A Tasty Exploration of Israeli Cuisine

November 2, 2017 Movies

For my love of discovering new tastes, I caught up with a Netflix documentary called ‘In Search Of Israeli Cuisine’ also due to my keen interest in Israeli traditions and culture. I have always believed a lot has been misinterpreted and misunderstood about the State of Israel given the geopolitical nature of the Middle East, and so apart from the military and tech industry news that I keep reading here was a documentary that presented me with a hitherto unexplored food lifestyle of Israel.

The documentary is guided by Israeli chef and restaurateur Michael Solomonov who is on a quest to find if there is indeed such a thing like ‘Israeli Cuisine’. The film follows Chef Solomonov to over 100 locations (or so I’m told) through the Israeli hinterland in search of unique culinary experiences, and on a scenic tour of Tel Aviv, Nazareth, including a place called Taverna near the Sea of Galilee for the taste of freshwater fish and crabs, and the Golan Heights to indulge in the choicest Israeli wines. It wasn’t until the the early 80s and the economic boom when Israelis traveled great lengths as tourists, experiencing the western world lifestyle and realized they needed to develop and nurture a distinct flavourful identity that is established from locally sourced ingredients only. A cuisine that is their own.

The documentary traces Israeli flavours and texture from the Jewish communities of Ashkenazi and Sephardic and outlines the uniqueness it has brought to local cuisine. Basically, the Ashkenazi Jews have their origins in Eastern Europe, and the Sephardi Jews in the Iberian peninsula (Spain and Portugal), besides also gaining its rich taste from middle-eastern cultures such as Iraq, Jordan, and Lebanon. Chef Solomonov profiles home cooks, chefs, farmers, and even food writers to get to the depth of Israeli food traditions and local recipes with an elaborate history behind its source, and also goes hunting for dishes on the streets and hotels of faraway cities in Israel.

Although there were mostly non-vegetarian dishes (being a vegetarian) it left me awe inspired to learn that Israel is a historically rich land of multi-faceted ethnicities and customs whose food is not just influenced by Arabs, Christians, Druze, and Jews but also Moroccan, Turkish, Uzbek, German, Iraqi, and even French culinary traditions.

How the Customer Acquisition Process Is Changing in SaaS

November 1, 2017 Design

Aptrinsic’s CEO, Nick Bonfiglio writes an insightful summary of customer experience and customer acquisition in SaaS.

Beginning with how the traditional customer acquisition model has worked so far, Nick says…

Think about the correlation between downloading a whitepaper, opening an email or visiting a website and the buyer’s intention to purchase a product. Can you truly say with much certainty that these buyer activities strongly indicate an intent to purchase? No, you can’t, yet this is the criteria marketing uses to determine when it’s time to pass a lead to sales.

Owing to digital transformation, customers can now access information about the product through other channels including the web, mobile, the social media, and online customer reviews such as the likes of Amazon, which leads to self-buying journeys. The preceding practice of gathering customer information & applying the notion of having acquired a sales lead through lengthy forms has ceased to exist to exist today. Nick points out,

As a result, your prospects are no longer willing to wait and jump through lead forms to try your software. Simply put, they now expect to try a product early in a buying cycle. In other words, SaaS prospects are saying, “Don’t tell me how great your product is; let me try your product and judge for myself.” And if you don’t make that possible, prospects will turn around and sign up to try your competitor’s product instead.

He cites apps like Slack, Asana, InVision, etc. as prime examples of early customers on-boarding which do not ask prospective buyers to fill forms but they engage with them through a ‘freemium’ product model.

It is an insightful article which I believe, would be valuable to product managers and designers as they strategize on product designs. It’s also a wonderful narrative on customer acquisition which is one of the most important facets of product management today.

Source: How the Customer Acquisition Process Is Changing in SaaS: Don’t Tell Prospects About Your Product, Let Them Try It!   | OpenView Labs

Understanding The Scope of Lean UCD Methodology

October 31, 2017 Design
from Using the User-Centered Design (UCD) and Human-Centered Design (HCD) Methodologies, this is an attempt to capture the meaning and to introduce the ‘Lean UCD’ framework.

As a consultant and architect, I’m privileged to be using both the User-Centered Design UCD) or Human-Centered Design (HCD) frameworks in complex projects, and it’s natural to have pondered over the difference between the two. These frameworks have helped me set aside deep-rooted biases and bring empathy into product designs which the end-users were delighted to use. I did write about the difference between Usability vs UX some time ago, though I always wanted to present a third approach to this methodology called Lead UCD that I predominantly use in the context of reactive product design strategy, in that, I’ve to strategize upon a user-friendly product within limited time and budget and with no prior knowledge of its background is critical. The challenge would be judging user behavior patterns purely based on cynical user data.

While bringing a user-centric focus on the problems individuals & teams often consider several frameworks to reach a consensus on the design in collaboration with cross-functional leads particularly in the guidance of a UCD expert. So what would be a better framework to follow – UCD, HCD or a Lean UCD? Read on.

Continue reading…

‘The Kite Runner’ Is An Adventure of Emotions!

October 28, 2017 Movies
“The Kite Runner’ portrays a present-day saga of friendship, redemption, and sacrifice against the backdrop of strife-torn Afghanistan.

I had come across some rave online reviews about the movie ‘The Kite Runner’ based on the namesake book authored by Khaled Hosseini, and when it finally released on Netflix I watched it this weekend. To put it mildly, I was blown away by the casting and characterization of the script! ‘The Kite Runner’ is a saga of brotherly relationship between juvenile buddies Hassan and Amir set in the glorious backdrop of the city of Kabul in the 70s, mired in catastrophic events that unravel the true characters of the young boys as they grapple with forces of time. It’s a beautifully crafted screenplay directed by Marc Foster which released in 2007 and nominated in several categories at the Golden Globes and the Oscars.

‘The Kite Runner’ paints a poignant portrait of Afghanistan in its esteemed history, characterizing the capital Kabul as I have never seen before on screen, and will probably won’t for a long time. It left me gasping in surprise and wishing to visit Kabul. In the midst of a nation moving towards destruction lies the innocence of 2 young boys, Amir, and Hassan the son of a servant, who would selflessly scale any height to fulfill the ambitions of his affluent bosom buddy. Until political disturbance ravages their beautiful hopes and separates them for eternity. The gruesome ‘Talibanisation’ of Afghanistan and its fall from grace is metaphorically visualized through Amir’s innate emotional battles which result in his quest to take up a perilous journey to his native land to redeem his past.

The movie is a bestowal of faith in human ethos and celebrates the virtues of emotional bonds that are unfortunately shattered in the suppression of freedom, in that, I found ‘The Kite Runner’ as a perfect narrative for today’s microcosm of human suffering through its message of faithfulness, love, and the price that we must pay to keep our dignity in strife. Also, against the grim betrayal of human values, ‘The Kite Runner’ succeeds in delivering the message of redemption in a heartless time that we find ourselves entangled today. It’s a must see!

Quotes – Don Norman on UX

October 27, 2017 Quotes

It is not enough that we build products that function, that are understandable and usable, we also need to build products that bring joy and excitement, pleasure and fun, and, yes, beauty to people’s lives.

Don Norman