“If you build it, they will come.”
We’ve heard the line used so many times. First coined in the movie “Field of Dreams,” its meaning has been morphed into a rally cry, inspiration and motivation to produce something. When lack of involvement or acceptance hinders the production of an idea or service, many turn to the this sentiment as the soothing nudge to move forward. Put your effort into building it, and you will be rewarded with people using it.
In the digital space this has been a mantra. The early days saw rushes to launch websites, then portals (remember them?) and most recently “communities.” The approach has been very much the same; build it, and they will come. Fortunately, we’ve grown. We’ve realized that it may not be quite that simple. Things like focusing on building for user needs, designing for search and online marketing have morphed the “build it” sentiment to read more: ”If you build it, they will come, with some help.”
It’s been a good evolution, and has fueled deeper analysis and learnings on how people actually engage. The digital space is almost unrecognizable today than it was even a few short years ago… some would argue, even a handful of months ago. As we continue to evaluate the learnings of this evolution as applied to the “build it” sentiment, a few influential lessons have repeatedly risen to the top:
- They need to know where and what ”it” is (search, marketing)
- They need to know “they” are the “they” it is built for (emotional engagement, experience)
- They need to be part of building it (involvement & ownership)
Think about that last bullet point. If you believe that this is true, it fundamentally shifts the “build it” paradigm. It means it is not our sole responsibility, nor is success built upon what digital “stuff” we can design and produce in the space. So what do we do then? We acknowledge the paradigm is shifting and rewrite it. I believe it reads more like this today:
“If you ship and guide it, they will build.”
The most sustainable successes in digital today are those initiatives that do this very thing. Our role as talent in the digital space is to ship and guide, not build. Yes, we produce artifacts for our customers, but they are now tools for them to build with, rather than the house to live in. We must stop building and constructing to plans, and start shipping ideas, vision, tools and context, and then guide the building process with our ongoing involvement and curation.
How do we do this? In simple terms, as a first step, try giving your customers a paint by number, rather than a finished portrait. Then move to a coloring book, a connect the dots, and perhaps when the time is right, a sketchbook and a pencil with a subject to draw. In every case, you will have empowered those you want to engage with the tools and direction, and allowed them to build. People want to be involved. Our role is no longer to produce the flawless, magnificent baseball field in the corn. It is to equip them to build a place they can play baseball, and a space to do it.
Food for thought… how does this shift affect the way we approach our work? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
First, just pure awesome, my head is spinning. Then, I think about your deciding what not to decide. If we decide too much if we paint too much of the picture they will come and not feel they can make it their own. Perhaps not what that post was about but I see the two thoughts/concepts tightly intertwined after reading this one.
Thank Jim! It wasn’t a conscious decision to build one post off the other, but your observation is spot on, they are very relatable. It’s going to be increasingly important to give as much thought to what not to complete as to what we create I think. The exciting part is that we have the ability to facilitate something even greater than if we did it alone.
Love your stream here, and the question “how does this shift affect the way we approach our work?”. The reason I enjoy the question so much is that I firmly believe that this approach is what shapes restaurant2.0, and that IS my work. *sidenote – you called it food for thought, pun intended?
So much of what you’ve written here rings of “community”, which I now consider to be the very foundation upon which any solid restaurant, scratch that, business, is built upon in this age of new and sharable media. (Actually, it’s always been this way, it’s just that with the assistance of sharing in the public domain it’s become a bit more obvious.)
As Jim eluded to above from your post, it’s the “make their own version” that inherently builds the community and thus the feeling of ownership in my mind. Quick, someone get Mike Rohde over here to sketch this sucker out.
What a great post Cindi. Thanks for some great Sunday reading.
Hi Joe… Happy Sunday.
Agreed. While obviously the sentiment shift is discussed in digital terms here, the application is proving out across all types of business. Success is built through involvement, and like you said, it always has been. But it seems the digital space has amplified that expectation for people. It used to be that a customer was delighted to have a say and that translated to loyalty. Involvement now cannot be something that delights, it is required.
The guidance part is so important as well though. Many think this shift means they have to give up all control of their brand or vision, and I just don’t think that is the case. People want to help and work to build, to morph to resonate with them, not start from scratch. In the case of your restaurants, they want to share and contribute to the vision you’ve established and started, not fundamentally change it. If you give people a sandbox and sand, you won’t end up with an aluminum structure. So our approach to our work needs to take into consideration that we still have a responsibility in how things turn out. We just need to shift our thinking to what our role really is, and what our outputs end up being.
And if Mike sketchnotes the ideas in this post, I would be giddy!