Don’t Use a Blackberry

If you can't experience the present fully, how can you imagine the future?

I was a crackberry for the longest time. Even after my company gave me a free Android phone my reaction was: “Pah! I already have an ultra-secure keyboard toting email monster. And yes my Blackberry has a browser. I don't need games. And why the heck would I need apps?”

So continued hold my Blackberry close to my bosom, loving every moment of it.

Embarrassingly, it took me at least a year to realize that I did not really understand why mobile was important, to realize that consumers were doing incredible things with their phones, and to realize my wife – who got my free G1 in 2008 – was using her phone in creative interesting ways to make her life more efficient and productive.

The problem is not that I was not smart (I am!) or that I did not read enough tech press (I do, too much!) or that I did not keep up with the iPhone and the ads for apps on TV and all that other stuff happening around me (I did!).

The problem was… I was simply not experiencing the present myself. I was not living it.

When that happens, you lose perspective. You can’t imagine new possibilities, you can’t bump into serendipitous insights, you lose the ability to feel the pain/joy that your customers feel, you worldview becomes non-normal.

One day, mid-2009, my Blackberry Curve 8900 cracked, and before my next one arrived, a peer leant me the prototype of an upcoming Android phone. It took me less than 24 hours to realize how career-limiting it had been to stick to the past.

Since then I’ve designed mobile strategies, applications, experiences that have brought a lot of delight and joy to customers (and money to the companies I work with). But only because I could experience the present.

So if you have a Blackberry, including the Z10, go get an iPhone. Or the Nokia Lumia 925. Or an HTC One. Drag your mind and body to the current, experience it, and let your mind wander to new possibilities and world changing ideas!

PS: It should be obvious that this is not a post about Blackberry, it is just a vehicle, a personal experience, to deliver a key point. It should apply to you, even if you are selling bread or working at a non-profit or the world’s most boring B2B company. Ask yourself: Am I fully experiencing the present?

PPS: If you are looking for specific examples of the types of insights I’ve come to in my non-Blackberry world: Mobile Marketing 2015: Rethink Customer Acquisition, Intent Targeting.