via problogger …

Recently while working with a department within the college, we identified some behaviors and skills that would be necessary for graduating students to succeed and help future organisations compete in the future. One of these traits was curiousity. Can curiosity be taught? Some folks may be inherently more curious (in many ways!!) and like design thinkers, these behaviors (or techniques) can be consciously applied.

I came across this article about curiosity applied to writing blogs, but the 12 starting points are applicable to being curious about anything.

via Mass Customisation & Open Innovation News

If succesful innovation is determined by more completely meeting the needs of your users, customisation for a single consumer must be highly successful innovation. B. Joseph Pine II believes the Internet has made it possible for every company to provide customised products and services.

Any company in the world can reach any potential customer in the world with a digitized representation of what it has to offer, and can change that representation – and then the actual offering – to meet the needs of that individual customer.

How quickly will desktop fabrication and FabLabs become a reality, allowing individuals to produce small quantities of unique items. (Look at how blogging has democratised publishing.) Even without adopting mass customisation, I found Chris Hart’s concept of “customer sacrifice” applicable to anyone uncovering the needs of users.

Customer sacrifice is the gap between what a customer wants exactly and what he has to settle for today. As opposed to customer satisfaction, which relates to expectations, customer sacrifice looks at what each customer really and truly wants and needs. Companies need to uncover the few dimensions, or even just the one, solitary dimension of sacrifice that will yield the most value for their customers, and for them.

Read the interview
Fab@Home and RepRap

via Creativity and Innovation Driving Business …

So, does innovation deliver? According to the performance of The Innovation Index, which follows 18 companies deemed the most innovative by Business Week and Boston Consulting Group, the return is clear.

The Innovation Index has returned 119% over the last five years. $100 invested in The Innovation Index on December 31, 2001 returned $219 as of December 29, 2006. By comparison, $100 invested in each of S & P 500, NASDAQ and Dow Jones Index returned $124. The Innovation Index beats the S & P 500, NASDAQ and Dow Jones Index by 77% over the last five years.

The Innovation Index

We have struggled for ages with the problem of Christmas dinner. How do you align the wants of adults (long meal, copious amounts of wine and extended chatter) with the needs of small children (small amounts of food, fast intake and quick turnaround)?

My eldest (4) came up with a brilliant, user-centred, design solution the other day. She suggested that we stretch one meal over the entire day. So, our starter will be at breakfast, main course at lunch and pudding in the evening. In theory everyone gets what they want. Meals are short, less stress and easier on the digestion. I like it

I will let you know how the prototyping phase goes.

Ralf Beuker suggests the motto, “help design manager help themselves” in relation to design thinking. Apparently this is a modification of Maria Montessori’s approach to childhood education of “help me in order to help myself.”

When working at Crayola and attempting to come up with a definition of “Play,” we finally decided that play is what children do. It is how they learn about the world around them. As children we have much more tolerance of risk, comfortably use trial and error and have an endless supply of enthusiasm. These are several traits that make for great design thinkers.

How do we re-awaken the child in us as profesionals, and within those students that will become the next generation of innovative thinkers attempting to solve ‘wicked problems?’ Montessori’s educational approach appears to be even more relevant in our changing world. “Education should no longer be mostly imparting of knowledge, but must take a new path, seeking the release of human potentialities.”

When I forwarded this post from Diego Rodriguez’s blog, Toby responded by saying “that is about as good an exposition as I have ever heard about what we do.”

I believe that good design thinking can lead to a higher success rate when innovating, and that’s the link to good business outcomes. And that’s where employing metrics to gauge and guide the innovation process comes into play — they’re a way to inform and improve the context in which our design thinking occurs. It’s about measuring and aiding the process of value creation via design thinking, not proving that design can create value.