A Design Mindset of a design thinker

SOURCE: BusinessWeek
September 3, 2008, 10:39AM EST

POD CAST with Robert Brunner – Director of Industrial Design for APPLE and co-author of a new book that looks at the way great design can make people love a brand, discusses how companies such as Apple, BMW, and Target use design to establish lasting and lucrative relationships with customers.

"Their theory is simple: Successful executives should treat design as more than a finishing discipline that simply improves products' aesthetics. Instead, design should influence every aspect of customers' experiences." I had the time n pleasure to listen to the PodCast and note down some important things that he pointed out during the interview.
Here's what Robert Brunner has to say about "a design mindset of a design thinker"

Source: BusinessWeek Innovation of the Week
PodCast Source: Design That Matters - with Robert Brunner

A design mindset of a design thinker (not necessarily be a designer…) –

The idea of having a design mindset is you start with the experience you want to achieve or u believe u should achieve or you believe your company is all about .. and you work from that…… Other companies kinda do what they have to do and they get to the end and they have this experience and then they try to modify n tweak it and package it in a way that’s more accountable. The really great design companies n design thinkers start with that core thinking and the core ideas of the experience you want to create for people… that will really set the boundary conditions of the products that u develop. When you develop a product there are all kinds of things that go into it. Many are financially driven.. operationally driven… investment-driven… those are all important indeed…of course u gotta end up with something that meets the financial criteria… investment criteria or logistics criteria.. operational criteria or what u have as a company… but if people don’t connect with it and they don’t want it…. All those stuffs don’t matter…cause you’ll have something that you can’t sell. So what the really great people inherently understand is that … we are after an experience here.. and we are gonna work the system and mold the system to get the experience.. not we are gonna use our system and see what’s comes out and do our best. That’s the really core idea around a design thinking.

Design drives innovation, innovation powers brand, brand builds loyalty, and loyalty sustains profits

Source: BusinessWeek

I just have to include this short excerpt , merely for the fun of it...

A former editor of Windows magazine, Mike Elgan, illustrated the difference between ordinary brands and charismatic brands in two succinct sentences: "Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is famous for a crazy video in which he yells, "I—love—this—company!" In the case of Apple , it's the customers who shout that."

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In the previous century, a little brand loyalty went a long way. Often, what passed for loyalty was merely ignorance. If customers didn't know what their options were, they would stick with the devil they knew..

A company can't will itself to be agile. Agility is an emergent property that appears when an organization has the right mindset, the right skills, and the ability to multiply those skills through collaboration. To count agility as a core competence, you have to embed it into the culture. You have to encourage an enterprisewide appetite for radical ideas. You have to keep the company in a constant state of inventiveness. It's one thing to inject a company with inventiveness. It's another thing to build a company on inventiveness.

For businesses to bottle the kind of experiences that rivet minds and run away with hearts, not just one time but over and over, they'll need to do more than hire designers. They'll need to be designers. They'll need to think like designers, feel like designers, work like designers. The narrow-gauge mindset of the past is insufficient for today's wicked problems. We can no longer play the music as written. Instead, we have to invent a whole new scale.

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Visual Thinking

Source: Slideshare.com

Visual Thinking

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: information thinking)

Yves Behar

It must have been a great feeling to be able to use our talent, ability, and passion for a mission of social responsibility. During his 15 mins talk on TED, I couldn't help to notice a few points that he mentioned which I think are a great reminder for all. His messages are probably familiar to you, but once in a while, we need a nudge or two just so we won't go astray in this selfish world.

Among his witty and brilliant creations, his XO $100 laptop per child (or in short his OLPC project) is what intrigues me the most. The XO laptop will reach each child in developing countries, who live in some of the most remote areas.... and resulting in, as the XO slogan says it, "One learning child. One connected child. One laptop at a time."

“As designers, we need to really think about how we can create a different relationship between our work and the world… whether for biz etc."

"Values can be about environmental issues…. sustainability…. low power consumption….function and beauty…. business strategy."

"Keep in mind the values of the work that we do.. and in so doing, we can change the work that we do, the companies we work with, and thus together maybe we can change the world."

-Yves Behar-

Design like you give a DAMN

This is what you get... when you step out of your comfort zone... when you decide to be different.... to think outside the box.
I've just come to know about these brilliantly creative dudes a few mths back. Total strangers whom I haven't met... (but will be a great honor when that day comes)..... yet they have taught me great things during those 15 mins talk on TED, which I have repeatedly watched over the past weeks. I have so much respect and admiration for both of them..... for their creative endeavors, for being funny, for being just the way they are!!
Yves Behar
Stefan Sagmeister

SALUTE!!

Nevermind the status quo!

"Be different … never mind the status quo."

“Trying to look good limits my life” –Stefan Sagmeister-

“Having guts always works out for me” –Stefan Sagmeister-

"Design like you give a damn!!"

Im sure you all have heard all of that. Whether you heard it from the great master thinkers and doers out there….. or probably you’ve said it to yourself (even if it’s not spoken out loud), I’m sure it has become a boost for us to step out of our comfort zone, or simply put, to think outside the box.

I truly believe that in order for you to make a difference in the world.. or perhaps in your own community, you have to start from within and reach out as you go. You need to create a statement within yourself first before other people can hear you.

We are all created in the image and likeness of God. Thus as God’s creations, we were created to make manifest the glory of God that’s within all of us. Mediocrity does not serve the world. Hence, sticking to the status quo will only make us look like everyday objects. By changing standards, we unconsciously set a positive example in serving the world, inspiring others to do the same.

Be like a Picasso.. a Warhol… portray your own world, make a statement, or start a legacy if you will. Take Phillippe Starck for example. He’s known to have made bold statements in his rethinking and reworkings of everyday objects… thus carrying uniqueness that only a Starck can create.
Even Victoria Beckham admitted to want to be ‘as famous as PERSIL Automatic’. If she can raise her yardstick to such heights… why can’t we?

We are powerful beyond measure in our own different ways.

How do you see yourself?

With that… I’ll leave you with Nelson Mandela’s inauguration speech:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves: Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?

Who are you not to be?

Your playing small does not serve the world.

There is nothing enlightened about shrinking, so that others won’t feel insecure around you.

We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.

It’s not just in some of us: it’s in everyone.

And, as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

-written and saved on Oct 28-

How far will you take your creative spark?

The creative spark within us may ignite from any possible point there is, any time, thru any means.
It may just ignite when we are in the verge of sleep... from a random word said by a total stranger ... from the experience of others... out of thin air....or even when spending an ample amount of time in the bathroom, browsing thru those glossy PEOPLE magazine pages (personal experience n i bet others will agree on that with me as well!) :)
All that we see and touch, all those creative wonders.......started off with a single thought. If anyone can develop such thoughts, then we all are powerful beyond measure to make manifest such grandness in our lives.

We are a creative being in our own rights. It just depends on how far that single thought will take you, or rather, how far ahead and beyond you will take that thought with you.

Regardless of where it all started .... I hope that we, creative beings, will go so far to meet a universal purpose... that is to create a better living for mankind ...
It's already a selfish world out there... let's not make it any more harder for the world to change for the better.... shall we?

This will lead to my next topic of interest .... DESIGN LIKE YOU GIVE A DAMN!!!
Inspired thru watching the TED Talks!! :) Lovve TED!!