4. 1. he redesigned business class of the long-haul travel
T
experience for Air New Zealand.
2. he “Skycouch” of the long-haul travel experience of Air
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New Zealand caters to the needs of different families.
From Confucian Philosophy to Design Thinking
By Arvind Gupta, IDEO
“Practicing is greater than knowing.” Xun Zi 300 BC
In 311 BC, Xunzi taught that the path to enlightenment was through and built them. By using materials at hand like chairs, cardboard
practice. Practice of job, practice of craft, practice of labor. Practice and project team members were able to experience what those ideas
teaches through the hands, eyes, ears, and through the senses. actually felt like. Right away, it was clear that many ideas that were
Practice eventually reveals truth. thought to be good did not work. For instance, stacking people up, while
Over 2,300 years later, IDEO uses this path as a core value of design spatially efficient, felt depressingly claustrophobic. In just a few hours
thinking to solve big, complex problems that do not have a known both the ANZ and IDEO teams learned a great deal through simple
solution. We call this “Build-to-think”. practice.
Build-to-think is the opposite of what is taught in most schools where a Build-to-think quickly became the common language to communicate
student must learn everything they need to know before they move on to the teams’ ideas and learnings. The IDEO team constructed a full-
build (i.e. think-to-build). These students are taught to think very hard scale mockup of the 777 cabin, enabling ideas to be immediately built
and have all the answers. The real question for these students (and in full scale so they can be experienced. Inspired in part by the insight
today’s designers) is asking, how do you know if you are right when the that many people who travel with a partner or friend tend to book the
answer is not in a book? window and aisle seats in the hope that they can have all seats if nobody
IDEO’s philosophy of build-to-think; experimenting with ideas and takes the middle seat, the teams designed a solution that enables
hypotheses through rapidly building and observing how the built idea three coach seats to convert to a bed for two. Building a quick proof-
differs from what we thought was right, is similar to Xunzi’s concept of of-concept using foamcore and hot glue gave the team confidence to
practicing. This teaches us in two ways. If what we believe is consistent follow this direction, eventually reaching a design where a couple could
with what we see and if what we see is unexpected we know how to comfortably lie down and sleep next to each other on a long flight in
evolve the idea. By building more prototypes and rapidly refining our coach for a fraction of the cost of two business class tickets.
beliefs we will find the truth as if guided by a north star. By the time this idea had matured into its implementation in 2011 it had
Practicing simply means to do rather than to look up. The truth will gone through numerous rounds of building, prototyping and learning.
not be found on Baidu or Google, it will be found on the streets or in The final design, Sky Couch, won the airline numerous design and
someone’s home, in their car or in their office. The designer will find travel awards, and fans. Recently, the Hollywood star and frequent
it not by sitting in the studio, but by going out and looking for it and traveler, Gwyneth Paltrow recommended Sky Couch on her blog.
having the patience to let it appear. The practicing designer will then Our work for ANZ illustrates how nothing is better to understand and
build their ideas based on the truth they found to see if it actually solves find the truth of an idea than to actually experience it. Practicing rather
the problem, or to see if that was the real problem in the first place. than knowing allows designers to break rules that have existed or
Building our ideas teaches us what works, what doesn’t. Sharing our become outdated, setting trends in the marketplace. Market leaders
prototypes with consumers teaches us what we do not know. are therefore often times “practicers”. They must practice to learn
where to lead the market as there is no one to follow. They uncover
You can prototype, or practice, anything – from products all the way to new truths and set the rules. Weibo became a market leader through
value propositions and business models, how we practice prototyping practicing; by launching features such as rich media and seeing how
is limited only by our creativity. To practice design, rather than to know people liked them and Weibo have become more innovative than Twitter
design, is the key to success — be that in China or elsewhere in the whom they originally followed. If Weibo had just stayed with whatever
world. Twitter did they would not be in the market leadership position they
But how can we apply the principle of practice in the real world? are in today.
Consider the case of Air New Zealand. It goes without saying that we live in a time where uncertainty and
Air New Zealand (ANZ) has a unique problem. New Zealand is such a change are growing at an exponential rate, fueled by the accelerant
remote country that all of its flight times average over 8 hours, making of technology and globalization. Any process or dogma that is rigidly
sitting in coach class seats very uncomfortable. The airline was about based on what is true now could become extinct in short order; to
to launch a new plane the Boeing 777-300 and ANZ wanted this new survive we must adapt, and to adapt we need flexibility.
plane to boast a new passenger experience. ANZ turned to IDEO to Building to think gives us a way of approaching problems as flexible
rethink the entire experience — from the cabin’s layout and equipment as the problems themselves. This flexibility is the secret weapon for
including the seating in economy and business classes to the in-flight thriving in our highly uncertain future. Without practicing, the designers,
service and entertainment. Let’s look at the seat design. corporations, and governments of today will not be able to adapt to and
During the first project meeting, IDEO took many of the ideas that the thrive in the constant change of today’s world.
ANZ team had, such as laying the passengers down in tight spaces,
