OK – Dave Pollard has done it again. (This is why I lurk on this man’s blog.) He has taken some insights from Bill Buxton (the same human-computer interface guru who spoke at SLA when it was in Toronto in 2005) and used Bill’s “sketching” concepts to drive some information product ideas. Dave says:
We’ve identified about 15 distinct customer ‘segments’ with clearly different needs for the five types of research ‘products’ we offer:
- Awareness products: Reports that filter and distill the firehose of information out there down to short, succinct explanations of what’s happening in the economy, the industry and society as a whole that would appear to be important and will probably affect our customers.
- Research products: More in-depth reports that explain what these current developments and trends mean to our customers — how these developments are affecting our customers and how they’re dealing with them.
- Guidance products: Reports that suggest what our customers should do in response to these developments.
- Events and spaces: Facilitated seminars, workshops and meetings, in physical or virtual space, that allow our customers to help each other learn about or act on these developments.
- Tools: Applets, online or on flash memory or CD, that help our customers self-assess their knowledge or understanding of these developments and their implications to their businesses.
I will paraphrase again something Dave said when he spoke at SLA in Denver — from the mouths of business leaders: how can librarians / information professionals help me to solve my business problems? If you can answer that question, that will prove their value.
Well, I think Dave has handed us a template for the types of information products that could have an impact on business leaders and their organizations and prove our value. Can we do it?
To read Dave’s full post, see: