Between company and consumer, design is everywhere. It is in the products we seek, the services we need, the experiences provided, and the communications between buyer and seller. Design thinking is typically used in creation and can be used to uniquely solve a problem or create a future idea. It is believed that a design approach can be taken when relating people, businesses and technology. People have desires, which businesses fulfill through their capacities of technology and innovation is how the companies become more efficient in providing people with what they want. There is a methodology to design thinking. It includes the phases of inspiration, ideation, and implementation.
In the inspiration phase, people are instructed to observe or take on another persons' point of view. Showing empathy for another person many times can allow this inspiration for the creation of a new idea that can help fulfill a specific need. In ideation, prototyping is discussed as being the fuel to new ideas. The more rapid a prototype can be constructed the faster the idea can come alive and the better an idea can be innovated into its' final form. It is not uncommon to cycle through over 100 prototypes before you get the final result. The last phase of design thinking is implementation. It involves many areas of interest, such as financing, distribution, and resource allocation, but most importantly, it involves communication. Many great ideas never make it out of corporation walls. It is believed that the better that you can sell an idea, the more likely it will come to life. So storytelling is important in communicating your ideas. Try to tell the story, whether it is the journey of the customer or it brings people together, sometimes the story is even the end of the project.
With design thinking, new strategies emerge, new products come alive, new technologies between hardware and software are created, or relationships can be established. Knowledge Management can provide a framework to innovation through design thinking. It can help create a culture of inspiration within a company. It can help people find new roles to play, it can provide collaboration on projects, or it be the source of ideas for the company. Design thinking is not just about a methodology it is about creating this culture.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Democratizing Innovation
Eric Von Hippel in his presentation begins with a comparison of the roles of innovation taken by manufacturers and users. Manufacturers' innovate to benefit from selling where as users' innovate to benefit from using. It is common for people to believe that it is dominant companies that are leading creation, development and innovation of products and services we consume, but in fact, Hippel's research showed that the contributions of users have been great toward the innovation of products. One great quote in the presentation is that "necessity is the mother of invention." In the presentation, users that innovate are described as having a specific need, reveal information freely, and collaborate in small communities.
He gives several other examples of user contribution to the improvements of products. One example was of a police force equipping their cars after the eruption of Mount St. Helens. There was so much smoke and debris in the air, it was clogging air filters. The police force instead of waiting for support, they did something about with what they had laying around. They used tubing you would find on the back of a household dryer. Another simple example was of one of his students, where their wife had been near giving birth to a child. This student had altered his backpack to accomodate the charging of electronic devices so that he could charge via one plug.
Specialized needs are exercised on the edge of the market where to the user, it is low cost and to the manufacturer, there is uncertainty. The result is that the user is empowered through innovation and the manufacturer is left trying to remain competitive. An example is how three engineers at the company Lego had created a new robot that could be assembled just like other legos, but where it was different was how each component of assembly had a miniature cpu. Once put together it could operate based on a written code. Within three weeks of its' release, user communities had already hacked the code and innovated what functions the robot could perform. Lego was left not knowing what to do, as if they were "a deer in the headlights."
Knowledge management can help close the gap between manufacturers and users. Manufacturers' have an abundance of capital but limited knowledge of user needs. Users have very little capital but an abundance of ideas because they often times no what they want to great detail. Creating a community of collaboration between both could help innovation thrive and as a result, we would have better products.
He gives several other examples of user contribution to the improvements of products. One example was of a police force equipping their cars after the eruption of Mount St. Helens. There was so much smoke and debris in the air, it was clogging air filters. The police force instead of waiting for support, they did something about with what they had laying around. They used tubing you would find on the back of a household dryer. Another simple example was of one of his students, where their wife had been near giving birth to a child. This student had altered his backpack to accomodate the charging of electronic devices so that he could charge via one plug.
Specialized needs are exercised on the edge of the market where to the user, it is low cost and to the manufacturer, there is uncertainty. The result is that the user is empowered through innovation and the manufacturer is left trying to remain competitive. An example is how three engineers at the company Lego had created a new robot that could be assembled just like other legos, but where it was different was how each component of assembly had a miniature cpu. Once put together it could operate based on a written code. Within three weeks of its' release, user communities had already hacked the code and innovated what functions the robot could perform. Lego was left not knowing what to do, as if they were "a deer in the headlights."
Knowledge management can help close the gap between manufacturers and users. Manufacturers' have an abundance of capital but limited knowledge of user needs. Users have very little capital but an abundance of ideas because they often times no what they want to great detail. Creating a community of collaboration between both could help innovation thrive and as a result, we would have better products.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Thriving in an Era of Rabid Collaboration
In the video on "Thriving in an Era of Rabid Collaboration," Brad Wheeler, spokesman from Indiana University, speaks of the challenges of collaborating.
He speaks of the advances in computer technology that have enabled students, administration, and other users in higher education to effectively teach or learn more efficiently. Systems that allow these efficiencies in higher education are developed through collaboration amongst universities, they are expensive to develop and they are highly resource consuming, but the value as a result of implementation, allows universities to be competitive with other education providers. The driver of this collaboration is the capability of fast digital networks. The capability is present but the idea of collaboration is difficult amongst stakeholders.
He speaks about the words collaboration and cooperation. Collaboration requires an alignment around a common goal and its' duration is only the length of time it takes to fulfill the purpose. Cooperation means that people have to work together or "co-labor," or see the project through to its' very end. One interesting point between challenge and value is how as the scale of the project gets larger, the slope of retreat for stakeholders becomes more steep. An economic situation is referenced where teams are able to exploit the gap of retreat, minimizing the slope to allow collaborators to complete the task.
Collaborating brings forth leverage between money and value. Each collaborator puts forth a fraction of capital and in return, more value is added, because each benefactor uses the system after it is rolled out. A few examples of the systems discussed were; Kuali, which is a administrative system, handling financial systems of universities, Sakai, which is a learning system for the students and Hathi Trust, which is a library book database resource. Many universities are now outsourcing systems to corporations, such as to Microsoft, who handles some universities email systems. The benefit to these systems is that it aggregates resources and enables coordination between stakeholders to achieve goals.
The governance of these systems is viewed as a cycle in which empowerment is given to the users. Decision rights are given to whomever has authority of the system, but the decisions are made because feedback is given from and accountability framework. The input rights are set by the decisions, which enable and empower users. The users can effect the decisions through the accountability framework.
The last of the challenges discussed were of the capacities of storage. Newly added jobs with the purpose of innovating existing storage practices or developing better storage management are such creations that combat this problem, but another possibility is the use of cloud computing. With cloud computing, contingency planning is highlighted. If disaster occurs, a system can still run live through this service. The challenge is creating an infrastructure, platform and the software as a service.
He speaks of the advances in computer technology that have enabled students, administration, and other users in higher education to effectively teach or learn more efficiently. Systems that allow these efficiencies in higher education are developed through collaboration amongst universities, they are expensive to develop and they are highly resource consuming, but the value as a result of implementation, allows universities to be competitive with other education providers. The driver of this collaboration is the capability of fast digital networks. The capability is present but the idea of collaboration is difficult amongst stakeholders.
He speaks about the words collaboration and cooperation. Collaboration requires an alignment around a common goal and its' duration is only the length of time it takes to fulfill the purpose. Cooperation means that people have to work together or "co-labor," or see the project through to its' very end. One interesting point between challenge and value is how as the scale of the project gets larger, the slope of retreat for stakeholders becomes more steep. An economic situation is referenced where teams are able to exploit the gap of retreat, minimizing the slope to allow collaborators to complete the task.
Collaborating brings forth leverage between money and value. Each collaborator puts forth a fraction of capital and in return, more value is added, because each benefactor uses the system after it is rolled out. A few examples of the systems discussed were; Kuali, which is a administrative system, handling financial systems of universities, Sakai, which is a learning system for the students and Hathi Trust, which is a library book database resource. Many universities are now outsourcing systems to corporations, such as to Microsoft, who handles some universities email systems. The benefit to these systems is that it aggregates resources and enables coordination between stakeholders to achieve goals.
The governance of these systems is viewed as a cycle in which empowerment is given to the users. Decision rights are given to whomever has authority of the system, but the decisions are made because feedback is given from and accountability framework. The input rights are set by the decisions, which enable and empower users. The users can effect the decisions through the accountability framework.
The last of the challenges discussed were of the capacities of storage. Newly added jobs with the purpose of innovating existing storage practices or developing better storage management are such creations that combat this problem, but another possibility is the use of cloud computing. With cloud computing, contingency planning is highlighted. If disaster occurs, a system can still run live through this service. The challenge is creating an infrastructure, platform and the software as a service.
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