TRYING TO MAKE A DECISION....
If you look at my Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social profiles, you will see something "common" to all of them, it's this statement:
"design thinking is everything"
I am sure, that some people don't understand how deep the rabbit hole goes when I say this.
I will try and simplify it for you…
A typical day in the life of an average individual would go something like this:
You wake up, pray, and if you are not a believer, you move on to other things
You brush your teeth, take a shower, and prepare to head out, or “stay in” if you are a remote worker…
You either take a bike, a tricycle, an Uber or you drive, if you have a car…
At the appropriate time, you get to work, and settle down at your “workstation”
At the appropriate time, you get breakfast, and if you are on a fast,, you don’t break that fast...
You work on a Laptop, Desktop, or Phone, to get your work done…
If you are a trader, you are selling something physical, it could be electronics, clothes, furniture, whatever…
At every point in time during the day, whatever you do, you are interacting with one item or the other, one service or the other…
That product, service, or item, that you found useful as you work, live, move about, and transact your business with…
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Whilst being a solution to somebody’s problem, did not come to life by itself, even tissue paper!!
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It came to life, because, at some point, someone observed the things going on In society, the problems that people had, and came up with a solution to it…
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As that person came up with that solution, he or she had to do a little research or much research...
He or she had to “empathize” with those who had the issues, in many cases, they used themselves as “guinea pigs”...
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They had to go through all the key cycles of anyone who does “design thinking” every time...
Contrary to what you may think, Design Thinking is not about being a graphic designer, not at all...
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It’s more about using the same principles that core designers use in solving clients' briefs, solving life’s problems…
So, you can use design thinking to solve problems with products, processes, frameworks, environment, virtually everything…
That dress you are wearing, someone designed it...
That car you are driving, or riding in, someone designed it…
That furniture you are sitting in, or sleeping in, someone somewhere designed it…
That electronic device you are dreaming of getting someday, someone designed it…
Even that “food” you are eating, it took somebody at some point in the past, to sit down, think, bring several different condiments
Together, create recipes and bring them all together to make it taste and smell nice,...
it did not happen by accident, well, maybe some happened by accident..like the “concoction,” we used to eat in school…
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I hope by now, you get my drift.
If you don’t get it, you may need to go to court…..
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So, I am thinking of starting a weekly series, possibly on Youtube, where we have what I call “design thinking rants”…
Like, every week, we observe some issue in society, or around us, and we try and use design thinking principles to figure out solutions to these problems, within 30 minutes at the most.
What do you guys think?
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THE POWER OF ALL IN ONE SYSTEMS….
In the 90s, if you mentioned the term “PC” to anyone in Nigeria, it could mean many different things...
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For example, PC could stand for “Pirates Confraternity”, but if they know you are talking about tech, then it means
“Personal Computer”, and as always, the Operating System expected on that PC is Microsoft Windows, because
they made the PC popular and something that the average person or company could afford, unlike what existed in
70s and 80s, when many people and companies could not afford computers for their businesses and personal use.
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The first set of PCs always came in a two-piece form factor, meaning, the actual “PC”, which had the motherboard,
The hard drive, operating system, and device drivers were installed on a separate box, and the “monitor” also came separately.
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The peripherals like the mouse, and keyboard have always been separate and extensible.
Later on, we started seeing “All In One”
Computers, which brought it all together in one box, starting with the “iMac” and was a very noble piece of engineering at the
time still is, and over the years, has improved tremendously to become a “beast” for most people.
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Other computer manufacturing companies played catch up and started making their own “All-in-one” as well.
Now, you may think that this was restricted to “Hardware”, right?
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You may think that way if you have not been paying much attention to what has been happening in the
software side of things, once upon a time, you could only get software on your PC, using “floppy disks”, anyone
remember that time?
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If you are a “Gen Z”, don’t bother yourself and stop scratching your head, floppy disks existed before you were born…
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Then, after floppy disks, technology improved and we had CDs, then DVDs (yes, DVDs were not just for storing and playing
movies, some of us used to write software on empty DVDs using DVD writers in the early 2000s.
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And then came to the “flash drive”, which started life as an external drive, and later became more developed as “SSD” that could run
As an internal drive…..etc
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I know you are getting bored now, you are like “Grandpa, we know you have some history in your head, just get to the point already”…
Be patient, I will get there soon…
In the world of software, the means of getting software unto your PC, also somewhat follows the technology with “storage media”,
You know, what I just described above, if you have already forgotten that, then it means you are getting older, faster than Grandpa…
You know, the floppy disk——>CD—>DVD—-> Flash drive trail?
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One of the reasons we were all limited to these mediums, was that we didn’t have broadband internet available during these times,
And the people that could afford something close to it, the VSAT, were the big companies and the Banks, VSAT was not for the “small boys”…
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Later on, the networks had some mercy on us and introduced 2G, then 3G, and Apple showed every storage manufacturer “shege” when they
Dumped every known means of getting software unto a PC and introduced the “App Store”….
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When the likes of Microsoft felt threatened, they too rushed and built their own “Windows App Store”, then Adobe, then all other software giants that
were dealing in “B2C”, meaning “Business to Consumer” software, had to jump on the bandwagon….
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The Apple App Store arguably became the first concept of an “all in one” software solution, one central point from which you could get all the
verified, certified, and tested software for a particular platform and operating system.
You may argue and say we had “all in one” software solutions like Microsoft Office, Open Office, Adobe Creative Suite, etc before the App stores, but
Remember that even these software suites, allowed you to “pick and choose” which one of their software solutions you could install?
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For example, you could decide on installing only “excel” and “word” and leave out PowerPoint.
The App Store concept introduced two major innovations to software, first, it made people aware of the whole “cloud engineering” thing, that you
Could download or “use” software not installed on your PC hard drive, over the “internet”, when I talk like this, I am not talking about
Corporate software that you could run over an “intranet” like they do in the Banks, no…
I am talking about “B2C” software that could be used by every average person all over the world….. the internet…
One major difference between “all in one” software solutions, be it locally installed on your PC, or cloud-based, is that they tend to provide quality
Software to cover all “tasks” by people in a particular “industry”, not just a “niche” of that industry.
What do I mean by that?🧐🧐🧐🧐
For example, in Graphics Design, Adobe Photoshop and its competition is the go-to standard for anything “photo editing”, and Adobe Illustrator plays the same role when you talk about “vector-based illustration”, but “Adobe Creative Suite” is something that covers everything for the creative professionals (photo editing, video editing, illustrations, sound mixing etc)
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Another great example is for the professionals in digital marketing, we have solutions that are just “autoresponders”, at least, they started that way, like Mail Chimp, Get Response, Constant Contact, and Send Mail, which you can only use in managing your email lists and email automation.
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And you have solutions you could only use in building your landing pages, like lead pages, and other tools for just sales funnels, blogging, or Building websites.
But later on, came the “giants”, like Click Funnels, Kartra, and Builderall, which came with the claim that you could use their platforms to do everything a digital marketer needs to do for themselves and their clients, whether it’s building sales funnels, landing pages, managing email lists etc.
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Even MailChimp recognized this trend and changed their business model and started adding more features to their platform…
Another major problem, that “All In One” solutions solve, is the “proliferation of tools” that professionals usually subscribe to, and pay for, on a monthly basis, just to get their work done, the fact that you can reduce your monthly expenses on various tools to just one tool, by a factor of 5 and above, is a
Wonderful thing.
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On top of that, the “all in one” solutions usually come with the various tools “fully integrated” to talk to each other, they are not trying to turn you into a “tech superstar”, but an “efficient entrepreneur.
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They have realized the essential things that every entrepreneur wants, have removed all the “complexity” in the various software solutions, and brought together the “essentials” under one roof….
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All in One solution are available in all industries, so if you are a serious-minded professional, consultant, or agency and your mind is set on growth, efficiency, and scaling your operations massively, rather than running around dealing with very manual solutions, like a roadside mechanic, wouldn’t you choose an “all in one” solution
For your business?
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I think I would, because I want to make the lives and businesses of my clients, much easier for them to run, likewise, my team and my business as well.
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As a ZOHO Consultant, there are various “all in ones” that I can talk about for the various arms of your business, like the sales, marketing, HR, Collaboration, Finance parts
Of your business…these are all awesome, robust, high-quality, and cost-effective solutions on their own….
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But there’s one “baba of them all”, it’s called ZOHO ONE…..
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If you have not yet tried ZOHO ONE, you are missing out on A LOT….. I can help you get on it, set it up, and create amazing business automation that will make your
5 person business run like a 25-man team…..
You don’t believe me?
Watch this space for more information on the different things that ZOHO ONE can do, I can’t cover it all in one post, it’s just….awesome
Have a great day😊😊😊😊😊
WHEN YOU HAVE MANY GIFTS…..
15 And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several abilities; and straightway took his journey.
Matthew 25:15
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That’s an excerpt from the Bible, the well-known “parable of the talents”….
Even though, in this story, talents were a unit of money in those days, and it was a demonstration of how different people use the various opportunities given to them by God, it also refers to natural gifts, which we also call “talents”, today….
Sometimes, in our life’s journey, we get to know and build on these talents early in life, from childhood….
Sometimes, we discover these talents by accident, and other times, by necessity….
As they say, “Necessity is the mother of invention”, there are times and moments in your life when you make decisions based on the need to accomplish one thing or the other, or the need to survive, and in that struggle, you discover you have a gift that was hitherto “hidden” from you, or unknown to you…..
Most people usually have just one talent, one thing that they are excellent at, or good at….
Some, as said in the parable, are “multi-talented”, and the multiple talents can be in one particular field, for example, Sports, or Music, and at the same time….
It can be in multiple fields and industries, like “Shaq O Neal” who was good at Basketball and also became a Rap Artist in the 90s…
It’s very rare, but once in a while, we see people who are multi-talented across different fields of human endeavor…
Like someone excellent at being a Medical Doctor, while at the same time, is a beautiful artist, and Musician…..
The one thing about all of these people is that, at some point in their lives, they understood that the important thing, is “deploying your gift”, using your gift”, not just having it….
You can have multiple gifts, and each one can bring you before great men as the same Bible said in Proverbs 18:16, but this can only happen if you DEVELOP the gift…..
It is in that process of developing the gift, that you can express it in a way that others see its benefits and use to them….
It is in that process of developing the gift that you attract those who value it to yourself….
It’s all about “taking action”, “building”, developing that gift, that talent, and then learning to express it, in a way that makes sense to those who seek “value”….
You may be an excellent artist, but if you don’t start painting, drawing, on virtually any surface you can find, and start cataloging these works, no one would know about your gift….
That gift is the one hidden weapon that God has embedded in each one of us, it is inside of each person, not outside of it….
So, stop looking outside of yourself to find your gift.
It is the one thing that you do, seamlessly, with the least amount of effort
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It usually never feels like “work”, because it is a part of you, I mean, when you use your hands to eat, your legs to walk, and your eyes to see, does it feel like “work”?
That’s how your gift(s) make you feel, find your gift, find your purpose, build it, and “express it”, that’s where you find your joy, and sense of purpose….
That’s what “design” and “design thinking” do to me….it’s the one thing that helps me bring it all together and make it make sense…
I mean, what do you do, when you can do so many things, that cut across so many fields and industries?
So, I would like to encourage you today, to find that gift, that talent, that one or two or three or multiple things that you can do, excellently to provide value to others, you can always start with “one” and then build the others later on in life….
But find it, it is one of the keys to your success in life…
Some people think they don’t have any talents, but they are wrong, you just have not looked deep enough….
It might be that you like talking a lot, to others, or you are annoying, but that may just be your gift, if channeled properly, you can become an MC, Co-Host, or Host at events and shows etc…
It might be that you look and sound weird, but somehow, always make people laugh, even without intentionally cracking jokes….
It could be anything, and usually, it may not “make sense” to you, the “gift bearer”….
But once you find it and can build it, it will all make sense to you later on.
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I know it sounds “cliche” to say this, but it is the one thing that can keep you “sane” in this insane world we live in today.
Have a great day
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#gifted #talented
If you don’t blow your horn, who will? | #portfolio
