Inspiring Innovation through
Design Thinking – I
It
is a myth of innovation that brilliant ideas emerge from geniuses as fully formed.
In reality most innovations are
born
from hard work and discipline.
Breakthrough
ideas such as Tata’s Nano car or Reliance’s Gio services emerged not by chance,
but by studying the challenges we encounter every day in our life.
Solutions
are not just realised; they are designed.
Tim
Brown, the CEO of the innovation and design firm
IDEO, in his book ‘Change by Design’ gives a lucid picture
of
the subject.
In
this article, I’m liberally referring to his book.
Industrialisation
has led to incredible changes – feeding millions of people, raising our
standards of living – the way we live, work and play. It has brought people
closer together. It is also leading to a culture of excess consumption and at
the same time causing creation of enormous waste and changing the climate of
the
planet.
Unbalanced growth:
A
purely technocentric view of innovation is less sustainable now than ever. We
need products that balance the needs of individuals and of society as a whole.
New
ideas are needed to tackle the global challenges of health and poverty.
We
need an approach to innovation that is powerful, effective, broadly accessible and
that individuals and businesses can use to generate breakthrough ideas to
create
an impact. Design Thinking offers an approach to fill the gap.
Innovation today:
We
are trying to meet the human needs with the knowledge and skills we have
learned over the years. Design Thinking takes the next step of putting these
tools into the hands of people who may have never thought of themselves as
designers and apply them to a vastly greater range of problems.
IDEO’s Experirnce:
In
2004 Shimano, a leading Japanese manufacturer of bicycle components was
experiencing flattening growth in high
end bike segments in USA.
They
always relied on new technology and had invested heavily on the next innovation.
In the face of changing
market,
they wanted to collaborate with the celebrated design and innovation firm IDEO
to explore the changing terrain of the cycling market.
The interdisciplinary team comprised designers, behavioural scientists, marketers
and engineers, whose task was to identify the constraints for the project.They
started with a hunch that they
should not focus on the
high end market.c
Empathising:
They
tried to find out why 90 percent of the American adults don’t ride bikes,
despite the fact that 90 percent of them did as kids. They discovered that many
are discouraged by their experience with the retail sales staff; by the
confusing complexity and excessive cost of the bikes, accessories, and specialised
clothing; by the danger of cycling on the roads not meant for bicycles; and by
the demands of maintaining a sophisticated machine that could be used only on
weekends.
This
human centred approach – which looked for insights from bicycle fans and also,
more important, from people outside Shimano’s core customer base - led to the
realisation
that a whole new category of bicycling might reconnect American consumers to
their experiences as
children.
A huge untapped market began to take shape in front of their eyes.
Experimentation:
The
design team, inspired by the old coaster bikes, came up with the concept of ‘Coasting,’
meaning total relaxation. Coasting would bring lapsed bikers back into an
activity that was simple, straightforward, healthy and
fun.
Coasting bikes, built for pleasure than for sport, would have no controls on
the handlebar, no cables snaking along the frame, no nest of precision gears to
be
cleaned,
adjusted, repaired, and replaced. As like the earlier bikes, the brakes would be
applied by backpedalling. Coasting bikes would feature comfortable padded seats,
upright handlebars, and puncture resistant
tyres
and requires almost no maintenance. But this is not simply a retrobike
(mountain bike): it incorporates
sophisticated
engineering with an automatic transmission that shifts the gears as the bicycle
gains speed or slows.
Prototyping:
Three
major manufacturers began to develop new bikes incorporating innovative components
from Shimano, but didn’t stop with the bike itself. They created instore
retailing
strategies for independent bike dealers. The team developed a brand that
identified coasting as a way to enjoy life. In collaboration with local
governments and
cycling
organisations, it designed a public relations campaign including a Website that
identified safe places to ride.
Sustaining:
Many other people and organisations became involved in the project
as it passed from inspiration through ideation and on into the implementation
phase. Remarkably, the
first problem the designers would have been expected to address –
the look of the bikes – was deferred to a late stage in the development
process, when the team
created a “reference design” to show what was possible and to
inspire the bicycle manufacturers’ own design teams. An exercise in design has
become an exercise
in design thinking.
Aravind Eye Hospital Idea
It was founded to explore ways to deliver eye care to people of
poor countries. The imported practices and facilities were expensive and beyond
the reach of most Indians. The traditional practices lacked the fruits of newer
developments. Dr Venkataswamy felt there must be a third way.
Empathising, he realised that giving his patients something
consistent with what they were accustomed to in their villages , but still good
enough to meet
acceptable medical standards, allowed him to serve the poor in an
economically viable way.
CS 121-2city to break a chocolate bar in to f
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