The document summarizes the Bēhance 99% Conference that took place in May 2012. It provides summaries of talks given by various speakers on topics related to design, creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Key points emphasized include the importance of prototyping, testing ideas early, embracing failure, and focusing on execution over just idea generation. Overall, the conference seemed to aim to provide inspiration and practical advice for shifting the focus from coming up with ideas to implementing and developing them.

1. Bēhance 99% Conference
May 2012
Chris Walker

2. 1% inspiration, and 99% perspiration
The goal of the 99% is to shift the focus from idea generation to idea execution.

3. IDEO Workshop
Human-Centered Design Process
About IDEO
IDEO is a global innovation and
design consulting firm that uses a
human-centered, design-based
approach to help organizations in
the business, government,
education, healthcare, and social
sectors innovate and grow. The
New York studio is located in the
heart of Soho and is home to more
than 40 talented IDEOers across a
wide range of creative disciplines as
well as one very well-worn foosball
table.

4. As early as possible, begin creating prototypes

5. Use Color & Form to Attract Attention

6. • Test Early
• Fail Often
• Succeed Early

7. For Experience Design…
Create Experience Prototypes or Spatial Walk-Throughs
Move from prototype-driven specs to spec-driven prototypes

8. What We Learned
Prototyping takes you to unexpected places
Rogue Teams Add Value
“Fly, Crash, and Fly Again”

9. Conference Speakers

10. Rilla Alexander
• Capture Your Ideas to
Minimize Distraction
• Chunk Everything Way
Down
• Rework Ideas

11. Josh Rubin
Cool Hunting
“There are no new ideas, just great executions”

12. Jonah Lehrer
Author,
Imagine: How Creativity Works
• Answers come at
unexpected times
• They arrive associated with
feeling of certainty
• Epiphanies are romantic,
but they are always
followed by periods of
concentrated work

13. Compound
Remote
Association
Problems

14. Compound Remote
Association Problems
Example: pine, crab, sauce
Question: what word can form a familiar compound
word or phrase with the each of these words?
Solution: apple
(pineapple, crabapple, applesauce)

15. Alpha
Relaxation Epiphany
Waves

16. “Creativity is the residue
of wasted time.”
-- Albert Einstein

17. Grit
• Stubborn
• Persistent
• Single-minded
• Does not quit

18. Angela Duckworth, Grit Survey
http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~duckwort/images/12-
item%20Grit%20Scale.05312011.pdf

19. 45 years is the average
lifespan for a Fortune 100
company

20. Cities, on the other hand, never die

21. Human Productivity Increases
with Urbanization
• Companies become LESS productive as they
grow
• Cities do not try to micromanage productivity;
they are chaotic
• Companies stifle creativity
• When in doubt, emulate the city

22. Teresa Amabile
Harvard Business School
What do George Patton, Oprah Winfrey, Edward Weston and Andy Warhol have in common?

23. Answer: Diaries
• Write about a problem
• Think Broadly
• Keep a diary BECAUSE you are busy

24. What Keeps People Happy at Work?
Creativity
Positive
Inner
Work Life
Productivity

25. Psychological Literature
Defines Diary Benefits:
• Celebrate small wins
• Plan next steps
• Nurture personal growth
(spot patterns)
• Cultivate patience

26. Keep a Diary!
How to: Content:
• Start small • Progress vs. Setbacks
• Appoint a specific time • Crystal moments
• Create a reminder • Hassles and Horrors
• Find your medium (get them off your chest)
• Start by refreshing and then • Plan one progress catalyst
reflect for tomorrow
• Use ANY format

27. Keith Yamashita
KY Partners
Most of their work is secret, but KY Partners performed rebranding for IBM and Starbucks

28. Greatness is Usually Achieved
by Ensembles
• Need to create an environment where people
can be their best selves
• Great teams work hard at it
• They cultivate specific habits
• Each person should develop their own unique
way of getting unstuck

29. Habits of Great Teams
• Each one knows their superpower
• Purpose
• Forces
• Bold Moves (focus on most important)
• Outcomes
• Reframing (resiliency)
• Trust starts with duos
• Build belief in others

30. Capitalize On Forces
Where do you
see possibility? Waste
Flow Communication
Switch Lenses! Time Belonging

31. Duos
• Smallest atomic unit of trust
• Who are the top ten duos in your life?
• You can respond with love or with fear
• Respond with love BEFORE it is safe to do so

32. Once you know your superpower, your job is to stay in it all the time
This is the best thing for you and your team
Live your superpower for a week

34. Master Class:
Learning To
Embrace Risk
& Take Action
Quickly
Charlie Todd is the
founder of Improv
Everywhere, as well
as a teacher and
performer of improv
comedy at the
Upright Citizens
Brigade Theatre.
Since 2001, Improv
Everywhere has
executed over 100
missions involving
thousands of
undercover agents,
including the Grand
Central Freeze and
the infamous No
Pants! Subway Ride.
Their videos have
received over 225
million views online.

35. “Yes, And…”

36. Piya Sorcar
TeachAIDS.org
Popular wisdom, “the perfect is the enemy
of the good,” is wrong; quality matters

38. Discomfort Limits Learning
2D, Disney-style animations offer the most comfort

39. Principles
• Quality materials
• Deliver content in native language
– Translations are riddled with mistakes
– Use translation and then back translation
– Back translators have never seen original
– Reiterate over and over, until it comes out “clean”
• Balance attention span and completeness
– 20-24 minutes is ideal lesson timing

40. Business Processes
Need To Be Rigorous
• What is the core of success?
• Strive for Quality in ALL aspects
• Use data whenever possible

41. Jonathan Adler
Jonathan Adler
Optimism and Irreverence

43. Panel Discussion
Neil Blumenthal Jennifer Hyman
Warby Parker Rent the Runway

44. Customer Experience
• Everyone is starved for TIME
• Create MEMORIES!!!
Memorability drives loyalty
• Make them feel better about themselves
• Provide Customer Experience Training for
EVERYONE

45. Understand Your Customer
• What is most important?
• What is their hierarchy of priorities?
• What makes their life easier?
• How do you CONTINUE to inspire confidence

46. Brand
• What will you deliver without fail, every time?
• Brand reassures customers that they will get
what they expect
• Customers are thinking, “What does my
association with this brand say about me?”

47. Some HR Learnings
• Hire slow, fire fast
“better to have a hole than an a-hole”
• Interview questions should assess alignment
with core values
• Everyone gets trained in all aspects of the
operation
• “All hands on deck” can re-energize a team

48. What Do You Deliver?
dreams
commodities

49. Glue:
Customers Upload Their Experiences
– Warby Parker:
Customers upload images of themselves trying on
eyeglass frames, asking others to tell them which
frames best suits them
– Rent the Runway:
Customers upload stories of their special evening

50. When Customers Complain
• Remember, vulnerability promotes trust
• Treat negative situations with honesty

51. Jason Goldberg
Fab.com
If you can’t figure something out in a year, throw it away and start something else.
There are loads of business problems out there worth solving.

52. Jason Goldberg
Fab.com
“Know your superpower, and do the one thing you are best at.”

53. Paula Scher
Pentagram
“Things have a life of their own”

54. Change in MOMA Reporting Structure
Made Successful (Unified) Design Possible
Before After

56. Art Design
has no purpose has a purpose

58. Tony Fadell
Nest Thermostat
Source of Creativity = What frustrates you about the world?

59. Challenge yourself
• CONSTRAINTS are the engine for good design
• Be curious about how things work
• Prototype in detail the DIFFERENTIATION you
are trying to change
• If you are not having doubt, either you are not
differentiating enough, or you are not looking
hard enough at the details

60. The hard piece of the puzzle is the USER EXPERIENCE

61. Vision Is Good,
But Set Near-Term Milestones
• Team must understand where you are going
• Opinions: leader makes decision, and can
articulate why
• Data!
• Keep everyone learning why things succeed or
fail
– Ship
– Learn
– Acknowledge

62. James Victore
“In the particular lies the universal”

63. I Don’t Work For Money;
I Work To Do Good Things
• Your work is a gift, give it to them!
• If there is something you need from the client,
always ASK FOR IT!
• Infuse humor, sex appeal, memorability

66. Baratunde Thurston
http://www.jackandjillpolitics.com/
How to Be Black
“Just because you’re using tools, doesn’t mean you’re building things.”

67. APPENDIX

68. Links
• Speakers
http://the99percent.com/conference/speaker
s?url=conference-2012
• Coverage
http://the99percent.com/conference/coverag
e?url=conference-2012

69. Timeline

70. Presenter’s Monitor