Notes from the book Change by Design by Tim Brown.
HarperBusiness © Tim Brown. ISBN 0061766089
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This was an excellent read. I have not taken so many notes from a book in a long time.
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Pg 18
The willing and even enthusiastic acceptance of competing constraints is the foundation of design thinking. The first stage of design process is often about discovering which constraints are important and establishing a framework for evaluating them. Constraints can be visualized in terms of three overlapping criteria for successful ideas: feasibility (what is functionally possible within the forseeable future); viability (what is likely to become part of a sustainable business model); and desiresbility (what makes sense to people and for people).
Pg.27
Many designers who are skilled technicians, craftsmen, or researchers have struggled to survive in the messy enviornment required to solve today's complex problems. They may play a valuable role, but they are destined to live in the downstream world of design execution. Design thinkers, by contrast, cross the "T". They may be architects who have studied psychology, artists with MBA's or engineers with marketing experience. A creative organization is constantly on the lookout for people with the capacity and — just as important — the disposition for collaboration across disciplines. In the end, this ability is what distinguishes the merely multidisciplinary team from a truly interdisciplinary one. In a multidisciplinary team each individual becomes an advocate for his or her own technical speciality and the project becomes a protracted negotiation among them, likely resulting in a gray compromise. In an interdisciplinary team there is collective ownership of ideas and everybody takes responsibility for them.
Pg.37
Just as I am challenging companies to incorporate design into their organizational DNA, however, I want to challenge designers to continue the transformation of design practice itself. There will always be a place in our dizzying world for the artist, the craftsman, and the lone inventor, but the seismic shifts taking place in every industry demands a new design practice: collaborative but in a way that amplifies, rather than subdues, the creative powers of individuals; focused but at the same time flexible and responsive to unexpected opportunities; focused not just on optimizing the social, the technical, and the business components of a product but on bringing them into a harmonious balance. The next generation of designers will need to be as comfortable in the boardroom as they are in the studio or shop, and they will need to being looking at every problem — from adult illiteracy to global warming — as a "design" problem.
Pg.39
For design thinkers, behaviors are never right or wrong, but they are always meaningful.
Pg.42
The evolution from design to design thinking is the story of the evolution from the creation of products, and from there to the relationship between people and products, and from there to the relationship between people and people.
Pg.50
We build these bridges of insights through "empathy", the effort to see the world through the eyes of others, understand the world through their experiences, and feel the world through their emotions.
Pg.71
Individuals, teams, and organizations that have mastered the mental matrix of design thinking share a basic attitude of experimentation. They are open to new possibilities, alert to new directions, and always willing to propose new solutions.
Pg.77
A culture of optimism.
Optimism requires confidence, and confidence is built on trust. And trust, as we know, flows in both directions.
Pg.78
Rules of brainstorming;
Defer judgement.
Encourage wild ideas.
Stay focused on the topic.
Build on the ideas of others.
Pg.85
In the "The Opposing Mind", Roger Martin argues that 'thinkers who exploit opposing ideas to construct a new solution enjoy a built-in advantage over thinkers who consider only one model at a time'. Integrative Thinkers know how to widen the scope of issues salient to the problem. They resist the "either/or" in favor of the "both/and" and see non-linear and multi-directional relationships as a source of inspiration, not contradiction.
Pg. 91
Prototypes should command only as much time, effort, and investment as is necessary to generate useful feedback and drive an idea forward. The greater the complexity and expense, the more "finished" it is likely to seem and the less likely it's creators will be to profit from constructive feedback—or even to listen to it. The goal of prototyping is not to create a working model. It is to give form to an idea to learn about it's strengths and weaknesses and to identify new directions for the next generation of more detailed, more refined prototypes.
(hence) A prototype's scope should be limited. The purpose of early prototypes might be to understand weather an idea has a functional value.
Anything tangible that let's us explore an idea, evaluate it, and push it forward is a prototype.
Pg.94
Another considerable value of scenarios is that they force us to keep people at the center of the idea, preventing us from getting lost in mechanical or aesthetic details.
Pg.121
Four Seasons Hotels are famous for their quality of service as much as the luxury of their properties. They are also recognized within the industry for having a staff-training system in which staff members learn how to anticipate the needs of their customers and build on the ideas of their colleagues—essential qualities, as we have seen, of design thinkers.
Creating an experience culture requires going beyond the generic to design experiences perceived as uniquely tailored to each customer. Unlike a manufactured product or a standardized service, an experience comes to life when it feels personalized and customized.
Notes: things I remember of my experience of four seasons, which could otherwise may had been frustrating:
1. We were served dinner from the restraunt in the bar itself, because we prefered to eat at the bar.
2. I was given a drink at the bar even after they had officially closed the bar
3.I was given water when I sat on the pool bench (I was thirsty, yes) without me asking for it.
4.four seasons Miami was steeped in the culture of the city: miami art, Cuban staff. Very local.
5. Our bags were held after we had checked out, they knew we won't like to carry them around.
6.Taxis were arranged without us having to try too hard.
7. We were taken straight to our rooms, and since we reached in the morning, breakfast was sent to the room.
Pg.134
To design an interaction is to allow a story to unfold over time.
Pg.141
There are other reasons why 30-second spots no longer serve as an effective vehicle for new ideas, including what the Swarthmore College psychologist Barry Schwartz has identified as "the paradox of choice". Most people don't want more options: they just want what they want. When overwhelmed by choice, we tend to fall into behavorial patterns used by those whom Schwartz calls "optimizers"—people paralyzed by the fear that if they had only waited a little while longer or searched a little harder, they could find what they think they want at the best possible price. That was not a problem in the days when "automobile" meant a black Model T or "phone company" meant AT&T.
The other camp is populated by "satisficers" who have given up on making consumer decisions and will put up with whatever works.
Pg.149
Design can help to improve our lives in the present. Design thinking can help us chart a path into the future.
Pg. 177
An organization that commits itself to the human-centered tenets of design thinking is practicing enlightened self-interest. If it does a better job of understanding its customers, it will do a better job of satisfying their needs. That is simply the most reliable source of long-term profitability and sustainable growth.
Pg.183
Service companies that use innovative technology but do not innovate to improve the quality of people's experience are destined to relearn the bitter lesson of the companies of the industrial age: that past innovation is no guarantee of future performance.
Pg.215
Aravind, IDE, and Acumen Fund offer examples not just of well-designed products but of design thinking applied accross the entire spectrum of a problem: the product, the service in which the product is embedded, the business model of the enterprise that provides the service, the investors behind the enterprise, and more.
Pg.223
The Ormondale teachers have now developed a set of tools based on a shared philosophy of "investigative learning" that engages students as seekers of knowledge rather than receivers of information.
Pg.227
The tools of the design thinker—getting out in the world to be inspired by people, using prototyping to learn with our hands, creating stories to share our ideas, joining forces with people from other disciplines—are ways of deepening what we know and widening the impact of what we do.
Pg. 237
Good design thinkers observe. Great design thinkers observe the ordinary. Make it a rule that you will stop and think about an ordinary situation. Take a second look at an action or artifact that you would look at only once (or not at all) as if you were a police detective at a crime scene. Why are manhole covers round? Why is my teenager heading off to school dressed like that?how do I know how far back I should stand from the person in front of me in line? What would it be like to be color blind? If we immerse ourselves in what Naoto Fukasawa and Jasper Morrision have recently called "Super Normal", we can gain uncanny insights into the unwritten rules that guide us through life.
Pg.238
Ludwig Wittgenstein was the most cerebral of twentieth-century philosophers, but his motto was "Dont think. Look."
—From the book: Change by Design by Tim Brown
