Take-a-ways from The Designful Company – by Marty Neumier

The Designful Company – How to build a culture of nonstop innovation
By Marty Neumier

Take-a-ways (not really a book review) September 2010

Wicked problems, and what to do with them; this is the start of Neumier’s whiteboard overview on how to build a culture supportive of nonstop innovation.

The success of Six Sigma essentially commoditized “quality” in today’s products. Customers now expect reliability in the products and services they buy which effectively removes quality as a competitive advantage for companies.

“…differentiation is becoming the most powerful strategy in business and the primary beneficiary of innovation.”

Innovation drives differentiation, and design drives innovation. Think of the ways in which customers are more engaged in their relationship with your brand, product or service. The bar has been risen across the board, in terms of who buys your stuff, where they use it, how they use, when they want to give it back to you…”meaning talks, money walks…”

“The management innovation that is destined to kick Six Sigma off its throne is design thinking.”

“ If you wanna innovate, you gotta DESIGN.”

So why aren’t more companies starting with design? Where has it been relegated to in the product development cycle? Historically “as a beauty station for identities and communications, or as the last stop before product launch.”

Design-driven equation for sustainable profits:
“Design drives > Innovation powers > Brand build > Loyalty sustains > Profits”

Another way to look at this is “difference x design = delight”. Your customers are delighted with your products because your designs drove innovation, and in turn drove differentiation amongst your competition. Delighted customers are loyal customers, and loyal customers return to spend their money with you, without the overhead of the loyalty program to entice them; your product/service is doing that work.

“Organic loyalty beats artificial loyalty every time.”

…Your company needs to understand and be able to predict/lead/react to market and consumer dynamics with agility. Organizational agility is dependent upon your company developing a “designful mind”.

Does a brand’s community health reflect the quality of their customer service?

What is Community, why is it interesting and complementary to Customer Service in social media?

I stumbled upon this question as an enticement to join a webinar presented by Sharad Mohan, Director of Customer Success at HootSuite, and Caty Kobe, Community, Support & Education Manager at Get Satisfaction.

Me thinks…

A brand’s community health (success) is a direct reflection of their level of commitment to delivering great customer service. As the brand participates in the community conversation it is measured by how it reacts and treats their members. The brand is judged on how well it responds to member needs, meets expectations and resolves issues (whether this is done in private or public the issue potentially will be broadcast). This level of support essentially determines, in the community members eyes, the value of the brands customer service.

This topic gets me thinking about Service Design. If a brand can look holistically at its service offering across channels, touch points, engagement opportunities, aware that the value of its brand will be assessed beyond its “control” – it has the potential that its customers will do more to contribute to support each other (aka customer service) because of the affinity those customers feel for the brand.

Interviewing? rethink your portfolio

Build a better design portfolio

I think one of the most critical aspects of the interview (whether in-person, on the phone, or represented abstractly via their web site) is how well the interviewee is able to communicate their involvement, responsibility, and accountability in the design I’m looking at. It really doesn’t do much for me to look only at the surface of a design…I want to know the process that was followed to produce it.

I strongly encourage the candidate or student think about adding a “case study” type of component for each design. A narrative, or the like, that explains position statement/problem statement, design approach, methods employed, team structure, their role and responsibility, key challenges and how they addressed them, and why *this* design solution is the final version.

I think many hiring managers (and prospective clients) would benefit greatly from a well-structured portfolio that can present not only the surface design, but also the thinking that goes in to producing it. And if designers start thinking about this in school….all the better.

Hiring lens

Read an interesting article yesterday; interview of Doreen Lorenzo, CEO @ Frog Design. She was commenting on characteristics and attributes she looks for when making hiring decisions. The following resonates with me too:

“One of the questions I always ask them is, why don’t you want this job? What are the things that scare you about this job? You learn a lot about a person that way. And if they say, “Well, what scares me about this job is it’s too chaotic,” they’re not going to thrive here. Or if they say to me, “You know, I like to be in charge,” then you’re thinking, this person’s not going to thrive in his group.

You’re really looking for that person who understands the mission. Not that they agree with everything that you say, but they understand the mission. I want to hear someone who says: “I can contribute. I want to be part of this team. I feel like I can add some value and these are the reasons why.” That’s important. You want people who can put in and not take out. ”

I appreciate her approach to digging beneath the tool kit, behind the candidate curtain, to really understand where this person is coming from, what makes them tick.

She mentions that understanding the mission is critical, and in the same article she says “micromanagement is the death of creativity”, this reminds me of a theme in Made To Stick where they describe the Commander’s Intent. This is exactly the message of understanding the mission. In the book they reference Kennedy’s message of putting a man on the moon. The teams understood clearly their mission, but the President didn’t stand over their shoulders and give orders, the teams were empowered to devise the strategy and tactics on their own.

It’s the last line of this snippet, “You want people who can put in and not take out” – great summation and the depth of this goes well beyond the obvious benefit. It talks to your mind set, your personal philosophy of how you engage and manage relationships, your contributions – both creative and critical, to the betterment of the holistic solution.

Finding myself more and more interested in the underpinnings and infrastructure in place at these creative and successful design studios.

I was new here, too

For whatever reasons I’ve been making excuses and holding back on starting this thing. Doesn’t mean I haven’t been having the conversations, dialog, sharing thoughts and challenging assumptions, just haven’t published them in this way.

My background is a varied collection of experiences, roles, conditions, locations, and opportunities realized. I draw from this toolkit everyday to try and make sense of the mysteries and opportunities apparent to me.

I am a:
– musician
– designer
– thinker
– husband
– father

I thought for some time on why I would go deeper with classifying what roles I’ve played for work:

– user experience architect
– interaction designer
– researcher
– analyst
– photograph technician
– motion graphic artist
– digital animator
– quality advocate

But, I’m sure I would miss aspects of who I am, trying to list them, and really what’s the point in listing them. I’m a pretty dynamic kind of guy…adaptable. When I need to lead, I step up – when voices need to be heard, I listen. Where problems exist, I solve them. Where opportunity lies, I pursue.

So what does that make you? Does there have to be a “title” for it? I think it makes you human. Yeah, that’s my new title, I’m sure the Corporation will dig it when I update my business cards:

Mark FelcanSmith
Human
Corporation Company Inc.
Here And There, USA

I like that, it has a…grounding that resonates with me.  If you happen to have this title too, drop me a note about the qualities that you find most useful in this complex and demanding role. Maybe, together, we can help craft a useful “how to be” guide.

I have many interests, some of which I’ll share here – they may be mostly dealing with my day job: leading experience design teams. I don’t think it discounts my past at all, in fact I would hope one of the reasons I’m in this role is because of my past. I guess I didn’t really share that yet – I think it’s a pretty interesting story, I’ve shared it before, and Ima do it again (cue Wesley Willis).

…more later