Design Thinking Blog

Just had a very insightful meeting with Jeneanne Rae.  Jeneanne has been in the Design Thinking field since before it was called Design Thinking.  She was hired by David Kelley at IDEO to help grow the business integration part of that company as an MBA and a significant part of the growth into the company that they are today.  Since leaving IDEO, she has been working as a consultant to fortune 500 companies in the area of Service Design.

She regularly speaks at conferences and is an ongoing contributor to BusinessWeek.  She drinks dark roast coffee with both cream and sugar.

The majority of our time was focused on the best practices to involve End Users in the Service Design process.  One of the hallmarks of Design Thinking is breaking away from the “stakeholders only” mentality where insiders decide what they believe is needed, and then create and roll out the service or product. To be truly effective, the process must include regular involvement and feedback from those who will actually use the services (Users).

There are 3 key times for End Users to be involved:

1. When you are doing your initial research into the “problem” that you are solving (your service proposition)
2. When you are prototyping your services – BEFORE you implement
3. Immediately after implementation – to make sure that you are actually solving the problem.

Let’s go deeper into each of those. Read the rest of this entry »

Overview of Article: This is a look at Open Design City, how it came into being, and what the implications might be if this concept emerges as a solid trend.

Thoughts on this Article: OK – this is just marginally related to Design Thinking, but I thought it was worth making it available.  The underlying concept here is getting the end users involved in the actual creation and production process.  In a sense, it is taking Design Thinking and giving the end  users the actual tools to make what they think would work.

While that may sound fun – and probably would be a lot of fun to do – there are problems.  There is a reason that the DT process includes a collaborative process of varied perspectives.  It keeps the product or service from becoming self serving or ineffective.  Having the end user as the designer/creator/user would seem to be a very limiting perspective.

Original Article and comments HERE at FastCompany

A Peek at the Future of DIY: Open-source Workshops

DIY reigns in the virtual world. With so many old points of friction removed, we can freely and cheaply build our own blogs, e-books, and Web magazines. But making real, live stuff still seems like a slog reserved for those who know their way around a bandsaw.

Not anymore. The open-source revolution is putting product design in the hands of regular Joes. Take Berlin-based Open Design City (ODC). It’s a workshop in which anyone can learn to make just about anything, whether a bioplastic wallet (above) or a lamp made out of sweaters (up top). The recipe is simple: Gather people willing to share ideas and collaborate. Teach them to use a few power-tools. Then make things — cool things, not junk even your mother’d be too embarrassed to display.

It’s a movement that has the potential to upend traditional modes of industrial design and manufacturing — and even change how we consume products. “I strongly believe we’ll see more spaces emerging like this,” says Christoph Fahle, of Open Design City. “It’s not so much about scientific development, because this work doesn’t require rocket science. It’s more about creating the social interactions that invent new things. If you look at Facebook, it wasn’t just its technology that changed society; rather it was the social idea.” Read the rest of this entry »

Overview of this Post: The d.school at Stanford has a bootcamp for students of Design Thinking. This article is an update on the projects and experiences of the participants.

Thoughts on this Post: It is interesting to see the process play out with those who are just learning the concepts.  This update also crosses into social uses of Design Thinking.

Original Post and Comments HERE at the d.school projects site

Redesigning Retirement

Our Bootcamp students wrapped up their second design projects this week, and the results were spectacular.

Twelve teams spent three weeks using the design process to re-invent “the Golden Years” for rebellious Baby Boomers. Students were asked to give particular focus to the empathy phase of the process, and develop a strong user Point of View (POV). Read the rest of this entry »

Overview of Article: Bill Buxton gives a description of the type of person that makes an effective cross-disciplinary team member, and why it matters.

Thoughts on Article: This is a really strong argument for the position Bill takes.  His take on the “T” shaped people and the “I” shaped people is very important to anyone working to assemble a Design Thinking Team.

Original Post at BusinessWeek Here