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…
Presenting at York Earlier this week I had the pleasure of presenting my talk on Design Thinking to my York University colleagues in various IT departments. The best part of making these presentations is the immediate feedback I get. This time I got three questions I wanted to wrestle with here in greater depth. How…
Lean Production inspired Lean Startup I’ve explored the similarities of Lean Startup to Design Thinking. Both approaches support innovation by maintaining a focus on actual user need and emphasize frequent iteration to ensure that the work being done meets that need. Lean Startup takes its inspiration from Lean Production which in turn has roots in…
1. How much can you afford to lose? Turning any idea into an innovation will cost some combination of time and money. Even if the resources and time are free or already paid for, consuming them in pursuit of any idea represents an opportunity cost. Could those same investments be made elsewhere for greater benefit?…
Rifle vs guided missile Design thinking emphasizes early feedback and constant course corrections. Whereas traditional planning methods produce extremely detailed plans for an entire project (aim, fire – like a rifle), these more modern approaches only plan a little bit in advance and use feedback to zero in on their target (fire, aim, aim, aim…
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…
Point “My definition of ‘innovative’ is providing value to the customer.” Mary Barra Mary Barra has been CEO of General Motors since 2014. Her quote above both resonated with me and troubled me. It is a widely used quote and has a reasonable air to it. On the other hand it struck me as a…
Unsolicited ideas are unsolicited Innovation means doing something different. Different from what was done before. Different from what you were asked for. Different from your job description. Imagine you are sitting at your desk, feeling comfortable. Somebody walks in and turns the thermostat up a degree. Or down a degree. Different from the current temperature.…
In her book, Creative Change, social psychologist Jennifer Mueller asks why we resist change, and how we can embrace it. It is a cliché that individuals and organizations must innovate to thrive in today’s environment of fast change, and yet we often reflexively resist new ideas when presented with them, to our detriment. “The irony…