the design thinking approach to innovation

Date: 23 October 2009

BOSTON . LOS ANGELES . MILAN . SEOUL

The Design Thinking Approach to Innovation

2 | Design Thinking | ©2009 Design Continuum, Inc. Proprietary & Confidential.

Our goals for today:

Our goals for today

• To explain Design Thinking and its benefits

• To discuss the elements of Design Thinking and the process we

use at Continuum

• To share some of the tools we use in our process


Who we are

Continuum is a design and innovation consultancy. We study people. We recognize opportunities and identify breakthrough ideas. We make those ideas real.


INSULET / Freedom By Design

Creates New Category

SWIFFER / Enabling Aspirations

Creates $1 Billion Category

REEBOK / Pure Innovation

Doubles Sales to $2B

MIT MEDIA LAB / Enabling Education

Revolution by Design

AMERICAN EXPRESS / Premium

Privilege of Membership

Pampers / Understanding Moms

P&G’s First $6 Billion Brand

What we’ve done

QUEST DIAGNOSTICS / Building Empathy

Reducing Anxiety

NATIONAL PARKS/ Creating Emotional Affinity

Bringing the Parks to the People


Service sector experience

We have partnered with a wide range of educational institutions, government agencies,

professional associations, and for-profit service providers.


AmericasBoston, MA Columbus, OH Cleveland, OH Los Angeles, CA San Francisco, CA Kansas City, MO Chicago, IL Portland, OR Cozumel, Mexico

EuropeParis, France London, UK Berlin, Germany Rome, Italy Milan, ItalyMadrid, Spain Istanbul, Turkey

AsiaTokyo, Japan Yokohama, Japan Shanghai, China Beijing, China Hong Kong Bali, Indonesia Delhi, India* Bangalore, India*

Groton, CT Tampa, FL Phoenix, AZ Dearborn, MI Memphis, TN Seattle, WA Toronto, ON, Canada Lima, Peru Sao Paulo, Brazil*

direct

partner

locations of 2007 research conducted in-home, in-store, in plant, or place of work

Where we are

Global Research


The role of design thinking in our clients’ organizations

Here are some of the ways we apply Design Thinking principles in our

clients organizations:

• Creating Lighthouse Projects

• Bridging Divisions (Marketing & Operations, for instance)

• Facilitating Brand Understanding

• Encouraging Creativity (No Art Degree needed)

• Fostering Product and Service Innovation

• Developing radical new ideas


The big realization

How we create is as important as what we create.


What is design thinking?

Design Thinking is a strategic approach to solving business challenges

through creative exploration. It’s about generating new ideas based on a

deep understanding of people, and bringing those ideas to life.

Design Thinking is the interaction of different people with different

viewpoints working with a proven and replicable problem-solving and

idea-generating method.

Design Thinking lets us create better things, not simply choose between

existing things. It generates ideas that become the experiences and

products we couldn’t imagine living without.


How do we make our toasters better, faster and less expensively?

How do we make a better toaster?

What are all the ways to toast bread?

What are the attributes of toasted bread?

Is there a better way to achieve these attributes?

Types of innovation


How do we make our toasters better, faster and less expensively?

How do we make a better toaster?

What are all the ways to toast bread?

What are the attributes of toasted bread?

Is there a better way to achieve these attributes?

Design ThinkingVoice of the CustomerTotal Quality

Management

Approach

Customer expectations, strategic initiativeCompetitive pressure, cost

savings

Customer complains,

process errors

Motivations

New service development process, innovation

process

Customer surveys, idea

submission programs

Quality auditsTools

Step change increase in performanceIncrease service levels,

efficiency or cost

Fix obvious problemsResults

InnovationImprovementRemediation

Types of innovation


Tools

Process

Skills

Mindset

What makes for successful design thinking?


Design thinking mindset

Acknowledge that we do not know the answer. Be open to completely new

ideas that are not even in the framework of our current thinking.

Search for solutions—not inwardly as experts, but through the lens of

consumers and customers and constituents. Conduct our research as if we

are anthropologists.

Explore options by tapping a broad range of people with different skills,

disciplines, and mindsets. Include people who understand well the constraints

we have to work within, but also include people who do not see any constraints.

Prototype and evaluate a range of ideas to learn, iterate and refine until it is

right. Great ideas with small flaws fail. Details matter.


Design Thinking

What is design thinking?It’s a fluid but definable process involving several key components:

PERSONAL

Realize each problem – and the people there to solve it – has a unique context

INTERGRATIVE

Seeing the whole system and its many connections.

INTERPRETIVE

Creating the best way to frame the problem and judge the possible solutions.

COLLABORATIVE

Working with people who share similar and dissimilar experiences to generate richer work.

ABDUCTIVE

Starts from a set of accepted facts and works back to their most likely explanations.

EXPERIMENTAL

Build prototypes. Pose hypotheses. Test them. Iterate. All to manage risk.risk.

Rodger Martin, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto


Conventional Thinking

LogicalDeductive reasoningInductive reasoning

Requires proof to proceedLooks for precedents

Quick to decideThere is right and wrong

Uncomfortable with ambiguityWants results

Design Thinking

IntuitiveAbductive reasoning

Asks what if?Unconstrained by the pastHolds multiple possibilitiesThere is always a better wayRelishes ambiguityWants meaning

Conventional vs. Design Thinking



Alignment EvaluationDiscover EnvisionAnalysis

• Sharing the situation

• team building• identifying

stakeholders

user research• immersion• observation• interviews• intercepts• experimentation

context research• client• competition• brand• technology• trend exploration

• mapping• sorting• triangulating• segmenting• framing

synthesis• exploring• envisioning• creating

evaluation• consumer resonance• data consistency• design inspiration• business analogy• envisioning iteration

Goal:

Setting the challenge

Insight:

Seeing something new or differently

IDEA:

A well posed problem

Innovation:

The IDEA made real

Validation

The IDEA proven

The Continuum process





stakeholders






Goal:


Insight:


IDEA:


Innovation:

The IDEA made real

Validation

The IDEA proven



How can we reduce enforcement contact?

How do we encourage taxpayers to file and

pay on time?

LettersAdvertising

Phone CallsE-Mail

Education

Incentives

Partnerships

Events

Reframing the problem

Casting a wider net to broaden the possibilities

IRAS project example





stakeholders






Goal:


Insight:


IDEA:


Innovation:

The IDEA made real

Validation

The IDEA proven



Trend ResearchTrend ResearchTrend ResearchTrend Researchtrend explorationcultural analysis

TechnologyTechnologyTechnologyTechnologybenchmarkingcost analysispatent searches

BrandBrandBrandBrandclient interviewschannel interviews

communications audits

PeoplePeoplePeoplePeopleinterviewsfocus groupsobservationsurveys

IndustryIndustryIndustryIndustryclient interviewschannel interviewsclient facility visitscompetitive auditsindustry reports

Discovery

There are many perspectives from which to consider a problem





stakeholders






Goal:


Insight:


IDEA:


Innovation:

The IDEA made real

Validation

The IDEA proven



Figuring out the “big idea” based on people’s lives

Analysis acts as the foundation and support for the final

product

• Moving from “what happened?” to “what does it mean?”

• Connects the outcome to the intent and inspiration

• Communicates the (often timeless) attributes of the opportunity, separate

from the execution

Seeing similarities and relationships

• Links insights to business, brand, and technology capabilities

• Links problems with values


IDEA

Values

Aspirations

ExperienceFeatures

Solutions

Problem

Analysis - problems and values


Values, attitudes, & behaviors

Values (often unconscious, unarticulated): Drives what people really

want

• The ideals, customs, institutions, etc., of a society toward which the people of the

group have an affective regard.

• These values may be positive, as cleanliness, freedom, or education, or negative, as

cruelty, crime, or blasphemy.

Attitudes (often conscious, articulated): What people say they want

• Manner, disposition, feeling, position, etc., with regard to a person or thing; tendency

or orientation.

Behaviors (often unconscious, unaware): What people actually do

• Observable activity..





stakeholders






Goal:


Insight:


IDEA:


Innovation:

The IDEA made real

Validation

The IDEA proven



Envisioning bridges the gap between strategy and execution

Envisioning illuminates an opportunity space and defines the criteria for

success


Envisioning helps everyone see to potential of an idea

• It allows people to grasp strategy in a conceptual way

• It communicates an idea, not a final concept

• Presents an idea in a malleable form rather than a brittle one

• An envisioned idea helps others express thoughts

• Team

• Clients

• Stakeholders

• People


Envisioning shows how an idea works in real life

• Envisioning shows an idea in context by demonstrating at the entire consumer

experience at each touch point between the consumer and the experience

• It can express important details within the context of a larger idea

• Envisioning emphasizes the important parts of an idea


consumerconsumermodelmodel

envisioningenvisioning

consumerconsumer

modelmodel

envisioningenvisioning

consumerconsumer

Envisioning

It reminds us to assess our ideas as we go. It requires us to frame,

position and present ideas as if they were real, even if they are not.


Experiential modeling

• An experiential model is anything that is built or simulated for the purposes of explaining or

learning something about the experience you are designing.

• Benefits of experiential modeling

• Allows you to experience idea in a low cost scenario• Lowers risk & allows for failure• Informs the process• Helps build consensus in the organization

• Being ‘right’ is defined by the process, not the result• Behavior is not as predictable as you think • Model early and often (Don’t wait)• Build to learn. Fail. Repeat.





stakeholders






Goal:


Insight:


IDEA:


Innovation:

The IDEA made real

Validation

The IDEA proven

The Continuum Process


Many tests put people in the wrong position to evaluate

• Successful testing should be designed to so that people can correctly

evaluate ideas based on how they act

• Using the right measures - asking people to evaluate what matters to

them

• Using the right experience - showing people the experience, not the

concept

• Using the right subjects - asking the right people to evaluate the idea


IDEA

Evaluation

Many evaluation methods simply ask people how much they like an idea or

how likely they are to buy/use


IDEA

Values

Aspirations

ExperienceFeatures

Solutions

Problem

Evaluation

Instead, evaluation should measure how well an idea

solves the problem


Design Thinking in Practice / Our Toolkit

Some of our methods:

• Persona Building

• Observed Behavior

• Journey Mapping

• Envisioning Ideal Experiences

• Experiential Modeling

How We Use Them

• Internally - To unify diverse teams, collaborate towards creative solutions

• Externally - To engage clients in the creative process and create alignment


Project Rooms - How We Work


MoM2’s “Project Room”


Persona Building


Persona Building / Overview

Personas are rich, multi-dimensional portraits of customers. We make

them life-size so that they’re hard to forget through the course of a

project. Often based on existing customer segments and demographics,

we use ethnographic research to give abstract statistics color and depth.

Personas remind us that people are at the heart of any meaningful

innovation, they’re the best source of inspiration, and the most important

judge of an idea’s value.


Persona Building / Overview

A persona acts as a focus for the design

• Answers the key question for designing - “who is this for?”

• Demonstrates the emotional and functional needs of users through

humanizing those needs

Illustrates the objectives while creating a sounding board for potential

solutions by creating empathy for the ultimate user

• As design options are created each one can be very rapidly tested

• A scenario is a walk through a design, from the point of view of a

specific persona

• Would the persona understand the design?

• Does the design help the persona achieve their goals?

• Are there parts of the design (excise) which are not moving the

persona towards their goals which might be removed?


Persona Building / Basic Elements

• Personal profile (age, sex, education, job, hobbies, family, socio-

economic group, etc)

• Role (responsibilities, position in organization)

• “Flavouring” (Back-story, what sort of house they live in, how long

they’ve had their job, where their parents live, when they got

married, where they went on their honeymoon, etc )


Persona Building / Examples - Complete Picture


Persona Building / Examples - Central Idea


Persona Building / Examples - Affinities


Persona Building / Ideas

When Building a Persona

1. Make them as big as life. Stick them up on your wall.

2. Look beyond their connection to your interests; consider their whole life.

3. Give them a name; think of them as people, not statistics.

4. Who influences their decisions? Think about their friends and family.

5. Find out what they need, what they want, what they think about.


Journey Mapping


Journey Mapping / Overview

A supply chain brings your product to customers.

A journey map follows customers to your product.

Journey Maps are tools for documenting and understanding

people’s experiences; recording major events and minor

details. We use Journey Maps to identify key touchpoints

that customers encounter as they become engaged with

products or brands. Once you understand a customer’s

journey you can begin to shape and influence it.


Journey Mapping Example / Lipstick Journey


Journey Mapping Example / Mental Health Journey


Journey Mapping Example / Diamond Buyer journey


Senior manage-ment, Directors

CPD

Review Preparation for SG Strategy Group Workplans Budget Allocation

- Shares on the gaps and improve-ment areas

- Provides support

- Provides direction and potential topics for research and gathering of info

- Gives guidance and endorsement on the proposal for SG

- Examine the current plan & operating environment

- Participate actively in discussions to refine/re-examine strategies

- Depts to review plans in support of strategies of ministry

- Present plans for funding support

- Use the funds allocated to achieve the workplansand attain good performance

- Conduct AAR

- Propose recommendations to enhance the process

- Conduct research on key topics through environment scan, futuring networks and reading internal papers

- Formulate the proposal for SG

- Set the broad context for strategy review

- Share the research

- Facilitate and drive discussions to

- Coordinate and facilitate workplansessions

- Recommend funding support for strategic projects

- Allocate budget according to strategic priorities to drive performance

MoM2’s Strategic Planning Journey Map


Journey Mapping / Ideas

When Creating Journey Maps

1. Make them big. Find a nice empty wall and have at it.

2. Make them easy to modify. Post-it’s, Push Pins and Magnets work great.

3. Look at the whole experience; what leads up to their first encounter with

your ministry? What expectations are being set?

4. Consider different dimensions of experience:

1. Functional - What are the mechanics of the experience?

2. Emotional - What is the customer feeling along the way?

3. Social - What part to others play in guiding the journey or influencing decisions?

4. Intellectual - What are people learning, thinking, what expectations are they developing?

5. Mind the gaps. Where do you currently have touchpoints along the

journey? Where are there gaps?


Envisioning the Ideal Experience


Ideal Experience / Overview

Here’s where we ask “What if”, and envision all the

possibilities. What if your organization, all of your brand

touchpoints and your customers were perfectly aligned?

What if you could tailor your product or service to fit neatly

into your customer’s life, inspiring instant adoption? What is

your company’s ideal experience?

We often talk about the ideal experience as a “lighthouse”

project. Something big enough and bright enough to draw

people’s attention, guide teams and inspire collaboration.


Ideal

time

inn

ova

tio

n

Backcasting

Leaping to the ideal versus stepping incrementally


Elements of the Ideal Experience

Things to consider when envisioning your ideal experience:

• Your Core Product or Service Offering

• Your Differentiated Brand Positioning

• Your Customer’s Ideal State - How do you want them to feel?

• The Ideal Journey - How do you want them to come into contact with your

brand?

• The Experience Analogy - What’s the story that will knit together your

experience, the story your customer will tell?


MoM1: One-stop service centre analogy

• Analogy: “Private banking”

• Personalised

• One-to-one

• Customised

• Account manager


Information Design

Composing words and images in such order as to communicate multiple, sometimes disparate articles of information in one, single, layered space. Posters are

often a deliverable.

Cartooning

Creating endearing, imagined snapshots or scenarios that reveal the emotional content of our insights and observations. Striking universal resonance with people.

Video / Animation

Building narratives in motion to illuminate a moment, describe a feeling or capture an insight. Assembling clips to communicate a specific aspect of our research to our clients.

Collage Imaging

Associate visualization helps describe / resolve multi-faceted design directions. Abstracting the connections between images, words, sketches, textures.

Storyboarding

Creative mapping of usage scenarios one step at a time. Enables analysis of specific sequences in action. Quickly shows system of usage with products.

1.

2.

3.

4.

Envisioning is communicating, in a very obvious and compelling way, what can’t be easily described or even imagined. We envision so people can fully experience an idea, whether it is visually, audibly, tactilely or olfactory.

Envisioning


Ideal Experience / Ideas

When Envisioning the Ideal Experience…

1. Map out an ideal customer journey that brings them effortlessly into

contact with your brand.

2. Think in metaphors and analogies that will resonate with your customers.

Consider the story you want them to tell.

3. Look outside your industry for best practices and inspiration.

4. Don’t limit yourself to your current channels, technology, supply chain.

There may be something beyond what you know. Ask “What if?”

5. Build a lighthouse project to share your idea with your organization.


Experiential Modeling / Overview

Experiential Modeling does not require an astrophysicist and

a room full of super computers. All it takes is a team of

flexible thinkers, some basic office supplies and a sense of

play. It’s about bringing ideas to life by any means

necessary: creating rough objects, storyboarding out a

communication on post-it’s, acting out a service experience.

The purpose is to make ideas feel tangible so that the

people can experience them, evaluate them and and quickly

evolve them. Experiential Modeling is a low-cost, low-risk

way to foster innovation within an organization.


Enactment


Rapid Prototypes


MoM1 One Stop Service Centre Model


Ideal Experience / Ideas

When Modeling an Experience you should…

1. Work fast. If your models look pretty you took too long. It’s an idea contest,

not a beauty contest.

2. Use everyday objects / office supplies. It levels the creative playing field

and makes the ideas more approachable.

3. Make lots of mistakes. Evolve and iterate your ideas quickly.

4. Pass it around. Get lots of hands and brains working on the same

experience.

5. Act out. Walk through the motions of the experience. Put yourself in the

customer’s shoes and try out your idea.


How we create is as important as what we create.

Design Thinking is a strategic approach to solving business challenges through

creative exploration based on a deep understanding of people

• Being open to completely new ideas that are not even in the framework of

our current thinking

• Searching for solution through the lens of consumers and customers and

constituents

• Collaborating with a broad range of people with different skills, disciplines,

and mindsets

• Modeling ideas to learn, iterate and refine until it is right


Design Thinking is a proven and replicable idea-generating method

The process we use at Continuum

The process helps guide us, but does not define our approach

The tools we use help us understand and communicate, but never limit

us - we create new frameworks and tools in almost every project


Goal:


Insight:


IDEA:


Innovation:

The IDEA made real

Validation

The IDEA proven


Conventional Thinking

LogicalDeductive reasoningInductive reasoning

Requires proof to proceedLooks for precedents

Quick to decideThere is right and wrong

Uncomfortable with ambiguityWants results

Design Thinking

IntuitiveAbductive reasoning

Asks what if?Unconstrained by the pastHolds multiple possibilitiesThere is always a better wayRelishes ambiguityWants meaning

Conventional vs. Design Thinking


Date: 23 October 2009

BOSTON . LOS ANGELES . MILAN . SEOUL

thank you

Dan Buchner [email protected]

Craig McCarthy [email protected]

the design thinking approach to innovation

Business