What is a Design Sprint?

On these pages I’ve talked a lot about Design Thinking and it’s two main characteristics. One, it involves the end user early and often to ensure that what is being created is actually going to be useful. Two, it calls for iteration – not assuming you have the complete picture at the start of a project,…

Repeatable Genius

Steve Jobs is one of the most idolized tech entrepreneurs of all time. He put Apple on its path to be the first trillion dollar company the world has ever seen. While many credit this success to Jobs’ product design prowess, in his book titled “The Way To Design“, Steve Vassallo offers another explanation: Steve…

Design Thinking vs Lean Startup

Pot-ae-to, Pot-ah-to? Design thinking and lean startup are innovation strategies. The paper titled “Design Thinking Vs. Lean Startup: A Comparison of Two User-Driven Innovation Strategies” examines these two innovation strategies, their common traits, their differences, and how the two strategies might inform one another or produce a third strategy. Design thinking Design thinking is an…

Amazon’s Turbulent Beginnings

Amazon is a dominant player now, but its birth was plagued with doubt and financial weakness, reveals the book The Everything Store by Brad Stone. Amazon started as an online book seller, and this was a canny move by Jeff Bezos, the company’s founder.  Books were true commodities – all the same, no question of whether…