Design Thinking & Innovation With a Focus on Apple Christopher Staton

Outline & Major Issues History Design Thinking Competitive Advantage Products as Platforms Open vs. Closed Loop Prototyping, Testing, Refinement Examples Discussion and Multiple Choice Question

History 1976: Introduction of Apple I 1980: Apple III and IPO 1983: Apple Lisa 1984: Macintosh and Ridley Scott directed Super Bowl commercial 1985: Jobs ousted (starts NeXT) 1986-1993: Series of product flops 1994-1997: Attempts at reinvention (IBM and Motorola help with new OS platform)

History 1997: Jobs reinstated as CEO after NeXT is bought 1998: iMac, iMovie, Final Cut Pro (the iLife suite would be completed in 2002 with the introduction of iPhoto) 2001: iPod, Retail stores 2001-2007: iPod Nano, Shuffle & Touch 2003: iTunes (market leader for online music)

History 2005-2007: Intel chips used in Mac Pro and MacBook Pro, while Power Mac, iBook and Powerbook were retired 2007: iPhone, Apple TV, removed “Computer” from corporate name 2010: iPad

Design Thinking Definition: Innovation powered through understanding and the direct observation of what people need and desire, like or dislike Apple Business Opportunity: the computers used for automating business processes could also become a wide-spread personal device

Design Thinking Design includes packaging and cords Apple sells presents within presents Design is not static Continued, motivated innovation (colors & materials) Tool for imagining experiences and giving them a desirable form As our basic needs are met, we expect increasingly sophisticated experiences Usability Tests Mouse, arrows, copy/paste (consumer feedback)

Design Thinking Apple Business Problem: users would need to be engaged in computers to benefit from them Business Solutions: We need to make people love our products so they will spend enough time to learn how to use them Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication Apple products noteworthy for what they don’t contain Design with the user in mind! Who is using our product and what are they trying to accomplish?

Design Thinking Approaches Human centered: direct observation Try early & often: rapid experimentation and prototyping Seek outside help: co-create w/ customers Blend projects: short-term incremental vs. revolutionary Budget to pace of innovation: ideas happen quickly, route to market is long Find talent: hire from interdisciplinary programs Design for the cycle: inspiration  ideation  implementation

Characteristics of Design Thinkers Empathy: imagine world from multiple perspectives Integrative thinking: rely on analytical processes and see all aspects Optimism: at least one potential solution is better than existing alternatives Experimentalism: disruptive innovation vs. incremental Collaboration: increasing complexity of products displaces the myth of the lone genius

Apple’s Competitive Advantage Creating a simple, easy-to-adopt solution that is not easy to duplicate Everything that is easy has already been done Progress through elimination of clutter Painstaking thought goes into simplicity Find the key underlying principle of the problem Innovation leads to differentiation and competitive advantage

Products as Platforms First product is designed on architecture that will accommodate development and production of the derivative products envisioned Benefit to companies Time and resources for design effort on initial product leveraged for future products Quicker ramp-up, greater reliability, lower cost (reuse of processes) Benefit to customers Less repair, maintenance and service; low learning curve  easy transition through multiple products

Open vs. Closed Loop Management Decision: Closed Loop Apple owns entire system Hardware, software, OS  seamless integration In a world that celebrates collaboration, open platforms, third party developers, community and transparency, Apple is an outlier iPhone now has designer platform and a host of dedicated apps

Prototyping, Testing, Refinement Apple’s Previous Business Process Marketing, engineering, user experience requirement documents reviewed by executive committee Design group gets budget and team leader Proposal submitted regarding how team will meet needs Estimate figures for release date, ad cycle, pricing details, etc. Apple’s Current Business Process If you have an idea, speak up! Then….

Prototyping, Testing, Refinement Prototype Rapid, look, feel, interaction Test Over and over and over Refine Incremental improvements over time Prototype vs. final product might look like a revolutionary step

Prototyping, Testing, Refinement Inspiration Expect success Ideation Brainstorming Implementation Execute vision

Examples Bank of America: Keep the Change Round up debit purchases to nearest dollar Mimics behavior, saves time, painless, invisible Gratifying monthly statements showing savings accumulation Kaiser: I left my shift on time! Brainstorming and prototyping w/ cross-functional team Software used to record and recall patient notes quickly During shift changes, nurses passed on patient info to new nurses in front of patient Human-centered approach: better care for patients, while nurses left hospital by end of shift

Examples Apple: We are a team Edison: Platforms and Research Changed distribution and factory processes to accommodate manufacturers, saving time and money  in return they continually asked manufacturers what they could do for Apple Edison: Platforms and Research Light bulb could not become widespread without an electric power generation and transmission system, so he invented that too R&D lab broke mold of lone genius and allowed Edison to match needs with technologically feasible projects Viable business strategy could convert into customer value and market opportunity

Discussion Since Apple says it does not conduct market research, how have they been able to release so many successful products over the last decade? When Jobs returned to Apple in the mid-1990s he pared 15 product lines down to three. Why would he do this?

Multiple Choice Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of a design thinker? A. Empathy B. Integrative Thinking C. Optimism D. Collaboration E. None of the above

Works Cited http://www.girvin.com/blog/?p=5202 http://hattonconcepts.com/media/papers/leadership/design%20thinking%20at%20Apple.pdf http://www.unusualleading.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/HBR-on-Design-Thinking.pdf