February 23, 2012
"The greatest challenge to any thinker is stating the problem in a way that will allow a solution."

—

The above quote, c/o Bertrand Russell, is quoted in Innovation for the People, by the People, a solid overview of open innovation initiatives being considered/implemented by the various branches of the federal government. The author, David Bornstein, highlights the quote as a way to show the importance of asking the right question when trying to spark the most inventive and useful submissions to a wicked challenge. As he puts it, “the question needs to be open-ended enough so that it does not restrict creativity, or imply a method of solution, but it has to be defined sharply enough so that someone who doesn’t understand your whole mission can still solve your specific problem.” It’s a really tricky balance to get right, but absolutely critical, nonetheless.

[Story via Catherine Tomezsko.]

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Filed under: open innovation crowdsourcing problem solving problem framing creativity government 
February 16, 2012
"It was classic Kubrick, winning the chess match through perseverance and ingenuity."

—

Nowadays, we’re all way too comfortable with the incredible computing power often in our pockets or at our fingertips, so it’s funny to think back to a simpler age, not so long ago, when tasks that now happen in seconds took days, even weeks. How Stanley Kubrick Invented The Modern Box-Office Report (By Accident) tells the wonderful story of how the notorious director figured out how to get A Clockwork Orange playing in exactly the right movie theaters. Mike Kaplan, who worked on marketing Kubrick’s films, recounts how they got Maureen, “a sweet lady from St. Albans” to enter the box-office figured from 1,000 American cinemas onto individual pages of accounting paper, compiled into notebooks alphabetically listed by city. Writes Kaplan:

This hand-crafted data base would be our bible, guiding our directives to Warner Bros. concerning which cinemas should show A Clockwork Orange.

In other words, they could figure out which audiences might respond best to the, well, challenging content of the film. Not only did the approach guarantee record figures for the movie, but it also led to Variety changing the way it reported box-office takings in its magazine. It is also a wonderful example of Kubrick’s belief that filmmaking was “an exercise in problem solving.” Lovely.

[Story via Jarrod Cady.]

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Filed under: problem solving Stanley Kubrick ingenuity innovation the olden days 
October 24, 2011
"Every problem has a better solution when you start thinking about it differently."

— I’m currently reading Steven Levy’s classic book, Hackers, which lays out the history and progress of the computer revolution, from the late 1950s through the early 1980s. Much is familiar, of course, but it’s still fascinating, and I loved the above quote, from Apple’s resident engineering genius, Steve Wozniak.

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Filed under: Steve Wozniak Apple innovation technology hardware software hackers problem solving solutions thinking 
July 18, 2011
The original headline of Can Innovation Really Be Reduced to a Process?, just published in Fast Company, was “The Real Problems with Design Thinking.” It’s a topic I’ve been agonizing over for weeks, and just one more element in a discussion that looks like it’ll run and run. I’m pretty happy with how the piece turned out, and the conclusion seems to have struck a chord with a few readers: Perhaps some designers will welcome the passing of the design thinking baton to executives. Perhaps they’ll be relieved to see design thinking shaking out as a useful problem-solving approach for executives to use when appropriate. But to me, this shift emphasizes the need for leaders of both business and design to further clarify understanding of who does what, when. Design should neither be aggrandized nor trivialized. But it feels like it could play an infinitely more significant role if only those involved could figure out more convincing ways to articulate its value. For now, the real issue with design thinking is that executives run with it as they see fit, design practitioners continue to shrug their shoulders at the discussion, and corporate continues to trump creative. Given the real need for innovation in every part of culture and society, that seems like the biggest problem of all.  Let me know what you think! (Great picture of post-it notes in a Seoul noodle shop c/o Watchsmart.) 

The original headline of Can Innovation Really Be Reduced to a Process?, just published in Fast Company, was “The Real Problems with Design Thinking.” It’s a topic I’ve been agonizing over for weeks, and just one more element in a discussion that looks like it’ll run and run. I’m pretty happy with how the piece turned out, and the conclusion seems to have struck a chord with a few readers:

Perhaps some designers will welcome the passing of the design thinking baton to executives. Perhaps they’ll be relieved to see design thinking shaking out as a useful problem-solving approach for executives to use when appropriate. But to me, this shift emphasizes the need for leaders of both business and design to further clarify understanding of who does what, when. Design should neither be aggrandized nor trivialized. But it feels like it could play an infinitely more significant role if only those involved could figure out more convincing ways to articulate its value. For now, the real issue with design thinking is that executives run with it as they see fit, design practitioners continue to shrug their shoulders at the discussion, and corporate continues to trump creative. Given the real need for innovation in every part of culture and society, that seems like the biggest problem of all. 

Let me know what you think!

(Great picture of post-it notes in a Seoul noodle shop c/o Watchsmart.) 

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Filed under: innovation design thinking Fast Company process design/business problem solving 
May 2, 2011
"Serendipity is often a key factor for innovation, as is merely being exposed to ideas and innovation. But, that should not be a primary development model."

— The One Laptop Per Child program has garnered a lot of attention, most of it favorable and focused on the design of the hardware (Yves Behar/Fuseproject) or software (former Pentagram partner, Lisa Strausfeld.) Meanwhile, millions of the machines have been distributed to 31 countries. This post, by media development writer Ben Colmery, adds a note of skepticism after Colmery came across the machines in action at a local school in the Akuapem North School District in Ghana. After the recent Greg Mortenson/Three Cups of Tea scandal, the pressure is on developments to ensure that western hubris is kept to a minimum when trying to help in an unfamiliar environment. Or, as Colmery writes, “There are far too many programs out there in which organizations spend megabucks to spread what they think the world needs, without a proper, comprehensive, earnest needs assessment.” Perhaps worth noting that that should be an integral part of a good design process. (Story via Evgeny Morozov.)

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Filed under: Ben Colmery Greg Mortenson Lisa Strausfeld One Laptop per Child Three Cups of Tea Yves Behar design development fuseproject innovation problem solving process 
April 12, 2011
The Best Presentation Not About Design That All Designers Should See

Coda Hale is a software engineer at Yammer. He recently gave a presentation outlining why programmers need to make more informed decisions—by paying attention to metrics. It’s fantastic, even for those who don’t speak code. As venture capitalist and O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures founder, Bryce Roberts, wrote,

It sends a clear message that creating business value isn’t just for business people anymore.

Designers would do well to replace the word “code” with the word “design” throughout this presentation in order to think about how they might view their own client work through this lens.

Also, props to Coda, whose bio page on his website reads:

If a problem is worth solving, it’s worth solving well and once.

and

Incurious people terrify me.

Love that!

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(Notes: 8)
  
Filed under: Coda Hale Yammer design web design coding software ROI metrics Bryce Roberts O'Reilly design problem solving curiosity