Design = Change for the Better – Part 1 of 3

“Innovation” is a magically ambiguous word, leaving pretty much everything to your imagination in terms of what it means, and how to achieve it.

To me, innovation is all about “implementing change for the better” otherwise, why bother?

It’s time we stopped theorising about innovation, and actually started doing. Leave it to the academics to rationalise, define and debate – we’re here to make things better, and innovation is the key.

So, how do you innovate?

(Beware – design rant approaching…)

Design is a major driver of innovation. It can help you identify, explore, prototype and test new ideas; it can analyse your current list of products and find ways to reduce cost, simplify, or perhaps conversely, increase their appeal and sophistication.

Before I launch into a verbose dialogue about the merits and benefits of Design (which could take a while – maybe I’ll do that later!), it’s probably better for me to simply give you some practical ideas about how to use Design in order to “implement change for the better”.

This is Part 1 of a 3 part series – and each part will be published weekly, so be sure to swing by again each week, or subscribe via RSS (top right) or through the Mailing List (see “Sign me up!” sidebar).

Focus, generate & visualise

I’ve talked before about “what we focus on happens” – those moments where we are so hell-bent on achieving an outcome that we don’t rest until it’s done… Well, it may come as a surprise to learn that creativity, design and innovation are exactly the same. These are activities that require focus in order to achieve outcomes.

Once we dedicate a period of time to focusing on a problem, we free ourselves of all the other troubles, issues, tasks and priorities in our day and simply knuckle-down to generating new ideas.

To generate ideas, there are a host of techniques you can use… big pieces of butcher’s paper, post-its, team brainstorms, mind-maps, cause-and-effect (fishbone) diagrams – the list goes on. The point is… USE AT LEAST ONE OF THESE! Talk is fine, but you must record your ideas somewhere, somehow. Get your ideas down on paper, so you can see where your ideas have taken you, and more importantly, where you might be able to go from here.

Visualising your ideas is incredibly important – particularly in product development. It doesn’t really matter if the idea is a scribble on a napkin, a more elaborate illustration from your designer or graphic artist, a basic 3D CAD model or even a quick mock-up or prototype. Visualisation (in two or three dimensions) is the first step to exploring and understanding the physics, mechanics and feasibility of the idea… forcing you to put size, location, shape and function into your idea… To visualise is to explore, filter and evaluate.

It’s important to recognise that “structure” is the key for navigating new idea generation and visualisation. Ideas have no value without context, relevance and opportunity for development. Structured idea-generating sessions can deliver quality ideas quickly and cost-effectively. I have helped many clients generate new product directions through formal “Focus / Generate / Visualise” sessions. If you would like to learn more about these sessions, please contact me.

Part 2 (next week) will discuss a simple set of criteria you can use to a) figure out if your new product idea has legs (well, not literally… but you know what I mean…), and b) use these criteria as a guide for decision-making during the product design and development process.