How is Design Thinking different from process re-engineering or business consulting?
That was the question asked by a reader to Business Week's Bruce Nussbaum. Check out the response from Bruce as he answers the question highlighting the difference between the approach followed by major consultancies & that of design thinkers. As he points out, Design Thinking is about Creation of new (business models/products/ services based on user centricity, business objective & technology) & not about choosing among limited options available. Design Thinking is about reframing of problem & at the same time reinventing the wheel. Design thinking is about understanding the user, aligining his/her needs with the business viablity along with technological feasibility to come up with innovative solutions.
Every brand seeks to create Experiences that go beyond the mere functionality to connect at a deeper level with customer infusing all the necessary elements of Brand. The role of an Experience Architect(Ten Faces of Innovation)is important & crucial for designing for designing a well designed experience.
Recently I was invited for a Pool party organized by Foster's in Pune.
Now Foster's denote Australian & the communication features beaches & women. So with the Experience Architects at the job of infusing these elements, how was this pool party.
I decided to judge this experience using Doblin's Compelling Experience model. The model helps to envision & decide the experiences that the customer/participant must have. I have customized the model's elements according to Foster's party. Its element include:
1. Attraction: What experience we should have at the time inviting them for the party that will induce them to come.
2. Entry: What sort of experience we should have at the entry of the event.
3. Immersion: what are the experiences we can design using Brand elements to insure fully immersement of people at the party & ensuring its success
4. Exit: What should be leaving experience for the invites.
5. Extension: What happens after one has left the party- what can the invite pass on to others?
Entry : I'll start with the Entry phase. The experience for me started at the entry phase. Even before one could enter the party, Fosters had placed small surfboards along the way to the entry creating an impression of beach. At the entry the staff was also dressed in cool beach shirts.
Immersion: Being a pool party of Foster's the entire experience had to be designed integrating Foster's Brand. The people serving guests were wearing Foster's hat very similar to Cork hats highlighting Foster's been Australian. Australian Models dressed in beach wear highlighted the beach experience . With Barbeque serving entirely Non-Veg been grilled in front of guests creating an expression of been in the Outback of Australia. Blue been the Brand prominent color was to be seen entirely. Considering the hot weather & it being a pool party the Dj played mostly reggae & trance music (which I m not sure was Australian) And yes Fosters was been served throughout.
Exit: The Experience Architect could have paid a little more attention at the exit phase in terms of thinking how the exit experience of guests would be. As a chance to remember, guests could have been given a small souvenir (may be Their Polaroid snap of party, Foster's hat) which would have reminded them of this party even after considerable time.
Extension: One possible method of extending this experience could have been taking pictures of people at the party an uploading it on their site & with the possibility of people connecting with each other. For eg: People can chat/message each other those who came to party, connect with them , share opinions & memories of party, in the future may come together & organize their own get togethers. Through this the organizers get instant feedback on how their party was at the same time a chance to connect & expand their brand recognition & sales.
Overall its was a great experience. Cheers to the organizers for putting up this event.
This is my second post in the series of Ideas for change. I am collecting Ideas that are solving environmental Issues, ideas aimed at helping people to be more efficient, more productive, solving their problems, etc.
Let's have a look at some of the Ideas
1. Better Place: Why Can't we have environmentally friendly at the same time efficient Transportation solution. Well Shai Agassi seems to be asking that question for a while & the answer is BETTER PLACE. Better Place is the world’s leading electric vehicle (EV) services provider, catalyzing the transition to sustainable transportation. Better Place aims to reduce global dependency on petroleum through the creation of a market-based transportation infrastructure that supports electric vehicles. Better Place is building first electric vehicle network & has operations in Israel, Denmark, Australia, U.S, Canada & Japan.
Shai Agassi spoke at TED this year about his grand vision. Have a look.
2. Velib : The widely reported Paris' famous bicycle renting scheme is one unique business model started by Jean francois & Jean-Charles Decaux. Launched in July 2007, today the bicycles have become a mainstream & green form of public transportation in Paris. More than 2,00,000 Parisians have taken one year subscription ($40) and in a poll in May, 94% of Velib users said they were satisfied with the service.
3.Ecover(Eco friendly washing powder) : Belgian Company Ecover is manufacturing environment friendly washing powder made of natural plant & minerals ingredients. The product also comes in a recyclable bags. Last year the company generated $15 mn in pre tax profit.
4. Haath mein Sehat (Health In Hands) Project: Moving on to Ideas which aim to improve lives of people. One Such Initiative is Haath mein Sehat (Health In Hands) Project (to which I was also a part of ) which aims to improve livelihoods of people living in slums of Mumbai through health education and developing efficient low-cost water treatment methods.HMS is an interdisciplinary, international collaboration between local organizations and institutions in Mumbai and students at the University of California, Berkeley. Have a look at the Project Video.
5. Aravind project : India’s Aravind Eye Care System is probably the world’s largest provider of eye care. From April 2006 to March 2007 Aravind served more than 2.3 million patients and performed more than 270,000 surgeries. Founded in 1976 by Dr. G. Venkataswamy, Aravind has as its mission nothing less than the eradication of needless blindness among India’s population, including the rural poor, through the effective delivery of superior ophthalmic care.
I’ll be posting some more ideas & projects in the coming period.
With Population levels continuously rising in our Cities, there is sense of worry & urgency shown by world leaders to reduce its harmful effects on the planet.
Bill Clinton & Al Gore have already initiated projects & are also making people aware of these effects.
Have a look at Bill Clinton’s Climate Initiative Video
Here is Al Gore’s Presentation from TED 2009.
So, apart from these, which Ideas/initiatives are being thought which will help generate awareness & avoid these effects. I think the problem here is not only to care about environment but to show care about humans & society at large which will bring a social mindset to create a change. So apart from collecting ideas that are aimed at solving environmental issues, I decided to collect ideas aimed at helping people. Be it helping them to be more efficient, more productive, solving their problems, etc.
My next post will comprise some of the ideas so collected. I’ll call it Ideas for change.
Also, this is the 100th post of our blog & as they say it all started with An Idea
Have a look at the following Videos showcasing How Ideas get killed during Focus groups.
I remember reading somewhere about Henry Ford saying that if I had asked people they would have said that we need faster horse. Similar would have been the case with Walkman, Ipod and other products. Thats where Design Reserach (to capture insights on what customer wants) & Validation tools come in handy and the overall notion of distinctive value (whether the new idea/product/service will be able to provide differentiated value to customers which is not being met by any other product/service as of now)
Ideas Project, a project of Nokia hosted at www.ideasproject.com,is bringing together the most visionary and influential "big thinkers" to contemplate the big ideas that matter most to the future of communications. It is a new kind of conversation platform aimed at uncovering the connections between these thought leaders and their disruptive ideas.
Tim Brown recently discussed his Big Idea that Communication Technology is Converting Consumers into Participants. As he puts it, a great service is not defined as something where the customer remains passive but as something where customers act as participants. For Eg as he has written on his blog- Consumers should be encouraged to participate in being healthy through creation of more platforms such as E medical records, offering people to take control of his/her health.
I feel there is a similarity between the Idea proposed by Seth Godin of people joining Tribes/communities for a meaning & being relevant & in Tim Brown's Idea of Consumers becoming participants. Both of these Ideas encourage companies to be Meaningful, Stand for something, Involve customers as a part of creation & delivery process at the same time these Ideas also reflect the greater notion of Customers Joining for Meaning rather than only satisfying their tangible need & I guess these ideas in a way reflect the new marketing principles, that Customers will be looking for Meaning, being able to Participate & be relevant.
Have a look at the following videos of Tim Brown as he discusses his Idea on Idea Project.For Seth Godin talk see the previous post. You can also submit your Big Idea to www.ideasproject.com & have a chance to win Nokia N95.
Thanks to Byron for informing about Ideas Project.
Challenge the Status Quo, Stand/be a part for something, Bring a change, Become a part of Tribe.
Have a look at the following talk by Seth Godin at Ted discussing next big thing in marketing as customers constantly looking for meaning by being part of a group.
Fast, Easy to use & Secure- that's Google Chrome. But how do you promote all of the benefits of a browser. Google is out with amazing Short videos. Check them out.
One of the biggest differences between market research & Design research is having a Empathetic approach towards the consumer. Design researchers use Empathetic approach inorder to understand the issues of consumers which inturn help in identification of latent needs. Have a look at this amazing video, showcasing a conflict between advertiser & consumer.
I guess its time we empathize with the customer (listening to his/her issues, noting his/her needs, feeling what he/she feels) or as shown in the video, the customer will just walk away.
Hi everybody TED will be starting the process of accepting nominations for TED fellows for TED India soon (april 20 2009). For TED India 100 fellows will be selected.
For Additional Information about TED fellows program check:
The following video is of a talk on How to Lie with Design Research.
The talk was given by Dan Saffer (Adaptive Path) at at the sixth annual IIT Design Research Conference, held September 21-22, 2007 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, in Chicago.
Have a look at this video & you may bluff all around the year.(and not only today 1st April).
