Developing an Innovative Product

8/8/2019 Developing an Innovative Product

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| 2008 LUMIKNOWS Developing Innovative Product: Seven Reasons to Think About th

THE SEVEN REASONS TO THINK ABOUT THE FUTURE. ONCE MORE.

DEVELOPING AN INNOVATIVE PRODUCT:

Dr Ekaterina Khramkova, LUMIKNOWS, 2008

Experience Design & DevelopmentLUMIKNOWS


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Introduction

| 2008 LUMIKNOWS

Everybody who is in the business o New Product Development knowswhat a complex process it is. This is a multidisciplinary activity requir-ing coherence between almost all the unctions o manuacturingrms.

Until recently though those who were called product designersplayed in this process a role o rather a secondary importance. Theywere brieed by marketing, engineering departments, ad agencieswith an only task: We want this look nice...

Then something went wrong. And those days are over. Today, DesignCouncil Chairman prepares reports to the UK Prime-minister on howUK businesses can stay ahead o their global rivals by drawing on thecountrys world-leading design capabilities. And at Davos, during theWorld Economic Forum held under the theme The Creative Impera-

tive, world leaders discuss how to apply design thinking to survive inthe uncertainty and complexity global economy brings.

Approach to design in Russia is still at the level o aesthetics and, atbest, ergonomics. In the meantime, design can be applied as a stra-

tegic business tool at least in the two directions. Inside the cdesign can become a strong management tool or aligning optimization - all the processes o NPD through ocusing ono all stakeholders or whom the product is developed throuing consumer-based innovation culture. Outside the compa

ers have proved to be excellent observers researching into pmet needs and, thus, discovering new niches and even new

Developing innovative product: Seven reasons to thabout the uture is searching into the ways which made drom aesthetics towards strategy and discussing how to maout o design thinking when developing really innovative neucts, - both tangible and intangible.

Only one company can be the cheapest, the others have to use design.

Rodney Fitch, Chairman Fitch & Co

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Reason #1. Fundamental Changes in the World Design Industry

The industry o design is undergoing deep transormation: rom nowon design is not only or appearance and style. Design is dramaticallychanging its role rom being simply a tactical device to becoming astrategic business tool.

How does it have to do with NPD?

Design today is playing a much more important role during the rst,probably, the most critical phase in the whole process o developingnew product. This is a stage o strategic planning when you need tounderstand what to do, what target audience will be involved, whatbrand values will be pronounced, what new value to your customerthis product will bring. It will not be an overstatement to say that it isrom this stage success and ailure o the new product depends. Ater

all, it is not by accident that this 0 phase is called the Fuzzy o Innovation...

What happens with designers today?

They expand their capabilities into new to them areas until toccupied by marketers, brand specialists and managementtants. They obtain degrees in business and anthropology, psand ethnography. And more and more they become humanspecialists.

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Reason #2. Transormation o Consumption Culture

What are the reasons or the changes in the role design playsin NPD?

Technological revolution provides customers with real power in themarket. Today, the question o the utmost importance or brands is

how to satisy people who have an almost endless choice reinorcedby instant access to global market.

Thus, the main issue o NPD has dramatically changed:

Until recently it was: What technical/organization/nancial/turing possibilities or designing new product we have (TecDriven Strategy);

Now: What else does our customer want?/How can we emp

him?/What should we design to make our new brand/produence as interesting, amazing, exciting as possible(ConsumeStrategy).

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Reason #3. Marketing Research vs. Design Research

Who meets new challenges?

Traditional marketing tools are good to shape already existed in themarket ideas, understand whether these ideas have huge market andpotential. All anything, but the larger demand or innovation, the more

problems with identiying new product opportunities marketing has.Thus, companies have huge diculties with identiying unmet cus-tomer needs since these are largely latent and not easy to ormulate bythe customers themselves.

By this, intuitive thinking, qualitative approach used by designers isvery good or imagining new possibilities. Designers proved to bethose olks who have managed to accomplish traditional marketing

research with its design research methods based on approahuman lie in all its complexity and versatility.

This was the reason the whole NPD chain turned upside dowtoday it is not marketers and so called creative agencies tell what to do, but design consultancies identiy new product o

nities, create design bries, conduct research, develop a platurther innovations and even brie ad companies on how to the new product.

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Reason #4. From 'Consumer' to 'Human' Experience

What philosophy is behind design research?

Unlike articial situations o ocus group discussions, designers preerconducting in-context observations looking at the world through theircustomers eyes, empathizing with the soul, mind and body o cus-

tomer. Philosophy o Zen Buddhism with its total immersion in reality,attention to ordinary lie and day-to-day experiences is possibly thebest way to describe how they like approaching to work.

Those who combine design thinking with interest in user research arecalled human ators specialists. They research into total human - notmerely customer - experience, investigate how people approach theworld, what nuances o interaction with the product, brand, environ-ment is o the most importance to them, what they expect rom usage.

Thats why in development divisions o many companies we can nd

such new positions as cognitive psychologists, social anthrogists, cross-cultural specialists who adapt products o globamarkets with diferent values and mentality, as well as ethnoFor example, Intel has more than twenty ethnographers amemployees. Microsot, British Telecom, AT&T, HP, IBM - these

other companies hire ethnographers who are excellent at wpeople during design research.

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Reason #5. Design Thinking - Best Tool to Tackle Tacit Knowledge

But why design??

As a real power in the market goes to the customer, and knowledgeworker accumulates critical or companies survival knowledge in his/her head, the problem o ecient dealing with tacit knowledge is be-

coming a real challenge within businesses and organizations. In otherwords, New Economy requires new way o thinking to tackle ill-de-ned tacit knowledge - call it synthetic, lateral, innovative, right-brain,divergent and, o course, design thinking.

In act, to go rom a business concept o a new product to its actualrealization, rom the world o idea to its materialization, means to be

able to combine together controversial, on the one hand antermined, on the other, demands:

1. Consumers need in the product or service;

2. Viability o new product development or business;

3. Feasibility rom the point o view o the required technolo

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Reason #6. From Product Design to Experience Design

What does all this mean or new designers?

An ability to create diverse human experiences, not just physicalshapes. Content, not simply orm. Workplaces not merely urniture.

This is a git o co-creation, o holistic approach to lie and ability to ll

it with meaning, emotions and liestyle drivers.

Today, leading design consultancies position themselves as talents increating a complete product, brand, customer experience. They re-gard this as their main competitive advantage. And it is well explained:industrial design as a creation o the product appearance has movedto the Chinese - the chances you outperorm them in terms o speed,price and even quality are near to zero.

It is quite interesting, that the word experience is one o thcult or translating into the Russian language...

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Reason #7. From the Knowledge Economy to the Creativity Economy

What does all this mean or businesses?

A new stage in the evolution and, rst o all, an urgent search or newtype o employees who are able to work with uzzy, sticky and vagueinormation - the stuf inside employees and customers heads so criti-

cal or companies survival.

Thats why we hear about The Creative Imperative and observe deepinterest o businesses in design, its methods and tools. For apply osuch unique design tools, as design iconography, prototyping, scenar-io planning, storytelling, storyboards, videos have proved themselvesas highly ecient in compressing and transerring multiple and com-plex concepts in the orm which is easy to comprehend by a variety oaudiences.

Moreover, design thinking being intrinsically synthetic type - read, leading to innovation - can be highly appropriate to ctacit knowledge o the network by:

1. Tapping tacit knowledge;

2. Processing it into tangibles;

3. Transerring it both inside and outside the company.

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Ekaterina KhramkovaCEO, Founding director, Lumiknows

MA: Design & Branding Strategy (Brunel University, UK); PhD: Cultural Anthropol-

ogy (Russian Academy o Sciences); MSc: Economic Geography (Moscow State

University named ater Lomonosov);

Member o committee on development o industrial design in the Russian Federa-

tion by the Ministry o Economic Development;

Lecturer at the British Higher School o Art and Design in Moscow on Design Re-

search, Foresight and Trends Forecasting;

Coordinator or reddot Design Concept in Russia.

In 2005, Ekaterina was awarded a Chevening scholarship rom the Foreign and Com-monwealth Oce o the British government to enable her to undertake the Masters

course in Design and Branding Strategy at Brunel University - one o the rst pro-

grams in the world designed to bring benets o design thinking to the needs o busi-

ness and society. For the rst time in Russia, this prestigious scholarship was given in

the area o New Product Development.

Questions and More Inormation

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LUMIKNOWS

Lumiknows is a Russia based

innovation consumer experience

consultancy with a subsidiary

in Asia.

With a ocus on People, Research

and Innovation, our aim is to

provide deep insights into drivers,liestyle and mindset o gaining in

sophistication Russian customers.

Lumiknows RUSSIA, Moscow -

St.-Petersburg

[email protected]

+7 495 585 7289

Dr Ekaterina Khramkova

Lumiknows ASIA, Seoul - To

[email protected]

Mrs Bora Goodspeed

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Developing an Innovative Product