Guiding Questions (part 1)

• What are we designing? (R&D, Sales, Marketing, HR, Management and Finance)
• Who are we designing for? (Marketing and HR=customer facing)
• Why are we designing? (Strategy and CEO)
• How will we design it? (Production/Operations and Finance)
• How will we know if we s...

Innovativeness is the capacity and willingness to actively participate in the learning activities of the innovation process. It’s like a journey. It involves thinking (head), doing (hands/body) and refecting (soul). Innovativeness as a learned trait is an important indicator of one’s level of inn...

• Aim: to generate exploratory insight from unstructured datasets
• Abductive methods: interview, focus group and observational or feld research
• Inquiry: seeks to answer narrative ‘what, how and why’ or ‘what if’ queries below ‘where’ and ‘when’
• Value: needs-driven decisi...

• Thick data is unstructured data in the form of thick description or narratives, that is mined for insights on human behaviour
• Thick data draws deep human-centred patterns from small end-user or customer samples
• Thick data is used for insightful decision-making to better under...

• Big data is a combination of structured and semi-structured data collected by organizations that can be mined for information, machine learning, and predictive modeling.
• Big data draws broad patterns from massive amounts of data from large end-user or customer samples
• Big dat...

An observation as fact is information that is observed to be true. 

Facts are verifable data that we all see and which can be quantifed. 

For example, we can verify that a smartphone is rectangular-shaped, broccoli is a source of iron, or that 600,000 people attended an event.

• Target end-user population:

Who is our intended customer/end-user for this problem/challenge? Why do they buy? Where are they located?

• Project team schedule:

 Who will participate in the innovation project? What is the timeline? Provide details of team memb...

• Observations: Both ‘facts’ and ‘interpretations’. Facts describe a situation or object as explicitly seen or heard. Interpretations describe a situation that is judged based on tacit knowledge of a similar context.
• Findings: ‘Summarized facts’ that propose common meanings or themes r...

Sift through observed facts: Take time individually to sift through your own data and highlight some key observations as facts. . Identify each key fact as one datum and add to a data sorting board (e.g. physical or digital whiteboard).   ‘I enjoy grocery shopping as an escape from the busy house...

1. Sort both observed and interpreted facts: Sorting involves moving the key data points into thematic groups based on themes and/or patterns that are observed individually and as a team.
2. Label facts into themes: Labelling involves questioning each theme or pattern that you have surface...

• We observed that some customers combine their food shopping with personal ‘me time’.
• We learned that some customers view the grocery store as an escape from their daily routine, where they can spend time listening to their favourite playlist or podca...

Aim: to generate information from quantifying patterns; to identify expected behavior; and validate problem hypothesis (prescriptive)

Methods: survey; questionnaire; focus group; interviews (scripted, closed)

Output: seeks to answer t...

• A problem is an issue; a tension between the present, and a desired future state
• Problem owners focus on the desired state since it involves resolving issues associated with goals, values and preferences
• A problem may or may not be solved, based on priorities...

How we frame the question is critical in solving problems that seek divergent, novel and innovative solutions.

The most effective way to overcome this cognitive bias is to frame the question or problem differently and seek out individuals with different perspectives.

This strategy is...

An observation can also be an interpretation, a source of narrative data based on personal beliefs or prior experience.

For example, we believe that broccoli is a healthy food choice, or that we attended the biggest event of the year

• Aim: to generate confrmatory insight from structured datasets
• Deductive methods: survey, questionnaire, poll and lab experiment
• Inquiry: seeks to answer tangible ‘what is’ or ‘what was’ queries: e.g. ‘how much’, ‘how many’, ‘...

Aim: to generate meaning from stories, collect data (natural language), discover patterns of meaning and behavior, and develop insights (iterative)

Methods: observational research and empathy interviews (guided, open-ended)

Output: se...

Framing is the process of defining an issue, problem, or context that influences how it’s perceived and evaluated.

Framing is important in explaining or making sense of an issue, context, or problem and is influenced by personal narratives and conceptual metaphors.

This framing effect...

• Problem diagnosis skills: To effectively solve problems, you must first learn how to diagnose, define, and frame the right problems
• Navigating complexity skills: Today’s and tomorrow’s leaders need to develop the ability to deal wit...

• A need is something that is necessary; a critical tension with a present state
• Need owners focus on the present state, since it is something that is essential or very important; wanted or required
• A need requires immediate action, since it demands satisfactio...

Thick data complements the more popular ‘big data’ (collected from large data samples), and when combined, they offer a complete view of the problem space in terms of what it is, how it occurs, and why it exists.

For organizations, big data offers quantifiable evidence from a broad sample s...

Successful projects result from effective communication, enabled by a well-articulated project brief. A brief is a document that outlines key information, a plan, and a process relating to a project. A clear brief aligns team members and stakeholders, reduces confining objectives, and enables str...

Lean Research plan: outlines the design research efforts necessary to discover the needs lurking below the surface problem. Prompts: How will you investigate the problem or user need? Where will you observe and interview your target customer/end-user in your research?

Primary research involves direct engagement with the intended end-user or research subject population. (observation, interviews, focus groups, online chat rooms, questionnaires and surveys)

Secondary research involves reviewing and analyzing information from primary research activities. (do...

1. Strategic Design: design principles and practices to guide strategy development and implementation towards innovative outcomes. 
2. Business Model Design: designing or redesigning of an organization’s or division’s business model to create value and prosper.
3. Employee Experience ...

Without an effective innovation process, there is no innovation or new and improved product or service, no market adoption, no revenue or impact. It’s also important to understand that at any given time in your teams and organizations, many will be thinking that innovation is a new ‘thing’, while...

Qualitative data can be verified through quantifiable measures, such as noting repeating patterns of similar behaviour within a context.

For example, many people choose to add broccoli to their meal for its taste as well as for its added nutrients.

And you may conclude the concert you...

Place: Find a comfortable spot that allows for observation from a distance. With a notebook in hand, write notes on how people arrive and leave. If possible, use a camera or smart phone to capture objects and specifc locations.

People: Observe with fresh ey...

Once the teams have generated a few problem statements, each member should vote on one problem statement that best refects the needs discovered from the data analysis process.

It’s recommended that teams employ the technique of dotmocracy, where each member of the team has two votes. Each m...

If you strip away the perceived complexities and barriers from over-engineered internal systems and fear of failure, innovation is fundamentally a communication process.

It concerns most people and their social systems intersecting with technological infrastructures and economic forces, to ...

People: the demographics, roles, behavioural traits, and quantity of people in the selected environment.

Objects: the items people are interacting with, including furniture, devices, machines, appliances, tools, etc.

Environments: the...

• Product/Service: changing what you do or offer (e.g. mobile phone, OXO Company - Good Grip series)
• Position/Market: changing who consumes it (e.g. new user)
• Process: changing how you do it (e.g. Lean, Six Sigma, etc.)

Design-driven innovation demands an exploratory and combinatory mindset, one that blends critical thinking with strategic thinking, and curiosity and empathy with analysis and creative synthesis. 

The design mindset generates the seeing of unarticulated needs and patterns, and that triggers...

• First stage: initiating a project based on a problem hypothesis, creating a project (design) brief, and developing a research plan to investigate the assumed problem.
• Second stage: investigating and validating the needs associated w...

Human-centered design efforts require that all participants engage explicitly in divergent and convergent thinking practice. Divergent thinking involves generating many ideas or choices. Convergent thinking involves narrowing or choosing a single idea or choice.

Divergent thinking spans cre...

Invention is the precursor to innovation. Invention is the process of exploring a hypothesis or prototyping a new idea, while innovation translates an invention into a solution that is adopted at scale.

• Problem hypothesis: summarizes a situational or contextual analysis of the proposed problem and target end-user population. 
• Stakeholder map: key individuals or groups that have a stake in, directly influence, or are impacted by the assumed problem.