Peter Merholz has written “Why Design Thinking won’t save you” in October 9, 2009. He starts by complaining about all the articles about Design Thinking written these past months. For him, these articles are limited. They say that Design Thinking is a solution for businesses that need help concerning innovation. They say that it’s not the MBA-trained business men that could solve problems anymore or add value, but the ones who are “creatives”.
Now, Peter Merholz won’t even try to deny that. He will just say that that kind of dismissal is ludicrous. Design Thinking, although often a good solution, is not sufficient alone. It’s when it is mixed with business thinking that the value is added.
But then again, the author of the article does not limit himself with terms such as “Design Thinking” and “Business Thinking”. He graduated in anthropology and tells us that a big part of “Design Thinking” is “Social science Thinking”. He criticizes the design thinkers when they talk about being “human-centered” and “emphatic”. Actually, that’s exactly how Tim Brown talks about “Design Thinking” applied to governments (see my previous assignment). The design thinker has no agenda and that’s why his solution is often the more innovative and the more appropriate.
The truth is, says Peter Merholz, that it is not until very recently that the design schools teach about customer research.
He continues by talking about journalism and how, in his experience, information gathering and concise reports are keys to a company success. “Journalism Thinking” could definitely benefit to businesses.
He goes further again by evocating “Library Thinking”, “History Thinking” and “Arts Thinking”. After all, the core to “Design Thinking” is “think differently”. Librarian, historian and artists are always bringing up different perspectives. Could these disciplines not benefit businesses as well?
Peter Merholz concludes saying that the dichotomy between “Business Thinking” and “Design Thinking” is absurd. The important point, and I agree completely with him, is we must bring as many viewpoints and perspectives as possible in order to respond to whatever challenges we have in front of us.
Peter Merholz does not criticize “Design Thinking” per se, but the whole enthusiasm behind it. Although it is a nice way to create new opportunities, it is not the only one and certainly not an exclusive. “Design Thinking” is not the answer to our problem. We simply have to broad our perspectives and this “business model” is a part of the way. “Design Thinking” is not the solution but a part of it.
http://blogs.hbr.org/merholz/2009/10/why-design-thinking-wont-save.html
samedi 6 février 2010
samedi 30 janvier 2010
vendredi 29 janvier 2010
Manufacturer
Also known as "Direct Model", the manufacturer business model is a way for a company that creates a product or a service to reach its customers directly.
Every major company such as Sony, Samsung, Nike... has its own website that propose its products for direct selling. The product is often less expensive with this way.
http://www.sony.fr/section/accueil
Every major company such as Sony, Samsung, Nike... has its own website that propose its products for direct selling. The product is often less expensive with this way.
http://www.sony.fr/section/accueil
Weekly assignment : 31st of January
“Want to improve democracy? Try Design Thinking” is written by Linda Tischler, a journalist from Fast Company, and talks about how Design Thinking could help to resolve other matters than the ones linked to businesses.
The author begins with the elections of 2000, 9/11, and complains about the state of the current debates about important issues, such as the health system, financial regulation, climate change… Basically, she says that every political figures talk about these problems and do nothing else. She wonders if Design Thinking could have been used for better situations. To answer her question, she interviews Tim Brown, author of “Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation”.
Tim Brown simply says that Design Thinking enters in the debate with no agenda. It can bring experiences to life more quickly to see what works and what doesn’t. It could bring innovation to governments which could help to create a better life.
Linda Tischler and Tim Brown talk about bringing Design Thinking to one of the most rigid “business” in the world: governments. As the journalist says, it implies a willingness to think differently and that is the whole point of this article. If you want to innovate, you have to broad your horizons.
We can’t really apply this article to a business because every business has competitors to think about and consumers. They have to think differently, to be innovative. To them, Design Thinking is not a foreign process. But why not governments? They have competitors too – the other guy that wants to be elected – and consumers – the voters. They are stuck in their debates and there is no progress. Design Thinking could be a good solution.
http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/linda-tischler/design-times/can-design-thinking-improve-democracy
The author begins with the elections of 2000, 9/11, and complains about the state of the current debates about important issues, such as the health system, financial regulation, climate change… Basically, she says that every political figures talk about these problems and do nothing else. She wonders if Design Thinking could have been used for better situations. To answer her question, she interviews Tim Brown, author of “Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation”.
Tim Brown simply says that Design Thinking enters in the debate with no agenda. It can bring experiences to life more quickly to see what works and what doesn’t. It could bring innovation to governments which could help to create a better life.
Linda Tischler and Tim Brown talk about bringing Design Thinking to one of the most rigid “business” in the world: governments. As the journalist says, it implies a willingness to think differently and that is the whole point of this article. If you want to innovate, you have to broad your horizons.
We can’t really apply this article to a business because every business has competitors to think about and consumers. They have to think differently, to be innovative. To them, Design Thinking is not a foreign process. But why not governments? They have competitors too – the other guy that wants to be elected – and consumers – the voters. They are stuck in their debates and there is no progress. Design Thinking could be a good solution.
http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/linda-tischler/design-times/can-design-thinking-improve-democracy
lundi 18 janvier 2010
Brokerage
Brokers are market makers: they bring buyers and sellers together and faciliate transactions.
Monsieurprix uses this kind of business model (as a pure one).
http://www.monsieurprix.com/
The website proposes many products at many different prices. With the use of a filter, the customer can choose what he prefers. With a link system, monsieurprix redirect the customers to the seller's website. The seller must pay a fee to monsieurprix in order to be catalogued on it.
Monsieurprix uses this kind of business model (as a pure one).
http://www.monsieurprix.com/
The website proposes many products at many different prices. With the use of a filter, the customer can choose what he prefers. With a link system, monsieurprix redirect the customers to the seller's website. The seller must pay a fee to monsieurprix in order to be catalogued on it.
Weekly assignment : 24th of January
The title of the article I read is “What is Design Thinking anyway?” It explains that the Design Thinking concept had appeared and evolved during the last decade, and uses Tim Brown of IDEO definition: “[Design Thinking] a discipline that uses the designer’s sensibility and methods to match people’s needs with what is technologically feasible and what a viable business strategy can convert into customer value and market opportunity.”
Basically, Design Thinking applies the most basic designer’s tool to business: the abductive reasoning. Where the deductive logic reasons from the general to the specific and the inductive logic reasons from the specific to the general, abductive reasoning doesn’t look for data to find new ideas. It wonders first, challenges what’s existing or accepted explanations and creates. It is the logic of what might be.
However, the author warns us about this kind of reasoning. We must not use only abductive “logic”, risking to lose sight of what is possible and useful (in a business), but find a balance between all these forms of reasoning. Only then, a business might find the competitive edge.
If we take InnoCentive as an example, we can see how the creators of the website have thought "out of the box". Yes, they use the crowd sourcing system and it has been done before. But never at such a scale.
Whereas, crowd sourcing has been used in certain areas, for certain circumstances, InnoCentive uses it for a very large selection of themes. Any business can uses it and any "crowd" as well. They took an accepted practise and challenged it.
http://observatory.designobserver.com/entry.html?entry=11097
Basically, Design Thinking applies the most basic designer’s tool to business: the abductive reasoning. Where the deductive logic reasons from the general to the specific and the inductive logic reasons from the specific to the general, abductive reasoning doesn’t look for data to find new ideas. It wonders first, challenges what’s existing or accepted explanations and creates. It is the logic of what might be.
However, the author warns us about this kind of reasoning. We must not use only abductive “logic”, risking to lose sight of what is possible and useful (in a business), but find a balance between all these forms of reasoning. Only then, a business might find the competitive edge.
If we take InnoCentive as an example, we can see how the creators of the website have thought "out of the box". Yes, they use the crowd sourcing system and it has been done before. But never at such a scale.
Whereas, crowd sourcing has been used in certain areas, for certain circumstances, InnoCentive uses it for a very large selection of themes. Any business can uses it and any "crowd" as well. They took an accepted practise and challenged it.
http://observatory.designobserver.com/entry.html?entry=11097
jeudi 14 janvier 2010
Inscription à :
Articles (Atom)