I don't often write about books I'm reading, which is surprising since I'm an avid reader and a lifelong learner. Actually, I'm finding that my love of books (the real physical kind as well as the Kindle/iPad
kind) is not shared by a lot of people any more. Each semester I post my favorite business books for students, and when I ask if they have read any of the books, only a couple hands go up. A sign of the times, I suppose, and a reflection of the reality that today people want information in sound bytes. Their loss...
One of the things I like most about a great non-fiction book is that it challenges me to look at what I know (or what I think I know) from a completely different perspective; and that's exactly what Jeanne Liedtka and Tim Ogilvie did in their new book, Designing for Growth: A Design Thinking Tool Kit for Managers. Using real examples, graphics, and guides, Designing for Growth puts the reader into the mind of the designer and then provides a plan and a tool kit to help readers practice some of the techniques that designers use to gain empathy with the customer so they can design products and services that have meaning and meet real needs.
One of the key arguments they make in the book is that we need to go beyond just making "cool" products. In other words, the cool factor is quickly losing its appeal. As evidence they point to the "too cute by half" products designed by Freddie Yauner, a graduate of London's Royal College of Art. Go to his site and you'll find, for example, the Moaster, a toaster that can send a piece of toast up to 5 meters in the air. A little more interesting than the pet rock, but you get the point. Design has to be about more than doing something just because you can.
The book itself is designed around four questions and ten tools that serve as the basis for problem solving. The four questions are
What is? This stage of design is about looking at the current reality to identify problems.
What if? This stage incorporates scenarios about the future. What if we could...
What wows? Here's where we make some choices about what will really grab the customer.
What works? This stage takes us into the marketplace to get the solution into the hands of the customer for feedback.
I found the book to be a great read with lots of practical advice and techniques that can be applied to the design of pretty much anything. For entrepreneurs, starting a business is really all about design and right-brained thinking rather than the more left-brained analytical thinking that has dominated business schools for decades. I knew it intuitively all these years, but when I read Liedtka and Ogilvie's book, I was convinced. You might also want to check out their design site to see some great videos on topics from the book.
