10 Steps to an Insight Resume
The late Phil Dusenberry (Former Chairman of the ad agency BBDO North America) believed that one good insight is worth a thousand ideas.
Under his stewardship, BBDO developed successful campaign like GE's "We bring good things to life" and Pepsi's "The Choice of a New Generation."
His book, Then We Set His Hair On Fire was a book about insights in business -- how you get them, how you recognize them, how we keep them coming. "Ideas, valuable as they may be are a dime-a-dozen in business. That is certainly the case in ad agencies where ideas (not all of them good) are the currency of the realm and even the mail people spit out ideas as if they were candy from a PEZ dispenser...a good insight can fuel a thousand ideas, a thousand commercials. More than anything else, an insight states a truth that alters how you see the world."
What are the insights that have moved your world? What's your insight resume look like? Take this simple 10-step questionnaire and see if you unearth your own insights? Have you put them to work for you or others? Are they still valid? Have they moved from insight to wisdom?
Thanks Phil.
1. What is the fist insight you remember?
2. What is your best insight?
3. What made it great?
4. What was the problem that was solved?
5. Can you connect the dots that led to this insight?
6. What is your second best insight?
7. Again why? What did it solve?
8. What is your dumbest insight? Why?
9. When all else fails, to whom or what do you turn for inspiration?
10. What is your ideal creative activity?
Creativity Central
7 Comments
Reader Comments (7)
Insights are indeed what it's all about - particularly for services firms where R&D isn't suitable as an innovation engine.
Unfortunately, far too many organisations confuse traditional market research/analytics functions with true insight generation.
This always reminds me of the Henry Ford quote that "if I'd asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse".
And insight is not only about the creative 'eureka' moment - it can be structured too. Take Nintendo's Blue Ocean approach with the Wii, where immersions with customers, competitor's customers, and non-gamers led to a raft of inspired observation. For example, around motion and interactivity, not to mention the untapped market of family and the elderly.
Anyway, bring on the (true) insights!
Thanks Josh.
One interesting phenomenon I've seen recently is insight wrangling -- books by Gladwell lke Tipping Point and Blink and Jonah Lehrer's How We Decide. They both have created "insights" based on research of other insights. Gladwell has a remarkable ability to coin a phrase that becomes a cultural phrase like tipping point.
And I agree about Wii -- I believe that actually developed Wii by working with Blue Ocean Strategy. The insight of how we interact with a video game was truly a leap ahead of Xbox and PlayStation.
Nice article, Marty. I worked with Phil at BBDO in the early 80's. He was a big advocate of music - if you can't say it, sing it. I have no idea what this has to do with your topic.
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I have to recognize I don't really like business Literature and I think, most of the times, it is just a mere waste of time. Now, honestly, I read "Then We Set His Hair On Fire" because of my work and it is such a good book. Now, about Phil Dusenberry, I can't respect and share his comments about the viagra online users. He had no right to make those rough comments.
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