How Apple Watch Will Make Utility Cool

Posted by David Deal on Apr 22, 2015 5:35:13 PM

On its best days, Apple shapes consumer behavior. And we are seeing Apple on its best day with the launch of Apple Watch. One of the world's most valuable brands seeks to turn everyday consumer behavior (such as paying for coffee or reading the news) into a more graceful, fluid action by encouraging watch owners to swipe our wrists or merely glance at a fashionable device we wear. In essence, Apple wants to make utility cool. Thanks to the onslaught of branded apps being developed for the device, Apple will likely turn its vision into reality. Following is a glimpse of significant third-party apps that will influence how we manage our lives in five key ways.

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What Apple Watch Means to Brands

Posted by David Deal on Apr 9, 2015 8:46:00 AM

Apple Watch is coming, and it's going to have a big impact on brands.  

The Apple Watch, available on April 24, 2015, has been praised, vilified, and dissected by a wide-ranging audience, including everyday consumers, technology geeks, Apple fans, and fashionistas. The new product has also injected some strong style mojo into the Apple brand. But should businesses care about the Watch? Absolutely. Apple Watch will have far-reaching impacts on several industries, from healthcare to automotive and retail. The Watch, which blurs the line between mobile and wearables, will pressure brands across the board to make mobile experiences more personal and less intrusive. 

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Momentum Matters: Why Momentum is the New Success Metric

Posted by Nikki Barua on Mar 12, 2015 11:50:00 AM


Our culture is rampant with references to momentum: a sports team has “momentum going into the playoffs”; a business has “momentum following a successful IPO”; and an Internet meme or viral video “gains momentum through virtual and real word-of-mouth”. In all of these situations – even physics - momentum is understood to be like riding a wave. Somehow, that team or company has harnessed a kind of power and is being propelled forward beyond the competition. In business, if you have momentum, you will be a market leader. What do companies like Uber, Apple, and GoPro have in common? Aside from being successful brands, they have momentum. Brands with momentum dictate the terms for the market and their competitors and attain powerful and profitable leadership positions. 

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Inside the Design of the Award-Winning Lexus RC App

Posted by Sheila Darcey on Mar 10, 2015 12:19:00 PM

How did Lexus meet the challenge of rolling out training to launch a new vehicle quickly and effectively? 

Lexus, a division of Toyota Motor Sales (TMS), wanted to create a digital tool that could quickly ramp up its sales team on two new models in the highly competitive market for sports sedans and crossover SUVs.

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The Top Five Ways to Research "Everywhere Customers"

Posted by Carrie Yury on Feb 19, 2015 11:34:00 AM

Yesterday your customers loved Facebook, but now they love Snapchat, too. How do you make sure your products and experiences adapt to your customers' changing habits, especially when your customers live all over the digital world? The question arose recently when BeyondCurious CTO Vishal Agarwal and I were interviewed for a recently published Gigaom report, “Enticing The Everywhere Customer.” When asked about Customer Journey mapping (a tool in which a brand literally creates a map of its customers' touch points with the brand), I was quoted as saying, “I think less about taking a flat snapshot of a customer’s journey and more about creating a living story that morphs along with the customer’s experience. I added, “You need to be able to adapt when you discover that your customers are using Snapchat to look at branded content that disappears.” 

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The Quantified Self: How Technology is Transforming Health

Posted by Nikki Barua on Feb 2, 2015 4:14:00 PM

Recent advancements in technology and the increasingly vast array of digital devices available has led to a huge transformation in both the fitness industry and healthcare. The availability of devices that can track everything from heart rate to fertility-levels means that consumers are now able to proactively monitor and improve their own health through these innovative technologies. 

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Nothing to Fear: How Agile Research Uncovers The Unknown

Posted by Carrie Yury on Nov 21, 2014 8:41:00 PM

Credit: Jon-Eric Melsæter

 Recently I was talking to a technologist friend who said that he thinks most companies are hesitant to include research into their design process because people fear the unknown. Call me naïve, but I was shocked to hear that. To me, while research may start with unknowns, its task is the discovery of knowledge. And knowledge is power -- especially knowledge about your target user. However, the more I thought about what he said, the more intrigued I became with the idea. 

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On a Mission to Help a New Kind of Company Thrive

Posted by Carrie Yury on Nov 10, 2014 9:58:00 AM

After founding and running Web 2.0 conferences for a number of years, John Battelle was fed up. The co-founder of Wired had had it up to here with status quo conference rooms and generic hotel ballrooms. So, while mountain biking with friend Brian Monahan, the two came up with an idea that would turn the conference on its head. 

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Code Red: Put Out Fires Before They Start

Posted by Nikki Barua on Oct 25, 2014 1:45:00 PM

 Code Red: A New Approach to Project Planning

At BeyondCurious, we engage a project planning practice called Code Red, designed to uncover the risk, uncertainty, and fears that exist in relation to any project. Code Red helps us align contingency planning to team energy level, gives us optimism when we need it, and vastly increases quality of output while on the way to the finish line. 

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Three Ways To Transform Guest Experiences With Technology

Posted by Nikki Barua on Oct 5, 2014 3:43:00 PM

Ensuring that guests have a consistent, memorable experience is paramount to building your brand in the travel and hospitality space. To achieve this goal, many companies are putting their technology to work in a variety of ways—from location-based promotions to performance support that helps staff deliver high-touch service. As experts in the travel and hospitality space with a deep understanding of human experience, we see three ways brands can capitalize on new technology to deliver next generation guest experiences.

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