"The one-size-fits-all model never fits the individual right. We are now on the verge of the one-size-fits-one world."
— Chris Anderson, Editor-in-Chief of Wired Magazine
May 2007
Master's Thesis as Book
Last night Becky and I received a copy of Zachary Jean Paradis and David McGraw's book as Master's Thesis fulfillment package, Naked Innovation: Uncovering a Shared Approach for Creating Value" as advised by Prof. Jeremy Alexis. Thanks for sharing your creative value, Zachary and David!
Gong Szeto
How does creativity play a role in "design strategy"?
Design Strategy: To figure out what is USEFUL:Creativity in design strategy is like playing a game of "Cruel Chess".
Like "Chess", in that all the opposing pieces represent The Market, The Competition, Available Technologies, Consumer Psychology and Preferences, Economics, Politics, Random Acts of God, Whims of Fashion, Critics, Lack of Budget, Your Own Team's Abilities/Limitations, Viability of Pricing Model, Existing Intellectual Property, Readiness of Supply Chain, etc.
And it's "Cruel", because as you are playing, the opposing side can add as many more pieces to their side as it wants to, but you aren't allowed to do the same for your side. ("Cruel Chess" is very unfair that way).
Time is critical in "Cruel Chess"; you can't take forever to make a move, and the opposing side won't always wait for its turn. And the ability to anticipate 3-4 moves ahead is very, very important in Cruel Chess.
And, yes, Cruel Chess is winnable. You just have to be very, very creative. Steve Jobs wins at Cruel Chess all the time.
Design Strategy: To figure out what is USABLE: Well, that's CRUEL CHECKERS.
— Gong Szeto, Director of Product Design, PEAK6 Investments LP/OptionsHouse Inc.
Diego Rodriguez
How does creativity play a role in "design strategy"?
I think the popular notion of creativity as being about thinking "outside of the box" is misguided. It’s limiting to think about creativity as being about coming up with wild and wacky ideas. Rather, creativity in this context is about making connections across boxes. It's about recognizing patterns across fields of data and synthesizing those insights into a unique thread of choices whose topographic profile describes a unique, viable strategic position.These days I'm especially interested in all the ways in which design thinking can be used to formulate business plans for new ventures. As it happens, the signature elements of design thinking — seeking insights from the marketplace, treating everything as a prototype, and proceeding with a sense of optimism — are a perfect fit to the demands of entrepreneurial endeavors.
And that's where creativity comes in. Any business school finance class will teach you that cash is the lifeblood of organizations, big or small. Run out of it, and your time is done. But if it were just about having piles of cash, it would be easy to pick innovation winners — just look at what's in their money tank. No, creativity is even more important than cash when it comes to bringing strategies to life. I believe that, with the right attitude and training, creativity can be endless, which is a good thing, because getting things done demands a lot of it.
— Diego Rodriguez, Stanford d.school Professor & Business Factors Consultant, IDEO
Spk: Charles Cascio
"I brought the Frog team to ETS ..."
— Charles Cascio, VP of Interactive Learning, ETS
Editor's note: The crowd breathed a sigh of relief that this wasn't another 'saved-by-IDEO' presentation.
Student: Irene
We were chatting in the lounge area about the relationship between a physical conference program and a virtual program. Often the physical program takes precedence — you get the face-to-face and the liveness of it all. However with the virtual space you get something pretty important: convenience. Not only convenience in being "free" but also convenience in terms of time not spent traveling. Saving time is increasingly important today for everyone. Will physical conferences go way someday in the name of saving time?
Spk: Denis Weil
" Our scenarios were not concrete enough for the executive decision makers"
— Denis Weil, VP Innovation & Concept Dev, McDonalds Corp.
Spk: David Lawrence
"We are the Intel of the bicycle industry."
— David Lawrence, Sr. Manager, Shimano America
Student: Enric
Time to get honest: this is my first design conference. My main bias coming in was that I'd be seeing a lot of funky glasses. I have to say I've been a bit underwhelmed by the representation. Then I saw Enric. He delivered for me.
Jason Fried
How does creativity play a role in "design strategy"?
Hmm, we don't think much about strategy at 37signals. I feel like thinking too much about what you want to do gets in the way of just doing it. So in many ways our strategy is what we actually do, what we think we're going to do. That allows us the flexibility to come up with the best solutions as we run into the problems instead of imagining problems we don't have yet.— Jason Fried, Co-founder, 37Signals
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