Innovation can be exciting and rewarding, but also challenging and risky. It requires courage, creativity, and resilience, as well as a safe and supportive environment.
“Innovation is contagious but people need to know they are safe if they catch it.”
The ideal then is to constantly foster an empowering infection of innovation mojo. How do we do that?
Here are some questions that can help:
How do we create a safe and supportive space (and time!) for people to experiment with new ideas and approaches?
What are some of the fears or anxieties that people have when it comes to innovation, and how are they addressed?
How do we help people develop the skills and mindsets that are essential for innovation, such as creativity, curiosity, and resilience?
How do we celebrate and share people’s successes and failures, within and outside our organizations?
How do we ensure that innovations are aligned with our company’s vision, mission, and values, as well as the needs and expectations of customers and stakeholders?
How do we manage the risks and uncertainties that come with innovation, such as legal, financial, technical, or ethical issues, (and that includes the impact to people’s jobs)?
How do we embrace diversity and inclusion of employees, customers, and partners in generating innovative solutions and perspectives?
How do we cope with the broader changes and disruptions that innovations may cause or face in the market or world?
There are no right or wrong answers. The goal is to self-reflect. Understand. Act with a bias towards supporting people.
When interacting with people from different backgrounds, it’s crucial not to assume “common sense” is universal.
What’s obvious to some may be unfamiliar to others based on their distinct experiences.
For example, countersteering is a motorcycle technique where you turn by leaning in a preferred direction and steering the handlebar in the opposite direction. This maneuver would seem counterintuitive to non-riders, though it’s second nature to bikers.
Similarly, the habit of scanning the ocean for rip currents is everyday common sense for frequent beachgoers. Yet inland residents would not have an intuitive grasp of this safety ritual.
In essence, “common sense” depends greatly on one’s context.
By recognizing diverse perspectives exist, we can avoid erroneously believing something is self-evident to all. Curiosity about how others think fosters open-mindedness.
On the other hand, presuming common sense across contexts risks miscommunication and judgment.
Understanding our fellow human beings requires appreciating that common sense is not so common across contexts. This is crucial in the design world.
When creating products and experiences, designers must account for people’s varied mental models, not treat “common sense” as universal.
Taking context into account results in more inclusive, intuitive designs rather than assuming one-size-fits-all “common sense”.
While Covid put the brakes on many in-person conferences, many of them are continuing with online versions that are just a fraction of the cost of what the in-person conferences would be. Granted, networking is slightly more of a challenge, but that’s why they are priced where they are! 😉
Each of these three conferences cost thousands to attend in person, and they are now free or a fraction of the cost! I personally vouch for the value of all of them! The bottom line: There will be great speakers and excellent opportunities to learn and grow!
TrendHunter Future Festival
Such a great compilation of what’s cool and new, plus processes regarding innovation. (TrendHunter has been a fave of mine for years – maybe that’s why I freelance blog for them on occasion 😉 )
Keynotes were free for this last I checked and Robert Downey Jr. is one of them!
If you check any of these out, please share what your thoughts are! If you would like to sit down and crunch through new ideas generated, we can do that too 😉
Have fun learning and change the world for the better!!
When designing solutions for the ‘E’nvironment, don’t ignore the ‘e’nvironment.
What do I mean?
I went recently to a Chicago Wolves hockey game at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, IL. Following the lead of the Chicago White Sox (and Shedd Aquarium) who announced they were switching to non-petroleum based straws, the Allstate Arena decided to switch to paper straws.
But, there’s a problem.
They don’t work.
How can a straw not work?
They don’t suck.
Well, actually, they do suck, they suck badly. (Check out this article for perspectives on how straw changes impact people with disabilities.)
The picture below shows what happens after 15 minutes of use. It’s completely unusable.
I either have to get another straw (a friend of mine takes two or more now every time he gets a drink) or get rid of the lid altogether (which isn’t always a good idea when people are getting up and down, walking through aisles, dropping popcorn, etc.)
For reference, take a look at a typical plastic straw in a lid from a fast-food establishment (This is what it used to be like at the arena).
If the solution for replacing plastic straws was derived using design thinking (taking the ‘e‘nvironment into account) as opposed to simply being implemented by decree, none of this would have happened.
What do I mean?
This is what the design thinking process looks like:
Courtesy of Stanford’s D.School
And, here’s how the process for changing the straws should have gone:
Empathy – Understand how people are using cups and straws and lids. Watch what people are doing. Who is using straws the most? Understand the technical aspects of the straw, the lid, the straw/lid interface. Understand what the straw feels like in the mouth. What is it like to suck on a paper straw vs. a plastic straw? I heard a person say, “It feels weird sucking on the paper straw. It tastes funny. Eh, I’ll probably get used to it.” That’s the type of feedback that’s needed.
Define the problem – Here the problem isn’t just, “Plastic straws are bad for the environment, we need to replace them.” A better problem statement would be: How can we create a pleasing drinking experience for people using straws, while having a minimal impact on the Environment and minimal cost impact? The difference between these two statements is that People should be the focus, not the straws. Their experience is key.
Ideate – Brainstorm solutions. If the Empathy phase was done, and the problem statement defined, the solutions that would’ve seemed most viable would’ve come to the forefront. When they checked with straw (and lid!) suppliers, only certain ones would’ve been chosen.
Prototype – Obtain straws and lids of all types. Experiment.
Test/Feedback – Understand what works and what doesn’t. See which combinations of straws and lids meet the problem statement: How can we create a pleasing drinking experience using for people using straws, while having a minimal impact on the Environment and minimal cost impact?
Where did Allstate Arena go wrong?
Pretty much everywhere.
It’s clear that no one took the time to understand the situation, no one took the ‘e‘nvironment into account.
No one realized that because the lid material (Plant based, biodegradable PLA) is much stiffer than the former lids (usually polystyrene), the “X” cut for the straw puts major forces on the straw. Paper gets wet and soft, and the stronger plastic lid collapses the paper. (Note to Fabri-Kal: use a circular cut in your Greenware lids!)
Instead someone, somewhere said, “Let’s do something good for the Environment. Let’s blaze a trail and be like the White Sox. Hank (or George, Tina, etc.), let’s start using paper straws. See what our supplier has and let’s make the change!!!”
Boom!! Problem solved. Only it isn’t.
The biggest shame here is that an entire exploratory project wasn’t even required. A simple 15 minute experiment of taking a cup, putting a lid on it, putting the straw in and drinking would’ve done wonders! It would’ve been clear that this particular combination of straw/lid is not usable.
Instead, lack of any aspect of design thinking resulted in a solution that is less than adequate. An opportunity to make a positive change with positive repercussions will now be seen by some as a waste of time and money, as institutions needlessly intruding in people’s lives, of fixing a problem that some may view as non-existent.
A little observation, a little empathy, can go a long way…
EPILOGUE
Now that I know the problem, I fix the situation by poking my finger through the “X” and breaking one of the tabs. I then put the straw in and it works better. But seriously, should any solution require a person to stick his/her finger through the lid of the cup?
It worked flawlessly for 4 minutes and 25 seconds…
And then it didn’t. The VP smiled and said, “I get the idea.” After getting through the embarrassment of the failure, the team learned what went wrong, and got to work testing variations of the failed component. The new versions didn’t fail, and the product went on to eventually make millions…
“Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing.” – Warren Buffet
Risk and fear walk hand in hand with lack of knowledge. The best way then to minimize fear and minimize risk is to understand, to know what’s happening. Prototypes are part of that knowledge building process.
The knowledge base that takes shape through prototyping is equally, if not more, valuable than the actual mock-up itself.
The challenge in most organizations is to make the shift from being object/success based, to process/knowledge based. Then, even if a product never gets commercialized, the knowledge that gets created can be used for other products, other projects, and make those into money-makers. Knowledge creates a bolder approach to the future!
What do we do to make sure we’re after knowledge, not just results?
Whether you are creating products, services, or even a new business model, don’t think of prototyping as a ‘testing an idea’ event, but instead as a learning process. The best way to change into a process based mentality is to ask questions, and then create prototypes that will get you that knowledge. Three basic questions guide how you get that knowledge as efficiently as possible. Notice that nowhere are we asking,”Will this work?” Instead, ask yourself these questions and then start prototyping!
Which answers can I get to easily? Easy translates into fast answers. It doesn’t necessarily mean cheap, it just means that there are few moving parts, so to speak. The relationships are clear cut – there are anticipated outputs for each input. Subtract a dimension from your concept and test that. For example, if a knob has three dimensions but you want to see how easy it is to grab, cut it out of cardboard and build a two-dimensional model. Sketch when you can. Is there infrastructure in place, such as test equipment, that makes it easy to test something? Quick answers, that’s what you’re after. You might not be able to go to the moon with your prototype, but you might be able to get more confidence that it’s possible.
Which answers can I get cheaply? Low cost doesn’t mean quick or easy, though often it does. These prototypes also often aren’t highly accurate. But that shouldn’t matter. Can you build something out of polymer clay instead of 3D printing it, or molding it? Find ways to duplicate function using cheap materials or techniques.
Which answers will give the greatest bang-for-the-buck? Getting these may be neither cheap to test, nor fast to create, but, at the end of the day, they yield potential answers that could unlock future decisions. To find these, ask what part, system or sub-system, if you eliminated it from the design, would cripple it hopelessly? What is key? The movie “Victor Frankenstein” is playing in the background as I type this. The electrical charging system is key to energizing Frankenstein’s creations as none of his creations are possible without electricity. Those electrical systems are his bang-for-the-buck systems. Those are the types of things you want to prototype!
With each of these three types of prototypes, make sure that you have back-up plans. Make extra parts. Make variations. Confirm that you understand why things are happening the way they are.
When do I prototype the final product?
Even though it’s often tied to ‘go/no-go’ decisions about a product, prototyping the final version is part of the prototyping process spectrum. It’s still about knowledge creation, so if you’ve learned what you can about the systems in simple, cost effective methods, and you’ve learned about the ‘bang-for-the-buck’ systems, there shouldn’t be many surprises. Still, expect the best, and prepare for the worst. Have plans in place to deal with those surprises.
Remember, prototyping is about knowledge creation! That’s why failure is okay. (In fact, believe it or not, you want some level of failure!)
Let’s summarize what it takes to make sure prototypes are useful.
Make various types of prototypes to answer questions:
Make easy prototypes. Learn.
Make cheap prototypes. Learn.
Make prototypes of your key components and sub-systems. Learn.
Document your learnings. Build upon what you know. Experiment to find out what you don’t know, and document it so it can be shared.
Follow this process and your prototypes won’t just be an artifact tested in a one-time event. They will be doorways to knowledge, and knowledge eliminates fear, allows you to deal with risk, and ultimately, leads to success.
Poll after poll showed that Clinton would be the next president of the United States. They also showed that even though Trump supporters said that they would vote for him, they still expected him to lose – they expected a Clinton victory.
Poll after poll were wrong.
What happened? Why the misleading numbers? How do I make sure that I don’t make the same mistakes and misread the signs when designing and launching products?
Launching a successful product can seem like a crap-shoot. You roll dice and hope for the best. In the wake of Donald Trump’s stunning presidential victory, there are four lessons that those designing product/service launches would be wise to heed. Let’s take a look.
People don’t want to feel like outsiders – they want to be in the ‘in’ crowd
People don’t like Donald Trump. It was obvious. Even people in his own party were against him. Heck, when is was clear that Trump had won, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow wasn’t even subtle in her dislike of the President Elect. With this type of negative environment being prevalent, people who were pro-Trump didn’t want to be seen as supporting someone who was so hated. The result?
They either lied and said they were voting for Hillary, or claimed they were undecided.
The lesson here, is that people need to feel welcomed and accepted if you’re going to get the truth out of them. If you’re designing a product and the users don’t trust you, or think that somehow their participation in a research study will impact them negatively, odds are you won’t get the truth. Build trust and give people a safe zone to say what they want. But be careful, this is only part of the story.
People tell you what you want to hear
History is replete with products that tested well in focus groups and then failed miserably when launched. One of the main reasons for this is that people will tell you what you want to hear. Or, they simply don’t know what they want so they pick whatever it is you’re showing them and they say they like it. Focus Groups can be funny things. Are people really telling you what they think, or are they telling you what they think you think they think?
So be open to reality
Some years back I was working on a project that was a ‘next generation’ version of a medical product I had designed the first generation of. Only two years had passed, and while the market, and the medical procedure the product served, hadn’t changed appreciably, I made sure that I wouldn’t be the only one doing research. I called in additional researchers/designers to watch the procedure and asked for their feedback. I was afraid that I was only going to see what I wanted to see and end up with a slanted, if not erroneous, perspective on what the doctors were doing.
In this election, pollsters anticipated reality. Pollster John Zoghby believed that polls were too heavily slanted Democrat. This lead to over-estimation of a Hillary Clinton lead, if it was even there at all! You’ll never see reality if you think you already know how reality behaves. We see what we want to see. We may not be malicious about it, but sub-consciously we think we know what’s really going to happen, so we set up our research to prove that true.
In the world of product/service design research, we need to find out what’s going on, not prove we’re right. The stakes are too high. Companies, organizations, communities are investing in a product that is supposed to pay them back in some way. Not understanding the situation is the first step to catastrophic failure of a product launch.
So at the end of the day, do what people do, not what they say
Yes, you can be the first to predict reality, but often the better route is to let things play out a little more and then jump in the game with a passionate verve! This has the advantage of getting actual data, actual feedback. This information is much more actionable and since everyone else is wrong, being a little late to the game won’t be a negative, it’ll be a huge positive!
If you believe that you need to predict reality and launch at a specific time and place, then don’t pick one horse in a race. Place multiple bets. Have a Plan B, and Plan C…Plan(x). Then, as reality starts revealing itself, roll the appropriate plan into action with modifications as needed. Incidentally, the first generation product spoken about in the beginning of this article was just such a multi-plan launch.. That enabled it to launch with the right components at the right time, even though the very beginning was touch and go understanding what was truly essential to the offering and what wasn’t. In the end, we got it right.
That’s ultimately what it’s all about – getting it right.
One way we can get it right is to learn from what others have done wrong.
So regardless of whether you’re crushed or elated with this election (or perhaps even feeling a little of both!) pay attention to these four tips based on what was done wrong, and your next product launch won’t unexpectedly fail – you will get it right!
In the span of a couple seconds a wonderful orange, blackberry fragrance turned caramely, then malty, then char…
I quickly turned around and saw that my blackberry sauce had become a gooey burning mess. Taking it off the heat I scraped it into a container and set it on the garbage can to cool. I then promptly washed the pan and started another batch of my sauce – after all, the French Toast was already done.
As I went to throw away the failure, I grabbed a spoon and tasted this mess. Who knows, maybe something good came out of it…
Carbonized berries with a hint of charred honey – bitter and brown – there really was nothing redeemable from this. My takeaway? Perhaps use a little more liquid, a little less sugars, or more importantly, just pay attention better!!
People always talk about failing fast, failing forward, etc. But failing is only beneficial if we take the time to analyze, or in this case taste, our failures.
What’s needed first when we analyze?
A willingness to look! If I was simply interested in making the French Toast and plating it; or if I was only interested in getting rid of a smoky mess and throwing it out, I wouldn’t have found out what the gooey stuff tasted, looked, smelled and felt/acted like.
Be curious about the failures no matter how mundane or common they may appear. As noted in the classic, “The Art of Scientific Investigation“:
The Art of Scientific Investigation, by W.I.B. Beveridge, Pg. 40
The trick then is to look and really question whatever you can’t explain (and sometimes even questioning the things you (think you) can explain can be very useful!) Multiple people can see the same phenomenon and yet see different things.
Some years back, a veteran engineer was convinced that a plastic part was failing because of something happening in the mold. I was brought in to take a look at the situation as they were short on resources. Not taking the veteran engineer’s word, I looked more closely under a microscope. Something didn’t seem right. After looking at the part, and the entire manufacturing and testing process more closely, I realized that the failure was actually due to a testing fixture applied to the part after it was molded. Good parts were being made bad! A change in the testing procedure resulted in weeks of saved time and the product was able to launch on time.
So, while fruitful failing starts with observation, there are actually six points you should think about next time you burn a berry sauce, or something fails. Pay attention to these six points and you’ll be guaranteed to be failing-forward:
Practice being curious about why things fail. Ask questions, observe, taste, feel, smell. If you can’t explain something, if something seems odd, follow up!
Can this failure actually be used? In other words, is it truly a failure? The charred goop may have tasted good – maybe I could’ve used it in its new form? (I couldn’t but I asked this question 🙂 )
Can some aspect of the failure be used? Okay, so maybe it tastes disgusting, but does this mean that it’s totally a loss? Maybe charred, seasoned berry goo is good for digestion? (I don’t know if it is, but I’d venture it isn’t.) Maybe the sticky sugar is a biofriendly adhesive?
What did I do? How did I get here? Understand the full width and breadth of what was done to create the failure. Look at the ingredients that went into the failure, the tools and fixtures, the timing, the context/environment. Understand what truly caused the failure.
Document it! Jot it down, put it into your phone, take pictures, make recordings. At the very minimum, commit what you can to memory. Be conscious about remembering what happened so that it doesn’t happen again.
Can you recreate the failure? At the end of the day, we should be able to recreate the failure (I am quite confident I could burn my sauce again and create the same brown goop). If we can’t recreate it, we didn’t understand it.
Failing is the easy part. Turning it into something to build upon takes a conscious, concerted effort. However, the more you are cognizant of these six points, the more fruitful and the more repeatable your product development efforts will become.
Then the fun REALLY starts!
🙂
POST SCRIPT
~~~The second batch of blackberry sauce was sublime ~~~
You order a pizza for pickup. You get home and open the box and find the cardboard under the pizza is wet and soggy. You dig into the pizza but find out that, unfortunately, the flavor of the wet cardboard transferred to the pizza’s crust.
I’ve had the same experience on pizzas that were delivered as well. Anything more than 10 minutes and the soggy cardboard effect kicks in.
How do we fix it?
Let’s use the time honored technique of re-ordering the sequence of events to create a different, and better, product, er…pizza.
Very often certain events get canonized as the way to create a product. In some ways this is a good thing as it virtually guarantees repeatability in end products. In the case of pizza the following happens :
Take order
Take crust and spread tomato sauce evenly
Place cheese on tomato sauce
Add other toppings (If applicable)
Place in oven at 425F for 15 minutes.
Pull pizza out of the oven
Place on hard surface
Cut pizza
Place on cardboard and slide into pizza box
Give to customer
Drive home
Open Box
Take slices of deliciousness out and eat!
Now, the steps in red are what the restaurant typically sees. They are pretty much oblivious to steps 11-13 as they are busy doing steps 1-10 for other customers. The problem is that the restaurant can keep doing 1-10 flawlessly, but the fact of the matter is that step 11 is especially critical to 13 being a pleasurable, or not so pleasurable, experience. If the drive home is more than 10 minutes, the quality of the pizza could start going downhill. The longer the ride, the dark, steamy, cheesy, oily environment inside the box takes its toll as cheesy oil and moisture soaks through the cut marks in the pizza and soils the cardboard.
That in turn starts soaking back into the crust and impacting the flavor.
We could solve this problem by adding substances to the crust that will repel, or mask, the cardboard taste but let’s do something easier.
Change the sequence of events. There is one step in particular that directly impacts how the pizza crust will survive the ride home.
How about:
Take order
Take crust and spread tomato sauce evenly
Place cheese on tomato sauce
Add other toppings (If applicable)
Place in oven at 425F for 15 minutes.
Pull pizza out of the oven
Place on cardboard and slide into pizza box
Give to customer
Drive home
Open Box
Cut Pizza!
Take slices of deliciousness out and eat!
Yes. Let the customer cut the pizza. Not only will that help the crust quality, it takes a step, and some time, out of the pizza making process.
It may not seem like a lot, but a couple of seconds with every pizza baked will add up by the end of the year. Heck, if the restaurant wants to, it can sell branded pizza cutters, or give one away with every 10 pizzas purchased. Make it a game: “We make it and bake it, but you cut it and love it!”
So, if you want better tasting pizza, try this simple innovation.
When you order your pizza, tell them to not cut it.
But, don’t expect old habits to die hard. In the restaurant that I’ve been testing this theory with (Thank you Salutosfor unknowingly providing the pizza for these experiments! 🙂 ), even when I’ve given them instructions not to cut the pizza, often they’ve cut it anyway,
More important, next time you’re trying to improve a product that’s based on a process, look at rearranging the steps. You might just end up with a tasty new product! 🙂
PS. I shared this tidbit on Instagram first. Feel free to follow me there for more on innovation and creativity! Just click on the pic to go to my ZenStorming on Instagram.
From April 13-15 in Chicago, Illinois, the Loews Hotel will be home to a provocative and inspiring mix of leaders in Design, Brand Strategy, Marketing, Innovation, Trends, and Strategy. For 3 days you will have an opportunity to learn, network and enjoy stimulating talks, workshops and more.
I always leave FUSE with a mindful of ideas and things to share. To aid my recall, I capture my experiences of FUSE in concept maps. You can go to Slideshare and check out my maps of DAY 1 and DAY 2 from last year.
Looking forward to seeing you there and hearing your experiences!!
Every time I get the opportunity, I ask great chefs this simple question:
What does innovation mean to you?
This year at the International Home and Housewares Show, I caught up (quite literally as you see from the video,) with Chef Guy Fieri. His response to the question: “What does innovation mean to you?” is shown below. Give it a watch and join me below the video and I’ll share my thoughts.
Chef Fieri’s thoughts echo, I think, what many people believe innovation is: The willingness to “step outside the box” and try new things, the willingness to experiment. Undergirding this willingness, though, is a key acceptance of failure. He realizes that not everything will be great but we won’t know unless we try.
Thank you, Chef Fieri! You’re schedule was fast paced and packed with action (like your food!) and taking the time to chat was most gracious. Thank you, and keep rocking!
ZenStorming 