UNDI stands for “useless noise, delete immediately”.

Read on to see how I realized some of my signals had become UNDI, and how to counteract it.

Recently I became aware of a blind spot in the community I’m building.

Members are getting bombarded with useless emails auto-generated by my community platform.

That bombardment has likely caused them to reflexively ignore and/or delete emails from the community.

  • Meaning they’re not seeing the cool stuff I’m trying to do there.
  • Meaning they’re not logging in.
  • Meaning the community is a ghost town.

With all of the software-as-a-services that virtual businesses rely on today, you’re likely not building your solutions from scratch. I’m certainly not.

Instead, you’re picking up a product that already has some utility built for you.

This product likely has default settings. Both for you, and for your audience.

The blind spot I recognized was that my SaaS community platform’s default email settings are:

  1. Creating confusing, useless noise for the most valued members in The Okrēo’s audience
  2. Habituating them to reflexively ignore emails from me and The Okrēo

This has likely made me UNDI in their inboxes: “Useless noise, delete immediately”.

UNDI isn’t spam. You’ve tuned in to the source of UNDI. When you see it there’s a part of you that justifies why it’s in your inbox, notifying your lock screen, or alerting your desktop.

But that logical part dies quickly, as you reflexively swipe to the side. Click the X. Select and delete.

To understand why this likely happens, let’s look at something I’m calling the Signal-to-Value gradient.

The Signal-to-Value Gradient

Starting with the most valuable.

Invaluable signal

The goal for so many value-makers. In this tier, you’re building evangelists. People inherently see value in your signal, and will work to reinforce it. Your audience has built a positive reflex (sensory adaptation) to your signal.

Valuable signal

This is where you position for growth as a value-maker. In this tier, you’re competing for buy-in. People are showing up expecting value, and you give it to them in increasing amounts. Your audience has a positive expectation towards your signal.

Neutral signal

This is where you likely start. A signal that’s neither useful nor useless. In this tier, you’re competing for attention, then making sure attention is rewarded with value.

Noise

Some part of your signal is misaligned with your audience, so they have a bias towards thinking there’s no value in what you’re saying. In this tier, you’re competing for trust. Hang out here long enough and you become…

Useless noise

Your signal has been misaligned with your audience long enough that they’ve built a reflex to ignore you. Similarly to the ticking clock you can no longer in your own house, your audience has built a sensory adaptation to filter out your signal. Typically, useless noise gets deleted immediately.

Harmful noise

Your signal actively causes some form of pain, discomfort or unease in those receiving it. This builds a reflex to ignore you (best case) or actively seek to mitigate your signal (worse case). Like the smoke detector with low batteries, you’re incentivized to get rid of this signal.

As value-makers we’re lucky if our noise and useless noise get identified and removed when a member of your audience cleans up their signal inputs.

  • This is the afternoon you unsubscribe from all those emails you keep deleting.
  • This is the day you get a new phone and remove half of the apps you weren’t using.
  • This is the weekend you un-follow people who are constantly spamming your social feeds.

If we’re unlucky, they just become part of the daily dusting we all do in our inboxes and notifications.

  • These are the 10 emails you delete that almost always go unopened.
  • These are the notifications for the app you keep reminding yourself to uninstall.
  • These are the people in your social feeds who just take up space.

So once you’ve become useless noise, how do you claw your way back?

Here are 3 steps to undo UNDI

Try these if you realize some of your signals are vanishing into the ionosphere.

1 — Extinguish your useless noise (as the signal’s source)

If you find yourself (or your tools) sending useless emails, stop. Cut out the useless notifications. Turn off the daily digests. Unplug the signal’s source.

2 — For those you were UNDI to, let your signal go to zero for a while**

This both extinguishes their reflex to auto-delete your signal, and gives you time to re-calibrate your signal. In audio, we’d call this lowering the noise floor.

**If habits are anything to go by, “a while” should be 2 weeks to 2 months.

3 — Renew your signal with clarity

If you’ve waited long enough, when your signal turns back on it will be neutral (but perceptible) by your audience. You’re back to competing for attention and making sure that attention is rewarded with value.

Sending signals that get classed as UNDI isn’t a kiss of death, but you certainly don’t want to hang out there.

Once you’re aware of the problem, stop and recalibrate. The reset will refresh your audience and help you come back better and grow in the right direction.