2. By way of intro:
- We all design or create stuff
- sometimes we need to be ‘innovative’ and do something new
- if you don’t need to be innovative, this talk might not be for you.
- if you do need to be innovative or unique
- this talk is might be very useful
- I think the concept of failure can help enormously
4. - uh-oh
- failure is normally associated with lack of success, things not working properly, etc.
- generally has negative connotations!
- but is there ‘good failure’?
- I think so:
- two categories
16. “It is true that my discovery of LSD was a chance
discovery, but it was the outcome of planned experiments
[...] It could better be described as serendipity.”
— Albert Hoffman, Swiss chemist
22. All things
Known things
- Remember our diagram
- We know that innovation happens out here
- There are a few great solutions
- But lots of lemons
- To innovate, you need to be prepared to fail
23. - It’s like a game of chance
- Lotto: the more you play, the more likely success becomes
- Lotto is like a really ground-breaking innovation:
- Be prepared to fail a lot
- Winning $2 on Instant Kiwi is a much smaller innovation, much more achievable
- You need to factor this into your timelines and way of working
26. Active Failure Strategy
Don’t bank on one approach
Expect to fail many times
Learn from your mistakes
Limit failure fallout/fail small
- limit failure fallout: make sure you
never fail too large
29. Prof. Jack Matson
— Pennsylvania State University
- Innovative Engineering
Design course
30. Failure 101.
- requires students “to build and attempt to sell outlandish and frequently useless products”
- like a hand-held barbecue pit.
31. - Prof Matson takes IDEO further:
- Fail faster
- Maze analogy:
- blindfolded person in maze will make frequent mistakes
- will eventually get there - faster mistakes, faster to get there
32. - Makers found players were a bit bummed out about dying
- By giving players info about how they died and how to improve
- Death became a valuable and positive experience for players!
33. Failure is a positive experience
if we can learn from it.
34. - How can we leverage failure in our line of work?
35. Failure = :-)
- Finally, intentional failure has great effect on culture
- Proven to be less stressful, happier, more fun
37. Failure = :-)
and more productive too
- BUT it’s also proven to be more productive way to work
- There’s a company doing quite well who adopt failure strategy
- Each employee has time to try stuff out, no pressure.
48. The Practice
- So, very quickly!
- What are some pragmatic things to help you fail like champ?
49. Eliminate fear
1
- Creatives say: “Don’t pressure me, man” and “I need my freedom”
- Those creatives are often the ones that deliver gold
- They intuitively understand...
54. Know about design management
2
- But you’ll probably need to compromise with that monkey
- Design management is simple but not understood
55. - Give people 100% freedom when creating
- No talk of deadlines, budgets, etc.
- No idea is a bad idea
- Critical part of brainstorming
- But, once a direction or solution is agreed upon...
56. - It’s relentless pressure.
- This pressure causes the brain to tune out other ideas and focus on delivering.
- This is the compromise, and it is a good one in general.
- I’ve had great success with this in the past... it's never let me down
59. “Don’t be cool”
“Forget about good”
— Bruce Mau
“Trying to look good limits my life”
— Stefan Sagmeister
“The good is the enemy of the great”
— Milton Glaser
- When needing to be innovative or unique, good constrains you to the known and therefore you bad fail.
- Note inversion of Milton Glaser quote
60. - If you don’t try, you won’t fail ... or succeed.
61. Start anywhere, don’t stop
4
- So start now! Start anywhere - go, go, go!
- A common form of paralysis is not knowing where to start.
62. “Begin anywhere”
“Keep moving”
“Repeat yourself”
“Stand on someone’s shoulders”
“Imitate”
“Work the metaphor”
— Bruce Mau
- All from Bruce Mau:
- Note: do what you know, or copy someone.
- Go from there...