Aug
26

5 Ways To Surprise and Delight. Can a simple, well-placed disruption bring a bit of joy to an afternoon? 

We know summer weather in Minnesota is a treasure, so coming back to work after a stellar weekend can be a little, uhh, “blah.” How could we make being back indoors a little less sucky? Ryan (@MNPlanner) and I hit the local Target at lunch, bought a musical card and cut out its guts, attaching them to the drink cooler at our office. We wanted to simply put a smile on some faces.

Since we did this on the fly, no way to prove this out but here are some reasons why I think it worked:

  1. We identified a mundane routine, ripe for disruption
  2. Use of a familiar song in an unfamiliar deployment
  3. Sharing the moment with Ryan and I as we “innocently” sat nearby gave permission to acknowledge the prank’s presence
  4. Ryan and I are non-threatening within the agency so I like to believe this fun felt natural
  5. The DIY execution appeals to sense of everyman, making the experience even less contrived, free of ulterior motives.

We plan on doing more merry pranksterism, to help us learn what makes humans tick and to inject some unexpected fun into the day.

May
16

QR Codes: Experimenting on my colleagues.

A few weeks ago, Good Friday to be precise, Jennifer Oskar and I devised a QR Code experiment in the guise of an Easter egg hunt. Initially, I thought it would be a fun way to incentivize people to finally install and use any of the free QR code readers available. We wanted to show what’s capable with QR and go beyond the simple link to a website.

Here’s how we mapped out the short scavenger hunt:

Scrambled Egg Hunt  

There are a number of QR Code generators out in the wild. We primarily usedRedLaser.com and ScanLife where it’s easy to make a code do more than open a web page. Our first code appeared in posters that papered the office on the morning of the contest.

Here’s some of what happened:

10% participation. Even in an agency setting where we’re thought of as more culturally plugged-in and advanced, there was very little adoption rate. Most people had yet to even have a QR reader installed on their phones. Others had one installed but had yet to use it. While I had hoped for more hunters, 10% still beats average US usage which I’ve seen reported as low as 3-4%

Participants were heavily invested. Those that did make the leap did so with both feet. Some banded together as a team. Some were seen running through the halls to the next clue. The winner hustled to my desk, breathless and waiting for her final clue, in under 18 minutes. Before the hunt began, I thought this would take about an hour, maybe two. Never underestimate the motivated. 

Lessons learned:

Broad awareness messaging still works. To get the word out, we put up posters, sent an all-agency email and had the contest details added to morning announcements. Even people who didn’t join in the contest noticed and commented on the posters.

Don’t bury the lead. If I could change one thing in our execution, it would be making the prize painfully obvious on the posters and in the email (two tickets to a Twins game). While I wanted to be purposely vague, people are busy so if I really want them to take an action, the benefit needs to be clear.

Build anticipation. The idea was hatched and put together in a day (which might be why it actually shipped!) but that didn’t allow us to build up any anticipation for the event. If we also could have paced the clue releases over the entire day, word-of-mouth would have grown participation.

Conclusion:

Overall, I’d say the contest was a success with a very happy winner. Now that there’s a benchmark for internal adoption, it will be fascinating to see if we can spike participation by tweaking parts of the execution plan.

Do you ever use QR Codes? Personally I think they’re ugly and terribly implemented. When a smartphone’s camera software can automagically detect a 2D code, then you might see more folks scanning in the wild.

Nov
15