Wellington
An unwillingness to rigorously evaluate and kill weak ideas is but one indication that many NewZealand companies don’t fully understand the role of design in taking products and services tomarket.
The managing director of designindustry Ltd , DorendaBritten, says that in general Kiwi companies are good at the technical side of creating newproducts or services and we can ALWAYS be relied upon to make improvements on existing - cheaper,better etc…….
However we don’t tend to be good at standing back and evaluating the opportunity, costs andbenefits such as, whose needs are we aiming to satisfy, when and how?
“We tend to lack a holistic view of both our business and its opportunities?” says theChristchurch-based design champion. “The often-solitary, do it myself kiwi way tends to precludesharing and this means we frequently fail to pick up vital information at critical times in thedecision making process.”
Britten is very familiar with the IDEO design ethos as she is with a number of other high profileinternational consultancies. While she’s in agreement with much of IDEO’s thinking, shebelieves a New Zealand-centric approach is required, taking into account our New Zealand character,resources and markets.
IDEO’s processes have been largely developed for organisations much larger than most of oursand subsequently have much more ‘fat’ in them than New Zealand has a taste for Britten says. Also IDEO can safely assume some design awareness and a preparedness to invest in something wherethe value cannot be guaranteed up front.
designindustry, on the other hand, has always kept New Zealand’s approach to business firmly inmind whilst working to enhance product and service design standards and increase a company’sreturn on investment she says.
“Preparing well for design is an essential ingredient for success, rather than adding a‘Designe’r and hoping for a great result,” says Britten. “designindustry emphasises theneed to think rather than leap into immediate action.”
Design starts with establishing purpose – that is, understanding the impetus for action. Whyare we setting out to do this? What sort of result are we seeking?
Other questions are equally critical. Are we committed? Can we resource it? Who should beinvolved? Who are we designing the solution for? What need are we solving? Can we substantiatethat evolving need? Are we able to deliver on time?
“Successful design must answer these and other ‘soft’ questions and cannot be rushed,”she says. “We’re talking ideas here, not technology. If you don’t share ideas you can’ttest. If you don’t rigorously test an idea you cannot know its true potential – or lackof.”
Much has been written about the celebrated solitary man in his shed Britten says.
He/she might be clever but also highly likely to be deluded about the value of what they areworking on. It’s easy to delude ourselves if we are isolated she says.
“Sometimes I’ll ask an inventor when they expect to be able to deliver,” Britten says. “They’ll say six months. Eighteen months later they’ll still be struggling along ignorant ofa changed world and evolved customer requirements.”
“It’s not just about clever technology but about solving a problem for customers. It’shard, but killing less than optimum ideas is a skill that has to be learned or we’ll sink withouttrace.”
When developing designindustry’s own services, Britten who is trained and experienced inseveral design disciplines, brings diverse skills into the design team. She draws from science,technology, law and finance – whatever will ensure stretched thinking and fit the budget.
designindustry Ltd, has developed an over-all design methodology and specialist tools to assistin the process from initial ideation to a highly evolved level – ready for integration into aproduct creation and launch system.
designindustry has a trademarked Ten Design Principle ™ template, complete with on-linecomponents to help companies manage the holistic development of a new product or service. (see
“I have to say that designindustry has evolved through applying our own processes and are avery different organisation to the one we started over ten years ago. This evolution cannot andmust not stop.”
From sticK’s point of view, the methodology and approach help counteract the Kiwi ability toshoot ourselves in the foot, as identified by Tony Smale (and reported
Opening up the creative, thinking about new products and ideas side of things to more internaland external people in an organisation is somewhat counter-intuitive to New Zealanders’ way ofacting.
As a means of lowering the cost of (unsuccessful) innovation and speed of delivery, Britten’screed of less doing, more thinking about, around a purpose, makes plenty of sense.
At the same time she’s somewhat wary of a propensity to import outsiders’ views of designwhen the New Zealand environment needs a different approach.
“Why import somebody else’s ideas, when we already know what we should be doing,” saysBritten who quotes our past love affair with Michael Porter, Tom Peters, Tim Brown and others whofail to make a cultural connection and therefore a lasting difference.
“Outsiders can’t solve our design dilemma,” she says. “But we can ourselves, and shouldback our ability to attack design and innovation from a home-grown perspective.”