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Don Norman
Don Norman claims his goals in life are to make a significant difference, but to have fun while doing so. he has just established the Design Lab at the University of California, San Diego which he intends to grow to become a major center for design with a focus on the application of human-centered design principles to complex sociotechnical systems, such as healthcare and automation. He is both a businessperson (VP at Apple, Executive at HP and a startup) and an academic (Harvard, UC San Diego, Northwestern, KAIST). As co-founder of the Nielsen Norman Group he serves on company boards and helps companies make products more enjoyable, understandable, and profitable. He is an IDEO Fellow and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. He gives frequent keynotes and is known for his many books including "The Design of Everyday Things," "Emotional Design," and "Living with Complexity" (which argues against simplicity), and a completely revised, updated edition of "Design of Everyday Things."
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Why Great Ideas Can Fail
It was all enough to put C2O as the 7th top Interactive Agency of 2000, just as most of the companies on the list were in a nosedive.
Inventions dreamed up in the "ivory tower" face the full set of challenges mentioned. They may represent advances in engineering or design, but insufficient numbers of people are willing to pay for them.
The first person to see your innovation may be your client, but a close second must be the client's customer. Sufficiently positive reactions from sufficient numbers of customers will convince business people (at least the rational ones) to commercialize your innovation.
Features get picked by the HiPPO (Highest Paid Person’s Opinion) and management lacks the visibility into what’s going on. As a result design firms get blamed as good ideas get transformed into bad ones. Often the customer or the market’s needs, wants, desires and what they will pay for is not factored into the process. Without forcing people to justify design changes and providing visibility into why changes are made, innovation gets squashed where it should be enhanced.
Having said all that, I see a change in companies. Many are realizing that if they want to survive in this new economic reality they need to institutionalize a complete, end-to-end product innovation process that starts with market ideation and ends with product delivery. Those companies are calling the post-recession, the “innovation economyâ€.
Conceptualizing alone doesn't suffice. In my opinion, the same passion and diligence which contributes in building a design should be shown in pushing the design for implementation. After all, a part of the success of a well thought design lies where you see people actually use the product which carries your ideas.
While conceptualizing, we need to ensure that our thoughts are geared towards solving the right problem. Hitting and solving the right problems is another key to making customers happy. Thanks.
It's just so hard to make designers remember they are not artists and have to play by the rules.
Often a small change in product can make a huge difference. Bigger then complete redesign... And redesign often leads to loosing loyal customers that just 'Don't want to learn another Word processor!' ;)
As always your articles stir a dissonance within my own mind and force me to question what I think. I agree with you for the most part. Innovation separated from the rest of the parties involved is asking for mutiny but I would also argue that it is the responsibilities of these "special groups" to communicate not only their ideas but also their process. Are these groups not asked to create concepts as a means to DIRECT the company? They don't actually expect these groups to come up with a market ready product, right?
I agree with what you said but I can also see the other side of the issue where business does not easily accept new inventions. If they blindly accept the experiments/ideas/inventions that their employees come up with, they might have failed even more miserably. Business could be behind deadlines and not profitable.
I think that is the key someone has to know when working in a commercial environment. Business objectives, profit in particular for most cases, is what drives what is done and what is left out.
As someone involved in design at a corporation, I have seen too many design consultancies visit for a few weeks and leave after creating only a "strategic vision" PowerPoint.
At the rates consultancies charge, it is hard to have the time to understand the problem, solve it and solve the many implementation details. But many consultants also lack the attitude to engage the subject matter fully and stick it through.
A better approach is spreading design thinking through an organization to foster and build on the ideas of those who know the subject best.
The idea of skunkworks team is intriguing and I'd be interested to hear about successful implementations.
I am sure the KEY to having everyone pull a project right through the company and out enthusiastically into the market is 'ownership'. ..As designers we have experience of this from being kids at school, thro to design school and group projects - 'choose MY idea' ... even in sophisticated high level brainstorming (even in at IDEO), human nature is to push own ideas, and glow when ideas are chosen. The key I find is to have enough confidence to allow others - with more influence, typically controlling marketing and distribution to take credit. Including design awards etc. !
As a designer in a 'skunkworks' operation; You hit the nail on the head with this one. It is certainly something that designers are not always aware of. We ride the thin dotted line of relevance not for lack of compelling ideas, but because of corporate politics and perpetual angling.
My best piece of advice in these situations (for designers) is to validate concepts with data. It is really easy for a PS guy/gal to shoot down the next greatest idea because of an additional 5cent item cost. The best way to combat financial science is with a science of equal regard.
Shane
Grtz