Design monkeys

I don't know how truthful is this entry, but it does certainly provide a set of clear examples of how designers get it wrong:
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1367
This entry was submitted by Max Dirnberger and edited by Rob Spiegel






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Learning from cows

The expression "cow path" has some interesting connotations that are helpful to think about innovation and design:

1. People adapt things to their everyday habits just like cows roam and find good ways to reach their target through the landscape. A "cow path" is therefore a metaphor for people designing their own solutions.
2. Organisations develop ad-hoc solutions, but times change and these solutions may become obsolete in future times. Paving a cow path somehow implies that an informal or ad-hoc solution is recognised and formalised. The danger here is that the landscape has changed and the path is no longer optimal.
3. Cow paths can also be seen as 'best practices' seldom questioned by experienced people, but also by newcomers who interpret them as 'know-how' that result from tried alternatives.

Depending on the meaning you choose, one may argue that innovation requires challenging the cow paths (well known unchallenged paradigms), or alternatively, that innovation awaits in recognising and learning from the cow paths (bottom-up unexpected solutions).

A couple of useful and short articles:
http://asis.org/Bulletin/Aug-09/AugSep09_Crumlish.html
http://codesnipers.com/?q=node/15

Flip "pocket video camera" -an ongoing story

The Flip video camera was increasingly being mentioned as an example of innovation. It seemed like an ideal story including the $590 million purchase by Cisco... until it was killed earlier this year:


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/13/technology/13flip.html


What is even more interesting is that the Flip created a whole product category, so it is going to be great to see whether the argument that "smartphones are killing every other device" holds (I don't personally think so), or if this is a typical case of "good design with bad strategy".

Here are some of the pocket video cameras to follow in the near future:

Creative Vado Pocket Video Cam

Kodak Zi8 Pocket Video Camera Camcorder

Coleman CVW9HD-R 1080p HD Waterproof Pocket Camcorder

Sony Webbie HD MHS-PM1 Camcorder

uCorder Pockito IRDC260-R 2.5-Inch Wearable Mini Pocket Camcorder

Jazz Pocket Camcorder

Toshiba Camileo B10 Full Hd Pocket Camcorder

I own a Flip and I've really enjoyed its simplicity. This is an attribute rarely found today in electronic devices, and even more in "smartphones"... two AA batteries, no cables and hours of video. Cisco probably was the wrong company to buy the Flip, and the consequences are now visible: a rich group of entrepreneurs, a dead product and an idea that has replicated in a host of me-too products in the market.

Yet another list of reasons behind failure

Lists always draw attention. There is something about a chain of items that perhaps makes reading easier -something valuable in a rapid lifestyle.

Here are 56 reasons why innovation initiatives fail in the corporate world. Some of them seem more like consequences rather than causes, others are repetitive, but I guess that 56 seemed like a good number at the time.

We could narrow them down to 22 + a 23rd: "Ideas are simplified to lists"


2. No clear definition of what "innovation" really means
3. Innovation not linked to company's existing vision or strategy
8. Senior Team not aligned
10.Innovation champions are not empowered
11. Decision making processes and evaluation of new ideas are non-existent or fuzzy
13. Risk averse culture
14. Overemphasis on cost cutting or incremental improvement
20. Too many turf wars. Too many silos.
22. Reluctance to cannibalize existing products and services
23. NIH (not invented here) syndrome
27. Mind numbing bureaucracy
29. Lack of clearly defined innovation metrics
30. No accountability for results
33. No training to promote and direct individual or team creativity
35. Inadequate sharing of best practices
36. Lack of teamwork, collaboration and communication
47. Over-reliance on technology
49. Unrealistic time frames
50. Failure to consider issues associated with scaling up
52. Failure to consider commercialization / implementation issues
54. No processes in place to get fast feedback
55. Inadequate sense of what your customers really want or need

Shame on so-called "design"

It's rather sad to see how 'design stars' misinterpret the role of adding value to products and end up with ridiculous, irrelevant and plain stupid designs. Gorenje's product line is a prime example of this.

Collaboration with Rashid and Pininfarina have produced Swarovski crystal-encrusted fridges, LED colour-changing appliances...and other design blunders.

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Indirect consequences of intervening a system

This is a NYT article reporting on how H. Mubarak's decision of killing all the pigs of Egypt back in May, has caused a huge problem with the organic garbage in Cairo.

Not strictly an innovation issue, but this case highlights two fundamental aspects that are useful to understand innovation:

1. Don't mess with complex systems unless you are aware of all the interactions. Here the garbage was used by the zabaleen community to feed their pigs, which were in turn a food source for them. With the pigs slaughtered, the Muslim majority probably thought they scored over the Christian minority, but in doing so they ended the equilibrium in the system.
2. Decisions have indirect and unintended consequences. Although one can tell from this case that the zabaleen community did warn the government, so this wouldn't count as "unintended", but certainly using the swine flu as an excuse to kill all the pigs, caused the indirect result of the garbage problem. My guess is that it also upset the zabaleen's economy, and perhaps the political cost of the entire episode will be huge.
   

Learning from mistakes

I enjoyed this article called Fifteen Classic PC Design Mistakes by Benj Edwards. It is a great source of big-time mistakes in PC design. Easy to judge in hindsight, but not-so-obvious when designers are making decisions as they develop a better understanding of the product.

There is no (known) way to predict how a complex product, such as a computer, is going to develop its value over time. What is it going to mean in a few years? Who are going to be their users? How will its functions develop? Therefore, decisions are made and some turn out to shape the field, while others turn to be blunders.


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