Step out of your own way

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Want to innovate?  learning to step out of your own way is key.

Depending on where you come from in life and how you are wired, you (or your team members) might be the enemy. Why? – because at some point we get in our own way. This is especially the case when it comes to Product Innovation or even any Innovation.

REALIZE ITS HAPPENING
Sometimes we don’t even realize we are in our own way, but here are some tell tale signals that  we are:

  • Trying to plan every little detail very very early in a project
  • Not allowing for ambiguity (see above)
  • Focusing too much on time or cost
  • Making grandeur assumptions about technology platform or real user needs.

DEAL WITH IT
For Leaders and Managers setting expectations with upper management is key can mean that you have to deal with and be ok telling superiors that

  • You don’t know
  • You don’t have the information at the moment, but you will get to a point when you know more.
  • It’s normal to have a level of ambiguity, but things will change.

Being ok with ambiguity and finding a way forward in say a few weeks time (depending on type and type of product) or a few months time is essential

SOLUTIONS
Use a tactic to buy you some innovation space. Try not to focus on cost or timing by diverting and looking at real innovation drivers.

  • Focus on the consumer, driving empathy via planning some consumer research to uncover insights that allow you to plan the next steps / find out what is important.
  • Focus on a technology, researching and understanding trends and advancements in / of new and emerging technologies.
  • Focus on competition, this is the weakest one, but buying Innovation space by studying your current competition and forecasting what they are doing / going and their trajectory. This may help you outthink or even convey the importance by grounding in everyday real situations like what your competitors are doing / selling right now.

Consumers and Emotion

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consumers_emotions-730x342

Consumers do not make purchases based on a complete, rational thought processes. The combination of functional and emotional weigh into the mix in different quantities, depending on product type and situation. Often there is an intuitive factor that is difficult to measure, or rationalize, and in some cases never gets rationalized but a purchase is made.

Emotional, consumer-oriented design means considering and understanding the soft and fuzzy factors that a human being subconsciously processes when interacting with a design: How does it make someone feel? Proud, rewarded, secure. What do they perceive?, honesty, trust, value. How viscerally / intuitively desirable is the product? How does the product address their emotional needs, aspirations and current desires.

This type of knowledge is brought to teams by individuals who have been trained to think about and study these aspects in relation to design, and how it impacts and is applied to design. This may stem from consumer research (qualitative), studying the science of psychology  or experience of design through trial and error (both in process and research)This is the flip side of functional aspects or needs that can be more easily rationalized, such as price, number of tools, performance, technology, sales channel, product mix (line); which focus on pragmatic aspects of the consumer.

design, Design and Design Thinking

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design_thinking

The three levels of design. Design is one of those words that can have different meanings and implications depending on how, when and where it is used.

AS A FUNCTION OR ACTION

On the level 1. design, with a lower case “d”.  Often more of a verb, doing design or designing. This may or may not get attached to a department, the design department where they design. This could also refer to labels such as He is “a designer” – describing someone’s primary role or function, just like he is an “engineer”. To add a further sub level in here there is often a few sub-descriptors

Industrial design(er)
2d design(er)
Graphic design(er)
3d design(er)
product design(er)

AS AN IMPORTANT OBJECT

Level 2: Somewhere in between, it becomes Design. Design with a capital “D” As an object. And there is an importance attached to it. Is it the right Design? Will this Design work? will this Design sell? at this level, it relies on many other sub-attributes such as engineering, manufacturing, marketing etc

AS A WAY OF THINKING

On the highest level – Level 3, people can say “Design” and mean design in the context of as a way of thinking. This is often more to do with a higher level or approach of design that relates to a particular process to get results. Design Thinking is not department limited and often successful design thinking involves multiple departments that come together.

Fast Company
“The methodology commonly referred to as design thinking is a proven and repeatable problem-solving protocol that any business or profession can employ to achieve extraordinary results.”

Forbes
“In its simplest form, design thinking is a process—applicable to all walks of life—of creating new and innovative ideas and solving problems. It is not limited to a specific industry or area of expertise.”

Ideo – David kelly Founder
“a human-centered approach to innovation that draws from the designer’s toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology, and the requirements for business success.”