October 2007
33 posts
Chris Conley on Innovation - video
Chris Conley discusses Gravitytank’s multidisciplinary creative process and how it approaches work for clients like Unilever and Goodyear. He makes a great point about the difficulty of writing innovation project proposals: “If you can figure it out in the proposal, why bother doing the work?” Getting this message across to clients is really tough - and its where process and...
Julia interviewed!
“Julia Schaeper from Engine on service design, the difference between working with the public and the private sector and the advantage of being a generalist.”
http://dott07.service-design-network.org/?p=73
WatchInteretsing slideshow from Peer Insight. The conclusion: What are some of the implications of this shift [from product centred value creation to service centred value creation]? • Resources are realigned from verticals to horizontals • Processes shift to co-opt customer competence • Design comes to the fore • Emphasis on discovering latent needs • Innovation becomes more open, collaborative • IT...
WatchDesigning service systems
Interesting slideshow with some thoughts on service design practice. I like the bit that says “Designing this [a service system] is hard.” : )
Special report on the future of design (and... →
via
Service Design up North
Dott07 is generating some online buzz - We’ve got several project’s there, and we’ve just won some awards too! Check out the pictures, and also the blog(s)
Public Service Transformation Design
“The pace of change is often overstated, but a few years ago something genuinely new began to happen to design. Invitations from political think tanks started to drop into designers’ in-boxes and policy wonks began to hang out with creatives. A clear outcome of this intersection between design and politics is the emergent discipline of design for public services.”
Plan - Views »...
Rider Spoke
I went on a lovely experience at the Barbican last week with my Dad. Rider Spoke gives you a bike and a GPS Nokia phone, and then send you off into the wilderness of the City to answer questions and find other people’s answers. As they say on the site: “The piece continues Blast Theory’s fascination with how games and new communication technologies are creating new social spaces. It...
“Fresh thinking that creates value”
– I’ve had this answer to ‘what is innovation’ going round and round my head since I read this over the weekend. Very clever, very good. Now, having addressed the second toughest definition, maybe they’d consider answering the real biggie - What is design?
Wiki-waste some time here →
Links to an archive of writing on Innovation and... →
Interesting diagram that circuitously shows the...
Scott Weisbrod from Critical Mass put me on to this interesting digram on the need for a review of the traditional marketing funnel from Forrester research:
As they say:
“Engagement goes beyond reach and frequency to measure people’s real feelings about brands. It starts with their own brand relationship and continues as they extend that relationship to other customers. As a customer’s...
Vast report on Innovation in the Economist
“Innovation, long the preserve of technocratic elites, is becoming more open. This will be good for the world, argues Vijay Vaitheeswaran.”
I’m reading this offline right now…
Link
Strategy at the heart of government
A great set of ideas and thoughts on the role of strategic thinking in policy making processes from the cabinet office strategy team. As with so much from government, it looks awful which means no-one will read it, but if you dig down, there’s some very interesting stuff.
http://interactive.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/strategy/survivalguide/
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man...”
– Theodore Roosevelt - via
Article in Strategy and Business on 'making the...
Piece on the value of design led customer engagement - i.e being nice to people, listening to them and visiting them in their homes.
“We characterize companies that comprehend this as achieving customer advantage, because they have the capacity to leverage a deep understanding of how people absorb and assimilate products and services into their daily routines. The goal of customer...
WatchBarry Shwartz, gives a talk on why more is less. I’ve been reading his book recently, and it’s good - but watch the talk for a short cut!
(via Google Video)
Dubberly Concept Maps
Some lovely maps of different design-y things.
“In our practice, diagrams, maps, and models are key design tools. We create concept maps, a type of model, to explore and learn about complex information spaces. By showing everything—the forest and the trees—in a single view, concept maps help people create mental models and clarify thoughts. We create concept maps to share...
gethuman 500 database →
How to get through to a human on customer service lines. Brilliant. via
Joel on Designed in California
“Designed by Apple in California.”
It’s printed on the back of every iPod and iPhone, too: Ah, the way these five words evoke a flurry of happy memories. You think of California, not the actual state, with its endless dismal boulevards full of muffler shops and donut stores, but the California of memory: the Beach Boys, the Summer of Love, and the beatniks, a utopian land of opportunity, an...
WatchDoug Solomon on Design Thinking Innovation
Great little talk from a very thoughtful Doug Solomon from IDEO on managing innovation. My favourite line: “Design thinking is rooted in optimism!” Yes, yes and yes. The guy sitting next to him is really weird though, and keeps hovering in shot.
Transforming...
Whistle Through Your Comb says:
“I believe this is a seminal paper for the future of marketing. This paper characterizes the emergent discipline of Transformation Design – one that uses the design process as a means to enables the collaboration of a wide range of disciplines and stakeholders to address complex social, business and economic issues.”
A little over hyped maybe, but it...
Max Bielenberg's Startup Firm
Friend of mine Max Bieleinberg, who hired me at the Design Council has moved to the States set up Dan4 with his wife: “Dan4, Inc. is a product and service design consultancy helping companies invent, design and engineer new products and services” Good luck Max!
Dan4, Inc. - San Francisco
WatchHow to lie with research. From Via
Pro-Poor Innovation
“We live in a rapidly changing world. Technological advances are increasing productivity and income, quality of life and life expectancy… in the developed world, that is. The truth is that technological development is focused on meeting the wants of rich consumers. Scant attention is paid to the vital needs of people in the developing world…” Find out more at:
id21 insights #68,...
The Table of Brand Evolution Terms
Click the image to visit the site and find out more!
“exclusive social networks have changed the way that luxury brands traditionally...”
– Interesting that segmentation has only just arrived at the social networks door…
BlogWorks: The virtual velvet rope
Poor Service Results in Major Retail Loss
“A study by M/A/R/C(R) Research and National In-Store revealed that more than 16 percent of consumers would stop shopping at a retail store if they received bad customer service, particularly in the areas of consumer electronics and home improvement. Consumers also noted the importance of sales associates, with 95 percent indicating that associates were very or somewhat important and...