Architecture (Dimension Interaction)(example)

The interaction of the dimensions, personalize, entertain, and gratify, allows us to provide the means for a dramatic product/service offering. Focusing on these dimensions will allow us to combine and converge several technologies in a product desired by our consumers. It is a product that allows for self-realization, gratification, and enjoyment.

ENTERACTION

Step 6

• Describe the context that you operate in.– What is the environment?– Where do you operate?– How do you operate?

Context (Example)

We play directly in the North American consumer market, successfully merging mass market toys and gaming with a purchasing experience. Our products are aimed at children, youth, and young adults. Self-creativity and self-hero imaging allow our customers to produce a product customized specifically to their needs.

Through the use of several emerging and enabling technologies, we allow for our customers to master the art of their personal product development, from commencement to repeat conclusion.

Our products, technologies, and tactical strategies are licensed to allow us to interact with locally, with global impact in world communities.

Step 7

• Define how you are unique– What sets you apart from your competitors?

Why is it Unique (example)

Self-hero creation; fantasy enablementPersonalization of attributes; movement away from generic productsCustomer controls levers on outcome (customer power); customer creativityConsumer controlled outcomeBuying experience is as much a part of the purchase as the product delivered.

Step 8

• Define how you make money?• How do you treat your customers?

How we make money (example)

We make money in multiple ways:

1. Direct sale of physical product to consumers.Repeat customers who purchase for both the product and the self-manufacture experience.

2. Licensing of Personalization capabilities to existing retailers, service providers, and OEMs. Advertising and product placement in our products and sales experience.

We develop repeat customers by serving a variety of personalized products aimed for consumers ranging from children, young adults, and other demographics. Following initial on-site buy-in of the customer to the concept of personalization, we access repeat business through multiple channels but primarily focused through retail site locations and the internet. The consumer has the opportunity to “trendisize” their latest creation, to reflect current events, fads, a change in their physicality, and change in personal desires and controlled outcomes.

Step 9

• Defining your discontinuities– What makes your solution work?– Where do you “break” existing barriers– How do you “disrupt” your market?

What makes it work (Discontinuities):(example)

From Mass Market to Niche Market :

Mass market has taken on a new meaning with generic goods and services varying little across all markets (e.g. McDonalds, Star Alliance). Individuals have effectively been assimilated into the larger world. Will they continue to do so willingly? In the search for personal identity people are becoming more discriminating about the products and services that they purchase. Changes in the availability, processing, and mining of consumer information are making it possible to identify the differences within groups. This information may provide roadmaps for niche products and services that meet the demand for specific needs. Mass customization and made-to-order technologies are now capable of adjusting to slight nuances in customer created design. Understanding the group-within-a-group enables not only new markets to be seen, but also makes it possible to market directly to them.

From Centralized to Decentralized : (From make it and store it to make it on demand – Zero Inventory Manufacture – ZIM)

Economies are demanding faster product lifecycles and substantially lowered costs associated with holding an inventory (read JIT). Technologies in both consumer demand forecasting and production methods are making it possible to produce products on demand. Consumers control the spending dollar and hence should be able to control their product. The recipe is based on the simplification of raw material usage patterns. The enabling technology allows for the direct conversion of thought to product, negating the industrial revolutionary conception of mass manufacture production line products.

Step 10

• Why does your solution work, for your customer? What are your customer insights?– How does your customer see your solution as

valuable to them – whether it is apparent or not– What is your customer telling you?– What insights do you have for your customer

journey (‘What’s in it for me’)

What makes it work (Customer Insights)(example)

Make me my own hero :

The world is full of Heroes and Idols. Children and adults alike all perceive themselves as important - nobody is happy being themselves. The self-perception of being famous is currently transferred and embodied into those that are, resulting in idolization. Consumers are buying products based on the image that goes with it (Nike, Air Jordan, WWF, etc) and the perception that they can embody that by using that product. For far too long, society has idolized images of success in and amongst superstar athletes and movie stars. “I am famous” is the new adage.of our domain.

I want a product made just for me :

Creativity is suppressed in today’s society as a result of marketing to the masses; one product, millions of consumers. The success of the Dell business model illustrates consumers’ needs to identify and create a product of their own choosing. However, under further analysis, the Dell model falls short; I can choose only from a preselected selection. The customer controls the creativity and is empowered to make changes to their needs and desires. This is my product; I have created it.

Step 11

• Define the “orthodoxy”– What is the ultimate “truth” of you, your

audience, your customers?

or·tho·doxy noun \ˈor-thə-ˌdäk-sē\: a belief or a way of thinking that is accepted as true or correct

What makes it work (Orthodoxy)(example)

I am at the mercy of what the manufacturer produces :Show me true freedom in my choices

I can only buy mass-market products :I do not desire what my neighbor has; I desire my choices, my personalization

Step 12

• What are your core competencies?• How do you combine your competencies to deliver

your value?

What makes it work (Core Competencies)(example)

Enablers to performing function:

Computer programming – buyer interfacing, web, systems integrationDistribution of core productsMarketingSales in consumer toy market

Engineering and Materials Processes BackgroundsProject Management

Step 13

• What competencies are holding you back?– What do you need to develop, to reach your value

goals?

Core competencies and abilities to develop(example)

Enablers to performing function:

– Computer programming – buyer interfacing, web, systems integration– Distribution & inventory management of core products– Marketing– Sales in consumer toy market– Personalization– Entertainment– Product Customization

Partnerships and Alliances to build(example)

Competency Item PotentialSoftware Development Personal Viewers, Browsers,

Creation Software, Gaming Importers

Unknown

Vision Three-Dimensional Vision, Scanning System

Geometrix, Genex

Rapid Manufacture Three-Dimensional Printing Z-CorpProject Development Photo Booths and vision

system set-upAuto-Photo Canada

Doll Manufacture Dolls, action figures, finishing MacFarlane Toys, 21st Century Toys

Web Web Interactivity Unknown

Step 14

• What does your industry and market look like?– Why are you going after this market?– What does it look like?– What does your market tell you?– Where are you going to make money in your

niche?

Primary Domain Markets (example)

Primary Domain Markets (example)

Primary Domain Markets (example)