Welcome to the CX by Design Ideas newsletter, a monthly mailing from Lis Hubert and Diana Sonis, with a focus on sharing human-centered ideas for business. A massive THANK YOU to each of you for being here!

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Los Angeles, Friday, November 1, 2019

November is always a funny month, at least here in the U.S. It's not quite the holiday season, but we know it's not long until one family gathering blends into the next, and Dean Martin starts singing "Baby It's Cold Outside."

The end of the year also ushers in a more reflective mood. Our clients take stock of what worked or didn't. We, at CX by Design, do as well. 

One lesson stands out above others. Let me illustrate it with a story I recently came across.

A guy sits down for brunch in a restaurant and asks for tap water. The waiter tells him it'll be 50 cents because they filter the water 5 times. The guy says, that's ridiculous. The waiter says, I know, I've been trying to talk the owner out of charging for tap water, but no luck. 

The lesson here is about listening. Not just hearing, but real, immersed, empathic listening (aka Active Listening). 

Human-centered design has a lot of complex angles to it, but none are relevant if the business and its owners don't learn how to listen. And, it's not just listening to customers. Employees matter too (especially when these employees come in direct contact with customers). 

There are still two months left in 2019. How have you been practicing active listening? And, if you forgot, that's ok....how will you practice in November and December? Respond to this note and let us know.

To our readers in the US, we wish you a happy, plentiful Thanksgiving holiday surrounded by family and friends. To those outside of the US , we wish you the same happiness and plenty, sans turkey.

Cheers,

Diana Sonis
Founding Partner

It’s been mentioned time [1] and again [2] that Active Listening is a key component to exercising empathy. Further, we all know by now that empathy is a main focus of practicing Design Thinking. Despite this, we often notice that although many companies intend to practice active listening, they sadly miss the mark. We believe this miss is due to a failure in truly understanding what Active Listening means.

Practically speaking then, how do you start practicing Active Listening in customer interviews now? This is what we aim to discuss here. To do so we’ll share the steps to Active Listening which we follow in our research efforts

There is one key way to know if you’re not practicing active listening during customer interviews, and that is you find yourself more in your head, than in the head of the participant. What does this mean? Usually it looks something like this.