Let’s be honest, there’s more than shiny happy people: criticism on the movie has been fierce, but also truthful and constructive. Here are some of the comments we received from people around the globe, that we learned the most from:
But, all in all, I learned a great deal from this project and the people we interviewed. Here are my key insights per interview:
The days of push marketing are over, companies have to learn to identify their space in value networks. Transitions are not disruptions of your core business; they are your core business.
If you want to innovate, it’s vital that you find the right stage in the organization to play on. Designers build bridges between abstract and concrete, internal and external, idea and execution, research and development, etc. It’s not business and design, that are opposing entities, it’s more ‘are you in the business of creating new things or optimizing existing things?’
People are building new businesses based on business models from the past. But if you want to innovate, you have to include new business models, and you have to involve designers. Designers have the right mindset to fail and learn, so you don’t fail big. And they have the tools and methods to help businesses create growth.
The debate on design thinking focuses very much on the creativity part. But design brings much more to the table than just creativity. It’s not about ‘thinking out of the box’ in a workshop or two. Design thinking is more complex and more interesting than that.
Designers have the ability to analyze and synthesize. This is a very valuable skill. But it’s not about taking the design route OR the business route; design is part of business, it supports business objectives. What designers contribute is both thinking and doing.
Designers have to stop moaning about being misunderstood and instead add value to business. Everyone understands value. Where business thinking has the ability to make sense of the past through measurements, designers have the ability to make sense of the future through empathy and insight.
Claro Partners and Maria Bezaitis from Intel
A lot of services revolve around the understanding that there’s a shift from ownership to access to an experience. It’s important to combine business understanding and business model innovation with social insights and understanding. Clients are not buying design thinking from you, or research as such. They are buying outcomes and solutions. You can only get there through creativity and interpretation of data.
Damian Kernhan and Amanda O’Donell from Virgin Mobile
Making the complex simple is Damian’s core business. Differentiation requires a service design approach, leading to experience innovation that does impact the bottom line. Emotion is crucial to getting people on board to design the new business. The business approach and the design approach go hand in hand to deliver magic.
There’s a shift from return of investment in a financial way to return on investment in terms of loyalty.
Arne van Oosterom and Ton Borsboom from Philips
Design thinking is not a method; it’s about finding the right method for the purpose and asking the right questions. Here’s more info on designers DNA which we co-founded: www.designersDNA.com. Product-focused companies are starting to embrace service design because products are becoming interconnected and become surrounded by a service ecosystem. But it’s an emerging competence that needs to be learned. Designers serve as connectors between businesses and departments.
Design is a very human activity that helps organizations become more people-centered. You can’t solve new problems with old solutions. Design is about finding new solutions. Design thinkers are comfortable with postponing the moment of pinning down the problem, to explore different ways of framing the problem to find newer and better solutions. It’s about balancing analytical approaches to problem solving with more design-led approaches.
I’m very excited about this project and all that’s to come. Keep discussing, keep reflecting, and keep doing! And please don’t spare us your criticism! Or your thumbs up 😉
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