5 things to make design thinking work

WHY DESIGN THINKING DOESN’T ALWAYS WORK

IN COMPANIES

Dr Ekaterina Khramkova, Lumiknows, 2015

Based on our experience of implementing design thinking into Russian organizational culture including Beeline, Promsvyazbank,

Intel Russia, Sberbank and many others


IN COMPANIES


Based on our experience of implementing design thinking into Russian organizational culture including Beeline, Promsvyazbank,

Intel Russia, Sberbank and many others

Photo Courtesy of Fabian Oefner

5 THINGS TO MAKE DESIGN THINKING WORK:


MINDSET – PROCESS – FOCUS – SKILLS – CULTURE

or

WHO ARE LUMIKNOWS

Lumiknows is a Russia based product development & innovation consultancy specializing on design research to inspire Strategy and Innovation. We are focusing on the Fuzzy Front End of Innovation. Our mission is making sense of ill-defined information, catalyzing change and enlightening organizational knowledge (‘lumi’ – ‘light’ + ‘knows’ - ‘knowledge’).

With a focus on People, Research and Innovation, our aim is to provide deep insights into drivers, lifestyle and mindset of gaining in sophistication Russian customers. Our involvement during the early stages of NPD ensures creating sound business strategies which lead to identifying new product and market opportunities.

We have a unique experience of conducting different sorts of projects aimed at the Russian market for leading global and local brands. Lumiknows were in charge of the first Russian full-scale design research endeavors initiated by headquarters of global brands: Samsung Electronics, Danfoss, Renault, Philips Design, Harris Tweed and many others. Today, we work with both global, and Russian companies: Intel Russia, Beeline, Moscow Metro, Light Technologies, Sberbank, Promsvyazbank.

Since 2009, we have been closely working with trend intelligence centers of Philips Design in Eindhoven and Hong Kong, as well as Samsung divisions on Seoul, Paris and London fulfilling trendwathing projects for ‘health’, ‘houseware appliances’, ‘consumer electronics’, ‘lifestyle’, ‘Russian Premium’ etc.

Having become the pioneer in Russia in the area of design research and trendwatching, by now, we have the largest number of projects in this area and a vast cross-industry insight: consumer electronics, housewares, automotive, furniture, electrical equipment, banking, telecoms, FMCG, educational services and many more.

Executing a Russian part of the global projects, we worked together with such design consultancies as Continuum (Italy), Gravity Tank (USA), toca design (USA), Idea Couture (USA), Harrit and Soerensen (Denmark) and others in France and UK.

Lumiknows, 2015 HOW TO MAKE DESIGN THINKING WORK 4

5

New Product Development | Design Research & Strategy | Service Design | Trendwatching

WWW.DESIGNRESEARCH.RU | WWW.LUMIKNOWS.COM

CROSS-INDUSTRY INSIGHT SINCE 2007

Lumiknows, 2015 HOW TO MAKE DESIGN THINKING WORK

Dr Ekaterina L Khramkova • Member of the Editorial Board, The

International Journal of Business Anthropology, New York

• Columnist on Design Thinking, Harvard Business Review Russia, Moscow

• Lecturer in Design Research/Design Thinking, British Higher School of Art & Design, Moscow

Ekaterina has a multidisciplinary academic and professional background combining economics, cultural anthropology, and design strategy. In 2007, Ekaterina founded the first-in-Russia design research consultancy Lumiknows, specializing on developing appropriate design strategies and new products / brand offerings for the Russian market. On a regular basis, Ekaterina writes and speaks emphasizing the social, cultural, technological and business dimensions of design. In 2012, Ekaterina has become a featured speaker at Design Management Institute conference in Helsinki to share her experience of conducting design research in the Russian market for global brands with the world design community. In 2013, Ekaterina was requested to mentor "Design Thinking for Business Innovation" online course in Russia for a global Coursera Labs project. In 2014, Ekaterina has become a design mentor of the Intel Global Challenge 'Make It Wearable'. Ekaterina holds a Master’s in Foreign Economics from the Moscow State University named after Lomonosov, a Masters in Design and Branding Strategy from Brunel University, UK, and a PhD in Ethnography and Cultural Anthropology from the Russian Academy of Sciences.

FOUNDING DIRECTOR


So,



IN COMPANIES?

IN 2006 I HAPPENED TO INTERVIEW IDEO IN THEIR LONDON OFFICE FOR MY THESIS AT BRUNEL …and I recall their story of transformation which turned a successful product design agency into one of the leading strategic management consultancies in the world. It was at the turn of 2000s, when they began to introduce the world of business with a new term – ‘design thinking’. Why? The crisis in their native product design industry made them cardinally rethink who they were. When Chinese industrial designers took competencies and clients from American professionals, the only way to survive was to understand what they could do better. Much better.

At Ideo, they told me, it were the most dark times, when they decided to get together in their headquarters in Palo Alto and invite Gary Hamel to share his insights on what was going on. And that his main idea that the key factor for the nearest decades would be uncertainty was completely in tune with their understanding of the emerging business reality.

In other words, we need to admit and accept the fact that we, as businesses, do not actually fully understand our market, our customer, and the future of our industries (despite the tons of predictions) is totally unclear to us. And, thus, we cannot anymore spend months and years to develop a new product to understand in the end it doesn’t work.

And that the winner would be companies who would be able to extremely quickly create hypotheses of new products and services to quickly test them, refine and iterate again and again.

This is how – at least I understood it this way – design thinking was born. So, my definition of ‘design thinking’ is as follows: this is one of the effective methodologies to create hypotheses of unforgettable customer experiences. This is a way of experimenting with new product development through cheap-and-quick prototyping. Full version of the interview

Ekaterina Khramkova, Lumiknows


http://www.slideshare.net/Lumiknows/interview-with-ideo-by-ekaterina-khramkova-presentation

If before it was ok to follow market strategy ‘Ready - Aim – Fire’, now, when ambiguity is ruling, it is rather ‘Ready – Fire – Aim’…

Adapted from Niel Gershenfeld, MIT

Founding father of the worldwide Fablabs network

9 Lumiknows, 2015 HOW TO MAKE DESIGN THINKING WORK


In other words, its all about experimenting.


I would even say, it is all about serendipity ;)

Unfortunately,


‘SERIOUS’ COMPANIES HATE EXPERIMENTING.

Unfortunately,


USUALLY, THEY HAVE NO TIME & BUDGET ON IT.


http://www.lawrencehallofscience.org/comsci/

But let’s be honest.


DESIGN THINKING IS ABOUT EXPERIMENTING


http://www.lawrencehallofscience.org/comsci/


IN COMPANIES

This is the underlying reason


Let’s look what it means

WHAT IS THE MOST COMPLICATED THING IN NEW PRODUCT

DEVELOPMENT?


(1) Desirability by people. It should meet latent needs, behaviors, and desires;

(2) Feasibility - technological considerations;

(3) Viability in terms of economic considerations and strategic business aims.

SEARCH FOR THE IDEA WHICH MUST MEET THE THREE CONTROVERSIAL REQUIREMENTS:

Source: Keeley (1993); Owen (1993).


HOW DOES THE SEARCH FOR A NEW PRODUCT IDEA HAPPEN?


THIS IS HOW THE WAY LOOKS LIKE IN THE BEGINNING OF THE PROJECT



IT IS HOW IT SEEMS WHEN APPROACHING THE END OF THE PROJECT


AND IT IS IN REALITY…

WHAT DISTINGUISHES THE STAGE WHERE THE SEARCH FOR A NEW

PRODUCT IDEA HAPPENS?


http://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/2542450115/

25

THE FUZZY FRONT END OF INNOVATION

HOW TO MAKE DESIGN THINKING WORK

That «zero stage» when you need to give birth to of a new product…

when you need to give birth to of a new product…

Lumiknows, 2015

We investigated into fourteen large companies with an annual sales volume from $500 million to $10 billion. We discovered that only four of them had managed to meet plan in terms of timing, functionality of new products and market share. In five cases companies designed new generation's products which were positively evaluated by experts, but at the end these products failed. As it turned out, every time when in an NPD process difficulties occurred, the roots of the problems could easily be found at the stage of early planning, when the company had to decide what design the new product will have. "In search for new generation's product", Harvard Business Review


FUZZY FRONT END THE REST OF NPD

http://www.co-d.net/

27 Lumiknows, 2015 HOW TO MAKE DESIGN THINKING WORK

CONCEPT IDEATION IMPLEMENTATION

http://www.co-d.net/

28

EMPATHIZE DEFINE IDEATE PROTOTYPE TEST

1 2 3 4 5

DESIGN THINKING STAGES


Fuzzy Front End New Product Development

Nature of Work Experimental, often chaotic. “Eureka” moments. Can schedule work—but not invention.

Disciplined and goal-oriented with a project plan.

Commercialization Date Unpredictable or uncertain. High degree of certainty.

Funding Variable—in the beginning phases many projects may be “bootlegged,” while others will need funding to proceed.

Budgeted

Revenue

Expectations

Often uncertain, with a great deal of speculation.

Predictable, with increasing certainty, analysis, and documentation as the product release date gets closer.

Activity Individuals and team conducting research to minimize risk and optimize potential

Multifunction product and/or process development team

Measures of Progress Strengthened concepts. Milestone achievement.

Fuzzy Front End: Effective Methods, Tools, and Techniques, Peter A.Koen, Greg M.Ajamian, Scott Boyce, Allen Clamen, Eden Fisher, Stavros Fountoulakis, Albert Johnson, Pushpinder Puri, and Rebecca Seibert / The PDMA ToolBook for New Product Development

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE FFE AND THE REST OF NPD


So, the 5 reasons



IN COMPANIES

1. MINDSET Companies hate uncertainty and do not appreciate nonlinear, intuitive thinking.

2. PROCESS Companies bond to linear instead of iterative processes.

3. FOCUS Companies are good at market research but still struggle with applying design research.

4. SKILLS Companies understand well what UX/UI is, but have no sufficient skills to creating cheap-and-quick prototypes (unless it is a design consultancy).

5. CULTURE Companies have difficulties with creating ‘i-shaped’ business culture.

HOW TO MAKE DESIGN THINKING WORK Lumiknows, 2015 31

mindset


DIVERGENT vs CONVERGENT

Pay attention to your mindset

…and temporarily forget the metrics

1. MINDSET

2. PROCESS

3. FOCUS

4. SKILLS

5. CULTURE


HOW TO MAKE DESIGN THINKING WORK 34

Companies have a targeted intelligence to track issues that are strategically important but lack an open process to recognize emerging patterns and issues that no one has yet identified as strategic. Best-Practice Survey Results/SRI Consulting Business Intelligence-formerly Stanford Research Institute

Lumiknows, 2015

35

DESIGN THINKING

Aims at operating with already identified strategic opportunities

Aims at discovering new strategic opportunities


TARGETTED INTELLIGENCE

HOW TO SWITCH OFF TARGETTED INTELLIGENCE?

consciously combine «divergent» and «convergent» mindsets.

• Diverge: generate options

• Converge: select options


DIVERGENT THINKING: ability to expand the search area to create new problem statements

CONVERGENT THINKING: ability to find solutions to some problem statement


WHY IT IS SO IMPORTANT TO FIND YOURSELF FROM TIME TO TIME IN A ‘DIVERGE’ MINDSET?

We are accustomed to immediately rush to solve the problem rather than stop and ask yourself, "Is that the right problem we solve?". Thus, we spend a lot of time to answering ‘bad’ questions and solving the ‘wrong’ problems.

If I had only one hour to save the world, I would spend fifty-five minutes defining the problem, and only five minutes finding the solution. Albert Einstein


SO, HOW OFTEN DO YOU ASK YOURSELF A ‘GOOD QUESTION’:

WHAT TYPE OF MINDSET AM I CURRENTLY UTILIZING: DIVERGENT OR CONVERGENT?



WHAT TYPE OF MINDSET AM I CURRENTLY UTILIZING: DIVERGENT OR CONVERGENT?

Ask yourself and your colleagues more often…


process


LINEAR vs ITERATIVE

Follow the main principle – ‘iteration’.

…at Lumiknows, we call it the number of

‘snails’


1. MINDSET

2. PROCESS

3. FOCUS

4. SKILLS

5. CULTURE

HYPOTHESIS

MODEL

CHECK

CREATING A FIELD OF HYPOTHESES OF NEW PRODUCT IDEAS

CHEAP-AND-QUICK PROTOTYPING REFLECTING A KEY USAGE SCENARIO

CHEAP-AND-QUICK TESTING OF THE HYPOTHESES


1 2 3

v

H

M C

Linear incremental process with clear beginning and end

Iterative process based on the ‘H – M - C’ cycle


x

OUR METHODOLOGY ‘THINK AS CREATOR’ IS BASED ON THE CYCLE ‘HYPOTHESIS – MODEL - CHECK’


©Lumiknows, 2015

We caught ourselves at asking each other, ‘How many snails have we went through?’


CAN WE SAY OUR WORKING HYPOTHESIS HAS BEEN CONFIRMED, OR SHALL WE

MAKE ANOTHER SNAIL?


focus


CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE vs HUMAN EXPERIENCE

Make sure you apply the right type of research techniques:

a detailed story of “how to ride a bicycle” vs real experience of

riding


1. MINDSET

2. PROCESS

3. FOCUS

4. SKILLS

5. CULTURE

WHAT IS THE MAIN DIFFERENCE?

Market research techniques are good at confirming the existing situation, but not that good at identifying new product opportunities.

If I’d ask people what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse. Henry Ford


Design in Technology program, University of Cambridge, Judge Institute of Management

52

Market techniques

Design research techniques

Artificial setting

In-context

Self-reporting of behaviours

Observe behaviours first hand

Identifies ‘preferences’

Identifies ‘user experience’

Sanitized data (aspiration)

Raw data (reality)

Focuses on the ‘known’

Focuses on new possibilities

Closed ended questions

Open ended dialogue

Detached research team

Integrated to design development team

Bar charts & text

Visual images

Design in Technology program, University of Cambridge, Judge Institute of Management

53

Market

research results

Design

research results

The number of respondents

100

1

The number of new product ideas

1

10


Market research: focus on narrow «customer experience»

Design research: focus on total «human experience»


Finally, the goal of designing these experiments and minimal viable products is not to get data. The data is not the endpoint. Anyone can collect data. Focus groups collect data. This is not a focus group. The goal is to get insight. The entire point of getting out of the building is to inform the founder’s vision. The insight may come from analyzing customer responses, but it also may come from ignoring the data or realizing that what you are describing is a new, disruptive market that doesn’t exist, and that you need to change your experiments from measuring specifics to inventing the future.

Steve Blank




DO WE ENRICH THE REAL LIFE OF OUR CUSTOMERS WITH MEANINGFUL STUFF, I.E. THINGS THAT DON’T NECESSARILY APPLY

TO OUR BRAND?

skills


PROTOTYPING: FAST vs SLOW

Make sure you understand the difference between ‘fast’ prototyping and classical usability testing :

as between «spotlight» and. «flashlight»


1. MINDSET

2. PROCESS

3. FOCUS

4. SKILLS

5. CULTURE

WHAT IS ‘FAST’ PROTOTYPE

Cheap and quick way of visualizing your hypothesis which makes it easier to:

(1)test it,

(2)refine it, and

(3)communicate it to both potential users, and colleagues inside the company.



http://woodwabbet.blogspot.ru/2013_09_01_archive.html

WHAT IS ‘FAST’ PROTOTYPE

A clever ceramics instructor divided his pottery class into two groups during the first session. One half of the students, he announced, would be graded on quality as represented by a single ceramic piece due at the end of the class, a culmination of all they had learned. The other half of the class he would grade based on quantity . For example, fifty pounds of finished work would earn them an A. Throughout the course, the “quality” students funneled their energy into meticulously crafting the perfect ceramic piece, while the “quantity” students threw pots nonstop in every session. ...At the end of the course, the best pieces all came from students whose goal was quantity, the ones who spent the most time actually practicing their craft.

‘Creative Confidence’, Tom and David Kelley


Aim of the classical usability testing: check usability of the product for some particular scenarios

Aim of the «fast» testing: check the idea of new product + search for new hypotheses




SHALL WE CHANGE THE IDEA OF OUR PRODUCT, OR WE CAN NOW START

POLISHING IT?

culture


IDEATORS vs IMPLEMENTERS

Create ‘i-shaped’ organizational cultures

…and don’t make those people implement brilliant ideas they

bring to you. Statistics say the chances are high they will leave.


1. MINDSET

2. PROCESS

3. FOCUS

4. SKILLS

5. CULTURE

WHAT IS ‘I-SHAPED’ ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE?


IDEATORS | Moving quickly | Perfect for Fuzzy Front End, but NPD isn’t their piece of cake

IMPLEMENTERS | Moving deeply | Perfect for implementing ideas, but not for the FFE (see slide #29)

WHAT IS ‘I-SHAPED’ ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE?


IDEATORS | Moving quickly | Perfect for Fuzzy Front End, but NPD isn’t their piece of cake

IMPLEMENTERS | Moving deeply | Perfect for implementing ideas, but not for the FFE (see slide #29)

Should work in parallel universes

I-shaped culture is that which is good for innovation, i.e. there are two parallel universes created – for ideators and implementers.


Inside of companies these are the mavericks you want to fire for not getting with program. In a startup they’d be the founding CEO. These innovators want to create new and potentially disruptive business models. Here the company is essentially incubating a startup. They operate with speed and urgency to find a repeatable and scalable business model. [They] need to be physically separate from operating divisions (in a corporate incubator, or their own facility.) And they need their own plans, procedures, policies, incentives and KPI... Steve Blank, Lean Innovation Management – Making Corporate Innovation Work

http://steveblank.com/2015/06/26/lean-innovation-management-making-corporate-innovation-work/







TODAY, WIN NOT THOSE BIGGER AND STRONGER



TODAY, WIN NOT THOSE BIGGER AND STRONGER, BUT THOSE WHO CAN QUICKLY CHANGE...



HAVE WE MANAGED TO CREATE A REAL CULTURE FOR INNOVATION (‘I-SHAPED’ CULTURE), I.E. WE HAVE CREATED TWO

UNIVERSES: FOR IDEATORS AND IMPLEMENTERS?

HOW TO MAKE DESIGN THINKING WORK IN YOUR ORGANIZATION


HOW TO MAKE DESIGN THINKING WORK Lumiknows, 2015 77

1. MINDSET Consciously combine ‘divergent’ and ‘convergent’ mindsets.

2. PROCESS Follow the main principle – ‘iteration’.

3. FOCUS Look at the bigger picture – move from narrow ‘customer’ to total ‘human’ experiences.

4. SKILLS Infuse your company with skills of creating cheap-and-quick prototypes – both digital and tangible.

5. CULTURE Make sure you create a powerful ‘i-shaped’ culture, - two universes for ideators & implementers.

HOW TO MAKE DESIGN THINKING WORK

?

Lumiknows, 2015 78

1. MINDSET Consciously combine ‘divergent’ and ‘convergent’ mindsets.

2. PROCESS Follow the main principle – ‘iteration’.

3. FOCUS Look at the bigger picture – move from narrow ‘customer’ to total ‘human’ experiences.

4. SKILLS Infuse your company with skills of creating cheap-and-quick prototypes – both digital and tangible.

5. CULTURE Make sure you create a powerful ‘i-shaped’ culture, - two universes for ideators & implementers.

Indeed, the gap between what can be imagined and what can be accomplished has never been smaller. In the age of progress, dreams were often little more than fantasies. Today, they are doorways to new realities. … But we are limited not by our tools, but by our imagination. Gary Hamel

HOW TO MAKE DESIGN THINKING WORK 79 Lumiknows, 2015

HOW TO MAKE DESIGN THINKING WORK 80Lumiknows, 2015

QUESTIONS?

[email protected]



THANK YOU

5 THINGS TO MAKE DESIGN THINKING WORK

IN YOUR ORGANIZATION

5 things to make design thinking work

Design

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