A talk I gave to the design and marketing team of a very large corporate about why it's hard to practice Design Thinking in a corporation. Borrows heavily from Clay Shirky. The slides may not make too much sense without me doing the talk.
5. What that actually means
An expansive view
of what marketing can be.
Not much we make
looks like advertising.
We design content,
and we design media.
10. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Design Thinking is a process for practical, creative resolution of
problems or issues that looks for an improved future result.[1] It is
the essential ability to combine empathy, creativity and rationality to
meet user needs and drive business success. Unlike analytical
thinking, design thinking is a creative process based around the
"building up" of ideas. There are no judgments early on in design
thinking. This eliminates the fear of failure and encourages
maximum input and participation in the ideation and prototype
phases. Outside the box thinking is encouraged in these earlier
processes since this can often lead to creative solutions.
Design thinking.
13. Some assumptions
We want to sell more of our stuff.
We want to charge more for our stuff.
In the long term.
We want to make the world a better place.
We can do all of these by making the
purchase decision more meaningful.
23. Charles & Ray Eames
Do the best,
for the most,
with the least.”
“
24. Ten things Google know to be true:
1. Focus on the user and all else will follow.
2. It's best to do one thing really, really well.
3. Fast is better than slow.
4. Democracy on the web works.
5. You don't need to be at your desk to need an answer.
6. You can make money without doing evil.
7. There's always more information out there.
8. The need for information crosses all borders.
9. You can be serious without a suit.
10.Great just isn't good enough.
34. It's funny to think of (the org
chart) as a specific invention,
but its existence and form owe
quite a lot to the environment
in which it was first widely
used - railroad management
in the 1800s.”
“
35. David McCallum’s Superintendent's Report, 1855
1. A proper division of responsibilities.
2. Sufficient power conferred to enable the same to be fully carried out,
that such responsibilities may be real in their character.
3. The means of knowing whether such responsibilities are faithfully
executed.
4. Great promptness in the report of all derelictions of duty, that evils may
be at once corrected.
5. Such information is to be obtained through a system of daily reports
and checks that will not embarrass principal officers, nor lessen their
influence with their subordinates.
6. The adoption of a system, as a whole, which will not only enable the
general superintendent to detect errors.
Silos
Blame culture
Poor communication
Fear of failure
36. Following non-
digital
guidelines
means logo
looks terrible
Boss insisted on using these
abstract images from DM
Meaningless
reference to
then-current
tactical TV
campaign
Image is
concession to
design agency’s
terrible original
design
Reflecting
internal
departments to
customers
The only things
anybody ever
clicked on
My only victory
for usability
41. Practicing Design Thinking requires
Holistic
Not just ‘design’, but technology, engineering,
systems, distribution, people...
Design Thinking should affect and involve all of
these and more.
42. Practicing Design Thinking requires
Joined up
Not just going through the motions of
collaboration (more meetings).
But open and generous.
43. Practicing Design Thinking requires
Business focused
“At any given time, a team using design
thinking should be able to give a sense of how
strong a business they are creating”
Diego Rodriguez, IDEO
45. The future?
The new (management) model will have
to be more like the marketplace, and less
like corporations of the past. It will need
to be flexible, agile, able to quickly adjust
to market developments, and ruthless in
reallocating resources to new
opportunities.”
http://bit.ly/cbS1h3
“
Hardly anyone talks about ‘designing’ advertising.
BTW, not a lot of people talk about ‘designing’ advertising.
The Target pill bottle isn’t a bottle, it’s a system
by Brandon Schauer
It’s unfortunate that the 2005 design of the Target pill bottle has too often been treated as just a product design and graphic design solution. Yes, it received much earned respect for being a collaboration of graphic design with industrial design and for its sensitive approach to addressing sometimes life-threatening circumstances. But perhaps because it’s been put on a pedestal at the MoMA that we forgot to check out what’s going on behind the scenes at Target.
Target appropriately calls the bottle ClearRX, describing it more broadly as a, “prescription distribution and communication system.” That’s because it required quite a bit of work on the back-of-the-house to make the pill bottles work on the front-of-the-house.
Let’s take one aspect of the design as an example. The bottles have rings that fit around the collar of the bottle which are color coded to identify different members of the family — 7 colors in all. The concept is simple enough: Make sure you’re not accidentally taking someone else’s prescription just because the bottles look similar. However, the implementation is much more difficult because Target has to ensure the right color ring is going around the right subscription. Therefore Target’s Pharmacy IT system has to track which family member has which color ring so the colors are not accidentally switched when prescriptions are filled.
From listening to Deborah Adler tell the story of working with Target, it’s clear that considerable (if not more) design effort went towards the processes and systems surrounding the pill bottle. It was, “an enormous undertaking… a huge collaborative effort,” she said. Here’s a hint of some of the overall system that had to be coordinated:
“I work with the pharmacy team, pharmacy operations… the Target technology team to build the software to accommodate the new labeling system, the marketing team… there were major training sessions to train all the pharmacists on how to use this new system because they were the most important people to us… they were the front line… they had to explain how to use this new system, and they had to learn how to use it.. there was a bit of a learning curve involved.”
I’m guessing that it’s not just the design patents that have kept other pharmacies from mimicking the Target pill bottle. The pill bottle isn’t just a new SKU in a retail environment or just a piece of packaging that can be swapped out for the old design. The bottle is just the visible tip of a much deeper system of drug delivery that would take significant time and investment to emulate.
Charles (1907–1978) and Ray (1912–1988) Eames were American designers, who worked in and made major contributions to modern architecture and furniture. They also worked in the fields of industrial and graphic design, fine art and film.
Key thing about these philosophies:
Broad, expansive.
Couple of other things common to all good design philosophies.
If you ask them, people won’t like the idea.
If you ask them to trade off, they’re more open.
If you put them in a prototype, they barely mention it.
This leap enabled the first flat bed in business class, and added millions to the top-line and bottom-line.
So what worked here?