Hitting Reset

In this video, Emily Haines touches on one of the major themes felt around the world right now - a large cloud of uncertainty and doubt hangs over many people's heads. I know that on a personal level, I've never talked with so many people asking the "what do I want to do with my life" question before.

People are questioning much of what they felt good about before. They are considering giving up on things they've been doing for years. They're not sure where to go or what to do next. They are searching for answers and help.

As an industry, we're partly to blame for this situation. We've worked to help convince people that if they simply buy our products, they'll have whiter teeth, enjoy the comfortable feel of their rich Corinthian leather seats and ultimately, be much happier. If there's any good in the mess that we're facing, it's that we have an opportunity now to help clean it up.

So how do we go about that?

A recent article in Time Magazine by Kurt Andersen said,

"The present chastening can't mean turning into a nation of overcautious, unambitious scaredy-cats. This is the moment for business to think different and think big."

Every day, we are presented with opportunities to help make someone's day, or life even, a little bit better. When a new project comes in, we have a choice. We can take the easy route and just do what is being asked of us; or, we can choose to go beyond the assignment and look for a bigger opportunity to help make products and services more meaningful to people. Sure, it might be harder work than just doing what was asked, but from harder work comes greater reward. We just have to start asking different and bigger questions.

Do we have to tell people that our product is X% than the competition, or can we create content that simply puts a smile on people's faces and reminds them how much they enjoy the product?

Do we need to cram more features into a product, or can we instead develop applications and tools that help people accomplish tasks easier or get more out of using the product?

Do we need to create yet another line extension, or can we figure out a way to extend the use of existing products so we can stop creating more waste?

As an industry, we have to stop just looking for ways to "build brands" through messaging and start looking for ways to actually help people have better days and build better lives.

As Kurt Andersen said, there's never been a better time to start thinking differently and start thinking bigger.

Comments

[Paul McEnany]

Slow cap commences...

Either way - just doing what's asked, just making another ad - or contributing towards that end, just seems so damn boring. Like any hack can go out and do that. Do I really want to wake up in the morning and run off to do hack work?

No thanks...

[Mister Three Sixty]

Great post Paul. Really love it.
The challenge always seems to be that so many people prefer to choose the well-travelled, well-signposted road. I guess it is because they're happy to do the standard thing because "the job" to them, is just that, a "job", a means to pay the rent, to buy a new car once in a while... Perhaps we need some posts on how to help people out of their comfort zones and what the personal benefits are.

[Artie Kuhn]

I'm reminded of the First Things First manifesto:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~maxb/ftf2000.htm

[maqi]

I guess I can relate to some of the things that you've wrote, but I cant't help to think that trying to put smiles on the lives of people through products – no matter how well designed and sincere in their own objectives they may be – just won't happen. perhaps what i'm trying to say is that the difference between cramming features in a product or making an app that can help people is kind of the same thing, viewed from a different (and undoubtedly better) perspective, and that the real crisis people have been going through is more of noticing that all those things that they own and use are just, well, things that take up space but cannot fill any emptiness or fulfill any promise. I may as well be a nihilist, but it seems to me that no application, tool or product is going to help on that.

[Jill]

wonderful post. very inspiring. thank you for sharing this.

[Tom Asacker]

Amen. If you're not contributing to people's happiness, you're simply adding to the problem.

[Kevin M. Keating]

Man, this is great. Amazing and inspiring and humbling post, and thanks for linking to the Cadbury video, which I somehow had never seen and got me very teary, actually.

Thanks.

[Josh]

Hey Paul. I read this post awhile ago and am just getting around to responding. First of all, Metric's new album is *amazing.*

Second, I'm with you 100% -- reminds me of the idea of "branded utilities." I'm also with @magi a bit also...no matter how many Nike +'s we have in the world, people won't find fulfillment in products. But, as you said, we can still work to make life better.

Thanks for the post.