Imagine you can pass the challenge of growing your business to your most ardent customers. What would that look like in reality?

Entering an adjacent market is more than a simple transfer of competencies. The sooner you accept this, the faster you find the right adjacent market that values what you offer.

Companies sometimes risk over-optimizing their operations around a single metric hoping to drive growth. Invariably, they create a situation where they reward behavior and outcomes that go against the best interests and long-term strategy of the company.

Cross-pollinate your strategy influences. Keep an eye on what’s happening in other industries and innovative companies beyond your familiar set. There’s a bias for executives to look inward within their own company, maybe even study the past, or look at their peer companies to craft strategy. Sometimes the smartest strategy might be to borrow effective strategies from other industries and make it your own. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel always!

Why stop empathy mapping at the user or customer level? Why not extend it to every stakeholder in your company’s ecosystem? Let’s not use empathy mapping strictly for user experience design alone. Let’s think about empathy mapping as a collaborative tool for value creation for every stakeholder.

Articulate your value in a unique manner for every customer or customer group that you come across. Link it to specific impacts on their business. Develop case studies to show how you can deliver on those business impacts.