The Umami Strategy

The ability to stand out in using the umami taste and flavour metaphors is a real game changer not just for designers but for business executives at large. Experience Design as a value driver in business for both sides of the equation is powerful . [a:Aga Szóstek|17488501|Aga Szóstek|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1513195634p2/17488501.jpg] doesn't only write about it, she does is in daily practice. If you are in business or in experience design, both in strategy and execution, I recommend this strategy approach wholeheartedly..

I enjoyed reading this book so much and I can recommend it to anyone who wants to explore new ways to create customer value and design memorable customer experiences. The book is filled with lots of practical and actionable tips on how to create an experience strategy and the numerous real-life examples make it really easy to read it and provide additional insights.

Umami is packed with ideas and knowledge – there is so much to learn. Yet the feeling of being lectured never arises. Instead, it creates the impression of joining a thoughtful conversation in which Aga Szostek shares inspirational examples, business insights, design recommendations, psychological studies, as well as personal and professional anecdotes. This book on experience design is an experience in itself.

Umami is the name of a flavor described first about a century ago in Japan. It is something that adds extra taste to food. The idea of the author is to add such an extra motivating flavor to the design of products and services so it stands out.

In my opinion the book elaborates on the work of the "Blue Ocean Strategy" by Renée Mauborgne and W. Chan Kim. The added value of the Umami Strategy is that the author gives more practical explanation how to investigate product satisfaction and how to find and define the extra "umami cherry" on top of the cake.

The book is imho useful for bachelor and master level design and marketing. I can imagine this book becomes mandatory read in these educations.

Another important group that might benefit from the book are the people in startups that create new products by technology push. These are typically found on crowd funding platforms. The book will help startups to see how to explicitly differentiate their product from the competition. As consumers get less interested in underlying tech, which has become a commodity, the difference between a good and an amazing product or service will be essential for startups to bridge the gap to larger markets.

As a non native English speaker I find the book very readable and accessible. The examples given are well worked out and the graphics although simple do support the story. Like the book so much I already bought a copy for a friend.

Learning to see our everyday world with fresh eyes is one of the most difficult challenges we can ask of ourselves. Aga's writing profoundly and permanently shifted my perspective. These pages contain that same magic - a special invitation to see the splendor of this reality through Aga’s extraordinary lens.

A philosophy that every entrepreneur should use as his base to build on.

This is one of the most valuable books I have read and worked with recently. This book is setting the tone for the new standard. 'Just' selling a product is since long an outdated concept.
The client wants to know more, feel more, being part of a story, being part of an amazing experience. The customer wants to get inspired and belonging to, the book is guiding you to find the right recipe for your organisation.

I can recommand it for everyone who wants to formulate an aligned strategy for nowadays business. As we all know that the values of customers are shifting and companies have to think beyond their established standards to convince their target.

Umami Strategy is bringing you back to some ground principles of how I can not only replying to a customers need, also to excel in every field and he gets an outstanding experience in the end. Umami Strategy is for all people who are interested to rethink their own business or setting up a new one. The book is easy to understand for translating the theory into a practice case. That makes this book so unique in the way it bridges this and why it helps me so much.

Aga Szóstek did something extraordinary: she wrote a short, insightful and practical book on the experiences for business folks: sponsors, business owners, product managers and product owners.

Her book has got firm ground in science (over 250 references!) and is based on the work of such authors as Marc Hassenzahl, Noam Tractinsky and Daniel Kahneman. Luckily, she knows and how to explain complex and complicated ideas in a simple and engaging way.

The book consists of three main parts. In the first part she explains how to discover a competitive advantage basing on experience design. The second part describes how to implement a strategy for product experiences and how to build metrics for them. The last one shows how to maintain and improve experiences over time.

I find the second part the most insightful. It is stuffed with techniques and almost ready-to-use templates for workshops and meetings.

If you are a product or business manager, I definitely believe you will find this book invaluable.

I recommend Aga's book to everyone who has any interest in strategy, not only experience strategy, but business strategy in general. The book balances the amount of theoretical knowledge with great actionable tools. It certainly will make me come back to it often in the future. At the same time it is very rich and well written. Excellent work.