In The Digital Transformation Playbook, David L. Rogers describes how customer behavior has changed in the digital age. Customers are as likely to connect with and influence each other as they are to be influenced by the firm. Companies need to shift from a mass market/broadcast model to one that taps into five customer network behaviors: access, engage, customize, connect, and collaborate. He then introduces a tool to help companies make the adjustment.
The Customer Network Strategy Generator is like a pilot’s pre-flight checklist, walking a strategist through the steps necessary to develop winning customer-facing strategies in this new digital age. By following this process, you will have the best chance of identifying concepts that are worth pursuing because they can have a meaningful impact on the things that matter to your business.
One of the things that I particularly like about this tool is that it is both very specific to a certain type of strategy project (and therefore easy to understand in terms of specific tangible activities) but also generally applicable to almost any strategic decision. The specific details will change for different types of strategies, but the overall flow (objectives>a customer-centric perspective>a well-defined broad strategy>specific potential tactics>realistically evaluating those potential actions) provides a good model to consider whenever starting any strategy project.