I run my business on an inviolable rule: why precedes how. You must nail the beingness of an outcome long before embarking on the doingness of getting there. Seth nails it:

Tactics tell you what to execute. They’re important, but dwarfed by strategy. Strategy determines which tactics might work.

Read more.

Step out onto a street corner. Hold up a sign with a work assignment. Passersby offer solutions. You pick one and use it. Do that on the web and you’re crowdsourcing. Anyone can play. You pick the winner.

Crowdsourcing recently brought a 16-year gig to an end for Lowe, a major UK ad agency. Their client, Uniliver, decided to cast their fate with the crowd. They’re soliciting the public for a creative way of promoting Peperami in exchange for a $10,000 prize.

You may already be participating in crowdsourcing. If you’ve purchased a stock photo online, bought tickets from Hotwire, or shopped on ebay, you’re in the crowd; searching a site for goods provided by an unseen crowd of providers.

If anyone’s defined Crowdsourcing, it’s Wired Magazine’s contributing editor, Jeff Howe, author of Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd Is Driving the Future of Business:

“Crowdsourcing is the act of taking a job traditionally performed by a designated agent (usually an employee) and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people in the form of an open call.”

Google is now using crowdsourced surface street traffic data. By turning on the crowdsourcing function of GoogleMaps on your smart phone, you become part of the traffic data crowdsource. Google admits it will take widespread participation before the data becomes reliable.

Howe believes Crowdsourcing is driving the future of business. But, it has limits. For instance, The Washington Post reports how recent efforts to crowdsource a restaurant served up mixed results; evidence some things are not meant for the crowd.

Ready to call on the crowd?

Before leaping to crowdsource an assignment, be warned: getting what you want requires the ability to explain the assignment in the providers native language. Do you speak Artist? Designer? Writer? Results vary based on this one factor: if they can’t see what you want, chances are you won’t get it.

Crowdsourcing works best when you can so clearly define your objective the crowd not only understands, but self-selects down to the competent few capable of delivering. If you’re vague, you’ll wind up wasting time wading through unusable submissions.

The two leading sources for design crowdsourcing are crowdspring and 99Designs. I’ve used 99Designs and found the work far exceeded my expectations. However, it taught me the time-saving importance of defining the assignment clearly. While I’ve not used them, Crowdspring was the first into is another resource in the space with a well-earned reputation. Testimony to the effectiveness of crowdsourcing: Jason at 99Designs tells me crowdspring crowdsourced their logo via 99Designs.

Crowdsourcing will demand a higher level of your involvement than calling in a trusted single vendor or staff person. Effectively using this approach has a learning curve to it–more time invested. Over time, though, effective use of crowdsourcing will net you a fresher perspective than possible with traditional talent pools.

Crowdsourcing won’t win you any designer friends. Some see perils in the process. When Forbes published their profile on crowdspring, it triggered over 100 responses, most of which I wouldn’t repeat in mixed company. Here’s a relatively tame example:

“If 100 designers enter work, 99% get screwed out of their time. From the clients perspective, he can hire staff of 100 designers for 2 bucks an hour. It should be illegal.“

The point is well-taken. Regardless of what you’re crowdsourcing, do so with integrity:

• Make a precise request.
• Offer a fair reward.
• Narrow to a few finalists.
• Be reasonable with revisions.

Understand that while it’s finished product to you, but it’s time and treasure to them.

Crowdsourcing may not drive the future of business entirely, but it provides an alternate route to fresh solutions for selected applications in businesses of every size.

Running errands Saturday morning, I saw this scene unfolding in a bank parking lot. Morbid curiosity got the best of me and we pulled in to get a closer look.

Customer Appreciation Day

There was no signage explaining what was going on (or inviting people to participate). So, I had to get out of the car and ask the lone employee manning the folding table what was going on.

“It’s customer appreciation day, would you please sign in?” he told me with well scripted enthusiasm. Sign in? To be appreciated?

I don’t think so. There was one kid jumping incessantly, a guy waiting to do chair massages, and a pop-up tent way on the other side of the parking lot with cold drinks, popcorn and lots of brochures about bank services–more chances to be appreciated, no doubt.

Appreciating customers is wise business practice. Doing it in a hot parking lot, disconnected from your branding message is beyond lame. It is, as my kids say, FAIL.

Appreciation is a practice, not an event

Customer appreciation isn’t something you do, it’s the way you are. How quickly do you respond? Do you get it right the first time? Are customer expectations exceeded, or merely satisfied?

This is a pass-fail test and your customer grades your work. Having to tell customers you appreciate them probably means you don’t understand what appreciation looks like to them. Tune into the customer’s felt need. Go beyond satisfaction regularly. Being thankful is so much better than just saying it.

A moonwalk in a bank parking lot doesn’t enrich my experience of the bank; there’s no benefit. They might as well have rented an inflatable pink gorilla instead and put it on the roof with a sign reading, “we want you to think we appreciate you.”

Everyday is customer appreciation day. Lose a few and you’ll find them even easier to appreciate.

By the way: I blotted out the bank’s name and faces of those involved in the promotion. I’m sure they’ll appreciate that.