accidental design: viagra vs. barbie -- what to do when customers use your product in an unintended...

Rani Monson Rani@RainMakingMarketingSlideshare.net/RaniMonson

@RaniMonson

Accidental Design

Accidental Design occurs when people use your product or service in a way it was not intended

What is Accidental Design?

Failure or Happy Accident?

Pfizer initially did clinical trials of Viagra as a cardiovascular drug, which could lower blood pressure

One pill, 30 minutes later…something else stood out!

Accidental Design: Viagra

“People didn't want to give the medication back because of the side effect of having erections that were harder, firmer and lasted longer.'‘

-- Dr. Brian Klee

It Solved a Different Problem

Failure and Happy Accident

• First year sales exceeded $1 billion• Senator Bob Dole endorsed the drug• Parodied on Saturday Night Live• #1 drug for erectile dysfunction• Classic example of Accidental Design

Fast Facts on Viagra

• Once Accidental Design is identified, shift back into the “normal” process• New testing• Patents• Patient literature, Marketing, etc.

• Accidental Design isn’t bad• You have to be on the lookout for Accidental

Design

Important Lessons from Viagra

Intentional Design

What is Intentional Design?

Intention Design occurs when people use your product or service in the ways you intended

Barbie: Intentional Design

Mattel co-founder Ruth Handler noticed that her daughter, Barbara, preferred to play with paper adult dolls rather than her three- dimensional , high-quality baby dolls.

Fast Facts on Barbie• Barbie debuted at the

World’s Fair in 1959• Barbie is the most No. 1

doll in the world for 40+ years

• Three Barbie dolls are sold every second

• Barbie comes in 50+ nationalities

• She has 300+ Facebook pages

No 3D dolls of teens existed in the U.S. but they did in Germany

Ruth’s husband, Mattel co-founder & Barbara’s father was skeptical

He didn’t believe girls would play with teen dolls

It took 3 years for him to relent and Barbie debuted at the World’s Fair on 1959

However…Barbie Almost Didn’t Happen

Intentional Design & Accidental Design are Not

Mutually Exclusive

Accidental Design Intentional Design

In fact, they’re complimentary

1860: Saratoga Springs, NYCrum’s Lakeside Restaurant

Chef George Crum’s TatersChef George Crum’s fried taters were very popular in Saratoga Springs, except with one customer -- Cornelius Vanderbilt.

He sent them back.

Three times! An angry Crum chopped his potatoes razor thin, deep fried them, and put salt on them. Lots of salt. His customer still complained, but he…

Wanted More Potato Chips

Accidental Design

A number of inventions in the 1920s & 1930s took the potato chip from a restaurant item to a top-

selling snack food

1920 -- potato peeler1926 -- sealed bag1929 -- continuous fryer1932 -- Herman W. Lay started The H.W. Lay Distributing Co.1937 -- Lay’s potato chips had become the first successfully marketed national brand of chips

Up until the 1950s chips were unseasoned; Salt was supplied in a sealed packet inside the chip bag

That changed in 1954 when Joe "Spud" Murphy of Tayto added the first flavor to

chips -- Cheese & Onion -- in Ireland

Today, potato chips are America's favorite snack food

We consume 4 billion pounds of potato chips

every year, spending $7 billion

From Accidental to Intentional Design

If you’ve open to both Accidental Design and Intentional Design, there is the opportunity

for true Design Innovation

1. Observing2. Admitting you can be wrong3. Willingness to fail

True Design Innovation Requires 3 Things

1. You Must Observe

Way to Observe Users• Website analytics• Surveys• Anecdotal• Reports• Patterns• Anomalies• Focus groups• Online panels

• Customer support• Market Research• Conferences• Forums• Social Media• Phone• In-person• Heat-map test

Focus on behavior – what a user does

Not what they say they will do

IDEO Process

Key Takeaways:•Explore more ideas more quickly•Create a prototype within first week •Have a mixture of roles involved end-to-end

RAD: Failing Fast

Lean UX: Learning Fast

2. Admit You Can Be Wrong -- It’s OK

Our process-driven approaches focus on improving the defined solution

Instead of ensuring we’ve correctly identified the right problem

opportunity to solve

Prototype to Prove the Problem

It’s How IDEO Created the First Mouse for Apple

Roll on Soap dish Prototype

Without properly defining the problem, you’re simply hoping for a happy accident

Aspartame & Saccharin: Accidental Design

Artificial sweeteners discovered by scientists who didn’t wash their hands

Microwave: Accidental Design

A radar melted the candy bar in Percy Spencer’s pocket

Tim Berners-Lee set out to create a document sharing system for physicists

3. Be Willing to Fail

Instead he built the World Wide Web

Accidental Design

Final Thoughts

Accidental Design occurs when people use your product or service you in a way it was not intended.

Accidental Design Happens

Intentional Design HappensIntention Design occurs when people use your product or service in the ways you intended.

Preston McCauley created Project Storytime as an app for parents and their kids to create stories together

They Aren’t Mutually Exclusive

Project Storytime is also used as a tool for:- Teaching young students to read- Learning a new language- Teaching students with cognitive disabilities

A New Market Emerges

Accidental Design and Intentional Design Actually

are Complimentary

The Key is to Take a Chance & Be Open to Both

Accidental Design Intentional Design

1. Observing

2. Admitting you can be wrong

3. Willingness to fail

And Remember True Design Innovation Requires 3 Things

Keep This in Mind as You Design

You Just Might Change the World

Slideshare.net/RaniMonson

Rani Monson Rani@RainMakingMarketingSlideshare.net/RaniMonson

@RaniMonson