Vol. 2: design-management.de

We’ve assembled the chart on “What is a Design Strategy” you see on the left hand side some weeks ago.

For some reason I did only push it via twitter so far maybe for the reason that it still needs some ‘iterations’ to reflect all the constructive feedback I’ve received in the meantime. Sure in these days of collaboration credits do go to several input channels, but mainly to buddy and business partner Erik Roscam Abbing especially on the case/model examples.

The problem with models and especially if you want to map several of them in a big overview and combine them with your own thinking is that it gets blurry even though it is pretty clear to you/me since you’ve invested some reasonable hours in it … you know that, right? ;-)

On the other hand I think a certain degree of blurriness is justified in case the topic hasn’t been reasonably illustrated so far. At least to my state of knowledge this is the case for ‘Design Strategy’ even though much has been written about it at various places. Still if you ask people what a ‘Design Strategy’ or ‘Strategic Design’ actually is/comprises they (including me) start by saying that “This is a broad field and …” Accordingly the chart has been an attempt to frame my/our ideas and give it a first visual representation.

Anyway it has been just yesterday where I’ve been pointed to a video done by Design Consultancy ‘Continuum’, Boston/MA on ‘design strategy’! Continuum next to IDEO are the publicly best known category leaders when it comes to applying Design/design in a process instead of product way. [This does not mean that there aren’t quite a few small boutique consultancies out there like e.g. me/us who are doing an equally good job ;-)]

In particular the opening sequence of the movie finally triggered me to push our poster above to this blog and to a knowledgeable community like you. In a sense Continuum is nicely illustrating the basic idea of the poster in their own wording … and yes I felt sort of flattered since I do think they are leaders in their category ;-)

Accordingly I can appease my parents: I’m in good company! ;-)

Resonance from Continuum on Vimeo.

I trust that in these recessive times of tight budgets conference organisers have a hard time to sell their events. From my very own German perspective the fact that those events I find most inspiring & worth going to are usually taking place somewhere abroad is often frustrating :-(

Therefore I’ve been more than thrilled when I was invited to attend the 2009 edition of the Creative Company Conference (CCC) that takes place in Amsterdam on Tuesday, 26 May 2009! In contrast to many other conferences it’s a one day event fully packed with keynote speeches, break out sessions, the 3 minute pitches, and special themes. In case you’re interested in a review of last year’s edition you might want to visit Erik Roscam Abbing’s blog. As we’re going to and twittering (#CCC2009) from the conference together you might also want to read his announcement of the event.

As a sort of anecdote on the Netherlands and Amsterdam as the location let me share this: While delivering a seminar on “Strategic Thinking in Brand Management” at EURIB in Rotterdam last week quite a few participants asked me about my passion for the Netherlands and the fact how it comes that I understand most and talk some basic Dutch. Except for the travel industry this still seems to be quite unusual these days ;-)

In any case my response to their questions has been that for me having had my teenage days in the early 80’s the Netherlands always served as the ‘brand gate’ to the world (outside the little town 12km from the Dutch border). I clearly remember the envious looks of my school mates when I wore one of the first pair of Nike sneakers (Blue with a Yellow Swoosh!) in my class ;-) Also McDonalds had their presence in NL long before they decided to enter this big thing called Germany. Nowadays as I do a reasonable portion of my business with/in the Netherlands I do still think that the Dutchmen are at the forefront when it comes to adopting ‘Creative Class’ & the likes … anyway I’m drifting here ;-)

After all for me the USP of the Creative Company Conference 2009 is definitively Sir Ken Robinson. In case you shouldn’t know him yet watch him perform at TED! There you will see how he speaks with extraordinary warmth, passion and wit about creativity in business and education. His latest book “The Element” talks about the creative potential of people and what they can achieve when natural talent meets personal passion.

Similar to Ken Robinson all other speakers (with Erik Spiekermann amongst them) are also like minds professionals in branding (TCHO), design, innovation (RedesignMe.com), marketing and entrepreneurs (University of Amsterdam) from every business sector, from the Netherlands and from abroad, all with a common interest of stimulating creativity in their environments.

The price for the ticket is € 695,- and includes 1 Full Access pass to the Main event and CCC breakout sessions, 2 tea/coffee breaks, lunch, soft drinks, delegate bag with inserts and drinks and snacks at the CCC network closing event. Compared to the usual TED conference ticket that costs you approx. € 4.000,- I think this is a good value for money! ;-)

In case you should decide to go to the conference make sure that we’re connected on twitter (@iterations) and that you’ll drop me a note. A ‘real’ beer is guaranteed! :-) Hope to see you there!

While I’m still trying to catch up with my email stuff that I’ve postponed last week due to my wild DMI conference twittering (@iterations on twitter) some colleagues of mine with Erik Roscam Abbing (@roscamabbing on twitter) at the lead have posted their photos and shared their impressions.

As always Erik has followed a really nice approach on documenting and reporting from the conference. Instead of making long postings (like I do from time to time ;-) he upload a selection of photos he’s done over the 2,5 conference days and explained & commented on them. The result is a great photo journal that creates a nice mashup of Flickr! and blogging. Leave your comments and/or Flickr! notes on the various shots. I’ve also left some already mostly making fun of myself ;-)

Second in row is Henri Laupmaa from Estonia. Henri has been part of a pretty large group of people form Estonia who attended the conference. As it seems there is some good growing awareness on Design & Design Management over there since Estonian companies also won in some of the categories of the DME Award (Design Management Europe Award) in 2007. See his photo series here.

UPDATE:

In the meantime conference attendee Arne van Oosterom (@designthinkers on twitter) has uploaded his pictures from the #dmimilan conference as well. Arne has been one of the contacts that emerged from being connected on twitter and later on turned into a real ‘real’ connection at the conference. From my view Arne is one of the emerging authorities in Service Design (even though some other people claim this for themselves as well; but as a third party I’m allowed to say that ;-) What I like about Arne is his unpretentious attitude towards Service Design and he proved to be a really open minded person.

I recall that my first DMI conference I’ve ever attended is dating back to 1998. At that time it has been the second European conference and took place in Amsterdam.  

Ever since I’ve attended a couple of them also outside Europe and it has always been a special experience, because many people I’ve met at these conferences for the first time have become somewhat friends. Accordingly I’m happy that after 2 years of absence I’m able to participate in another European DMI conference again: Milan at the famous Triennale di Milano!

This time DMI has been so kind to invite me to live twitter from the conference and provide some ‘live feeling’ for those of you who are not able to join us this time. Thanks again to DMI President Tom Lockwood and his team for facilitating this! As I’ve been told DMI also wants to talk with me over some future activities around the use of social media at conferences and other convivial gatherings. I’ll keep you posted ;-)

So my advice for those of you who want to follow what’s going on in Milan is to go to twitter.com and open an account. Once you’ve done this you might want to connect to me (Ralf Beuker: @iterations) and other DMI twitteristi (for example my colleague Erik Roscam Abbing: @roscamabbing or breakout session facilitator Arne van Oosterom: @designthinkers). In case any reader of this blog is also joining us please drop me a note and I’ll add you to the list or simply follow me on http://twitter.com/iterations.

Once you’ve done this you might want to install a twitter client (http://twitter.com/downloads) or simply point your browser to: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23dmimilan. The hashtag we will use is: #dmimilan. After all this sounds more scary as it actually is and once you’ve managed overcome the basic threshold of opening an account and installing a local twitter client things go pretty smoothly ;-)

So if all this information has been an eye opener to you and instead of lurking virtually you still want to join the conference live you might want to check whether DMI still has some tickets. After all any other suggestions are welcome any time by: Commenting to this posting, dropping me an email and/or following me on twitter and direct messaging me! I’m looking forward to connecting with you!

• What is Good Design?

  In addition to the BraunPrize 2009 (http://www.braunprizeblog.com) jury session I’ve participated in I came across this article today that is touching several issues that rushed through my mind yesterday as well.

  But the question of what is ‘good’ and ‘bad’ is not restricted to design as such since similar to design everything we judge takes place in a ‘context’. And as such it may not be ‘Design’ that might be misplaced, but it’s simply the wrong context. Still I do acknowledge that there are certain rules to be respected what ‘Good Design’ is comprising and the links at the end of the article offer some good criteria.

  Nevertheless raving about these issues again confirms my perception that it’s not so much the ‘definitions’ that push us further, but rather accepting the ‘continuum’ on which things take place … this is worth a chart to be developed. Stay tuned!

  (tags: article design defintion good gooddesign)

Wow, the first month of the new year is over (already) and it seems that Christmas is sooo long ago … Nevertheless as we live in interesting times it time to solve problems and not stick to sentimental moods ;-)

Accordingly in times of acceleration we need different tools as well for keeping with the pace of things. So in case some of you might have been wondering about the relatively low posting frequency over the last couple of weeks I can assure you that I’m not suffering from idea drain. Instead I’m more active on http://twitter.com/iterations that givens me the freedom these days to frame my thoughts and spontaneous ideas within 140 characters.

Over the last couple of weeks some 100+ followers have connected to my account and there are some interesting discussions going on (beside the usual gossip and chitchat). If you’d like to be part of it get yourself a twitter account and start your dive into microblogging.

In the meantime you might want to read some sources I’d recommend for some more general updates on things that interest me:

+ Needless to say that I’m a fan of Erik ;-) from Brand Driven Innovation and he’s got some new stuff posted recently on ‘Design As a Strategic Ressource’

+ In case you’re studying Design Management and feel as if there is no place for you in these recessive times go and read his ‘Open Letter to Design Management Students Across the World’

+ A real gem when it comes to the foundation of ‘Wicked Problem Solving’ comes from Rotman’s latest issue of Rotman Magazine.

+ And by the same token one of the interviewees in Rotman’s magazine is Lucy Kimbell from Said Business School. In ‘Design Leads Us Where Exactly’ she’s sharing an interesting piece on ‘What do Service Managers Do’. Some more substantial stuff than what other claim to ‘know’ about Service Design these days.

+ And last but not least an excellent blog by ‘redjotter’ (aka Lauren) that is documenting her ‘Master of Design’ studies at University of Dundee. If you want to learn what kind of great stuff design (management) students are producing high in the north of the UK read her blog scented with a fresh language.

+ Finally I’d like to recommend a colleague of redjotter: Qin Han’s blog: ‘Design Generalist’. Qin is a teaching fellow on Dundee’s Master of Design programme. Beside ‘Service Design’ Qin gives you a good idea on what there is beyond ‘Studying Design’ (the way we used to think of Designers).

You see lot’s of stuff to be explored and commented on. However as said above these days my service will be more to provide tips via twitter than extensively analysing here with usual blog postings. I am sure however that I will return to usual posting once the twitter hype and fascination is over ;-) So stay tuned and loyal!

After all a highly convenient mean to stay in touch with this blog is to subscribe to its RSS feed. This guarantees that you won’t miss any future posting and frees you from the need to randomly surf by every now and then.

Feed URL is: http://www.design-management.de/feed and a click on this link should direct you to your preferred RSS service of choice.

No big deals with formalities. The new year is already 12 days old and I hope that it will be a good and still prosperous one given the external environment we are all affected by in one or the other fashion these days!

On a sidenote I’d like to point those of you who are interested in shorter bits of information, links and conversations from my end to my twitter presence where I’ve been pretty active recently: http://www.twitter.com/iterations. If you’d like what you read you might consider following me. Thanks for you attention on this.

Anyway what I’ve wanted to share with you today is a 500 words piece I’ve written for a conference book project where people from across the globe have been asked for their take on ‘The Future of Innovation’. Needless to say that I’ve written my essay/post/piece quite close to the deadline, but that’s no excuse for sure ;-) So comments are welcome and also any ideas on how to take my musings to another level. Here we go:

The Future of Innovation

While working on this essay about “The Future of Innovation” I was thinking that quite a few submissions from other colleagues will likely deal with providing a most comprehensive definition of “Innovation”.
Usually I would have also followed this approach, but a quotation by Marty Neumeiner (Author of “The Brand Gap”) on his definition of a Brand has changed my view: “A brand is a person’s gut feeling about a product, service or organisation”. Accordingly how do you like mine: “Innovation is part of a user’s gut feeling about a new product, service or organisation”? I have to admit that the more I think about it the more I like this approach to innovation. Let me shortly discuss why I do so, what the implications of this view actually are and what kind of role Design can play on the “Future of Innovation”.

When we usually think about Innovation most of us and in particular the ‘average’ consumer thinks big. Accordingly Innovation is something we tend to link to either being radical or transformative in its character. Good examples for these areas are the automotive industry and Hydrogen powered cars (radical) or the ever changing channels and tools of the internet as means of ‘transforming’ our communications. Needless to say that the media find reporting about the big far more attractive than digging into the ‘long tail’ of what remains: Incremental Innovation.

As a matter of fact in times of scarce financial resources and a climate of risk aversion I do see lots of potential in the area of ‘incremental’ innovation, because amongst others it refers back to my definition above on the user’s “gut feeling”. Typically ‘radical’ and ‘transformative’ innovation encompass lots of resources mostly from R&D in order to change our lives dramatically. In contrast ‘incremental’ innovation is focussing on the tiny, silent, hidden things that affect our every day life and make it more pleasant, easier, say less disruptive. No doubt very often incremental innovation does not create the big ‘Ahhs’ that radical innovation is usually triggering. However it is positively affecting our ‘gut feeling’ by making us say “Wow!”

Let me shortly illustrate my point by showing how Design is facilitating these incremental innovations at Apple Computer. At Apple products you hardly see Design elements as means to make things simply look pretty. Instead they address functions and solutions that make the user feeling ‘Wow!’. Just a few examples are the magnetic power adapter that prevents the computer from accidentally being dragged down, the smooth scroll on the iPhone making searches more ‘real’ or the simplicity of the iMac (one body, a mouse and keyboard). What they stand for is a shifting focus from simply applying new technology (for technology’s sake) to delivering meaning and value by design instead. [Thanks go to Erik Roscam Abbing for borrowing this last sentence from a recent DMI article on Brand Driven Innovation]

I think that this focus on ‘Incremental Innovation’ will offer a huge potential for the future of innovation. In particular it makes innovation more accessible and applicable for a broader range of companies. And for the consumers it will certainly create these ‘Wows’ that so many companies are desperately trying to reach for.

Instead of raving about my current Holiday feelings I’ve decided to simply say “Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year” to all of my valued readers of this blog.

Until I’ve found the time to write a longer wrap-up on the things that made 2008 my year I’d like to share one of my all time classics with you:

• Crowdsourcing and its impact on 'design' (lower case 'd')
  As someone working at the intersection of Design and Business/Management I recognize that very often corporations would love to 'go with Design' (in its broadest sense). On the other hand and in contrast to 'logic' and 'necessary' investments like office space, computers, business travel, etc. Design usually ranks at the 'higher' end of the food chain where you'd invest once your basic hunger is satisfied.

  Accordingly at conferences topics like crowdsourcing and co-design are usually being discussed on an abstract level and very often my impression is that many speakers have hardly ever been in touch with relating practical appearances as such.

  Therefore in case you're interested in how the 'groundswell' is discussing such cases go and read the case of Charlene Li, author of the best selling book 'groundswell'.

  (tags: designservices groundswell logodesign crowdsourcing)

As some of you might know I’m very much into visualisation and the likes these days. In my role as a Professor for Design Management I’m currently doing a seminar on Business Model Visualisation (closed Ning; sorry) with Design students in collaboration with the expert in the field, fellow blogger and blog friend Alex Osterwalder.

While working with my students not only on the ’surface’ (that (unfortunately) is still very often connected with Design), but rather on the connection between form and content I’ve started thinking about how to make my key domain ‘Strategic Management‘ more compelling and appealing to a larger audience beyond MBAs ;-) Part of this effort is a new venture I’ve named: designingstrategy.biz (more on this next near and a rough outline when you click the link). However if you’re interested in early experimentation you might want to contact me and we’ll figure out a workshop on ‘Designing Strategy‘ that focuses on me facilitating and inspiring and you developing business strategies that emerge from your very own ‘creativity’. Is that a deal?

In any case ever since I’ve started to conceptualise at the intersection of business concepts/metaphors and design methods my attention usually gets (positively) distracted by cool cases and examples. So today I’ve came across this Wall Street Journal article that is describing Nicholas Felton’s story about him sharing his life in the form of an annual report! While some people are clearly wondering ‘Gee, this man has too much time’ I find his case a perfect illustration of how to do an ‘analog’ portfolio next to all these Social/Business Networking platforms.

Any other cases you dear readers like to recommend and that are illustrating the smart disruption of traditional business metaphors?

I’ve been to Lucerne (BA Design Management International) for the whole of last week in order to deliver a class on ‘Design in the Context of Strategy and Brand Driven Innovation’. While I’ve covered the ’strategic’ part my friend and business partner Erik Roscam Abbing from ZilverInnovation.com has been the host of the ‘brand’ part.

While I don’t want to go too much into the details of our course in this post, I’d like to shortly discuss the topic of ‘Design Thinking‘ that framed the very first day of the course. The purpose of giving ‘Design Thinking’ a prominent place in the 5 day course has been to make students aware of two things:

a) Understand that human beings have different perceptions and understandings of the character of a ‘problem’ and b) That human beings (in this case managers and designers) are being educated with different approaches to solving problems.

While we’ve framed a) into the 4 categories developed by de Wit and Meyer part b) largely made references to Roger Martin’s reflections on ‘Abductive Reasoning‘. The purpose of this combination was aiming to achieve a better understanding that Managers tend to perceive problems far more often as a kind of puzzle, dilemma, or trade-off set-up while Designers accept their assignments more like ways to resolve ‘paradoxes’ (more on this at this link). Secondly the ‘mental tools’ (aka theories) Designers are applying embrace far more elements of ‘abductive reasoning‘ as opposed to ‘inductive/deductive’ thinking that managers are still being taught at universities these days.

Accordingly our view on ‘Design Thinking’ is not so much related to a profession itself, but rather a question of mindset. In this sense ‘Design Thinking’ is rather an attitude than exclusive to a profession. Therefore I was happy to read Ellen di Resta’s blog post on exactly that distinction.

In line with this notion Erik and I wanted to make students aware of the fact that ‘D(d)esign’ both as a process (d) as well as an object (D) need to be seen in a context rather than as an isolated ‘function’ in an organisation. This chart might give you an idea what we’ve been heading for!?

As a matter of fact ‘Design Thinkers’ will develop similar frameworks that approach a problem or issue from different angles and free themselves to stick to traditional definitions and models. Again it’s not about ‘right’ or ‘wrong’, but rather about yes/and!

Therefore I’ve had a blast learning in more detail on how Erik is currently helping ‘fatboy‘ the hip, loungy, urban, lifestyle, hangout bags (1.40×1.80 mtrs.) manufacturer on not only innovating from a ‘functional layer’, but far more holistically incorporating the other layers as well.

While Erik might decribe the process far better than I (sometimes having a memory like a sieve ;-) for me such an approach also gives the ‘Brand’ as a carrier of cultural values (and not only as a means for creating an ‘Image’) a quite different (yet ‘abductive’) twist. In that sense I’ve been glad to discover Richard Anderson’s blog posting titled ‘Crummy Innovation’ just a couple of minutes ago where he nicely describes some of Roger Martin’s ideas that he’s grabbed at a recent forum in S.F.: “Hence, Roger argues that companies need to ban the use of two words when it comes to innovation: “prove it.” If you can prove something in advance, it is not an innovation.” Some equally smart observations can be found in a recent comment Chris Flanagan has left on my previous blog posting (Thanks Chris!).

So as I’m reviewing this posting I’m reasoning what the original idea of this blog post has been (well, I started writing it last night)? Well, originally I wanted to approach Design Thinking from a heuristic perspective commenting on the discussion Tim Brown started over at his much hyped IDEO Design Thinking blog. And in a sense I have to admit that I originally wanted to start moaning about bloggers who start a conversation, but then feel to busy to comment and engage accordingly (yes, Jens, I do owe you a reply ;-). Anyway I find this blog posting more constructive than my first approach … and maybe you’d like to share your comments on it as well? - Conversation guaranteed! ;-)

• On Disciplines and Professions: Design Thinking
  Sometimes on does not see the wood for the trees. This time is on: Design Thinking ;-) Essentially Ellen di Resta over from the Foresight 20/20 Blog (http://www.ellendiresta.com) posted a very helpful comment on the ongoing discussion on Design Thinking.

  While for me so far Design Thinking has been more of an application of 'Abductive Reasoning' (that seems to be sort of 'natural' to a Designer's way of solving problems) Ellen is trying to address the confusion that is taking place on the around the question: Who is entitled to be called a 'Design Thinker' and whether this is a new sort of 'Profession'.

  I can't agree more on her view that the application of 'new' tools (in this case 'Abductive Reasoning') does not necessarily result in changing job descriptions or careers. On the contrary:

  "If a business person uses design thinking to develop an innovative business model, the outcome is still a business model and the profession is still that of a business person."

  (tags: designthinking design thinking definition)

Anyone out there who still has doubts about the power of images and charisma? Well have a look at this amazing set of pictures from Boston.com.

This image is courtesy of AP Photo/Alex Brandon taken at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Va. Saturday, Sept. 27, 2008.

When I was born in 1967 my parents were part of a historic decade in world history when Neil Armstrong as the the first human being walked on the Moon later in 1969. I often thought if I will ever take part in a similar moment …?

Today while reading and listening to Barack Obama’s speech he held last night my wife and I were joking that once in the future we will tell our sons that we all today will have been part of a similar moment in history. However beside joking I think it’s true and I congratulate the U.S. nation on having made their choice!

The downside of this all is that the comedy shows (also here in Europe) will now have to seek for another ‘object’ instead of Sarah Palin. However thanks to YouTube and the likes we are part of these moments and the stories connected to them and they will last and entertain us for quite a while.

As a strong believer in the power of Social Media I am therefore more than happy to point you to this brilliant little serenade two Americans performed recently … You can be sure that these archives will be re-activated once Sarah Palin shall dare to run for President in 2012 as the rumours go.

Yes We Can! … remember the mess G.W. Bush and his ultra-conservative allies have left for us! Enjoy the video:

• Interview: Dan Roam Will Draw You a Diagram
  A short yet interesting interview with Visual Thinker Dan Roam. Next to Dave Gray from XPlane he’s one of the leaders in applying visual thinking and generating value for business from his creative skills.

  Dan’s and Dave’s insights are building blocks of my ‘Designing Strategy’ workshops that I’m offering these days. Needless to say that you’re welcome to drop me a note on this any time! Contact details to be found on the right hand side of this Blog.

  (tags: VisualThinking visual thinking strategy&design designing strategy designingstrategy)