1. The perspective from a
design innovation firm
Tjeerd
Hoek
October
13th
2010

2. Transforming a business or
organizations is a BIG claim
…and not one we tend to
make upfront.
But it does happen…

3. WHAT
WE
PROMISE
OUR
CLIENTS…
(AND
I
AM
NOT
PITCHING
TO
YOU)

4. what (we say) we do
We help the world’s leading companies create and bring to market
meaningful products, services, and experiences.
INSIGHT TECHNOLOGY INSPIRATION IMPACT
We discover market We leverage emerging We express opportunities in rich, We create lasting brand equity
opportunities through deep technologies to define new visual form to inspire and business impact across
insight and intuition. product concepts and and motivate organizations. multiple organizations, systems,
experiences. and technologies.

5. how (we say) we do it
DISCOVER DESIGN DELIVER
RESEARCH BECOMES INSIGHT INSIGHTS BECOME IDEAS IDEAS BECOME REALITY
Through design research, market analysis, and We develop an informed design that will answer In order to guarantee the translation of idea to
strategic evaluations, we gain insight into a the challenge posed by the market that will be reality, all project details are specified,
company’s brand identity, user base, existing useful, usable, desirable and technically feasible. documented, and delivered to the client, and
assets, and market opportunities. supplemented with full production support.

6. The central problem facing
business today is change.
Tangibly embodying change –
products, services, systems,
organizations – is one of the
most important things we do.
Tangibility for clarity.
Tangibility for testing and validation.
Tangibility for communication & inspiration.

7. innovative insights
inspire
innovative design.

8. Design Research acknowledges
that people are not masses of
statistics and bullet points, and
forms the foundation for our
process and insights.
People are living, breathing, feeling, adaptable beings.
We engage people so we can observe their behavior and
allow them to meaningfully convey their motivations.

9. But… it’s difficult to predict success

10. Really, we actually cannot predict the future either

11. Villemard,
1910
‘En
L'Ans
2000’

13. Are designers just parasites of disruption?

14. Or are they the catalysts for change?

15. Design can certainly brings fresh perspectives,
and different approaches

16. IMPROVEMENT
 CHANGE
 RISK & FEAR

17. The innovation loop
Business leaders are overwhelmed in assessing new
technologies, consumer behavior, products and business
models. It is di!cult to estimate the value of the future.
“Why would we do that?”
INNOVATION
PRECEDENT
“We have to do that!”
By the time a company organizes and acts, it is often too late and becomes
di!cult to establish a market presence that is meaningful or profitable.

18. Breaking the innovation loop
We help organizations break free of the innovation loop by bringing into practice
an end-to-end development model that focuses on iterations in the market.
“What do we want to do next?”
ITERATION TRANSFORMATION
INNOVATION
PRECEDENT
“What can we become?”
This frees up business leaders to focus on how the organization should
be managed to grow and adapt, transforming itself in the process.

19. “If I had asked people what
they wanted more of, they
would have said faster horses.”
- Henry Ford

20. “It is not enough for a man to
know how to ride; he must
know how to fall.”
- Old Mexican proverb

21. Accepting the cost of failure

22. Embracing the coarse process

23. Making it: Seeking the conversation with the artifact

24. From vision to making the design a reality

25. FAILURE
POINTS
INSIGHT DESIGN BUILD
“the planners, strategists then the designers then development
and design researchers “design it” teams “build it”
do their thing”

26. INSIGHT DESIGN BUILD
convergence of convergence of design
insight with design with development

27. INSIGHT DESIGN BUILD
convergence of
3rd level of convergence: of design
convergence
insight with design with development
prototyping, development, engineering
become a source of ideas directly
impacting the vision and the solutions.

28. Three key components
“The Story” “The Artifact”
Ideas & insights Concrete results
KNOWLEDGE-DRIVEN SKILL-DRIVEN
Anatomy & Building Blocks
(technology, engineering, domain knowledge)

29. HOW
WE
SEE
COMPANIES
STRUGGLE
WITH
“INNOVATION”

30. Commonly heard from our clients…
We
already
tried
that,
and
it
didn’t
work.
No
one
is
asking
for
that.
We
already
solved
that
problem
in
the
We
need
something
totally
new
upcoming
version.
and
different
from
what
everyone
else
is
doing.
We
already
have
that
feature.
You
can
already
We
don’t
really
know
what
do
that.
people
actually
do
aTer
they
buy
our
product.

31. Death by too many painful hurdles
“HAVING” the feature is not enough… if nobody can actually use it.

32. And note: those hurdles are NOT the objective!
Whatever is here, is what
the user actually cares
about, and considers
“mission accomplished”!

33. The organization chart showing through in
the experience TEAM
5
TEAM
1
TEAM
4
TEAM
2
TEAM
3
TEAM
6

34. Making yet another ‘better’ mousetrap
Feature fatigue
Complexity in the value proposition
Good enough for customers

35. Beating the tyranny of ‘good enough’
It’s not about designing V-next; rethink the complete experience.

36. The ‘small’ differences between experiences:
“oh we don’t really need all that!”
There’s only a small delta between a FAIL and massive success.

37. Everything’s been done - and shipped - before
(and… so what? Let’s do it again, and better!)
Simon Smart Phone
IBM& Bell South Bill Buxton
1993 CHI 2008

38. We must differentiate ourselves!

39. Beauty and passionate attention to detail…
The last, hard and expensive x % of the work
Did nobody just give sh*t or something?

40. Innovation is very expensive and easily commoditized
How much to invest when perceived value of your product is eroding to zero?

41. Could we become too adamant about
the innovation imperative?
<Jobs?>

43. Being
outside
vs.
inside
• A
lot
of
what
we
do
is
essenVally
paid,
high-­‐speed
R&D
–
it’s
tough
• Having
to
sell
your
work
is
very
different
from
being
“at
the
organizaVon’s
disposal”
without
a
contract
or
dollar
amount
• Spend
a
lot
on
‘the
story’
and
constant
communicaVon/reviewing
• Not
‘owning’
the
full
trajectory
( just
working
on
a
part
of
the
process)
• Not
having
to
do
infinite
re-­‐designs
• Not
being
present
all
the
way
to
shipping
to
explain,
detail,
and
defend
the
integrity
of
the
design
• Changing
of
the
guards
-­‐
we
someVmes
end
up
being
the
owners
of
knowledge
• Hard
to
fix
organizaVonal
roadblocks
in
the
client’s
org
• A
lot
of
work
ends
up
not
making
it
into
the
hands
of
people