I recently attended the 99% Conference in New York, a refreshing gathering whose focus is less on the generation of ideas and more on their execution. (The conference’s name is a riff on Edison’s famous quote about the need for only 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.) The next few posts will feature some of the highlights, with the sought-after accolade of My Favorite Speaker* going to Tony Faddell.
The former Apple designer (Faddell was responsible for the iPod) has recently been lauded for his success with the Nest “learning thermostat,” a simple-to-install device that helps people to understand how their home uses energy (and therefore set it to save.) Faddell was energetic, inspiring and utterly committed to the concept that it’s the team that makes the difference between a launch’s failure or success, not simply the value of the idea itself. And it’s clear that the curiosity he described as being present from his early youth is still an integral part of the way he does business.
Prototyping, too, is a key skill that he believes needs to be mastered by more than designers. As Faddell described, in the 1990s people would all too often come to him with a great idea for a “kitchen computer.” They’d tell him all about how it would work, how beautiful it would be and how people could use it to get recipe information. And yet, he’d reply to them:
“You understand the hardware, the screen, the internet connection… but you didn’t attack the real problem. You didn’t prototype the user experience. You prototyped the hardware to get people to say that’s cool. But you didn’t look at the hard, hard pieces of the puzzle: how will people interact? How will they get two touches on the screen? How will it work? Too often people go for the easy thing but it’s the hard thing that sets the schedule, the budget and whether it’s doable.”
His advice: “find the hardest thing… the thing you really want to change, and look deeply into that.”
1. Passion. This includes both the passion of youth and team members but, Faddell described, what is necessary is a “thoughtful passion, not an egotistical passion.” This is about being introspective about what you’re trying to do and then communicating that effectively to the people you’re trying to get join your team or who can approve something to move forward.
2. Presentation. This isn’t merely about making something look slick, but about looking at all the details and anticipating concerns, questions or risks, especially those of importance to those outside a core team. “Make them a part of the process,” advised Faddell, and acknowledge the challenges ahead and explain how they’ll be managed. By anticipating difficult questions and having, if not answers, at least the ability to show that they’re considered, the quantiest of analysts can be brought on board an innovation project.
3. Partnership. Getting the right senior leadership on board any innovation-related project is critical, Faddell advised. If conversations are starting with questions about shipping, product numbers or return on investment then as far as he’s concerned, you’re not working with the right person who will be able to give the necessary amount of air cover to your nascent idea. Instead, make sure you’re working with people who can be emotionally and rationally engaged in an idea’s worth. They’re the folks who will help you when others raise reasonable doubts.
Finally, a lovely, honest admission of the reality of innovation and entrepreneurship. “If it doesn’t feel like a rollercoaster day, you’re not doing something right,” said Faddell. “You need to feel that doubt every single day.”
* This is not a real thing.
[Photo: Julian Mackler]
![One of my favorite presentations at Design at Scale was the conversation between Roo Rogers, president of Red Scout Ventures, and Cameron Tonkinwise, associate dean for sustainability at Parsons. By this point, we’d heard from a number of huge brands, including Frito-Lay, Starbucks and Coke. All of these were interesting in their own right, but at that point in the proceedings it’s safe to say I for one was feeling a little megabranded out. Rogers and Tonkinwise came to the rescue with a neat analysis of where we are in terms of defining a global “sharing” economy. Rogers is the co-author of the book What’s Mine Is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption, so knows of what he speaks, while this is also an area of passion for the supremely articulate Tonkinwise. I was hosting this session, so sadly don’t have notes on the many smart things that were said, though I was really taken with Tonkinwise’s challenge to the design community: Think about redesigning objects so they are specifically intended for shared use. As he pointed out, most of the objects that are currently used in the public sphere are lowest-common-denominator hideous, designed to survive nuclear attack but hardly to lift the soul or the spirit. Can’t designers come to our rescue? Please?
[Image c/o DMI.]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ltsjxmYRxM1qikpxao1_1280.jpg)
