The Negotiation

In this episode of The Negotiation, we speak with Elaine Ann, Founder and Director at Kaizor Innovation, a consultancy that helps companies research, strategize and design new product or service innovations for the China market. Elaine and her colleagues will step in as Fractional Chief Xperience Officer to help funded tech startups with their Product-Market Fit, Customer Discovery, and Customer Validation. Elaine is also the author of the book Xperience Innovation, in which she details a seven-step innovation methodology to guide foreign companies in creating products and services that translate well in the China market. We discuss the differences between UI, UX and CX; how to know when you’ve achieved “product/market fit” in China; defining the “fractional” C-suite executive role and function; and why it is vitally important to build the right local team when expanding to China. Enjoy!

Show Notes

Topics Discussed and Key Points:
●      Working in the APAC market
●      The differences between UI, UX, and CX
●      What is “product-market fit” and how do you know if you’ve achieved it?
●      Why neglecting to build the right local team is one of the biggest mistakes a foreign company can make
●      Tools that Kaizor uses to collect and interpret data for clients
●      Defining the “fractional” C-suite executive
●      Elaine speaks on her seven-step methodology to creating products and services that successfully cross cultural barriers between the East and the West
 
Episode Summary:
Today on The Negotiation, we speak with Elaine Ann, Founder and Fractional Chief Xperience Officer for Tech Startups at Kaizor Innovation, a consultancy that helps companies research, strategize and design new product/services innovation for the China market.
Elaine is the author of the book Xperience Innovation, in which she details a seven-step innovation methodology to guide foreign companies in creating products and services that translate well in the China market.
From 2006-2020, Elaine was the organizer for IxDA Hong Kong. Since January 2021, she has organized events for the Vancouver chapter. The nonprofit aims to advance the discipline of Interaction Design through a series of international events that bring together members of the IxD community. Today, IxDA has over 100,000 members and over 200 local groups around the world.
Elaine speaks on how she helps her clients home in on product-market fit, which includes a good amount of cross-cultural translation, whether the company in question is in the F&B or health & wellness space.
Without understanding differences in the market, a company will not be able to design, much less sell, a product that fits that market. Elaine explains how important this reality is, since even refrigerators and vacuum cleaners in China are designed differently to those in America.
Cars, which are primarily owned by the well-off in China, require different marketing as well. This goes especially for higher-end brands such as BMW, because owners of these cars usually hire drivers instead of driving themselves. “So, now, who is the end-user?” says Elaine. “Is it the person who buys the car or the person who drives the car?”
 
Key Quotes:
“Sometimes, our biggest challenge is that our clients don’t know what they don’t know. [...] Once they land in a different country and they experience the place for five-to-ten days, they notice all these nuances. But it’s harder than if they’ve never been to China.”
 
“In the U.S., everybody drives. In China, the people who own cars are relatively well-off. The people who own BMWs most likely hire drivers. So, now, who is the end-user? Is it the person who buys the car or the person who drives the car? And the person who drives the car may have grown up in a village and can’t even read that well. So, the whole context changes when you’re in such a different market.”
 
“China is very good at micro-innovations and refining something that already exists. But in terms of fundamental innovation, I still think that U.S. companies have an edge, and it has to do with education and culture.”

What is The Negotiation?

Despite being the world’s most potent economic area, Asia can be one of the most challenging regions to navigate and manage well for foreign brands. However, plenty of positive stories exist and more are emerging every day as brands start to see success in engaging and deploying appropriate market growth strategies – with the help of specialists.

The Negotiation is an interview show that showcases those hard-to-find success stories and chats with the incredible leaders behind them, teasing out the nuances and digging into the details that can make market growth in APAC a winning proposition.