The famous Xerox
PARC Labs Keg Parties? Microsoft Labs Barbecues? Sony R&D all
nighters out? Maybe how R&D labs make "innovation" but why? Freedom.
But not at Microsoft anymore. Here's why.
Recently Microsoft announced the closing of one it's most important R&D centers right in the heart of silicon valley. This signifies one of the fundamental shift from a firm of leaders to a firm of followers. In the case of previous economical governmental regimes, the idea of trickle down economics the argument was that tax breaks for the rich assisted the poor. While the governmental economical tax model argument rages on, there is no need to even question the validity of Trickle Down R&D which shows us not only the validity but the necessity to foster design, invention and fail fast fail often model. With of course a specific model of learning and commercialization built in.
When the precursor to all modern computers came from the Xerox PARC labs, the founders of SUN Microsystems, and of course some of the how biggest leaders in silicon valley venture capital, it cannot be denied that R&D thinking and commercialization is the basis for major breakthroughs as the New York Times reports. That and a lot of fun and freedom to make the mistakes necessary to make this happen. Let's hope Microsoft does not go the way of Bell Labs.
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.
