Something for the Weekend - Off Your Trolley?

Many of you will have seen that one of our projects from last year (CDD Online) won a Financial World Innovation Award last week. It's a great achievement by all those involved and adds recognition to the relentless quality focus and sheer effort of the team.

I've been thinking about the recipe for that success (too long to share here) and about innovation and creativity generally. David Owens shared a video with me* which I really think sums up some of the key processes of creative teams in just 8 minutes. It's a few years old (note the hair!) but follows IDEO tackle a project to reinvent the shopping trolley in just 5 days. Check it out here

Here are the key things I observed:

• They started with a clear problem statement covering what's wrong today and clarity on constraints (e.g. if it's not stackable it's not viable)
• The brief was kept as open as possible 'how might we improve a shopping trolley' not 'we need a shopping trolley with a scanner' - leaving room for creativity.
• Cross functional teams of experts working together with equal voices, as opposed to a room of engineers or designers in common agreement, or worse, everyone looking to a single person (probably the most senior) for the answers.
• Time spent with experts (some unexpected) and observing usage to gain insights.
• Not narrowing in on a single solution immediately - you'll notice in the example they divided the group into four and each focused on a particular problem and then brought together the best of each towards the end. Creating divergence before converging on a single solution.
• The leader takes a facilitation role - carefully balancing creativity with productivity without imposing themselves.

It seems to me that going forwards creativity will be major factor in setting competitors apart, those who can understand their customers and offer something new and refreshing... a great space for BAs to work in and a terrific aim for all projects.

Sources and Credits
* David Owens - via IIBA Group on LinkedIN
IDEO
Financial World Awards

Something for the Weekend - It's hardly nasal surgery!

I read an interesting story early this week that really brings to life the value of prototyping.

In 2001 designers at IDEO were tasked with working with teams of surgeons to create new improved tools for nasal surgery. During the design session one of the surgeons was trying to explain how the ideal mechanism would be a trigger grip only he struggled to put in to words what he meant. One of the designers picked up a marker pen and a 35m film canister and taped them together. They then picked up a plastic peg and fastened that to the front creating a basic version of what the surgeon was attempting to describe. This might sound like Blue Peter but it saved a huge amount of follow up meetings, through the ability to physically demonstrate what was actually needed.

I love the story as I see similar comparisons day to day in our roles. Where written requirements fail to adequately express the need; quite simply fail to bring it to life or allow for different interpretations. I am, without doubt, an advocate of using diagrams and screen mock ups to validate and elicit requirements so I thought I'd share some thoughts on the topic.

Tips for Prototyping

• We're using BalsamIQ - It’s a great tool - do check it out at Click Here
• Recognise that that creating mock-ups won't slow things down, it generates results faster and gets people on the same page.
• Be clear as to why you're mocking up screens - it's not for the purpose of a final design but to elicit comment and validate written requirements and assumptions.
• Keep it rough - to have something too polished suggests it’s a final design, enough to get to the answers as quickly as possible is all that is needed - Lo-Fi is the way to go. (just think of nasal surgery!)

Sources & Credits
IDEO

Business Week

Something for the Weekend - Waterproof Power Strip

I thought I'd follow up on last weeks SFTW on vision and fit with the real world with a great example of the opposite! www.wetcircuits.com offers waterproof power strips! A great safety increment on the standard power strip but as Wired.com explains 'Your TV isn’t going to be any safer when perched on the end of your bathtub'!

A great physical example of not considering the things that interact with your design (in this case the socket and the devices you might plug in!!).

So whilst we're at it, what are the factors that change data based thinking (waterproof power strip) into creative thinking (safer power)? I was reading a book by Tim Brown this week and he recommends a simple but effective model developed at IDEO. His book (Change by Design) is fantastic and I could never do it justice but here's a summary of the model:

• Inspiration - actively seek out sources of inspiration...That might be other industries who do something similar or even analogous situations. Comparisons are drawn in the book about F1 pit stops and A&E units. Be open to less obvious inspirations too.
• Observation - watch your customers in the real world without agenda. Observe the way they naturally adapt ways of working to overcome small niggles (keeping log books, labelling things, ordering items together to quicker serve customers, etc) and understand why they do these behaviours - they're rarely an accident!
• Empathy - take a different mind set, rather than considering what your customers need, imagine you are your customer, how you would feel and what you would need. Perhaps interview some of your customers to ensure you've got the right picture.

Small activities that lead to more creative solutions. If you want the book there's a link below, ditto if you want the power strip!

Sources and Credits
Wired.com
Wetcircuits
Tim Brown IDEO