Design & Innovation

I got a little sidetracked this week and haven’t posted what I gained from days 2 to 4 from our trip. I know its late but figured it would still be applicable.

Day 2: SAP was awesome and I think it was because I had no idea what to expect. Everyone did really well on the design challenge presentations and it was interesting to see all of the different ways the project was approached and presented. Professor Yoo’s and matt Halloway’s presentations were good overviews of design and business and Professor Yoo’s example of digitizing real world experience to create other experiences with the mens urinal was awesome. Innovations like the mens urinal with the buzzing fly that keeps score is a perfect example of bringing the human experience into technology and then using technology to create another positive experience.

I found Neutron’s approach to branding unique in that they considered themselves the shrink to companies going through change. This is interesting because change is probably the hardest thing for companies to manage, which could be why many unconsciously choose not to change and eventually die off. I still left that day kind of curious how Neutron approached their clients and the process they use to be effective change agents, but I was intrigued by their overall approach.

Day 3 - Stanford and the D-School were awesome. How can we get a D-School experience here now, is how I felt. I found the fact that the first class students in the D-School focused, Extreme Affordability to be very appropriate and I like how it challenges the traditional notion of design as something that looks good and is expensive. Anybody want to create a D-School?

Ideo - Ideo was the quintessential design firm. It was great to see their space and see how they actually have fun and organize themselves to be creative. The support for such an atmosphere from the top of the company is so refreshing and made me envious. I found Peter’s examples of transformation by design to be very powerful and pertinent; the cue cards for nurses and hospital administrators to begin talking to patients and the color coded name tags to differentiate between patients and visitors in the waiting room both seem so obvious but when implemented change the lives of the people who use them. Also the framework Peter presented at the end of his presentation was a good visual representation of the process for integrating design.

Stanley Saitowitz/Natoma Architects Inc. - The most insightful part of this visit was seeing the transformation of an idea into a design for a space. The example he gave was a client that said they were looking for a space that represented the idea of “water”. It was interesting to see how that idea was represented as a space and how different constraints, such as budget, would need to be take into account to design that space.

Day 4 - DeSimone - Seeing the structural engineered perspective of Gehry’s buildings really showed how he forced all of the people involved with his projects to be innovative. It was also cool to see how involved Marco would get with the final design because of how much it relied on the structural engineering. The presentation really spoke to the need for collaboration between all disciplines in a project.

Wow, what a whirlwind of a week it was in San Francisco.  Now that I have had time to decompress, sleep in, and review my notes I figured I would share some insights from each of the visits last week.  May end up being a few posts.

Matt Mullenweg – Founder of Wordpress and Automatic.  What I found most interesting from Matt’s discussion was how the company distributes workflow and how the employees communicate with each other.  For a company of that size where the employees are scattered across the world the passive chatting through blogs and twitter makes sense.  The chatting results in real time discussion and a better alignment of work to prevent duplicated efforts.  I know much larger companies are trying to implement similar systems.  It will be interesting to see how they manage liability and communication.

Yahoo – The best part of the visit with Yahoo was the range of presentations.

Marc Davis’ presentation on the future of mobile computing was interesting from a futuristic point of view.  However I thought his most apt point was when he said that “the most fundamental design problem is the design process itself and we must rethink most basic assumptions.”  In a way I think this is where the process of design thinking starts. 

Klaas Kaasgaurd’s presentation on customer insights was unique because he really spoke to the overlap of market research and user centered research, by saying both are important.

Luke Wroblewski’s presentation focused on three main points that have caused design to be more important in business.  First the fact that markets are maturing faster means that design as a method for differentiation matters sooner in the business or product life cycle.  Second, design thinking allows companies to better adapt to the continuous flux of information in today’s society.  Third, due to the increased complexity of peoples lifestyles and products design helps to invoke meaning and apply context.  

The articile “Culture and Context: What Japanese gambling and American bike messengers can tell us about the future of brands.” on Frog Design’s blog site discusses fixed gear bikes and the future of branding. The article uses the current hipster trend of fixed gear bicycles to exemplify the move towards niche and individualized market segments. The fixed gear bicycle predated the geared bicycles we know of today. A fixed gear bicycle is one where the pedals are locked solid to the chain and wheel. This means if the bike is moving the pedals are also moving, there is no coasting or gears. This type of bicycle results in fewer parts to break and a closer connection to the road by the cycler. The hipsters’ adoption of the fixed gear bicycle shows the trend towards individualized experiences not based on brand. The article also mentions that the increased number of customized forms of media results in consumers having the ability to choose their experiences rather than accept the established brands. This interests me for two reasons, one, the implications on mega companies that attempt to speak to large diverse market segments and second, the rise in choices and available information is pushing individuals to take a “design” perspective on life choices.

The implication of this rise in the ability of individuals to make their own choices and define themselves through multiple brands means companies need to focus more on the specific consumer and learn to become flexible. The article mentions using ethnography and qualitative research to understand the latent needs of niche groups and to define the context that influences their choices.

The magnitude of choices we have today means navigating our realities has become a much more complex ordeal. A “design approach” to our own experiences could lead to more personal realities and ways to present ourselves.

Link to Article

On Thursday I went to Cirque du Soleil (Kooza) here in Philadelphia, and besides the fact that I would recommend everyone to go (it is awesome!), I think it demonstrated the complexity of great design. With the complexity of design I mean the related and interactive design of acts, costumes and make-up, the stage, the band, and the variety of materials they use. All the pieces fit perfectly together, which makes it an unbelievably exciting and well-run show, which lasts for about 2.5 hours. The acts showed the unlimited source of human talent, the costumes demonstrated the perfect combination of form and function, and the band perfectly played into the nature of the specific acts. I think the integration of different kinds of design really is what can make something successful or not, and Cirque du Soleil has been able to master this complexity. 

A few weeks ago, we got to see a preview of what Alter Hall will look like from the inside. As we were watching the 15 min video, it amazed me how many aspects of design come into play in this huge project. There are a couple of things I wanted to elaborate on.

In the center city building there are classrooms in which outlets are only built into the walls. People will actually come to class early in order to find a seat near the wall to make sure their laptops can be plugged in during class. In Alter Hall, they made sure to have outlets on every desk, so that all students have access to them.

Also, in Alter Hall, they wanted to stimulate communication between faculty, therefore they designed the stairways so that professors will have to take the same stairs and thus should run into each other during the day. It is an interesting way to encourage conversation and communication.

Lastly, since Alter Hall is attached to Speakman Hall, they wanted to make sure the entrance from one building into the other would go unnoticed. If it would be a drastic change from one building into the other, it might create a sense of inferiority or superiority, which does no go with their idea of ‘one’ business school in two buildings.

In this example, and I think in every new building, the design really influences how well a school (or company, business, organization etc) can execute its mission and vision and in the future.

Process, process, process. I have to keep reminding myself that the process of design is what is important, not the final product. Kind of like considering the drive to your vacation house as part of the vacation itself. My first hand experience and initial interest with this idea originated from discussing art with my artist fiance. What I found most intriguing was similar to Gehry’s approach to architecture, the lack of a presumed outcome. What I am finding and learning is that the ability to work within constraints without presumed outcomes is a learned behavior and can be improved upon and it starts with recognizing the idea exists and practice. The implications in business of gaining a deeper understanding through the design process are numerous, many of which are mentioned within this blog.

To further understand the design process I recommend befriending an artist and discussing their process of creating art and attempting to make some art yourself.

Here are some free art classes in Philly. http://www.fleisher.org/

I recently read a McKinsey Review interview with Brad Bird, who is an Oscar winning director for Pixar which discusses his approach to nurturing innovation and creativity.  It is a general management overview that has interesting cross business aspects.  Bird discusses the need for the top executives to allow crazy ideas to happen and let the people with “other” ways of doing things have the opportunity to try their theories.  By doing this at Pixar and motivating through the use of scare tactics, Bird was able to produce inherently more complex movies for less.  He also mentions the need for team involvement in the development and design process so that team members can learn from each others mistakes while also offering solutions.  In addition contrary to what many companies say regarding focusing on the customer as the sole purpose of design inspiration, Bird states that to get others to be interested and believe in your product it needs to also be something that you believe in and want to use.  And the most important point of the article was “The first step in achieving the impossible is believing that the impossible can be achieved.”   

To read the article you will need to sign up to be a member (which is free).  It is definitely worth it, there are a lot of interesting and insightful articles.

http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/home.aspx

I only recently learned about the Blue Man Group (I’ve never actually seen a show), and immediately made a connection to this class. As we talked about Cirque du Soleil as a blue ocean in some of our classes, I think the Blue Man Group found a blue ocean strategy as well. It has been able to creatively integrate music, theatre, design and comedy in order to entertain its audience. The creative integration of these elements really makes the Blue Man Group stand out from other entertainment shows.

As I did more research about the Blue Man Group, I learned that its unique and innovative way of entertainment is popular in various parts of the world, as well as to a broad range of age groups and cultures. Its success shows the demand for such a new and “different” kind of entertainment. This also applies to Cirque du Soleil, which also has become a popular and exciting new form of entertainment. Below are both websites for the Blue Man Group, as well as Cirque du Soleil.

http://www.blueman.com/index.php

http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/CirqueDuSoleil/en/default.htm

“Giant Steps” is a Jazz piece by John Coltrane that was released in 1959 that uses symmetrical patterns derived from a mathematical representation of the musical scale. 

GiANT STEPS is an animated short film by Michal Levy based on John Coltrane’s jazz piece of the same name.  Michal Levy uses vibrantly colored cubic animations to exemplify the musical score of Coltrane.  I was intrigued by how the creation of this visual representation of music as an animated film parallels the design and innovation process.  Using the music with its mathematical structure and digital media as constraints, a wonderful and creative visual representation is created and the resulting animation changed my perception of the music from when I had heard it previously. 

Check out the animation (only 2 minutes long) and read more at Michal Levy’s website

http://www.michallevy.com/