Where does the resistance lie? Design Thinking lists three conditions that must be met for a product to succeed: desirability – developing new, desirable products; feasibility – overcoming internal challenges to produce the product; and viability – engaging customers. Design Thinking relies on iteration – what project managers refer to as progressive elaboration – to…
It’s easier to come up with an improvement than an entirely new thing. Most innovation techniques emphasize this and rely on it. They avoid the intimidation of the blank page by riffing on something that already exists. In this post, I explore what would happen if we did the opposite. What would happen if instead…
The post where I talk about walls and Mexico without mentioning you-know-who Earlier this month, my girlfriend I visited San Miguel de Allende in the central highlands of Mexico. The AirBNB we stayed in north of the city centre was lovely, but I will admit some trepidation walking around the neighbourhood it was in. Many…
I had the honour of being interviewed by Entrepreneur Coach Bob Minhas. We talked about Design Thinking, SCAMPER and what entrepreneurs can learn from Elon Musk, Apple and minibars. Find Bob here: https://www.facebook.com/BobMinhasLife
Helping one another I’ve done enough presentations now to say I have a favourite pattern. It starts with an introduction of a subject, followed by some combination of the following: the participants doing a little reflection on their own, sharing with each other in small groups, some more reflection and finally the participants get to…
When you can’t find another head Many of the great companies were started by multiple founders. The electronics company Hewlett-Packard was started in a garage in Palo Alto, California by Bill Hewlett and David Packard. The electronics company Apple was started in a garage in Los Altos, California by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. The…
Nobody likes a lineup, but there are ways to make them less onerous. One way is to make the time spent waiting shorter. The other is often just to make it feel shorter. Above all, to avoid disgruntled customers, the line must feel fair. I have been to some truck stop McDonalds where there is…
“Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-two million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital…
The Blue Ocean Strategy by authors W. Chan Kim & Renée Mauborgne reminds companies to swim away from competition. Circque de Soleil, Nintendo and Casella Wines all use the SCAMPER principle Eliminate to great commercial success.
Dot voting is a great technique for reaching a decision when a team has many options for solving a problem.