How is your cell phone user experience?

Verizon has decided that they should probably get ahead of the curve and open up their wireless network. As reported yesterday, Verizon will lay out the technical guidelines which will need to be used by mobile device manufacturers if they’d like to sell their wares to the general public for use on Verizon. In some cases, this won’t be a huge leap from where they are. For example, lower cell phone models will initially work without an issue, but as the network is upgraded throughout the next couple of years, those same manufacturers  will need to make sure they look forward to meeting the guidelines of all carriers.

Every company is in business to make money, but this is a positive step forward for a large company.

Years ago when the Superbowl commercial was aired pointing out how kids everywhere wanted to be a “yes” man, I was on the job market. I had been looking for a replacement for my creative agency job. It never happened, and I’m actually quite glad I didn’t take a couple of offers due to the volatility of both the financial and employment sectors.

It was envious to some and the content of case studies to others that Monster.com had been one of the first, real profitable success stories of the Web. They had survived the bubble burst because, let’s face it, the ones who placed their information online in a desperate attempt to hold dearly to their overvalued lifestyles were those directly related to the burst itself.

Monster.com would ask you for anything and everything and for those of us who were dead set on protecting the image of the Web by touting its security (fools!), we gladly gave over our names, addresses, entire history of employment, and even our salary history. In some cases, we answered questionnaires that focused on our grocery habits and the way we purchased vehicles and other big-ticket items.

What we didn’t do was keep an eye on how the information was being handled.

Unfortunately, Monster.com wasn’t either. At least, they didn’t keep up with the best methods for protecting the fact that I had purchased two cars in the span of six months.

A second issue has been brought to the attention of the masses who use their site that they were possibly subjected to malware and other atrocities due to the fact that they weren’t carefully monitoring their back door.

Monster.com has a huge problem on it’s hands. It needs to rebuild from a self-inflicted brand wound. It needs to cure itself from brand destruction and it needs to do it soon.

This once jewel of the Route 66 of Internet history is now a second-time offender to the security of the information it has been asked to protect. How do they rebuild the trust? How will they turn this around?

Monster needs to get some airplay on soon about how they care about security and trust, but that’s only going to happen once they publicly admit that they’ve made some sloppy mistakes.

I wish I could go back and stop TJX, The Boston Globe and Monster.com and all the other careless back door hole companies from letting my information roam free, but that’s not going to happen. I am still happily part of the trusting masses, albeit a little less trusting these days.

The only thing I can do now is deal with the Monster itself.

It seems appropriate to head into the Thanksgiving holiday with a post about my gut.

That gasping for breath was just me trying to get out of the Numbers application for a moment. You see, the large marketing ROI spreadsheet that should have been developed, discussed, battered and presented should have been done so by a CPA or a CFO or a CFML or a QWERTY or some other string of letters has been sitting on my desktop for about three months. It’s been collecting dust because I don’t need to look at the spreadsheet to know how things are going with certain pieces of the business.

And herein lies the issue: When I speak to the Marketing person for one of our clients, the first thing they ask for is our “set of numbers”. I don’t and couldn’t give numbers for something we have yet to produce, but I can give you one thing: my gut. My gut is a far more talented thing that can be used to sense evil like some gastronomic superhero. It can tell me when I’ve got less than a minute to answer to a question in a sales situation because the person to whom I’m giving a pitch is less than interested because they mistakenly used that 31 minutes on their Friday calendar (at 4:30 PM) to schedule our meeting.

My gut is powerful, but sensitive.

My gut can tell the future of certain events in user experience. It can sense when we’ve got a designer who is going down the wrong path and needs to be reigned in a little. And, of course, it can tell me when I’ve spent far too much time trying to “prove” something is working when we have an increase of 25% in sales for a customer’s online shopping cart.

The data is necessary. I’m happy to provide it when necessary (you know, when the actual work is complete, not before it’s been performed). It’s there to give us a progress report. It’s there to validate our gut, but it is absolutely not, I’m happy to say, there to replace it.

Try something new.

Working on a project with a large financial data corporation over this past year has taught me that even when your entire business model is predicated on a half of a percentage point, the data is only part of the story. It’s the general human behavior and experience and proper training that can teach you right from wrong.

You may not always enjoy success, but you should feel confident that you’re at least trying something new. Go over the numbers if you must on every single piece of minutiae, but don’t let it stifle creativity. Don’t let it stop you from proposing exciting and different ideas.

Take on the challenge of proving your gut is just as strong as the numbers.

As you return from your too-quick break, remember that the numbers on the scale are really not more important that the feeling of your gut.

It’s Friday (not that Saturday workloads care about Fridays, but that’s another post for another day). We’re tired from a long week of contract negotiations, client interviews and many, many rounds of client creative reviews. However, that won’t stop us from discussing the merits of user-centered design with a non-believer or two.

I’m continuously discussing with peers, family, the dog and the lamppost that I speak to so frequently about the idea that if a “user” (or, to be nice, customer) doesn’t need/want something then you’d be hard-pressed to convince me it belongs in the aesthetic or functional specifications of your Web entity.

How, then, do we find ourselves so often tinkering and playing and working through pieces of functionality or designing widgets and cogs which were not listed in the initial requirements? How do we end up in a place where we, as the vendor, are answering for the client, rather than the client answering why they’ve chosen a specific direction?

It’s befuddling to look at the listed goals of a project only to warp drive three or four months into the future and realize that along the way you picked up some odd passengers.

I think we need to be better at saying “no”.

“The client pays the bills”, you say.

Yep. They also asked you for your expertise in designing and building their online entity. Think of the user. Ask your client to think of their clients. Ask yourself if you’re part of the solution… or part of the problem. It’s okay if you are, but make sure you’re comfortable where you ended up.

And, if you’re strong enough and have had waaaay too much coffee, shout from the top of the rolling cubicle chair without arms, “Back, non-believers!”

Enjoy the weekend.

It’s no surprise that the shareholders from Sirius have approved the acquisition deal of rival XM Radio, but the kicker is how long this process may take and when the shareholders may actually realize any profits.

It’s actually quite fair to think about this deal as the new millennium’s Ma Bell. There is absolutely no competition outside of these two satellite radio providers and there probably won’t be for a while unless Google decides it likes the idea of creating yet another ad revenue stream. (Don’t put it past them. I’m sure they’ve considered it.)

I’m an XM subscriber. It’s because of the baseball package. MLB on XM is my sports fix. All day, all the time. Music? The kids listen to that. I’m interested in the single-season average of the longest-tenured active third baseman who eats Cheez-Its. On Wednesdays. In the rain.

They say the devil is in the details and I’ve yet to understand how they’ll merge these two venues without completely ruining what I already like (and without, I might add, charging me a market-owner price). I’ll stand by and wait, but if the packages don’t meet customers’ approval, then I think we should turn a deaf ear. While I’m sure those shareholders are reaaaalllyyy happy about their future untold fortunes, it’s not going to fly with the folks on the ground.

Keep it real … Sirius.