Exactly what is Design? Concept to ROI and Here's how.

Quite often clients ask: what is "design" and this is one of the best descriptions: "it's a blurry vision of fundamental focus" to birth something specific and tangible from desperate fields. A physical product CEO. Here's how: 

 

In a recent article article entitled What Is Industrial Design we see a fundamental distinction between the fields of design and the overlap between engineering and artistry but without the business acumen to determine the validity of what is designed in the marketplace. The Standford d-school has created a 90 minute video of what is design thinking which is an excellent example of a basic model than any experimenter is taught from day 1: ask questions, try it, do it again until it works. And so is the case itself with "Design Thinking" which has morphed into Creative Intelligence as described fully in Design Thinking Is A Failed Experiment. So What's Next? extolling the reality of term based marketing fads. 

So who is that  person? The person who is prepared to carry the torch from initial concept all the way through to it being in the hands of end users and ROI to the investors. Who is that person? The Designer. 

                               

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Soon the McKinsey Digital Bank? Practically. And here's how it's used.

When McKinsey starts talking digital banking and digital currency you know it is time to ask what your doing with it. Remember how long it took them to mentioned the web? Here's how to, digital cash, do it. 

A recent digital banking war banks must win report by McKinsey begins to examine the how's and why's of digital cash and it's uses on mobile devices while ignoring the proliferation of the Bitcoin's banking zietgiest and Amazon literally minting it's own digital money however the question is how can you cope with all these ways of payment? Is it time for the world bank of digital currency? Yes. Companies like the Royal Bank of Canada have literally created an entire system and series to Understand Platform Based Digital Currencies so clearly it is time your organization began experimenting with it.

                               

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How "Things" Become Thoughts for New Designs - The Internet of Thigns.

Designed devices are no longer disconnected by choice. They are designed that way. Unless of course there is a path to connectivity and naturally profitability. Here's how.

Recently in an article in Harvard Business Review - How the Internet of Things Changes Business Models we see the necessity to make changes of how connected devices interact with the world around us and our views on what a connected model of devices and objects means. With the advent of IBM's new Neural Network True North Chipset the reality of not only an architectural changes, business changes, but also design shifts in the way the new breakthroughs are born. Design centric breakthroughs of course. 

                               

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Google Glass has a People Problem & Here's how to fix it: Design

Manufacturing, distribution, marketing, and fashionista pole vaulters would make Geoffry Moore proud, yet why hasn't google glass crossed the chasm? Design. And here's how to fix it. 

It's been a fire storm: who can make google glass work, the maker, the seller, the marketer, or the fashionista to make it cool? Google tried first, then Luxotica went for it, then came Ivy Ross, and Isabella Olson and finally the master of them all Diane von Furstenberg. Still no movement. Why? 

It's not about how glass can be make cheaper or easier to manufacture. It isn't how glass can be shipped out fastest or without theft. It isn't about how glass needs to be bundled with services or features. It isn't about wither or not Giselle dons them at the beach. It's about the basic assumption of why they need to be put on at all, how easy it is to just put them on and have them provide immediate value, and what happens when you just take them off. You want the time, you look at your watch. You want to answer a call you pickup the phone. You want to take a picture you swipe left and hit one button on your smart phone. Glass has yet to figure this out. So how can it be accomplished? Call a designer.

Surprisingly New Media Design and Development: Diffusion of Innovations vs. Social Shaping of Technology by Leah A. Lievrouw makes it as clear as glass.

                               

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McKinsey Manufactuing (Breakthroughs) & The Future of Graphics - Here's How

How can you see future "innovations" from 10yrs ago now present day affecting your reality? Easy. Find those that defined the future today from yesterday's tomorrows. 

 

Several institutes shape the way we live our lives. These think tanks feed government bodies, world leaders, and technology based drivers. Organizations such as "The Institute for the Future, have been shaping the way we look at health, interact with devices and soon, interact with nano-technology in all it's aspects. Just like the way that present day stunning graphic design examples influences products, services, and the way your customers look at brands and your firm. Want to know how your firm can profit? Start with a recent Fast Company article on Future Scenarios and the integration of emerging technologies details how future forward firms shape the way an entire emerging economy can arise from little more than videos and scenario planning and as utilized by McKinsey's manufacturing teams to give the all powerful heads up to those preparing for the manufactured products of the future. 

                               

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Small Innovations via International Verrified Manufactuers? As easy at 1,2, Scotland

How many manufacturing directories are there? 1000's. Alibaba possibly the most comprehensive for China. But what if you're not producing millions of units of X how do you find partners? Scotland has the answer. 

  

 Earlier in the year, a new directory, Make Works, opened it's door with a substantial way to find top end manufacturers for small batch manufacturing. In fact, the site is quite a substantial resource for Scotland wide manufacturing and not only for small batch runs. On the heels of ETSY announcing Manufacturing Ties we see a shift to demand based not only on design and makers but in-country resources allowing small makers to retake the retail to manufacturing windows. 

Well described in the Scholarly Journal Economics of Innovation and New Technology article "The Relationship Between Firm Size and Innovation Activity" we see the correlation and mechanisms for breakthroughs to happen and via the Make Works site we see a simple example of this with full resources, video's interviews and details to break the standard value chain establishing a tremendous possibility for retailers to re-engage small run capabilities allowing not normally known designers, and sellers to get goods to market that are heads and tails above Gucci and Prada for uniqueness and at a price consumers can handle. 

                               

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Want Clearer Direction for 5 Most Dangerous Creativity Myths. Here's how.

The mechanisms of creativity aren't just process, process process as many designers say - not a clear direction. Here are 5 basic Creativity Myths and a path to a clearer decisions when facing them.

1) Structure Kills Creativity
2) Yes is Best
3) Adding Resources Increases Output
4) Busy = Productive
5) Email is the Best Way to Collaborate

Taken independently we can surmise that moving slowly and methodically through ideas until output is achieved is not foreign to archeologists and anthropologists and should be the same with designers and R&D. Yes is best when it comes to improvisation but not culling the output to determine what will be produced. Throwing more hands at the same pot of potatoes to be pealed is also not accurate nor economically sound and certainly just because there are more hands being busy does not equal productivity. Naturally email as a mechanism collaboratively cannot be the case with disperse teams and limited capability to track that which is in process yet so many firms rely just on email as their mechanism for design collaboration. 

Originally described in The 5 Most Dangerous Creative Productivity Myths we see the breakdown with a little more detail, but not so much as the research put into The Role of Creative Industries in Industrial Innovation detailing how the specific rise of the creative industries have been able to through specific internal mechanisms deliver specific ROI that non creative sectors cannot produce

                               

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Google + DARPA Head + Banks = Motorola Modular Phones for Banks

Why would a DARPA Head running Google Labs and ex Microsoft Surface Designer work together? Modular swapable crypto/wallet phones.

When Google bought Motorola the colaboration seemed simple: more connected devices. But when Regina Dugan, the former director of DARPA teamed up with Daniel Makoski, founder of Google’s modular Project Ara phone it does not take too many extra dots to connect all the pieces. BitCoin esque, Google/Motorola hardware with advanced UI and swapable computation engines for constantly changing cryptographic standards. Now it's just wait and see time. 

                               

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5 Specific Forces Powering Innovation Not Just in Creative Firms

Crayons and Whiteboards aren't enough with distributed teams all investigating with the intent to demonstrate creative efficacy. What are the forces for creativity? Here's 5. And a few more. 

Recently Fast Company detailed 5 basic steps for innovation (very much tied to New Product Development) to be grown in a firm. The Article "5 Forces that Power Exceptionally Creative Companies" leverage part of the work done at W.L. Gore, the makers and researchers behind Gortex. R&D at Gortex can be seen as the classic model of moving R&D to commercialization products in rapid succession and much like most firms focusing on this. What is interesting is how the 5 Forces model above focuses more on the advertising model. Regardless the suggestions seem appropriate if not an organizational blueprint - what a firm might be looking for in establishing divisions and output from R&D efforts. 

1) Gravity: restoring and maintaining
2) Tension: Embracing and Maintaining
3) Heat: Applying and Maintaining
4) Speed: Increasing and Maintaining
5) Generosity: Instilling and Maintaining. 

Oddly these are very reminiscent of an industrial factory model and not connected to the R&D models that are implemented by large scale enterprises able to produce 40% returns on 10% gross revenue investment in R&D. So how are they valuable? 

By understanding the core structures of the firm and the output expected, we see, as very well defined in Define[ing] A Creative Agency the types of firms and how they approach powering innovation: Thinking & Researching, Defining and Developing, Manufacturing and Communicating about the previous steps.

                               

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