Editor and news media executive Grzegorz Piechota views social media first of all as a work area. And for this area not to disappoint or give rise to unpleasant revelations, it’s necessary first of all to study it in detail. That is, to become familiar, understand, and comprehend users’ demands and wishes. 

Polish-born Piechota is a research associate at Harvard Business School in the US and is an adviser to media companies, helping them develop a digital strategy and get a new product to the market.

He will give two talks at this year’s Tvapatum media conference, sharing with participants his experience and the ways to earn money in the digital world. 

During the I Am the Media master class, he described the steps that help shape Design Thinking. That is to say, the method that helps to create and produce human-centered digital products that people need. 

“To understand how to create products that people will want to buy we, first of all, have to focus on the future. Technology and the market change so quickly, and what is current today is no longer applicable tomorrow. For example, you can’t teach students something that they won’t need two years later. To create a good product in the digital world, you need to think about not only technology, but also people,” he said.

People are made up of interests, basic demands, dreams and wishes — and not only consciously, but also subconsciously. Piechota suggests getting acquainted with all this patiently and through various polls.

“It’s important to remember that we don’t evaluate our consumers; we merely get acquainted with them. That is, we collect information about their demands and problems, recognizing that very often what they say, think, do, and feel may be different.”

Only after you know your audience is it possible to create a good digital product, including also on social media. Piechota asked not to forget that a media product is created always for a specific audience, which of course can be broadened, but at the initial stage is always very clear. 

Design Thinking implies that after knowing your audience, you have to filter the problems, follow up, and formulate targeted questions.

Piechota recalled that good companies don’t endeavor to immediately release to the market a large and expensive innovative product, but the opposite: they focus on testing hundreds even thousands of simple and inexpensive types of products. “A simple product is easy and quick to test, and so, the possibility is great that it will satisfy the audience’s demands.”

At the Tvapatum conference, Piechota also will talk about “Who wants to be a millionaire in social media?”and “Who’s the most powerful editor in the world?”

Nune Hakhverdyan