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Why Great Ideas Can Fail
By Don Norman - Aug 26, 2010
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."
15 Comments
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To add another classic example to your list of failed, but brilliant spinoffs, EDS's C2O, which was rejected due to 'fit' http://www.texasmonthly.com/preview/1997-07-01/business And they had some phenomenal successes along the way http://www.crn.com/news/channel-programs/18803929/how-eds-made-sonys-e-business-sing.htm
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.!Report as spam -
Excellent article.
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.!Report as spam -
Don mentioned that a lot of products fail, and in fact it's estimated that about half of all products do. Additionally, 50% of all R&D investments never every yield an ROI. I won’t restate the great comments everyone has shared, but I don’t think it’s a problem that a design agency’s plans aren’t vetted, changed and transformed by the corporation to align with what’s practical, their business strategy, etc. The challenge is further up in the process. Products fail because of the multitude of silos in organizations resulting in groups working across purposes and not towards a united company strategy.
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€.
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A quite practical post!
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.
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Thanks! This makes many things clear...
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!' ;)!Report as spam -
Don,
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?!Report as spam -
I just wanna add one more point. I think one of the reasons innovations happen easier in startups is because they don't yet have a clear set of business objectives and a well-defined consumer market to go after. They are more or less still in the "exploring mode". As 37Signals puts it, it is the advantage of being small and startups should appreciate it and take advantage of it while they still can.!Report as spam
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Business objectives are everything. For your voice to be heard, your ideas to be appreciated, it has to align with and support those objectives.
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.!Report as spam -
Great article. I would add that an idea is not great unless it is implementable. "World peace" is a great idea, but you get credit until you explain how to roll it 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.
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This article led me to your issue on the research-practice gap. As a practicing "translational developer", your focus on that gap is spot-on crucial. Coincidentally, I just wrote a quick piece on what I was calling the "Translation of Abstraction" ( http://lo13.com/attitude/2010/08/26/design-is-the-bridge-between-research-and-reality ) with an example project and may serve as one potential method for creating that bridge between research and design. It'd be great if you could take a peak. I also commented on a proposal for enhancing current skunkwork projects here: http://lo13.com/attitude/2010/08/26/adopt-ideas-like-puppies-and-babies/ [apologies for the formatting, comments do not seem to allow html tags]
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I am of the opinion that companies/individuals within those companies least inclined to change are the the only ones left and therefore the most difficult to convince that change is required.
The idea of skunkworks team is intriguing and I'd be interested to hear about successful implementations.!Report as spam -
Great points Don - such truth !
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. !!Report as spam -
You have clearly outlined the issues and roadblocks associated with great innovation. And it's true, they are well known and not going away anytime soon, however I hope you're not advocating for making only incremental changes because as you say "They add far more value". I assume you are saying that there is a need for both small and large change, and that they should operate in parallel and be required to be measured by a different metric. For as you well know, many times great innovation won't become recognized or valuable for years to come and then all those folks who fought it so hard in the past are the ones climbing on the bandwagon when it becomes successful.!Report as spam
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Don,
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
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I've learned in my experience over the past years that innovation in a product should also be clearly communicated to the user. It should still show what it does yet also show what is new about it and why it is better. A really difficult exercise sometimes since most people are afraid of new things. I love to take big leaps but the consumer doesn't always keep up ;)
Grtz!Report as spam
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