how design triggers transformation presented by tjeerd hoek

The perspective from a design innovation firm

 Tjeerd  Hoek  October  13th  2010  

Transforming a business or organizations is a BIG claim …and not one we tend to make upfront.

But it does happen…

WHAT  WE  PROMISE  OUR  CLIENTS…  (AND  I  AM  NOT  PITCHING  TO  YOU)  

what (we say) we do   We help the world’s leading companies create and bring to market meaningful products, services, and experiences.  

INSIGHT We discover market opportunities through deep insight and intuition.

TECHNOLOGY We leverage emerging technologies to define new product concepts and experiences.

INSPIRATION We express opportunities in rich, visual form to inspire and motivate organizations.

IMPACT We create lasting brand equity and business impact across multiple organizations, systems, and technologies.

DISCOVER

RESEARCH BECOMES INSIGHT

Through design research, market analysis, and strategic evaluations, we gain insight into a company’s brand identity, user base, existing assets, and market opportunities.

DESIGN

INSIGHTS BECOME IDEAS

We develop an informed design that will answer the challenge posed by the market that will be useful, usable, desirable and technically feasible.

DELIVER

IDEAS BECOME REALITY

In order to guarantee the translation of idea to reality, all project details are specified, documented, and delivered to the client, and supplemented with full production support.

how (we say) we do it  

The central problem facing business today is change. Tangibly embodying change – products, services, systems, organizations – is one of the most important things we do.

Tangibility for clarity. Tangibility for testing and validation. Tangibility for communication & inspiration.

innovative insights inspire innovative design.

Design Research acknowledges that people are not masses of statistics and bullet points, and forms the foundation for our process and insights.

People are living, breathing, feeling, adaptable beings. We engage people so we can observe their behavior and allow them to meaningfully convey their motivations.

But… it’s difficult to predict success

Really, we actually cannot predict the future either

Villemard,  1910  ‘En  L'Ans  2000’  

Are designers just parasites of disruption?

Or are they the catalysts for change?

Design can certainly brings fresh perspectives, and different approaches

IMPROVEMENT CHANGE

RISK & FEAR

PRECEDENT

“We have to do that!”

“Why would we do that?”

Business leaders are overwhelmed in assessing new technologies, consumer behavior, products and business models. It is di!cult to estimate the value of the future.

By the time a company organizes and acts, it is often too late and becomes di!cult to establish a market presence that is meaningful or profitable.

The innovation loop

INNOVATION  

INNOVATION ITERATION PRECEDENT

TRANSFORMATION

“What do we want to do next?”

We help organizations break free of the innovation loop by bringing into practice an end-to-end development model that focuses on iterations in the market.

“What can we become?” This frees up business leaders to focus on how the organization should

be managed to grow and adapt, transforming itself in the process.

Breaking the innovation loop

“If I had asked people what they wanted more of, they would have said faster horses.”

- Henry Ford

“It is not enough for a man to know how to ride; he must know how to fall.”

- Old Mexican proverb

Accepting the cost of failure

Embracing the coarse process

Making it: Seeking the conversation with the artifact

From vision to making the design a reality

INSIGHT DESIGN BUILD

then development

teams “build it”

“the planners, strategists

and design researchers

do their thing”

then the designers

“design it”

FAILURE  POINTS  

INSIGHT DESIGN BUILD

convergence of design

with development

convergence of

insight with design

3rd level of convergence:

prototyping, development, engineering

become a source of ideas directly

impacting the vision and the solutions.

INSIGHT DESIGN BUILD

convergence of design

with development

convergence of

insight with design

“The Artifact” Concrete results

“The Story” Ideas & insights

Anatomy & Building Blocks (technology, engineering, domain knowledge)

Three key components

SKILL-DRIVEN KNOWLEDGE-DRIVEN

HOW  WE  SEE  COMPANIES  STRUGGLE  WITH  “INNOVATION”  

Commonly heard from our clients…

We  already  tried  that,  and  it  didn’t  work.     No  one  is  asking  

for  that.  

We  need  something  totally  new  and  different  from  what  everyone  else  is  doing.  

We  already  solved  that  problem  in  the  

upcoming  version.  

We  already  have  that  feature.  You  can  already  

do  that.    We  don’t  really  know  what  people  actually  do  aTer  they  

buy  our  product.    

Death by too many painful hurdles

“HAVING” the feature is not enough… if nobody can actually use it.

Whatever is here, is what the user actually cares about, and considers

“mission accomplished”!

And note: those hurdles are NOT the objective!

The organization chart showing through in the experience

TEAM  2  

TEAM  1  

TEAM  3  

TEAM  4  

TEAM  5  

TEAM  6  

Making yet another ‘better’ mousetrap

Feature fatigue Complexity in the value proposition Good enough for customers

Beating the tyranny of ‘good enough’

It’s not about designing V-next; rethink the complete experience.

There’s only a small delta between a FAIL and massive success.

The ‘small’ differences between experiences: “oh we don’t really need all that!”

Everything’s been done - and shipped - before (and… so what? Let’s do it again, and better!)

Simon Smart Phone IBM& Bell South 1993

Bill Buxton CHI 2008

We must differentiate ourselves!

Beauty and passionate attention to detail… The last, hard and expensive x % of the work

Did nobody just give sh*t or something?

Innovation is very expensive and easily commoditized

How much to invest when perceived value of your product is eroding to zero?

<Jobs?>  

Could we become too adamant about the innovation imperative?

Being  outside  vs.  inside  •  A  lot  of  what  we  do  is  essenVally  paid,  high-­‐speed  R&D  –  it’s  tough    •  Having  to  sell  your  work  is  very  different  from  being  “at  the  

organizaVon’s  disposal”  without  a  contract  or  dollar  amount  •  Spend  a  lot  on  ‘the  story’  and  constant  communicaVon/reviewing  •  Not  ‘owning’  the  full  trajectory  (just    working  on  a  part  of  the  

process)  •  Not  having  to  do  infinite  re-­‐designs  •  Not  being  present  all  the  way  to  shipping  to  explain,  detail,  and  

defend  the  integrity  of  the  design  •  Changing  of  the  guards  -­‐  we  someVmes  end  up  being  the  owners  of  

knowledge  •  Hard  to  fix  organizaVonal  roadblocks  in  the  client’s  org  •  A  lot  of  work  ends  up  not  making  it  into  the  hands  of  people