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The London based Branding studio that loves Simplicity.

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problem solving

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Listen Closely

Shhhh. You hear that? It's all the people talking about you and what you're interested in. We are living at a great time, it has never been easier to listen to what people are saying about you, your company, your brand, your services and products. It has also become very easy to listen to what people have to say about your industry and what you're interested in.

This comes with a drawback, the channels are available and are free so there is a lot of noise. When the channel is free, open and almost anonymous it's easy to vent and talk poorly about others.

What you have to do is listen closely and develop the right filters so that only valuable information comes to you. Having that information will help you understand what people need, what they like, what their problems are and what are the underlying causes. This will help you gain insight into their lives and come up with solutions to help them.

If you have something that can help them, know how they communicate and what "language" they speak, then it is very easy to promote your products to them. Just learn to listen closely and carefully, and pay attention to the valuable information filtering out everything else.

Filed under  //  Branding   Branding Thursdays   brand   listen   problem solving  
Posted by Harry Mylonadis 
 

Do Mindful Work

Here is a tip I learnt through my Zen practice that has helped me a lot when trying to come up with ideas and/or solutions to various problems.

If you are stuck on something and can't come up with a solution or idea, stop and do some mindful work. By work, I mean doing any task that doesn't require "thinking" and problem solving, it can range from washing dishes to taking a shower or doing some other manual task. Being mindful means that while you are doing this task you need to focus on the task. I know it's hard, it took me time to get there and I still find myself getting out of line. While doing the task just focus on the task at hand (describing to yourself what you are doing really helps) and let your subconscious do the work.

After you have finished you will feel refreshed and some ideas/solutions will probably come up that you couldn't think of before.

Filed under  //  Inspiration Mondays   Zen   ideas   mindful   mindfulness   problem solving  
Posted by Harry Mylonadis 
 

What Happened at RewireLondon

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Last Tuesday was an amazing day. For those of you that couldn't make it or where not in London that is when RewireLondon took place. It was a great day to exchange ideas, experiment and be creative. Everything happened at a fluid environment that allowed pop-up workshops, discussions and experiments.

We were running the co-creation area where people could come with their problem and we tried to solve it collectively and creatively. In total we solved three problems, had brilliant discussions and made important connections. So here are the problems and a brief note on their solution. 

 

Problem #1: How can I make money out of online content (e.g. magazine) without looking like it's "sold out"?

Problem1

This problem came from a person that has an online magazine that combined literature knowledge and technology. Although the content of the magazine is very well researched and helpful, there was no strategy for revenue. To solve the problem we started drawing out what the site is and what the target audience is. Instantly we moved to looking at what's the value of the magazine and understanding that the person running it was the most valuable asset. Having identified that, we looked at how revenue could be generated from different streams (premium content on the site, ads, consultation to publishers, education/seminars to publishers). Having an open discussion and people with different views and backgrounds we then moved to how value can be generated by creating a community around the site.

 

Problem #2: Accommodating diversification and niche. How do we not spread ourselves too thinly, whilst trying new things?

(download)

Deciding to go niche or not is always the problem for people starting up in business. To solve the problem we started looking at how diversity and niches interact. The turning point of the discussion was when we looked at the definition of niche. In ecology, niche is "the position or function of an organism in a community of plants and animals". Taking this definition and translating it to business we understood that being niche helps you be part of a wider community and in order to do that you need to engage in collaborations. The discussion then moved on to analysing collaboration and thinking about how collaboration works and how it can evolve. This is a topic that was brought up consistently throughout the day and I will talk a bit about it at the end of this post.

 

Problem #3: Well-being (Physical). Often exercise is an independent affair. What ways can it be combined for public/social good? (e.g. The Good Gym)

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Last problem of the day was on the subject of well-being. We started looking at well-being and fitness in every imaginable way and focused more on identifying what well-being really is. Most of the times well-being is associated with "fitness" as promoted by certain stereotypes, instead of that we looked at what makes people happy and promotes not only physical but also mental well-being. Our discussion moved to looking at which social causes can be empowered and at the same time increase the well-being of the individual.

 

Bonus topic: Collaboration

Throughout the day the subject of collaboration kept coming up on every discussion. We are avid supporters of collaboration and we work closely with various companies and individuals (see partner list on our website). The barriers of collaboration is definitely a difficult topic that cannot be solved in an hour. We are experimenting with other collaborators on this and more stories will be posted soon.

To sum up, RewireLondon was a big success and received great reviews from people attending (look for#rewirelondon on twitter). We also want to thank Sinead and Alison for organising everything and we look forward to the next one!

Filed under  //  collaboration   creativity   design thinking   events   problem solving   rewirelondon  
Posted by Harry Mylonadis 
 

minimoko will be at RewireLondon Next Week!

With less than a week left for RewireLondon we are getting very excited about the day of the event and what we will be doing at the co-creation area. A lot of people have asked us about what will happen at Mini-bar One and we thought the best way to explain it is to write a short post about it. The area will be hosted by Harry and Elena from minimoko and we asked Harry to tell us about his plans for the area:
via rewirelondon.org

Next Tuesday we will be hosting the co-creation area at RewireLondon. We have just written a post on the RewireLondon blog about what will happen during the day. So head over towww.rewirelondon.org and book your places before time runs out!

 

Filed under  //  design thinking   events   problem solving  
Posted by Harry Mylonadis 
 

minimoko @ RewireLondon

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We are very excited to announce that we have been invited to host the co-creation area at RewireLondon on 8th June 2010 at Richmix.

RewireLondon is a one-day co-created, experimental and energising event for creative freelancers and businesses. The co-creation space will take place at Mini Bar One and the purpose will be to bring together people to brainstorm and find creative solutions to problems. We will post soon what the format will be and how we will select problems to be solved.

For more information and to buy tickets, head over to http://www.rewirelondon.org/

See you there!

Filed under  //  brainstorming   design thinking   events   problem solving  
Posted by Harry Mylonadis