I’m back in Huskvarna, enjoying Swedish November in it’s prime. This is a usual period for me to concentrate on work, improving routines, catching up on reading and attempting to outrun treadmills in a local gym. The time is also right to gather my thoughts and reflect on my current experience. Thanks to a small push from the corporate communications department (hej Karin!), I also get to share them with you.

Andriy2

It’s been over a month since the start of my marketing assignment. It was perfectly timed to kick off with the Global Online meeting in Frankfurt, Germany. At the moment, Husqvarna Group is in the middle of rolling out the next generation of websites for all its brands across tens of markets all around the globe. This is a large scale undertaking, which goes beyond a trivial design update, challenging the way we approach user experience in an omni channel environment, redefining content management practices and setting up a number of important building blocks that will shape the online presence of the company for the years to come. It’s a very exciting initiative and the timing is perfect for me to contribute. Expect updates!

Still, it was more to the Global Online meeting than just aligning teams with the current state of affairs. All four days were full of workshops, best-practice sharing and inspirational sessions with our partners. One of which had a rather surprising twist for myself. We were in the middle of a vivid discussion about the innovative possibilities offered by new technology and suddenly I found myself to be the most skeptical person in the room – something you would never expect if you’ve ever met me or read any of my previous posts. However, that was the role I had to assume in the discussion, as my perception was that the participants were mainly overoptimistic about the technology and hardly ever mentioned unavoidable limitations, placing trust and hoping that the technology will contain a solution in itself – a classic silver bullet illusion.

You might also to refer to it as ‘panacea’ or ‘magic pill’. Essentially, all of these terms describe the same, comfortable to a human mind belief into an ultimate flawless solution to a complex problem. Typically, it can raise two types of issues: endless search for a silver bullet or ephemeral confidence that you had already found it. I’m personally much more inclined to the former one – I can spend days chasing a mirage of a better solution that will solve more general problem and excel strategically until somebody taps me on the shoulder and reminds of the deadline. However, it requires more than an injection of pragmatism to fight off the later pitfall, even though the solution is very similar in nature – the key is to have your team rightly balanced with people of diverse personalities and backgrounds that can look at a problem and assess solutions from different perspectives. Obviously, building such a team is a problem on its own and, keeping in line with the main message of the post, do not expect me to provide a bulletproof solution to that. Nonetheless, do take a look at Predictive Index. All the Global Trainees were introduced to this tool during our visit to our American headquarters in Charlotte, USA. It has proven very effective for The Husqvarna Construction Division and might benefit you too.

Even though no solution is perfect and technological limitations should be always accounted for, sometimes it’s useful to cut them loose and let yourself dream. This is exactly what a group of designers from our office in Stockholm did, which resulted in an exciting concept for our future products. Check out this video. It’s a great inspiration for us all at Husqvarna Group and fills me with the confidence that my future with the company will be anything but boring.

Cheers!
Andriy Shyshka
Global Trainee
Digital Solutions and Services