Intervention Design and Iterative Prototyping

You all know my evangelism for iterative prototyping… Well, you can imagine my joy when I saw this month’s Harvard Business Review dedicated to “The Evolution of Design Thinking” and a great article by Tim Brown and Rodger Martin on “How to use design thinking to make great things actually happen.” According to the article, … Read more

Design Thinking is a Misnomer!

Design Thinking is more than thinking and meetings. Design Thinking is about doing and making. Experimentation is at the core of Design Thinking. Developing prototypes and iterating on ideas is not just to validate your concepts but is an integral part of the innovation process where you build things to think and learn. When you … Read more

Three Keys to Innovation Leadership

Harvard Business School’s Linda Hill, co-author of Collective Genius: The Art and Practice of Leading Innovation, and TED Speaker, with her team conducted extensive research and concluded there are pronounced differences between the qualities associated with traditional business leadership and those required to sustain a culture of innovation. “The most effective leaders will lead from … Read more

Recent Study Shows How Much That Device Usage Varies by Generation

MillwardBrown Digital conducted a digital survey via mobile or desktop devices that included 1018 US respondents ages 18 – 69 who own or have access to a smartphone or tablet. The survey, Getting Audiences Right: Marketing to the Right Generation on the Right Screen, was conducted October 2014 and found: DEVICE USAGE VARIES BY GENERATION … Read more

How Many People Are On Your Core Product Team?

For the last four years, Actuation Consulting, has been conducting market research on what makes  product teams successful. I had the privilege of helping with the most recent study and they found that: Companies with less than $50 M in annualized revenues have between one to nine core team members. (42% of organizations have between … Read more

Contextual Design

Contextual Design is a process that includes methods to: collect data about people in context of their intents, desires, and drivers; interpret and consolidate that data; use the data to create prototypes; and iteratively test and refine the prototypes with the target audience it is intended to help to ensure delight. Contextual Design is based … Read more

Sales, Service and Product Attract, Retain and Grow Customers with Personas and Journey Maps

Sales job is to find and acquire new customers. Services job is to retain and grow the current clients. Product needs to support both theses objectives. The product needs to provide features that new customers are looking for and features that retain and grow the current client base. In most cases, features that retain and … Read more

Proctor & Gamble’s Innovation Factory

“We know from our history that while promotions may win quarters, innovation wins decades.” – Bob McDonald, Chairman, President, and CEO, Proctor & Gamble The company spends billions annually on R&D – roughly 50% more than its closest competitor and more than most other competitors combined according to How P&G Tripled Its Innovation Success Rate. Each … Read more

Core Innovation and New-Growth Innovation

The December issue of Harvard Business Review, Build an Innovation Engine in 90 Days, shares the important distinction of core and new-growth innovation. Core innovations enhance existing offerings or improves current operations. They enhance the current strategy and organization structure with the objective of offering rapid and substantial returns in the near future and funded … Read more

Personas, Actors, and Roles

Personas, actors, and roles have been around for a long time. In Greek theater, the persona referred to the “theatrical mask” – a role played by an actor. The Romans expanded the term to indicate a role in a court of law where personas assume roles with legal attributes such as rights, powers, and duties. … Read more

Affective Engineering

Affective Engineering is akin to Emotional Design rooted in Kansei. Kansei is a Japanese word that roughly translates to sensitivity and sensibility. It links the customer’s emotional responses to the properties and characteristics of a product or service. Customers purchase products based on qualities like brand, design, impression etc. People want to use products that … Read more