1. Design Thinking & Innovation With a Focus on Apple
Christopher Staton

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

3. 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)
: Series of product flops
: Attempts at reinvention (IBM and Motorola help with new OS platform)

4. 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
: iPod Nano, Shuffle & Touch
2003: iTunes (market leader for online music)

5. History
: 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

6. 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

7. 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)

8. 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?

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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….

15. 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

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

17. 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

18. 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

19. 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?

20. 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

21. Works Cited http://www.girvin.com/blog/?p=5202