BizTech
EXP#
14
Surely Influence
Surely Influence is a free, browser-based application that helps people understand how others may prefer to communicate and prepare more effective approaches to everyday interactions.
02
Context
People communicate, think and make decisions differently, yet we often approach everyone in much the same way. Personality frameworks and influencing techniques offer ways of understanding these differences, but they're rarely presented in a format that's immediately useful in everyday situations. Surely Influence set out to bridge that gap: combining an established personality framework with a practical influencing methodology to help people understand others, adapt their approach and prepare for conversations where the outcome matters. The aim wasn't to teach people personality theory. It was to make that knowledge useful without requiring them to understand the theory behind it.
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The Challenge
The biggest challenge was turning a sophisticated influencing methodology into something anyone could understand and use. The underlying model brings together personality preferences, ranked influencing techniques and potential responses to stress. But presenting all that information directly creates complexity. Users shouldn't need to understand personality types, learn influencing terminology or study behavioural psychology before they can benefit from the application. The real challenge was making the experience simple enough for a complete beginner while preserving the depth of the original methodology.
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Research
We started with an influencing methodology developed to connect personality preferences with practical influencing techniques and approaches to managing stress. The original material was structured into 16 personality profiles, each with prioritised influencing techniques, practical instructions and examples. We translated this methodology into a digital application and tested it with early users. The feedback revealed an unexpected challenge. People initially struggled to understand what the application could do or why they might need it. However, once we explained the concept and demonstrated how it could help with a real situation, their reactions changed dramatically. This shifted our focus from simply building the influencing engine to making its value immediately understandable. The experiment remains in early testing; we haven't yet established whether its recommendations consistently improve conversation outcomes.
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Insights
The key findings that shaped the direction.
01
People understand the value before they understand the methodology
Early users struggled to see the purpose of personality assessments and influencing techniques when these were presented as separate concepts.
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Practical advice matters more than personality labels
Knowing that someone has a particular personality type isn't especially useful if you don't know what to do with that information.
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Understanding people is only the starting point
Personality preferences can provide useful suggestions, but they cannot predict exactly how someone will behave.
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How decisions were made
01
Start with the conversation, not the personality assessment
We redesigned the experience around what someone wants to achieve.
02
Preserve the methodology but simplify how it's presented
We retained the original personality profiles and ranked influencing techniques rather than replacing them with generic communication advice.
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Adapt recommendations to the situation
An influencing approach that seems appropriate under normal circumstances may need adjusting when someone is frustrated, rushed or under pressure.
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Help users learn from what actually happens
We introduced conversation reflections so users can record whether they achieved their objective, which approach they used and what they learned.
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Solution
Surely Influence is a free, browser-based application that helps people understand how others may prefer to communicate and prepare more effective approaches to everyday interactions.
Ranked influencing techniques with practical instructions, plain-English explanations and examples of what to say.
Guided personality assessment to explore someone's likely communication and decision-making preferences without requiring specialist knowledge.
Conversation reflections and learning from previous experiences to help inform future approaches.
Personalised conversation preparation that considers the objective, potential objections, observed behaviour and pressure.
