What struck me this year was a conspicuous observation of are a few things:

While the theme of this years conference was “Collective Design” we were not fully engaged as a collective gathering. With so many enthusiastic participants gathering from all over the world to learn about how society can add value, we were undervalued and under used. I heard many whispers of eager participants wanting to play their part as consumer and citizen to better community and society, as such the theme was. Imagine if a group such as this were to tackle some “wicked problems” even if just hypothetically  for a better understanding of how to use collective design in their daily roles. We would certainly come up with some game changing ideas, which could be handed over to powers that be to better community and society.

In my opinion, a mix of passive as well as active engagement in such events advances comprehension and makes all the difference in absorbing knowledge and obtaining key takeaways.

A warm welcome reception in City hall from the Mayor for DMI.

Additionally, while Helsinki was indeed the 2012 World design Capital, one did not get that overall impression, or at least not me. Besides from ordering from the “World Design Capital” menu at restaurants and being aided around the city by an impressive app, it felt to me that it was just a coincidence that the DMI conference was hosted in this city. In all fairness, it was a quick few days and I know Helsinki has lots of great exhibitions and events planned throughout the year. However, with the exception of a warm reception in City Hall by the Mayor himself, it was a shame that the Design Management Community was not further engaged to really gain an impression of Design in Helsinki which would have been enthusiastically conveyed and spread virally once everyone was back to the daily grind in their home countries.

In my opinion, a once in a lifetime opportunity should be fully capitalized by a captive group of professionals dedicated to spreading the message of using design to better our world.

In the future I look forward to and hope that I will be able to contribute to such events, not individually, but collectively with my fellow professionals.

This year’s ESN workshop was a success for all – the sponsoring company, the students as well as PARK.

The sponsoring company benefited from the pan-European views that the students brought in as they were coming from all over Europe. Their solutions and suggestions were not only fresh but in some cases also verified the work the company had been doing in its own stead.

The students also got some taste of the real world by behaving like professionals would do for the two day workshop. They were asked to solve real world challenge,  in groups which consisted not of friends but with strangers who come from different places and who you have only known for a few hours – life of a consultant, anyone? Initially a bit doubtful with their own capabilities of whether they would be able to work together and understand each other, reach a conclusion, they were all pleasantly surprised when they found that they were speaking the same language – of design management, albeit in different accents!

For PARK it was an opportunity to meet the future of design management. Not only do such student workshops help us keep abreast with the goings-on in design management education but also look at our own discipline from a fresh perspective.

I leave you with an example of the work from some of the students.  As one of the pre-assignments we asked the students to define design management from their national perspective.

The UK perspective:

The Dutch perspective:

The Spanish perspective:

Last month we organised an inspiration day for a company’s management team to collect input for a new innovation strategy. We brought them to different locations to offer them the opportunity to meet customers, experts and peers. With just one assignment; no opinions, questions only.

Feedback we received said: “Inspiring and confronting. Already for the fact that we don’t do this enough and should spend much more time in the market. It’s definitely time to change this… ”

And actually, we see this at many clients. Too busy with the corporate reality.

So go out and take your management with you.
Meet your users, your customers, your stakeholders, your peers.
Have a look at their context, ask questions, learn about their issues, their needs, their daily reality. In short, just connect.

And then see what happens…

The video above is an introduction into the “Design for Growth”-initiative by the British Design Council. Design is a cross-cutting theme in the UK government’s Innovation and Research Strategy for Growth and the British Design Council supports this with parallell papers and practical plans. Their goal is to grow the knowledge base on the role and impact of design, in order to make design-led innovation happen on the ground. In the meantime, for most people it is clear that design plays a big role in our everyday lives. What’s not so clear is the vital role design plays in economic growth and it’s specific impact on businesses, public services and the built environment. To create a better understanding for this topic the Britsih design Council created a set of films.

Design for growth
(1) Manufacturing, (2) Public Services & (3) Built environment

Innovation for growth: at Apple
The initiative of the British Design Council reminded me of a recent charm offensive by Tom Cook, CEO of Apple. The ongoing critism in the US that Apple is outsourcing manufacturing activities to China and that the US is not benefiting enough from Apple’s sucess, was the trigger for the campaign: Creating jobs through innovation.

“Throughout our history, Apple has created entirely new products — and entirely new industries — by focusing on innovation. As a result, we’ve created or supported more than 500,000 jobs for U.S. workers: from the engineer who helped invent the iPad to the delivery person who brings it to your door.”

That are great news!!!

But where are the other companies that rank great in the recent design & innovation rankings, such as “The world’s most innovative companies” and “Best Global Brands”?

We need more companies speaking openly how design and innovation drives their business growth.

Anyway we don’t need to measure it anymore.
Or do we?

Like most professions, designers and their managers are always trying to explain themselves and justify their value. Occasionally, efforts made in this cause appear too obsessive. Awards for design effectiveness (like the design effectiveness award) are a good idea – to encourage excellence. However the more recent trend to try to measure design effectiveness sets a near impossible task, at the wrong moment.

It’s fine to keep watch on a few very vivid measures of design effectiveness. But to be governed by a search for the quantitative impacts of design is a mistake. Designers and design managers may have felt the need for numbers when they were in the corporate wilderness. But apart from the inherent difficulty of producing those numbers, there’s no longer a need for them. CEOs now carry iPads, read the papers, understand that design has an impact, and ask only that you get on and deliver it!

So if you were feeling guilty about not being more disciplined about collecting numbers over the past five years, relax, and don’t let yourself get distracted.

• Celebrating powerful design isn’t the same as measuring it to death
  For 20 years, Britain’s Design Business Association has given awards, across eight subdisciplines of design, for commercial effectiveness in design. In the Netherlands, France and Germany, similar associations of large design groups among both consultancies and corporations, have said they are interested in the concept.
• Peter Drucker said that what gets measured, gets managed. But…
  But the negative is better: while failure to measure anything is a guarantee of chaos, the activity of measurement can impose its own logic on organizations, and often bring nasty surprises.
• Joe Stalin measured everything, but presided over chaos
  Stalin is dead but the target mentality lives on in many government and business organizations. There are, a number of different public measures of the ‘brand value’ in Coke or McDonalds: Interbrand and Business Week run one, the Financial Times and Millward Brown, part of WPP, another. For decades the marketing and advertising communities, too, have tried to measure their own effectiveness. The matter is far from settled.
• In design, it’s particularly hard to measure both inputs and outputs
  Even at its most successful, design is only part of a wider budgetary mix of technology and marketing. And on the output side? There the effect of design is computed on revenues, profit margins and even stock market performance. Statisticians make little allowance for the time lag between studio drawing and first-year sales.

Design is part of mainstream corporate culture nowadays. That means that designers and their managers are asked to account, numerically, for what they’re doing. This is fine – in costs and budget allocations, design managers need to run a tight ship. What we don’t need to worry about is measuring design effectiveness, which is a rather different matter. Such an endeavour is time-consuming and much more subjective than its pretensions to objectivity allow. It’s anyway hard to isolate the effect of design from other effects.

Why bother, anyway? The proof of the design pudding is in the eating, not in measuring the ingredients and their nutritional benefit.

Even Finance Directors are unlikely to ask for measures of design effectiveness, still less be convinced by them. They don’t want you to be a beancounter. They want you to be a designer. Make sure your spreadsheets add up, but don’t go off in a fruitless, Arthurian quest for the Holy Grail of design effectiveness.

However the design effectiveness discussion is going on, without leading to a tangible set of measures. For those who still see the necessity to justify their value, the British Design Council hold a Design Forum with the subject “Measuring the Impact of Design“, two weeks ago. Here you can find the results (videos of all talks and previous publications on this topic).

This must sound familiar…
It is called the ‘strict-design-process syndrome’: rigidly sticking to the procedures of the design process.

Don’t kid yourself. A strong design process is crucial, in order to manage design outcomes in an effective and efficient way.
But at the same time design managers need to have a eye for great design work that pops up outside of the design process boundaries.

Do you have this ‘eye’?
Can you, if it is needed, withstand the strictness of your design process?

The poll was as follows:

As a designer in India what do you think is holding back you from doing great work in India? And the options to choose were:

1. Corruption
2. Lack of Awareness of Design
3. Lack of facilities for Design
4. Clients don’t have enough money
5. Not enough time for Design

The options for this poll got me thinking. I understand that in the Indian context where design is a fledgling discipline, slowly but surely spreading its wings these above mentioned reasons for not being able to do great design work seem plausible. Lack of awareness regarding design has always been an issue in India, also the absence of formal design departments, and corruption plays a big deterrent to doing good design. As a design consultancy trying to acquire design projects, awareness about design plays a key role, but what happens when you are part of a design team in a company? What kind of frustrations does the designer face then?

The deterrents to doing good design in Europe are different or maybe even the same. The lack of a culture of design in an organization, lack of presence of design in the board room, limited or absent design research, more emphasis given to market research are some of the frustrations of the designers in European organizations.

But in spite of these deterrents is there no way to do good design work? I think the way to go is for the designers to think more holistically.

The way I see it now, design is no longer a typical form of creative problem solving in today’s complex working environment.  The designer cannot just identify a problem, select appropriate goals and realize solutions. It involves designing the entire system of the product, the consumer experience and at times also the business model.

This brings me to the holistic design approach practiced by Yves Behaar, founder Fuse project. What Yves does is practice 360 degree design.  He understands how the role of design has changed over the years. From being focused on aesthetics and then process, design now can play a role in the entire value chain.

Looking at the example of the clever little bag project done for Puma by Fuse, the task at hand was to improve the sustainability of Puma’s already very successful shoe box. The resulting clever little bag did not just change the material of the box but looked at a packaging solution that was a result of “in-depth exploration of the company’s logistics, manufacturing, distribution, and customer interactions with the product”.

Designers must broaden their outlook and understand various aspects of the value chain, about the customer experience and understand the business they are working in. Design is now not only about aesthetics but has grown beyond that with time. The requirements from a designer have changed. Have the designers around the world accepted the challenge?

References:

www.poolmagazine.in

www.triplepundit.com/2011/11/yves-behars-7-principles-holistic-product-design

Is this successful or is it another arbitrary design award?

Design awards contribute to the reduction of design on visual and haptic perceptible levels while not considering process innovation, customer acceptance and economic success as key selection criteria. The selection criteria of the Design Management Award should define what excellence in design management is and thereby covering the complete spectrum of design management. Unfortunately, this definition is missing, in what way the entries are difficult to compare and the selection of the winner – by a jury which changes every year – becomes very arbitrary.

Design management is more than the successful project management of design. To successfully implement design management in the company and lead in a sustainable way, it is important to consider the following four topics.

• Strategy e.g. the orientation of the design strategy towards the company and / or brand strategy.
• Organization e.g. the setup of a design department, development of skills & competencies and the collaboration with external partners.
• Processes & Tools e.g. the implementation of an effective and efficient design process, embedded in the entire development process with clear roles and responsibilities.
• Culture e.g. the building of a multi-disciplinary culture that is open to creativity and user-centered innovation.

Such a framework was communicated by the design management award coordinator only in a research report; unfortunately, this structure is not transparently linked to the award. However the award setup would be a great topic to strengthen and integrate the design management community and to gain a common definition of excellence in design management.

Many companies that do a great job in design management have not noticed the design management award so far and the annual prolongation of the registration period shows that there is a lack of suitable candidates. Nevertheless, the award is important for the design management community and for companies that have recognized the importance of design. If companies are increasingly investing in design, competitive advantage will shift from good design to good design management. As design management consultants, we see a growing demand for design management skills in business. For this reason, we have built a design management training program, next to our consulting business: www.growdesignmanagement.com

Source: This text was first published in the design magazine PAGE in November 2011.

Innovation. The undisputed Holy Grail of business drivers for the past decade. Thanks to several run away successful companies with innovation at their core, the term is now rooted in almost every corporate mission. Those once on the outside waiting for the trend to stick are now quickly trying to figure out what it means. More importantly what it means for them. Unfortunately, with my experience consulting many companies, they often do not stop to think what innovation means for their customers.

Wikipedia defines Innovation as: the creation of better or more effective products, processes, services, technologies, or ideas that   are accepted by markets, governments, and society.

It is further noted that innovation differs beyond creation, in that innovation is the actual implementation of the creation.

Innovation is a trendy buzzword used often in corporate lingo and tossed around the boardroom and executive meetings, but is innovation truly what they should be focused on? Yes. And no.

In my previous post, I wrote about (in my opinion) the “runner up” management trend of the past decade, customer intimacy. So if a company wants to be innovative, they do indeed need to create better or more effective products, processes, services, technologies, or ideas. However, to be quite frank, customers do not appreciate innovation in that sense. They appreciate awesomeness.

In this dated and controversial HBR post The Awesomeness Manifesto  it is argued that innovation itself needs innovation.  Furthermore the author claims that instead of innovating, create awesomeness.

Summarized in the article: Awesomeness happens when thick — real, meaningful — value is created by people who love what they do, added to insanely great stuff, and multiplied by communities who are delighted and inspired because they are authentically better off. That’s a better kind of innovation, built for 21st century economics.

I agree. My mom (and likely your customers) does not care about innovation. Innovation is not a word they use. Instead, they equate innovation with awesomeness. My mom will say awesome and that is enough to make her want that offer. Think about it. When you factor in the “human factor” how do people really relate to your company/offer? Or better yet, according to Jeff Bezos of Amazon “your brand is what people say about you when you are not in the room”.

Me personally, I do not describe my beloved apple products to my friends as innovative. I do however say my iPad is awesome. Perhaps it is my California roots that make me embrace this word so enthusiastically. And while I can make no claims, I am quite sure those companies that are leading the pack in greatness are making sure their customers think they are awesome.

I’m not saying that the term awesomeness should replace innovation around the corporate boardroom. I know in some cultures the term may be interpreted as juvenile. I am saying that companies that focus on their consumers and making awesome products and/or experiences for them will end up being innovative.

You may agree with me or not, and that is the point. I would love to hear your driving factor for innovating into the 21^st century.

By the way … Umar’s post has generated such a great deal of attention (good &bad) that The Manifesto is now a collaborative, open-source project, to which anyone can contribute. Personally, I think that is awesome.

Personally, I haven’t been bothered really much with the topic and I entered the seminar quite skeptical. However, talking to some of the participants I realised that I have a quite idealistic view, and that in reality there are definitely people that keep encountering challenges that can be related back to gender specific issues. So it made me think. What is so different for me? Does it maybe have to do something with the field I am working in?

So here are two of my personal learnings:

• Women and men do speak a different language .
  Real rocket science, right? But indeed, there are cases where it is clear that the different genders listen with “a different ear”. Now you might think that women would listen more on the interpersonal level. But surprisingly enough, especially at the beginning of business meetings, women tend to focus on the goal only while men often have to settle the hierarchy first. Most women simply don’t get distracted with settling the positions, or in other words, don’t play the same game. Might be a real mistake when you come to think of it!
• Women are reluctant to get into a fight.
  In meetings where people are becoming emotional, many women would focus on the complaining, sad, talkative or disturbing person in order level them out and try to keep the good atmosphere. However, as a female CEO told me last week, business meetings are not about making friends. Some of the best people are really hard to work with! To get the best results, it is extremely important to share and actively discuss different opinions. Especially creative solutions need challenging!

But probably the most important thing I learnt was a confirmation that design, creativity and innovation need differences! And we just need to manage them well. Design requires a multitude of perspectives, disciplines, different cultures, different backgrounds and different genders!

So embrace these differences and listen with those different ears we have, just make sure you play the same game. And last but not least, don’t worry about making everyone happy, create those creative fights!

• Existing apps: The first part of the blog post provides an overview of existing apps. Some are free, and others cost a little, but all hit some kind of usefulness.
• App wish list: The second part of the blog post contains wish list that hopefully gets in the hand of some smart developers.

Read on and let me know what apps you’re using too and what’s on your wish list!

EXISTING TOP-APPS FOR DESIGN & INNOVATION MANAGEMENT

1. BrandZ 100 by Iconmobile

BrandZ is based on the world’s largest brand equity database and combines the knowledge and expertise of Millward Brown Optimor and the global marketing and communication insight and resource of WPP a world leader in marketing communications. BrandZ Top 100 ranking sees itself as the most reliable, comprehensive, and useful brand valuation ranking available and is a good addition to the other well-known brand equity rankings of Forbes and Interbrand.

2. Business Model Toolbox by Business Model Foundry

This app is based on the Business Model Canvas by Alexander Osterwalder, a widely practiced visual template pre-formatted with the nine blocks of a business model (customer segments, value propositions, channels, customer relationships, revenue streams, key resources, key activities, key partners, cost structure). The Business Model Toolbox combines the speed of a napkin sketch with the smarts of a spreadsheet. It enables you to map, test, and iterate your business ideas – fast.

3. UI Sketcher by Box UK

The UI Sketcher is a sketching tool designed specifically for the iPad, which lets users easily create and share user interface design ideas. Incredible levels of detail and a suite of realistic drawing tools ensure a quality user experience and make the process of sketching intuitive and simple. It includes several sharing features including email, Dropbox and external display capability, for further discussion with your peers.

4. Moodboard by A Tiny Tribe llc.

The moodboard app is the bestselling app for creating mood and inspiration boards on your iPad. Each board is a blank canvas for organizing the things that inspire you. Add photos, text, color swatches, and special elements to your boards, then share them with colleagues, anywhere, anytime.

5. Design Brief 2 by norge apps

Design Brief is a specially targeted app that aids creative professionals put together a design brief document/agreement for a new design project. This is a nice idea, however it does not allow to communicate the complexity of most design challenges.

6. Mindo by Laterhorse

Mindo is a mind mapping tools for the iPad. It enables you to organize your thoughts, ideas and information whenever you want. Useful for structuring projects or presentation in the first round.

7. Evernote by Evernote

Evernote helps you remember anything and everything that happens. From notes to ideas to snapshots to recordings, everything it instantly synchronizes from your iPhone to your Mac or Windows desktop or vice versa. Great to document and archive your projects or to set up a design guideline, that is digitally available everywhere.

8. Mendeley – Reference Manager by Mendeley

Mendeley is academic software that indexes and organizes all of your PDF documents and research papers into your own personal digital library. It gathers document details from your PDF allowing you to effortlessly search, organize and cite. It also includes groups focusing on papers in specific design disciplines.

9. Lean Innovation Tools by Implement Consulting Group

Are you a part of innovation or development teams? Do you lead innovation teams or development organisations? The Lean Innovation tool book has served as inspiration and guideline for thousands of managers and knowledge workers in development organisations.

10. IDEO method cards by IDEO

The printed IDEO Method Card deck are well-known in the design community, they were first released in 2003. With more than ten thousand decks in distribution it is a great success in the marketplace. In order to make it more readily available to an ecosystem of users this tool evolved to a new level: the Method Card iPhone app.

11. Storyboards by Tamajii Inc

Creativity can’t wait! Storyboards let’s you create your user scenarios yourself. Without the need for any drawing ability. The app includes hundreds of characters and props that allow to quickly compose the storyboard of your product experience.

12. Pocket MBA by Intersog

The Pocket MBA Full Course contains 13 professional-level business courses, delivering a complete business education. Each course provides an in-depth study of a fundamental area of business, which combines complete course texts, interactive flashcards and comprehensive tests combined with an array of user-friendly mLearning features. So far the most extensive business education app. For an app specifically on design and innovation management, see Grow! app.

13. Coolhunting by Captain Lucas, Inc

Cool Hunting is synonymous with seeking inspiration. A global team of editors and contributors sift through innovations in design, technology, art and culture to create daily updates and weekly mini-documentaries. Very interesting source of inspiration.

14. Dexigner by Dexigner

Another source of inspiration is the Dexigner app. It delivers latest design news, events, exhibitions, conferences, and design competitions.

15. Adaptive Path by Adaptive Path

Over hundred inspiring talks from some of the greatest minds in user experience from four years of Adaptive Path conferences on topics like: User experience strategy and methods, The history of the web, What makes games fun, and How to lead creative teams.

16. Bloomberg Businessweek+ by Bloomberg Finance LP

For design managers reading business magazines this app provides all the content on the print edition of the businessweek magazine. Additionally it includes exclusive content and interactive features that enrich the reading experience. Subscribers to the print edition of the magazine get each week’s issue for free.

17. Ideabook – Innovation Management by Gerald Aquila

Ideabook is a simple idea management app. Enter, track, rate and visually analyze your ideas regarding innovation, simplicity, uniqueness and potential.

18. Outpost 2 – Basecamp for the iPhone & iPad by enormego

If you use Basecamp as a project manager, you use it because you want to be productive. This app allows you to use Basecamp on your iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, making work even more productive.

19. Pictures of the Future by Siemens AG

An inspiration on how we will live in the future: Which technologies will shape our lives over the next ten to twenty years? “Siemens’ Pictures of the Future” reports twice a year on major technology trends and looks at the latest research in the company’s laboratories. The magazine includes scenarios of the future, features, reports on associated R&D activities at Siemens, and interviews with internationally recognized experts.

20. Grow! by PARK advanced design management (web app)

Learning Design Management while you work is made easy by Grow, PARK’s professional educational program. Grow was developed from over 15 years of design management and innovation consultancy experience, based on our daily practice at PARK and applicable to daily work. It educates professional designers and current design managers in leading best practices. The (web) app is available to all students that are running the In-Company or Cross-Company programs. Find out more at www.growdesignmanagement.com

MY WISH LIST OF DESIGN MANAGEMENT APPS

My wish list, which hopefully gets in the hands of some smart developers:

• Design Value Dashboard App: A dashboard that analyses the value of design management based on predefined key performance indicators.
• Design Guideline App: An app that contains all the recent and up-to date design guidelines of a company.
• DM News App: An app (e.g. from the DMI organization) that presents the latest news in design management.
• DM Recruitment App: Up-to date vacant jobs in design and innovation management. Both for companies looking for design managers and individuals looking for vacant jobs.
• Design Agency Screening: Look up, filter and browse portfolios and competencies of large design agencies.

What are your favorite design and innovation management apps?

This is one of the leading statements in Scott Belsky’s book: Making Ideas Happen (2010).
When I read the book, it felt I could have written it. I do not have the genius to do so, but still the content feels remarkably familar to me…

Scott Belsky’s key point is that having ideas is great, but it is the hard work afterwards that ultimately counts. Hard work in execution, collaboration and leadership. 

As mentioned before, we experience this too in our daily consultancy practice.
Often, lots of our ideas are born in the first weeks after starting a project. We know what is needs to be done, the creative phase is over. Now the hard work starts: planning, communicating, adjusting, coordinating, coaching, discussing, convincing and adjusting again. In some cases this takes years…

In ‘Making Ideas Happen’ many very practical tips are suggested for this ‘hard work’ phase. Some of these I recognise, some I warmly welcome and will apply straightaway.

Thanks Scott, for helping me ‘making design management ideas happen’!

Check out this book at Amazon…