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Marginally Better S01E24: The Wrong Metric
The number on your dashboard isn’t what your customers are grading you on. The ER study that found waiting-room minutes don’t predict satisfaction, the paralyzed Ritz-Carlton executive who rebuilt how one of America’s largest health systems talks to patients, and why flights are officially more on time even though they take longer.
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Marginally Better S01E23: The Capacity Catastrophe
What happens when demand finally arrives and your business can’t hold it: the IRS lowering its own phone-service goals after fixing them once, the retailers who win December with homework in September, and the one-woman pudding shop whose viral moment sent its owner to urgent care — until she closed at the peak of the…
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Marginally Better S01E22: The Onboarding Opportunity
Companies spend fortunes winning new customers, then lose them in the first five minutes. The banks bleeding clients at hello, the magic number that told Slack which teams would stay, and the 1985 video game level that taught millions of players without a single word of instruction.
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Marginally Better S01E21: The Forgotten Middle
Businesses obsess over new signups and superfans while the majority in the middle quietly drifts away. The gym study where the most profitable members barely show up, the loyalty programs built for VIPs, and the Microsoft Office team that rebuilt its whole interface for the silent majority.
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Marginally Better S01E20: The Review Revolution Reversal
After two decades of chasing five stars, the rating that actually sells is lower. The Northwestern research on why perfect looks fake, the $4.2 million Fashion Nova cover-up, and why your three-star reviews are the most valuable feedback you own.
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Marginally Better S01E19: The Employee Experience Paradox
Your customer experience can never rise higher than your employee experience. The research that measured it, the Costco case study, and a two-question test you can run on your own company.
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Marginally Better S01E18: The True Cost of Bad Customer Experience
What do a billion-dollar retail collapse, a broken app, and an abandoned shopping cart have in common? They’re all part of the same hidden bill, and most companies don’t realize they’re paying it until it’s too late. In this episode of Marginally Better, Joe Taylor, Jr. breaks down the true cost of bad customer experience. Not as isolated mistakes, but as a slow, compounding erosion of trust…
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Marginally Better S01E17: The Repair Relationship Revolution
A century ago, companies deliberately made products that wouldn’t last. Today, that model is being dismantled—by regulators, by consumers, and by a new generation of businesses built around repair, not replacement. In this episode of Marginally Better, Joe Taylor, Jr. explores the repair relationship revolution—from sweeping right-to-repair laws reshaping global manufacturing to companies like Framework…
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Marginally Better S01E16: The Community Currency
A productivity app on the brink of collapse rebuilt itself in a small apartment in Kyoto—and a decade later became an $11 billion company with 100 million users. What changed? Not the product alone, but the people around it. In this episode of Marginally Better, Joe Taylor, Jr. explores the rise of community as currency—why…
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Marginally Better S01E15: The Transparency Tax
In this episode of Marginally Better, Joe Taylor, Jr. examines the transparency trap: how brands learned the hard way that revealing everything can erode trust, fuel criticism, and even cost millions.
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Marginally Better S01E14: The Senior Surge Opportunity
In this episode of Marginally Better, Joe Taylor, Jr. breaks down the trillion-dollar gap between who has the money and who businesses design for—spotlighting winners, common “youngsplaining” mistakes, and simple UX fixes that boost conversions for everyone.
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Marginally Better S01E13: The Waiting Game Winners
Americans spend 37 billion hours a year waiting—about 118 hours per person—but smart brands are turning that dead time into delight. In this episode of Marginally Better, Joe Taylor, Jr. breaks down the psychology of waiting (why underpromising and overdelivering works, why occupied time feels shorter, and why fairness matters), and shows how Disney, Trader…