After looking into the timeline, the things that needed to be straightened and the momentum that was created, lets go to the final part, the lessons to be learnt from that plus the experience.

1) How to create a great title to attract readers
A single mail and a great funny game had to be put into a title that will be published on the title page of a online newspaper. So it has “made to stick” and it has to attract the potential readers.
It is one headline amongst others and is fighting for clicks. Clicks that create page impressions that create money for the oneline newspaper.
The title that was used in most of the cases was “Ex-staffer plays games with Virgin Blue”
Great, because:
- its simple and easy to grasp and cut to its core
- its unexpected, grabbing people ’s attention
- its concrete, people get the idea and will remember it much later
- its emotional, and people care about the story and want to find out more

Find out more about these principals and more in the book from Chip & Dan Heath - “Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die”

2) Interpretation of a fact to attract readers
There was a mail, there was the truth and then there is an audience that wants to be attracted.
So you as a journalist make the story so that it becomes interesting.
Just a staff member making a game reflecting on some moments they had in a project doesn’t do it.
So you need to pump up the tiger to make the story bigger to get a bigger audience and to get the momentum we have seen

3) How newspapers are connected and reusing content
Of course that’s no news, how ever, could be observed very well in this situation.
All newspapers (brisbanetimes.com.au, Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and WA Today) are connected to each other and belong to Fairfax Media.
Using the same layout and the same stories plus some local flavour. Still the news are selected independently and the homepage looks different for every one of them.
Smart approach as you as an individual are reading your local newspaper online presence (if you do) and probably not surfing the other sites. An article is written once and reused on all the sites and synergies are kicking in.

4) How momentum is generated in the internet
Of course, this was small. But it was great to see the momentum and watch everything develop over the day.
First one newspaper,
then others published the story as well
Forums were coming in
Blogs started to post about it
and other international newspapers used the content as well

If it would have been bigger …
more newspapers would have used the content, even in other countries
far more blogs would have written about it and trackbacked the content
twitter and friendfeed would have been other sources

It it would have gotten really big …
The story would have carried along for several more days
Press would have called me to ask for exclusive interviews
and I would write a book and my memorars

Glad it was small.

I might use this case for a project management presentation which explains how to develop a game like this and how to make sure its not creating any damage for yourself and others.

World is moving on, and so should we.
Hope everybody enjoyed the game and had and shared the fun we had putting it together.

Enjoy the ride

After explaining the approach and the difficulties I have faced by compiling one of my first keynotes, today it’s about to share the video and the slides for that very keynote at the IQPC Project Risk Management Conference late September 2008.

Looking back, what went well:

• The new slide concept (PresentationZen) worked out fine and was appropriate for the event. However, far more effort could have gone into it as not all the great features have been used and applied nor even tried.

• 120 slides fit into 40 minutes and still some Q&A time at the end.

• I felt very comfortable with the story line even if it is not my strongest habit.

• I loved the opportunity (Thanks to IQPC), I loved presenting in front of a great audience, I loved to take myself out of my comfort zone.

What didn’t go so well

• Even if I felt comfortable with the story line, I am not an expert in the field of why “The world is flat” and “The inconvenient truth”, therefore all the great stories that Thomas Friedman and Al Gore as the Authors of these fantastic books could and have to share are not in my repertoire and I can’t talk for years about these things. A headline, some side lines and that was it.
  Lessons learnt: You need to be ready for a topic, otherwise do not present.

• I spent a long time in front of Power Point to produce the slide set. After three days, I couldn’t see Power Point anymore.
  Lessons learnt: Take your time or delegate. Garr Reynolds (PresentationZen) says, if the presentation is important its worth doing, so go for it.

• The topic wasn’t probably the one that the crowd expected by looking at the program and the conference is a boutique conference and not a ‘real’ one with hundreds of participants.
  Lessons learnt: Do real keynotes just at a real keynote occasion.

• My conclusions “What does that mean for us as Project Managers” have been thought through, however, I could have worked more on them, but I ran out of time.
  Lessons learnt: Finish you storyline to the end and put all the effort in, don’t stop 200 meters before the finish line (if you do a marathon).

What do you think? How did I go? What would you do different?

 The Critical Value of Project Risk Management: Download

and again, what to learn from Apple.

After another great keynote from Apple’s CEO yesterday in the US, where he presented the new iPod Nano and some other refreshed stuff, which didnt kick me off the chair (German saying), i just had a customer experience with them.
I got an iTunes GiftCard from a mate of mine, and by juddering the seal the numbers and characters that you need to type into iTunes to redeem the Dollars got totally unreadable or least scratched in away that ‘8′ could be perceived as ‘B’ and ‘Z’ as a ‘7′ and so on. So by typing the wrong number three times by trying different combinations i got a message telling me that Customer Support will contact me.
Amy* (*name changed by Author) got in touch with me and we had a short personal (at least perceived like this) email conversation to resolve the problem.
The outstanding, never like this so far experienced, characteristics have been the following

• personal name as sender
• personal mails by replying to my arguments and wishes
• must have been a part time employee as she managed her office times to be considered when expecting a reply
• the issue was solved and information given was very clear

the above mentioned items are for me perceived as how the apple brand has and is been perceived in the market, attention to detail and absolutely customer centric and oriented.
Whether actually three support staff have been involved or one Amy*, which technically wouldnt have been a problem, doesnt interest me, as the perception is what counts.
Thank you Apple.

Two days later a customer survey with the following 6 simple questions (took me 2 minutes, as multiple choice).

• Overall, how satisfied were you with your recent support experience?
• Was your issue resolved by AppleCare Email support?
• Agree or disagree: Apple’s response(s) to my emails were timely.
• Apple’s email responses were relevant to my question?
  I feel like Apple’s support team understood my problem?
  The email(s) I received from Apple were clear and easy to read?
  The instructions I received from Apple were simple to follow?
• We read all customer comments. If you have any compliments, suggestions, or
  complaints to share , we invite you to use the box below:
• How likely are you to recommend Apple email support to friends or colleagues who
  might have questions?

Bottom line, i agreed with everything beside the response times of mails due to the perceived parttime role fact. What about other customer satisfaction experiences out there? Something similar recognized or even better?