A Little Bit Of Joy Goes A Long Way.

Shite products and services are ignored. Or quickly forgotten.

Why not Sony Experia? Why American Airlines less and less?

In contrast, why Monzo or Virgin Atlantic?

Products and services which evoke feeling, and spark emotion, win.

They are not the sum of their rational parts.

They move something in the hearts and minds of the people who use them. It might be delight or fun or safety. Or joy.

We choose products and services to tell a story about who we are. People use American Express, for example, because it tells a story about who they are and their place in the world. Offers and points might make me feel good about my choice, but the choice happens elsewhere, beforehand.

Joy comes in many forms. Ease of use is joyful. Feeling safe is joyful. Delight is joyful. Humour is joyful. When my expectations are exceeded - just a little, that’s joyful too. You are judged through a lens of joy.

If you fail to design and create for joy you will lose relevance and resonance.

Joy is not engineered. Joy is imagined. Joy is designed. Joy is the product of creative, intuitive leaps. Joy is a product of a quantitative and qualitative leap; of the rational and the emotional, of the heart and the mind.

Inspired and inspiring people can imagine joy. Miserable people can’t. Teams which are sat on, squashed, milked and abused… they can’t create joyful products, services or businesses.

The journey to joy starts with the right conditions; how teams are set up, managed, rewarded and incentivised. It starts with the questions they ask, the inspiration they take, the environments they work in, the connections they make. To design a positive feeling, they need to feel good.

Your company’s ability to create joyful products and services starts - and maybe ends - there.