Big design champion Bruce Nussbaum, editorial page editor of BusinessWeek stressed the value of front-end research for understanding consumer behavior. His pointed out the need to implicitly comprehend our society's "box" and what it contains in order to "think outside of it" and innovate. Only then can society's needs, desires and cravings can be met. This is evident in Oxo's Good Grips products, where "The Box" became the mantra of Universal Design, allowing access to all products by all people, regardless of age, physical health or mental acuity.

The National Box has changed, according to Mr. Nussbaum, in sudden, "seismic" ways since 9/11. Overnight our concerns with markets, money, speed, celebrity, personal needs has shifted to something drastically different. He believes that our "hyper-consumerism" will continue, but with markedly different values. Already this is evident, while we live in a "war box," with increased sales in gas masks and security systems and the sudden change in our vision of a national hero: from the stock jock of the '90's to the construction and rescue workers, those real people "who sweat." As the glory of the marketplace fades, real homespun values have resurged, even governing public servants have become immensely important again. This box isn't done changing, either, and Mr. Nussbaum called on the community of designers to continue evaluating and responding to its new landscapes.

Testament to this need, he turned over much of his allotted time to a protracted Q&A / group discussion, allowing several interesting themes to emerge. Ol' Tucker V. got this ball rolling with a comment on how hard it is for America to deal with the fact that the freedoms and openness that are integral to our society made us so prone to attack from outsiders that we've always welcomed to join us. Thinking about just-in-time ( JIT ) inventory control systems, the automatic-debit toll-paying transmitters ( "EZ-Pass" in NYC ), and other devices, suggests applying such technology to better "filter" people at borders, airports, and other public areas for security and surveillance, while maintaining, at least the appearance of, the openness we need. As usual, Mr. Nussbaum invigorated the acumen inherent in the designing minds of his audience with his insights.

Mark W. Johnson, CEO of Innosight, shared lessons from Clayton Christiansen's innovation bible, The Innovator's Dilemma. The challenge from Mr. Johnson's perspective is how to satisfy a lower end segment of consumers with innovative, but not cutting edge, technologies; to realize the need for "disruptive," not just "sustaining," innovation. "Cheaper, dumber, crappier" (disruptive innovation) is a viable business model for the majority of consumers who don't utilize full, total performance (sustaining innovation) from their technology. This resonated well with the audience. He listed companies that got their start as disruptive innovators, like Intel, Microsoft, Bloomberg, AT&T, Toyota, Sony, Sears, and Amazon, and now face it from their competition. Look for the "green space," to develop ways to enable the large population of unskilled people to do things for themselves.

Later, Bill Dresselhaus, President of Dresselhaus Design Group, expounded on similar needs to keep "Carrying the Flame of Innovation." As he so aptly pointed out, strategizing is easy, creating the successful tactics is hard. So, we should visualize, sensorize, and demonstrate wherever possible. Ideate, stimulate, collaborate, then innovate and collaborate, using the designer's unique abilities. Turning products into stories, merging left and right brain thinking and speaking the language of business are keys to success, along with (to resound the opening themes from Mr. Manu) an appreciation of play, being subversive enough to "break all the rules," and read, read, read. True to his own extensive education background, Mr. Dresselhaus supplied us with a short reading list: Serious Play, by Michael Schrage, Leading the Revolution, by Gary Hamel, and Orbiting the Giant Hairball, by Gordon McKenzie.

A nice touch to the day was having Bill Buxton, chief scientist of Alias|Wavefront, give a synthesis of the presentations. "Have we only now entered the information age?" he wondered. What about the advent of language communication? His contention that "we are delivering the same old crap" was made with a desire to better understand motor-sensory behaviors. By designing these behaviors, we can better inform human-centered design. Mr. Buxton shared a means of benchmarking innovation using the "innovation coefficient," which when used comparatively, will show where innovation pays off (the shortcut for the formula is # of products / product lifespan).

Recommended Reading:

Innovator's Dilemma by
Clayton Christiansen

Serious Play by
Michael Schrage

Leading the Revolution by Gary Hamel

Orbiting the Giant Hairball by Gordon McKenzie

Some other Interesting points:

-Design leaders have an enhanced role as creativity architects inside the corporation.

-Innovation is the end result of design and business as one streamlined experience.

-Creating new corporate alliances and partnerships will lead to groundbreaking hybrid innovation platforms.

-The constant reinvention of the corporation is the core architecture for innovation.