My Semester long journey into Design Thinking Land

In this blog, I am going to take you on a semester long journey of Customer Insights group project. I will reflect on what I assumed when I went in to the class, what I realized, what I learnt, liked and disliked. I took Customer Insights thinking that it would be a “data analysis” class. I assumed a Part2 to Ty Henderson’s Analysis of Markets class. When I realized on the first day of class that I would be writing blogs, doing Empathy maps, interviews and other primary research, I was surprised. To be truthful, I was totally freaked out. I had not done anything like that before. I had read blogs regularly, but never wrote one. I did not know if there was a special software or format to write blogs even. And to imagine that this blog is not something just the professor and TA would read. It was public! If I made a fool of myself, all my classmates, all my friends and in fact even my potential employers had access to it, forever. It seemed very much out of my comfort zone. I did not see many familiar faces in the class. It had too many second years and too many faces that seemed new. This added to my discomfort. But so many people who had taken this class previously had recommended it to me that I decided to go forward with it. And now I think that it was the best class decision of my McCombs life. We did several interesting class exercises. I particularly remember the physical prototyping exercise. It was so much fun, I felt free to be a child and explore again. The most interesting exercise was our group project. We were assigned the task of exploring the “Parents with small children” segment, gaining insights and developing a product idea for Samsung and presenting it. This final presentation had to be a recording- something one could play and not need clicking through. Now that I set the stage for what our project was, let me share with you what I liked, disliked and learnt.

The main idea that I learnt from this class is the power of qualitative research. I had previously thought of quantitative data as powerful and qualitative insights as “additional”. Being an engineer, quantitative analysis, hypothesis testing, using data to prove or disprove something was a way of life for me. For most problems, I would read the situation, develop a hunch and then read further to validate or disprove that hunch. My “Design Thinking as Marketing Strategy” class and my final project in this class got me comfortable to the other aspect of problem solving – where you go in with a clean slate, with no hypothesis to test, no “prejudice” to taint your research with. Then, collect subjective data to lead you to the hypothesis. For example when designing a research study to figure out what kind of technology a family with small children would like, we designed our research to explore their life, their general fears, frustrations, goals, dreams etc. We did not focus on technology at all. We didn’t want to know what they were using technology for, that would just drive us to an incremental product idea. We wanted to find out what they wanted and didn’t even know yet. We were looking for a problem or desire that they had in their life and didn’t know that a futuristic technology could solve it for them. The power of this research technique and qualitative data analysis is huge in the field of Design thinking. I learnt this technique class and then used it in our final group project. I liked this very much because it actually fulfilled what I came to business school for! I came here to understand how a marketer grasps what a customer wants before the customer himself knows his desire well enough to articulate it. A desire to understand new product idea generation was what drove me to business school in the first place. Doing this project as a team helped us get comfortable with primary research. Something I had not done before. Also, we had a chance to design a generative research questionnaire, administer it and get insights. I loved this phase of our project.

In this project, we also implemented the rapid prototyping technique that we learnt in class. I liked this phase a lot. After we got the data from our research, we identified the problem statement and organized the insights from our research into several big buckets. Then, using rapid prototyping, we came up with several different solutions to the problem combining one insight with the problem statement. Then, as a team, we discussed each idea and find the best one. When we did this exercise in class, I could not believe how create we were as a team. This is one place where I felt that the whole was bigger than the sum of its parts. Together, we were more productive and more creative than just each of us working in our silos and trying to handle different parts of this project. This is when our team truly came together. Also, this phase demonstrated to me how qualitative data really led me to the solution, the new product idea - something that the end user wanted but did not know well enough to articulate yet. And to see me and my team create that idea was very exciting. I felt creative. Also, we experienced how time limit, a stress point actually made us more creative than we normally are. The rearranged class, post-its, empathy map poster, colored markers all got us out of the narrow, buttoned up thinking process and released that creative energy to come up with truly “out of the box” ideas.

Throughout this project and really this entire class, I felt that I was made to step slightly out of my comfort zone. It was pretty unsettling at first, but in the end I liked it. At all but one instances, I felt my team actually rose to the occasion. In this process, we expanded our comfort zone, learnt new things and discovered new strengths we never knew we had. We also got accustomed to stepping out of comfort zones and trying new things. But the part where I think we fell flat was the last part of the project where we had to make a video presentation. We had no equipment, no common time to interact, no video editing expertise and this presentation carried a big part of our grade. We tried our best but I don’t think we learned much here. We would have done much better and learnt this presentation technique if we were to actually present our idea in person in our class or if we had a prezi exercise in class.

All in all, I liked this class and would definitely recommend it to my friends. At first, it seemed like it was too far away from my comfort zone for me to learn anything. But then, I gradually realized my strengths and started to enjoy the learning process. The first blog was a disaster. I spent all night writing it and still could not write a page. But then as I kept writing, I got better at it. It is not exactly like writing a paper or writing an Email to your friend, but it is not that different either.  In the beginning, when I was told that my team would come up with a new product idea from insights gained from primary research in a semester, I did not think that was realistically possible. I also felt that this class would take up all my time leaving me no time to learn anything else this semester. That was just my panic from being put in a differently structured class. We not only did or primary research and generated a product idea, we did it with a sane amount of work-load. It was not overwhelming. Also, our instructor taught us the concept in class, then we had a mini-problem we would try that technique on and then, we would have an assignment to implement that technique on our final project. That helped us learn the concept very well. Also, our final project was broken down in to small parts which were due throughout the semester. This made sure that our project was always on-schedule and on-course. Previously, I had only valued a class when it taught me frameworks, two-by-two matrices and nice acronyms to remember concepts. This class had none of it. But I think it taught me what I came to Business school to learn.

Social Media - A powerful tool in Marketers toolkit

      With more than 1 billion active monthly users on Facebook, more than 175 million tweets per day, more than 104 million visits per month to Pinterest, and more than 4 billion hours of video watched on YouTube each month, social media has changed the marketing landscape significantly[1]. Big brands can no longer choose to ignore this medium. When thinking about it as an outreach avenue to increase brand awareness, companies have a choice whether or not to use this medium. But one cannot forget that even though a brand chooses not to be active on social media, its users can choose to talk about the brand on social media. And so marketers can not afford to be absent from social media scene. Firms that do not monitor their brand image in social media avenues risk missing the opportunity to curb any negative publicity about their product before it goes viral.  In this blog, I will explore some successful social media campaigns and examine what strategies work and what do not.

       The first thing that comes to my mind when we talk about marketing success and social media is Nike’s MakeItCount campaign. To promote their Fuel band release, Nike’s filmmaker and editor posted a video of what “MakeItCount” means to them on YouTube instead of creating the agreed upon commercial. They showed themselves visiting 16 cities in 3 continents and travelling 34,000 miles. The video, which had an adventure/sports/travel theme to it showed quotes of famous world leaders from Abraham Lincoln to Mahatma Gandhi stressing the value of living one’s life to the fullest. This video was followed by their consistent social media campaign on both twitter and Instagram asking users to share what MakeItCount means to them. Millions of users posted their pictures, tweeted and promoted the hashtag. This campaign was wildly successful and it generated publicity for Nike’s product from user generated content.

      Now let’s examine this campaign closely and see what aspects can be leveraged by marketers in general. Nike’s core customer segment is active young people aged 19-25. Their positioning statement for the fuel band is “Do what you want to do to enjoy life to the fullest. Don’t be tied down by rules. Fuel band keeps track of your accomplishments”. They created content that resonates with that statement for that target. This is nothing new to marketers. It is Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning from Marketing 101! Well, at least it confirms that Social Media Marketing still follows the basic marketing principles. Content that is irrelevant to the brand or casts a wide net and targets no one in particular is wasted marketing dollars- even in the world of social media.

      If you examine Nike’s campaign closely, they did not take each social media platform as a different venue and promote their brand in that silo. They had one theme, one position for their product and tailored the message to TV, Instagram and twitter. Their audience just chose the medium that they liked the best. Also, their strategy gave the consumer an opportunity to do something with Nike’s campaign, not just be a passive recipient of advertising.  This is Nike using the power of social media to its fullest. The key aspect of social media advertising that many new marketers forget is that it is a 2-way medium. Making a brilliant TV commercial and posting it on YouTube/Facebook and asking your core-consumers what they think of it does not quite cut it as social media strategy. The message has to be tailored to the medium. And notice how they did not ask everyone to share what they did with Nike products. They kept the conversation centered on activity, dreams in life, adventure, sports, travel etc. These topics do not feel like in-your-face advertising. Social media consumers don’t feel pushed to buy Nike products just by participating in that conversation. But the topic of conversation is closely linked to Nike in general and its fuel band in particular. And it generates awareness, well more than awareness; it makes the target audience associate their dreams with Nike’s product.

      Same is the story with two other wildly successful social media campaigns. A documentary called Bully was promoted on twitter (#BULLYmovie) by promoting awareness on bullying. Snicker’s “when you are hungry, you are not yourself” campaign on twitter appealed to their target’s sense of humor while positioning snickers as a hunger filling bar instead of just another candy. All of the above examples demonstrate offensive or growth/brand awareness oriented marketing tactics using social media.

      The other interesting side of social media is its use as a tool for implementing defensive strategies. In today’s highly connected world, it takes just a few hours for negative publicity about a brand to go viral. A few hours of shut eye while monitoring brand image on social media platforms can mean big losses for a brand. I think about the song “United breaks guitars” and am instantly reminded of the power of social media to destroy a brand image. This song on YouTube amassed 150,000 viewers in one day[2]. The day after the song was posed on YouTube, United Airlines’ spokesperson issued a statement regarding this incident. Such is the power of social media. Had united not had a watchful eye on social media platforms, they would not know until their brand suffered a bigger damage. The lesson learnt from United’s mishap is that every brand whose image is worth saving needs to have a full time employee staffed 24 hours a day 7 days a week monitoring social media activity.

      One might think that these strategies work on B2C companies and B2B companies are different. There is one aspect that makes B2C social media strategies relevant to B2B settings. Even when you sell to a business, there is a human on the other side making the actual purchase on behalf of his company. He is motivated by the same desire to connect, share and participate without being hassled into buying by a brand. The key tactic to employ while marketing a B2B brand on social media is to humanize the brand. People do business with people they like. Humanize your brand with humor and personality. Build a long-term relationship with customers and prospects. Embrace customer ideas and suggestions. Build a platform where people exchange ideas. The ultimate mantra in successfully using social media in B2B marketing is the same as that in B2C settings – Create a venue for people to connect and talk about what matters to them without being “sold to” and create a way to channel those conversations towards your brand position and you will have created a perfect social media platform.

Sources:

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[1] http://www.imediaconnection.com/article_full.aspx?id=33265

[2] http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/music/story/2009/07/08/united-breaks-guitars.html

The Creative genes Myth

VS

For a large part of my life, I believed in the myth of “Creative person”. Although I fully appreciated the fact that brain structures evolve throughout a person’s life and hence believed that IQ is cultivated through constant training, I did not feel the same way about creativity (which feels extremely strange when I think of it now). I always felt that some people were born creative. They saw pictures and stories in clouds where I just saw white dust in random shapes. They had this unique brain that was constantly bubbling with ideas like a popcorn bag in a microwave. I believed that they were wired differently and one just had to be born that way. And people born with those creative genes gravitated towards creative fields like arts while non-creative folks like me took to science and engineering.

In fact, the first word that came to my mind when I heard the word creative is artist. People often associate creativity with advertisement, painting, music and photography just like I do. I have never heard of anyone say scientist or engineer when they hear the word creative. It took me a long time to understand that it is just a stereotype. While creativity is imposed on artists, scientists are routinely viewed as not-so-creative. This stereotype then works as a self fulfilling prophecy. People who think of themselves as creative work on creative projects and after several attempts, come up with beautiful ideas. This boosts their confidence and helps them try again. Creative ideas are new, they are unique and often times bold. Expressing them requires confidence in oneself and in one’s creativity. It needs social validation and support which artists routinely get while accountants and engineers garner only rarely.

I had to see a novice learn the basic music lessons to see how repetitive and rigorous the basic music lessons are. The basics of photography are based on lighting, focus and other such scientific (read non-creative) aspects. It is only after years and years of non-creative learning, and several failed attempts at creating something unique, the artist finds his grove and tends to get creative. How is it different from what I do at work every day as an engineer? In my observations, I have found many scientists and engineers to be way more creative than we give them credit for.

When I saw my cousin, who knitted, drew, painted and sewed little pieces of fabric into beautiful designs while my biggest artistic achievement was to replicate one of her designs, I just told myself that I am not creative. Ideas do not naturally flow in me. I have my strengths in other areas. But as I entered my work life, I realized that creativity is equally prevalent and required in the work life of a “non-artist”. In fact, art is just one outlet for creativity. Researchers in lab coats and thick glasses who diligently write down their observations as they research chemical reactions require creativity to come up with new methods, new ideas, new ways to find that solution. They just don’t see themselves as creative types. In fact, whenever I reached a dead end in my research, I had to find a detour. I never realized that it required creative thinking. It is creativity….and I display it routinely at work. I may never be good at painting like my cousin but I was already creative. And this realization is what brought in the confidence in me and made me more creative.

Personally, I find that a deadline, a constraint or a boundary helps me be more creative. Given strong reason to come up with something unique, I usually do. Given unlimited time or unlimited freedom, I rarely find my ideas creative enough to present them. I also find that non-judgmental venues help me come up with creative solutions easily. I found that it is the same with employee groups. Discussion flows freely in peer groups with people who have previously worked with each other. The inherent trust helps people think and express more freely. Just having a manager neutrally observe the discussion without a vote makes the discussion restricted and difficult. Also, having a balance of introverts and extroverts in a team greatly helps the free flow of good ideas.

Words, scenery, music or anything that conveys freedom helps people think and express freely. Open skies, green fields, flying birds, running/exercise, lakeside view help people’s creativity. Once when trying to solve a hardware design issue in an all day brain storming session, my team was kicked out of our conference room. We had no other place to go except the outside tables in our cafeteria. We worked with paper and pencils as laptops were useless (pre WIFI era). We solved the issue in less than an hour whereas we are trying all day in that conference room with little success.

 I find a warm shower and cold beer absolutely helpful in generating creative ideas as mentioned in Jonah Lehrer’s article. But I attribute the creativity to their ability to relax the mind, remove inhibitions, and stress. Also, as we learned in the inattentional blindness study, our brain gets so focused sometimes in a certain train of thought that it fails to see the big jumping gorilla right in front of us. A warm shower, good hour at the gym or a cold beer forces us to break the chain of thought and notice the gorilla.  

I have also noticed that the most creative minds in this world are the ones most uninfluenced by conventional wisdom. A good example is how kids often times come up with most creative uses of everyday objects. Their imagination is pure and unbounded. It is not constrained by reality. I saw a seven year old melt Hershey’s kisses in microwave and add milk to make hot chocolate when they were out of hot-chocolate mix one evening. Creative ideas from outsiders mentioned in Jonah Lehrer’s article speak of the same absence of conventional knowledge sparking creative solutions. Other creative folks like Steve Jobs, through constant trail, have the ability to sweep aside the conventional wisdom and look at a problem as an outsider.

I also find that as one relaxes and throws away inhibitions, fears and even the knowledge of the presence of others, one can honestly enjoy the process of finding the solution instead of focusing on arriving at the solution. And this focus on work rather than on result helps pop unique ideas that truly transform the world. After I figured this out, I found the courage to say that today, although it is only in my diary, I write poetry. I may be no Tennyson, but my words have a creative aspect to them. I am a creative engineer aspiring to be a marketer. How cool is that!

Marketing to the Millenials

The digital natives or Millennials as we call them are kids born between 1990 and 2000. They are a unique bunch. They surprise their boomer parents, bosses and marketers. As millennials start careers and enter the work force, this generation is having a huge impact on American life – culture, politics, media, retailing and technology. They are the most informed, empowered generation to date. They are also the most socially connected generation. They are the biggest consumer segment to date – about 20% bigger in size than the baby boomers.

They think differently from any other generation we have seen. They are born with an external hard drive. They do not know what 5 and 1/4” floppy disks look like and they certainly cannot imagine a world without the internet. They form a big, significantly different and a strong consumer segment that we cannot afford to ignore. Companies that align their product design and marketing efforts to this segment’s desires have thrived. Apple, Google, Facebook and twitter are all examples of companies that have thrived by designing and marketing their offering to suit the millennials. In my term paper, I would like to evaluate how marketing and designing for the millennials is different from marketing to any other demographic segment.

This segment does not know the dark pre-internet era. They have spent all their life surrounded by more than one device. They feel entitled and value their online life more than any other generation can ever understand. Marketers cannot afford to continue marketing the same way to Millennials as they do to Generation X or older age groups. Even preteen millennials spend about $43 billion each year and those in their twenties spend thousands each month. In light of all of the above facts, I find marketing to millennials to be a very interesting and formidable challenge. I would like to research over this topic and write my term paper.

This topic is most interesting for me because this is the segment of population that is least understood. Every company is trying to figure out a strategy to court this segment and is looking to new marketers to provide some insight as the college population is most likely to have contacts in this segment.  As a new marketer, this is the most valuable piece of insight I could possess. Also, this segment has already changed the marketing landscape. Traditional print media advertising has been replaced by online advertising. Social media marketing has become a key piece of marketing strategy in any firm. Right from accounting software to potato chips, every product is advertised, talked about and critiqued on social media platforms. Companies employ people to keep an eye on what is being said about their products on social media platforms. Every tech product has a mobile version. I would attribute all these changes to the Millennials and their gadget studded lifestyle. Due to sheer size and uniqueness, I expect this generation to influence the way we do business for a good 30-40 years. It is very likely that the prime target for any business I work in throughout my career would be this broad segment. So understanding them and figuring out what strategies worked with them and what did not adds value to my learning experience.

I would like to research on companies and products that successfully marketed to this segment with an emphasis on how they gained customer insights and how that information helped them design their product offering, their social media presence, and their overall message. This will help me understand and further appreciate the relevance of my “design thinking as marketing strategy” class.

In my term paper, here are the questions I would seek answers to:

1)      How cost conscious is this segment?

2)      Do these guys comparison shop?

3)      Are they brand-loyal?

4)   Who do they listen to when making purchase decisions? Ads? Friends? Parents? Blogs?

5)      What do they like to do in their free time?

6)      What do they aspire to achieve in their life?

7)      Do they prefer green products? Will they pay more for it?

8)      What will they listen to? How to get them to try your product?

9)      Are they savers or spenders?

10)   How much do they influence other segments?

11)   What influences them positively? Social responsibility? Sustainability? Quality?

Here is the set of articles that I can use to get data:

1.  http://millennialmarketing.com/
2. http://upstart.bizjournals.com/news/wire/2012/11/15/state-of-millennials-across-the-globe.html?s=image_gallery
3. http://www.inboundmarketingagents.com/inbound-marketing-agents-blog/bid/249233/Infographic-9-Data-Backed-Ways-to-Sell-Stuff-to-Millennials
4. http://socialmediatoday.com/tara-hornor/1197741/marketing-millennials-do-you-speak-our-language
5. http://www.howcoolbrandsstayhot.com/2013/02/13/marketing-to-millennials-with-social-media/
6. http://www.c-e.com/work/cases

Millennials are unique and require special attention from marketers. They also have high radar for being singled out and stereotyped. While their passions may be similar in some ways to those of older generations, the way they express and pursue those passions is very different. Their overall goal is to express themselves in a way that is true to who they really are. Millennials are especially passionate about things that impact others. What other generations might consider an ‘interest’, Millennials see as central to who they are. They define success in terms of their ability to turn these interests into accomplishments or even a career. Hence their passions are especially motivating. They love brands that involve them. They like to broadcast themselves, express themselves and share views. They like humor and companies that get humor. It will be interesting to delve further into the mind of a millennial and into the marketing strategy of a company that successfully used the customer insights it gained from its social media platforms to gain the acceptance of this powerful segment.

Information access in the Digital Age

Over the past few years, technology has become so ubiquitous that we can no longer recognize it as technology. We all have things we can not live without. Here is a picture showing a few things I cannot live without. 

Why I Love My stuff

These indispensables include my car, credit card, laptop, Microsoft Outlook, Google, Wi-Fi and Smartphone. Car and credit card have become so common that we have stopped thinking of them as technology. In spite of loving my Smartphone dearly, I cannot compose Email on my Smartphone. I can never be sure the spell check did not “correct” my spelling so as to completely alter the meaning of what I wanted to convey.  Also, I need the big screen to look at my Email thread, look at my next week’s calendar, schedule meetings with other people on the exchange server using MS outlook and search for "stuff". So laptop, Wi-Fi, Outlook and Google form one powerful combination that I cannot live without.

I use my Smartphone to tell me where to go and what to do next for each hour of the day. It is my pocket Calendar (synced to exchange server), weather, alarm, camera, text messenger, flashlight, bank, browser, organizer, GPS and phone. I am certain that if I have a choice of having a headache for a day or have my Smartphone not function for a day, I will choose the headache!

The next set of things that I can certainly live without, but I would rather not are Netflix, Bluetooth, Tablets, Microwave and coffee. Tablet PCs for the kids make international air travel with kids almost bearable. These devices are also a boon when trying to complete a homework on time or when travelling by car to Dallas.  Netflix is the content provider of choice for my kids. I could certainly live without this combo. But I'd rather not.

I connect with family and friends a lot when driving to school. Voice enabled dialing in my car coupled with Bluetooth from my Smartphone to the car's speaker system makes my driving safe. I wish there was an audio Email reader. It would make my time waiting in queue on Mopac so much more productive.

Microwave and travel friendly coffee are the only other things that come to mind when I think of things I care about.

What Information do I access
Here is the type of information I seek online.

I use web search a lot. I use it to search for maps, locations, meanings of new terms, details on current events that I overheard and for shopping.  I turn to digital content for expert advice on all topics right from disciplining a child to fixing a leaky faucet. Local traffic and weather is of great importance for me. I look  up that information often from my Smartphone. The picture above shows the information I seek regularly.

When and Where do I access information

My week day is divided in to four distinct parts.

• Pre-workday: This is the time before I reach school. It consists of two parts - 
• The few minutes I check for weather,  traffic, Email and calendar on my Smartphone while getting kids dressed and chauffeured to school 
• The one hour I spend driving to school. I listen to radio for news and current events during that drive time.

• Workday: Most of this time is spent in school. I access quick information on Smartphone. A little school related browsing, Email, Calendar, relevant research is done on laptop also.

• Evening: This is my return drive time which is usually shorter. I listen to NPR and catch up on current events and opinions, world news etc. It also consists of my evening with kids. While entertaining the kids, getting their homework done, cooking and other chores, I always manage to check calendar and weather to plan for the next day.

• Personal Time: The bulk of my information access occurs at this time. Web browsing, sports, business content, school and project related information access, health, sports and shopping is all done from 8 pm-midnight.

Here is a pictorial representation of the above information.

Say Hello to Scott

Scott is 42 year old dad of two. He lives in the suburbs with his wife Katie and works for a Hi-tech firm across town. He is smart, friendly and spent a lot of time early in his career climbing the corporate ladder. He is now well placed in his firm. Katie quit her job when they had their first child Maddie. Now, Maddie is seven and Jaxon is four. He loves his family and endures the daily grind at work only to be a good provider. He often wonders if he is really doing a good job at that. He takes pride in his possessions.  His Acura Minivan, His mid-sized well decorated home in a great school district, his giant screen TV, latest tech gadgets are all sources of pride for him. He wishes to provide his kids with the best gear so they never feel less than anyone in the neighborhood. Katie talks about keeping the kids away from "materialistic rat race". Scott simply nods his head but in his heart, he disagrees with her. He remembers how he felt when every kid in the block had a watch or a cool toy and his parents denied it to him even though they could afford it. They probably had a reason just like Katie's but it made Scott hungrier for cool gear.

Katie got quite upset when Maddie asked Santa for an Ipod last Christmas and Scott/Santa cheerfully obliged - that too with two Ipods, to make sure Jaxon wasn't left out. She could never understand what a four year old could do with an Ipod. To Scott, it was just a few hundred dollars well spent to see the sparkle in his daughter's eyes. He was after all reliving his childhood through them. He felt that it was unfair to “force” the kids to live in a well-off neighborhood to get the benefit of a good school district and then not provide them with competitive “equipment” which they could easily afford. He had learnt over the years not to argue with Katie though.

Lately, Scott has been thinking a lot about financial security for his family. He is aware of Katie's efforts to find a job over the past 2 years. He also knows in his heart that for a 40 year old woman to enter work force after seven years of break is next to impossible. He is researching good avenues to invest their nest egg.  He wants to ensure his family has something to lean on if he loses his job or if something were to happen to him. He keeps good health and is generally health conscious. He rides his bicycle every weekend and visits the gym quite regularly. But his sedentary job and frequent Happy hours with colleagues are beginning to take their toll. He has been acutely aware of his increasing waist size ever since he turned forty. Scott tries his best to look good and young. Other people’s perception of him and his family matter a lot to him. He works very hard to please his boss and colleagues at work. But he works even harder to look cool and trendy when he is out with his friends.

He takes his family out to one cool kid-friendly vacation every summer. He just wishes he could travel less to Disney and more to Cozumel and Vegas. He had a great time with his wife before they had kids. They traveled to exotic places and had done so many exciting things together. He wishes to connect back with that active and young Katie who loved to live every day to the fullest. He was not even aware of their different view-points on "overly materialistic outlook" as Katie calls it until a few years back. He tried to encourage Katie to come out of her routine and do something for herself. He tried giving her Spa gift certificates which she never used. He loves the fact that his wife takes such good care of the kids and him but he never wanted to marry Betty Crocker. He fell in love with the girl who was more active and fun loving than most guys he had seen. He is now determined to bring that Katie back.

To start his own venture is his big dream. He had been wishing and planning for a decade now. It is never the right time. He worked with a couple of friends several times on some business ideas. They would do some research and gather data and then never execute on it. Several times, he had started web development projects which start with a bang the first week or so and then slowly come to a grinding halt. It was always some project pressure at work or something he had to do for the family. He tells himself and others that he could never find a good idea or partner or seed money or time. Or that the economy isn’t strong enough for a new entrepreneur to start his venture. But in his heart he knows - He is just too worried about the risk of failure to take the leap. He sometimes tells himself that if Katie hadn’t quit her job, he could more confidently quit working and focus on setting up his own business.

He believes that if he is successful at setting up his own business, his kids would have a strong starting point in life. They would never need to work for someone else. A well developed successful business would be his gift to Maddie and Jaxon who would jointly manage this business after he retires.