Best ways to get insight - Mike Harris

When I hired him to speak to a corporate group Mike Harris (First Direct founder) said the best ways to get insight were:

• Use your own product
• Spend a day with them
• Talk to customer service staff
• 1 to 1 insight
• Prototyping
• Watch them, e.g. hang out in a branch

AG Lafley:

• What are they trying to get done with our products?
• What's working and what isn't?

Related worlds: Liquid Paper (Tippex)

Bette Nesmith was an executive secretary at the Texas Bank & Trust in Dallas in 1951. She was helping to decorate the holiday windows at the bank, and saw the artists correct their mistakes by painting over the error. Nesmith decided to try the same at work.

She soon has a cottage business supplying Mistake Out to fellow secretaries. She renamed it Liquid Paper, applied for a patent, and when IBM wasn't interested plowed ahead alone. Within a decade she sold out to Gillette for nearly $50m + royalties.

Source: The Art of Innovation book, Tom Kelley, p244

Noble failures at Charles Schwab

Charles Schwab have a history of "noble failures".

It took numerous tech-based failures before they hit on a successful online service, e-Schwab.

For more info see: The Art of Innovation book, Tom Kelley, p232

"Fail often to succeed sooner"

An IDEO saying.

Source: The Art of Innovation book, Tom Kelley, p232

Pike Place Fish Market

At Pike Place Fish Market in Seattle they turn buying fish into an experience by having the fishmongers shout at each other as you place your order.

Source: The Art of Innovation book, Tom Kelley, p208

Coinstar

Coinstar started with 5 working machines that IDEO created and put in Safeway stores around the Bay area. To most peoples' surprise they worked, even though people had to first see them and then come back in again with their coins.

Marketing people had to stand by the machines and ask people "Have you seen our new Coinstar machine?"

Source: The Art of Innovation book, Tom Kelley, p191

Answering Machines and Social Norms

"Social norms are notoriously difficult to predict and at times even tougher to change. There was a time when answering machines were considered rude. Then, in the space of a few years, it suddenly became rude if you didn't have one."

Source: The Art of Innovation book, Tom Kelley, p175

Check your assumptions: Palm Pilot writing

Many pen-based computers failed, because they assume you had to have 100% hand-writing recognition. The Palm Pilot challenged that assumption, proving that it was better at that time to get people to learn a slightly new script.

Source: adapted in my words, from The Art of Innovation book, Tom Kelley, p174

Accidental innovation: Kevlar

DuPont originally developed Kevlar to replace the steel wires in radial tyres. But it was the aircraft industry that first responded, using it to save weight. Then other applications were found in bullet-proof vests etc.

Source: The Art of Innovation book, Tom Kelley, p153

Accidental innovation: Kleenex

"Kleenex was intended to be little more than a niche product, essentially a disposable cold cream remover. Only when the public started wiping their noises with the paper hankies did Kimberly-Clark Corporations see the potential and begin to totally re-position its product".

Source: The Art of Innovation book, Tom Kelley, p153

Accidental innovation: Saccharin

"Saccharin was discovered in 1879 when a research fellow at John Hopkins University found his bread extra sweet one night and figured that something in the lab must have followed him home. Incredibly, he set about to tasting nearly everything in his lab - and lived to find o-benzoic sulfimide".

Source: The Art of Innovation book, Tom Kelley, p150

Accidental innovation: P&G Ivory soap

P&G's hugely successful Ivory soap was created by accident. A worker went to lunch and accidentally left a  mixing machine running with a batch of soap inside. When he came back, the mix had been whipped to a froth, with soap so light it floated. By chance, the new floating Ivory proved to be both convenient and popular.

Source: The Art of Innovation book, Tom Kelley, p150

Accidental innovation: Aerobie American football

IDEO's Skyline toy division built a prototype for an American football that had built in tee-wings so you can kick it off the ground more easily. It turned out that these curved wings also straightened out wobbly throws in perfect curves. "And so the Aerobie football was born, one of Skyline's most successful toys."

Source: The Art of Innovation book, Tom Kelley, p110

Logitech's Accidental Red Steering Wheel

"When designing a new video game controller for Logitech, we sent drawings to IDEO's machine shop to have them knock out a prototype steering wheel to be made of rigid ABS plastic with a black rubber coating. But the shop was completely out of black rubber, which ... seemed like a potential disaster. So they molded the steering wheel out of red rubber, the only kind they could lay their hands on in the time. By chance, the client loved the brightly colored wheel ... inspiring the game maker to introduce a line of fire-engine red steering wheels."

Source: The Art of Innovation book, Tom Kelley, p110

Prototyping snowboard goggles in an ice cream freezer

An IDEO team needed to perfect the design for snowboard goggles in summer. So they borrowed an exercise bike, a fan for wind, and borrowed the freezer of a local family-run ice cream company.

Source: The Art of Innovation book, Tom Kelley, p103

Brainstorm Tip - Number The Ideas

Numbering each idea helps keep people motivated. "Let's try to get to a hundred ideas before we leave the room."

Source: The Art of Innovation book, Tom Kelley, p58

Johari Window Exercise

Excellent exercise Dina Pinner ran at Limmud. 2007?

• Whole exercise in same pairs
• Tell each other known unknowns. 30 secs each way. 
• Debrief: Did you interrupt? Why did you giggle? 
• Share things about you it would be helpful for them to know about to be a good partner in the exercise (40s each)
• Look at each others' shoes and tell me objective facts about them. Demo then 20s each.
• Congratulate/be nice about each others' shoes. Demo then 30s each.
• Help them in their choice of shoes. 1 min each way.

Facilitation tips:

• Open session talking a bit about yourself "I am judgemental; I am tired". Sets safe space. 
• Answer questions by referring back to self, e.g. I find this helpful.
• Push for ownership of emotions (from "You feel frustrated..." push for "I feel frustrated...").

Best Buy's Twelpforce

Best Buy employees are empowered to answer consumer queries on Twitter directly. They call this their Twelpforce, and have backed it up with a national advertising campaign.

The system seems to be powered by Lithium:
https://www.lithium.com/pdfs/casestudies/Lithium-Best-Buy-Case-Study.pdf

Shopping Journey Stages

• Browse
• Select
• Commit
• Purchase