 [
From the Archives of D3 Agency former company
of BrAG founder
Michel Hogan]
Jim Collins, dedicated researcher and author
of best-selling business books “Good to Great” and “Built
To Last” wanted to create a unique learning environment
that would reach a broad audience and allow him to interact
with his ‘students’ on his terms. His web site
had to be a vehicle to teach the ideas generated by years
of research and not a storefront to sell books. D3 was engaged
to help.
The goal of the website provided the challenge:
not to sell products or services, but to teach ideas through
a rigorous presentation of information. Over an 8-month time
period, D3 overcame the challenge by creating a rich, interactive
learning experience that utilizes a “Socratic” architecture
built around questions, and intuitive navigation mechanisms.
Before the site could go live, it was important
to determine how Jim Collins’ “students” would
react to the new site. D3 constructed a beta testing program
involving about 40 students, that asked specific questions
to enable quantified feedback. The feedback was then filtered
by the overall goals of the site identifying the site elements
that would and wouldn’t be changed. In addition to the
enormously insightful comments, the feedback provided ideas
and suggestions that will be incorporated into future development
of the site.
The sight launched in the fall of 2002, and
turned out to be a learning experience for everyone involved.
The outcome was a powerful online learning forum that teaches
visitors to the site about the ideas and philosophies generated
by the research of Jim Collins and his team of “chimps”.
D3, an agency founded upon the idea of marketing ideas, products
and services through strategy and design, learnt the power
of incorporating a “teaching” perspective into
how they think. And Mr. Collins came to see one of the research
ideas in action with his site becoming a “technology
accelerator” for his students.
“This project was different for everyone
involved,” said Nadine Pyter of D3 Agency. “The
entire process was measured against how well an idea or message
was communicated in a teaching context. It was a whole new
experience. ”
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