8: Proposing a Vision
Many firms conduct extensive research and ideation efforts that go nowhere because they fail to arrive at a vision - a desired future state that is more than a wish, but something that can actually be achieved. It is impossible to innovate and release a breakthrough product without having a clear sense of the desired outcome. He admits that there is not a clear-cult process for doing this, and instead will present a few case studies that describe their practices.
Case Study: Alessi
The first case study is of a kitchenware producer, specially focusing on "Kettle 9093", a fairly standard teapot except that the whistle was shaped like a bird. In spite of being monstrously expensive, the kettle sold more than 1.5 million units. (EN: the item is still sold at a price of around $200, whereas the standard utilitarian model costs around $20)
The teakettle is a largely unremarkable and utilitarian product with a basic function: to boil water, and to alert the cook that the water is boiling. Alessi focused on the problem of the signal, a loud and unpleasant steam-whistle, and decided that the breakfast experience would be more pleasant overall if the whistle were less abrasive - and as a visual indication of this, the whistle was shaped as a small plastic bird.
It's often assumed that the bird-whistle was a spark of creativity, something that popped into a designer's head while he was in the shower - but instead it was one of the products of a research project that had done on for over a decade that took a broader look at the experience of consuming coffee and tea in the home to identify areas of improvement - some of which had to do with the technical performance of existing appliances, but others of which were less technical and more experiential. Neither was Kettle 9093 a singular incident - there were several different experiments to make the kettle whistle less abrasive, such as model 9091, which made a low harmonic whistle like the sound of a distant ship.
It's also mentioned that Alessi engaged the art community, sharing their research, their prototypes, and their collection of historical devices with the Smithsonian, San Francisco MOMA, and other institutions to create a buzz in the community, sharing information about the design process through industry journals and even a book about appliance design, creating limited-edition releases of their designs that sold to influential collectors, and introducing their product slowly through high-end department stores.
Case Study: Artemide
Verganti returns to his perennial example, Artemide and the Metamorfosi lamp that brings the practices of theatrical lighting to the home. From the beginning, the firm dismissed the qualities on which its competitors focused - the quality of lighting and the design of the appliance itself - and instead considered the emotional reaction that people have to shades and intensities of light.
The firm originally sponsored academic research into the biological, psychological, and cultural dimensions of light. Because the study was broad, they were able to engage a wide range of academic domains: design, medicine, psychology, optics, architecture, and the like. While the company was specialized in residential lighting solutions and had the sense this knowledge would be valuable in a general sense, it was not undertaken with a specific product in mind. It wanted to know what kinds of light made people "feel better" and would consider products afterward, once the research had provided a direction.
As with Alessi, the firm went through a number of different designs before arriving at the ultimate one. And it likewise undertook a significant guerrilla campaign to popularize the idea with the art and interior design communities before attempting to introduce the product in order to pave the way.
Case Study: Barilla
Barilla, currently the leading manufacturer of past products, undertook a similar process of open exploration. Rather than focus on cost and manufacturing efficiency, the firm considered the practices of cooking in the home, particularly the challenge of convenience. The key findings of their early studies indicated that time was of the essence, as the traditional family had changed to the effect that there was no full-time housekeeper and people had little time to buy and cook foods - but at the same time still wanted the social experience and the rewards of cooking in the home. Rather than focusing on one of these areas, the firm kept its options open, assigning teams to explore various aspects of food preparation and consumption.
As a large company, Barilla used a more structured process than the previous examples, using "design direction workshops" to generate innovative ideas.
The first step in their process was aggregating information. In many instances, innovators are subject-matter experts who have been conducting research on their own for years before they are formally assigned to an effort. This activity could take months or years as it is open research and information gathering prior to having a specific direction.
The second step is in communicating this information and interpreting it to develop proposals, then seeking connections between the proposals. The author is vague about that, suggesting that "a form may identify several dimensions through which to organize participants' insights." This is fairly straightforward when ideas involve changing the functionality of a product or making its manufacturing and distribution more efficient, but more difficult to detect when the framework of meanings align or overlap.
From here, there is a process by which the firm selects which ideas to pursue. They generally consider profitability, longevity, market growth, alignment with the brand, and similar factors.
The final activity of the workshop "entails giving form to a new meaning and language," by which the author seems to mean communicating the idea internally and externally.
Maintaining Focus During Development
While design-driven research can create an innovative vision, the vision must then be passed on for implementation by the product development processes, which remain regimental and are often geared to dilute innovation in favor of the status quo. The business apparatus to manufacture, market, distribute, and sell products are all geared to be highly efficient with existing product lines, and are reluctant to change from patterns they consider to be successful. Many good ideas are botched when they are delivered to the existing machinery.
He suggests that design-intensive companies are "masters or remaining faithful to the vision." They recognize the value of an innovative idea and are steadfast in refusing it to be compromised during the product development process. They do not yield because there will be extra expense or inefficiency of business processes - though they must be mindful that the new product must be feasible and sustainable.
Start-up companies are also faithful to the vision because they are new firms and have no established organization or procedures for product development. The corporate machinery is assembled with the new product in mind - sometimes quite literally: since the firm is new, they need to build a factory to produce their goods and do not have to attempt to deliver a new good using a factory that was built to produce the old line. The sales staff push the new product because they have no old customer favorite they feel is more profitable.
Established and traditional firms would do well to heed these examples, as remaining devoted to the facilities, organization, and processes of the past may well poison their efforts to deliver innovative ideas successfully.