Wednesday 30 October 2013

Design Thinking: Explaining Empathy (In a 4 Min. Summary)

(Cleveland Clinic - Every life deserves world class care.)


Just yesterday I was sort of asked last minute to help introduce Design Thinking to a small team at work. As I was rushing through trying to get some core points down that I could communicate in 30min-to-1Hr cram-session, I came across a YouTube video I used again and again to help explain "Empathy"

If you have less than 5 mins (it's 4:24 long) to explain to someone what Empathy is and why it's so core & fundamental to Design Thinking, I encourage you to consider this video. 

Even if I had only 30 mins to talk about Empathy  I'd put aside 5 mins to show this video. That's how powerful I think it is.


Cleveland ClinicEmpathy: The Human Connection to Patient Care 

(I originally got this video from Tim Brown of IDEO and also author of Change By Design in his blog post here.)

For me personally, I've been in more hospitals lately that I generally wanted to. After seeing this earlier, I certainly did not look at hospitals the same again.

If the Cleveland Clinic approaches their medical work like they do their videos, I believe they will change the world. They are already one of the US' top 4 hospitals. It's no wonder they have a great slogan:
"Every Life deserves world class care."
Hope that helps...

Wayne Pau

p.s. You might want to dim the lights, there may be moist eyes. This video so falls in line with David Kelley's TED Talk I mentioned in last post about the MRI machine and making it more kid-friendly.

Thursday 17 October 2013

Design Thinking: Creative Confidence

I haven't really talked about DT in a bit, so when read about David and Tom Kelley's new book "Creative Confidence: Unleashing the Creative Potential in All of Us", it really got me thinking. 

(Cover from Amazon here)

For those who have been around Design Thinking for a while, David Kelley is pretty much the 'Michael Jordan' of Design Thinking (and his brother Tom is at least his 'Scottie Pippen' or even more). Being the founder of IDEO and Stanford d.School he is at the forefront of everything DT related. However even more amazing is that his brother, Tom Kelley is also a great force at IDEO and the author of two fundamental books on Design Thinking in The Art of Innovation and The Ten Faces of Innovation

(David Kelly - from Stanford d.School website)
However if you listen to David Kelly talk, it shouldn't shock you. He talks about his dad and how he encouraged their family to actually figure out how things worked and actually fix things. He talks about how he works on projects with his daughter even now. 

I haven't read the book yet, but I assume it's likely along the lines of very powerful TED talk he gave in May 2012 on Creative Confidence:


I really encourage you if you haven't heard this powerful talk, to go head and spend the 11 minutes it takes to view it. I have a feeling that for many it will touch you. It doesn't matter if you're a developer or designer. I feel if you're teacher, you should be made to watch it!

In the talk, David talks about CEO types saying they are "Not the Creative Type". He places this as a "Fear of Judgement" many adults have developed. He tells us that with things like Design Thinking, if you "stick" to the process, you can learn to be creative. (My own Design Thinking coach Niels Billou always says "You got to be believe in system...believe in the process...") He states that after his cancer, his new mission is help people "regain their creative confidence". 

Here's an article from Harvard Business Review from David & Tom about Creative Confidence as well. It's a lot like the TED talk, but with some more concrete d.School examples (Pulse reader, Baby incubator, etc):
If you look at David Kelley 60 minutes interview, around 6:40, they talk about his childhood, where "...he learned the value of building with his hands...".  A great story is how he took apart the family piano, but neglected to put it back (because that was less fun).
While I don't want to go on the record as encouraging "failure", Niels would always tell me that over 80% of projects fail. A lot of people don't like to hear that. What if David's mom got upset that not every project of David or Tom's went right or got finished? What if David or Tom's crazy ideas were ridiculed, put down or discouraged? Design Thinking has always been about "Fail often to succeed sooner". It's *never* about never being able to or fear of failing

A great by-product of this interview is that David talks a little about his relationship with Steve Jobs and it humanized him a lot for me. What struck me is that David says that Steve tells him the important things in his life, his kids and focusing on the family. Kids. Not legacy, not devices, not apps.

That got me *thinking*. 

If we as Design Thinkers want to change the world, maybe we don't need to do it with 30 & 40 years olds, but maybe with 3 & 4 year-olds. For me, the lesson is that with my 2x daughters that I can help them best by making sure their 'Creative Confidence' is nurtured, blossoms and never questioned.

OH yeah. Here is blog from Metropolis that I believe has some excerpts from the new book and triggered this blog post in the first place!

Hope that helps...

Wayne Pau

p.s. Yes, if you watch the 60 mins video, it's the same SAP founder Hasso Plattner that helped David Kelley the d.School, to the tune of $35 million. I can also attest that yes, SAP is still very much committed to Design Thinking. Hasso also went on to found HPI School of Design Thinking back in Germany. He and SAP do walk-the-walk.

Wednesday 16 October 2013

Fun Topic: Cellphone Economics Part 3 (No Free phones...)

Sorry for lull in posting. It's been a busy few weeks...

(iPhone 5C from here)


Well I guess I was wrong about the iPhone 5c. Turns out the "c" didn't stand for cheap. At $450 it isn't really that much cheaper that it would be a zero dollar phone on 2 year a contract. (Update: confirmed. See here that it's $99 phone on 2 year from Verizon) I don't see that many new people who weren't already planning on buying a iPhone to go ahead and buy the iPhone 5c.

(Turns out the out-of-pocket difference is only $100 on 2 year contract between iPhone 5c and 5s. For my $ I would have likely upgraded to 5s.)

No "Free" Amazon Phone.

Also it seems that Amazon rumours of a FREE Android phone have been over exaggerated. From the looks of it, it will be "likely" an "at cost" phone, just the Kindle Fire, if it ever launches. If the Kindle Fire HD is around $215, how much would you pay for an Amazon phone? More or less than the 7" tablet? If you cut costs from smaller display and battery, will that offset the cellular modem costs?

My thoughts were the Kindle sold right against the Kobo and Sony reader. 7" is basically the size of a trade paperback and just smaller than a hardcover. Would you attempt to read a whole novel on your phone?
Part of me thinks that people already read *a lot* of email on your phone. Add on top of that, today on my commute I forgot my book, you *always* have your phone on you. This means your more likely to read more, even if it's in shorter bursts.

As a side note, great article on why the Kindle Paperwhite outsold the Sony Librie:

The other part of me feels that the main motivation of a cell phone is being a phone. If the Amazon phone isn't a better phone (or at least a very very good one), why would you sacrifice that to get books which you can already get via Kindle app? Building a WiFi 'tablet' I think is easier than true telephony features. Most phones today have a lot of software and hardware to make calls sound good.

Watch out for Xiaomi?

Yes, it's *that* company that lured a Google Exec away with a $58 million compensation package.
(New Xiaomi Mi3 from here)


From the reports (Xiaomi does *not* sell here in North America yet so I have never played with one) Xiaom Mi is the new 'king of cheap'. In Asian, this phone outsells the iPhone by a huge margin. I think the market in North America is huge for zero dollar phone on contract and maybe this is it.

You believe it? Here is an article showing just how fast these phones are selling:


From my Asian friends, they said they have heard nothing by positive things about it in the news & social media sits overseas.


Asus (Cheap) phones also coming soon?

With the success of Nexus 7 by ASUS, it seems they are ready to enter the phone market in North America. This is possibly via FonePad. Or maybe a totally new device. So far they have been locked out of the market, but with their engineering skills and co-innovation with Google, I see a very good chance of them being successful. If they can get out a Market-Leading 7" tablet for $250, how hard would it be for them to release a 4-5" good phone for under $300?

The bottom line is that I strongly feel like we need better cheap phones to continue driving cellular data and next wave of apps. The feature or dummy phones available today are getting long in the tooth. While they won't make a killing on margin per device, I see whoever can do this win on total sales and revenue. I think too many people are overdue for an update on a lower cost phone and the window of opportunity for major mobile device penetration in North America is now. (Implying the market for $700 and $800 upgrades of bleeding edge devices is drying up for now.)

Overseas where devices aren't usually subsidized as heavily, only the big spenders it seems can purchase devices outright at the high end of prices. Buying a new iPhone every year can add up quickly. Damage, loss or theft of a expensive new can be painful.

Lastly, not every wants or needs a Porsche. Companies like Hyundai are making a very good living selling reasonably priced cars.


So with that, are you, or someone you know looking for a new phone? Thoughts on what you might get?
Hope that helps...

Wayne Pau

p.s. While the talk now is about BYOD, there are stilll companies that give employees company standard issues phone. While a price difference one time of $50 to $100 might not seem like a lot, what if you multiply that out by 500x or more employees every few years? (FYI - that's $25K or $50K a year. Or $250K to $500K for 5000x person company.) I don't imagine that the more expensive product increases productivity that much (or if any at all).