Where Design Meets Innovation
Design and innovation are not the same thing, but they are deeply intertwined. Design is the discipline of shaping things - and experiences - to be desirable and usable. Innovation is the creation of new value that is adopted. Design supplies the desirability that turns a clever idea into something people actually want. Without design, innovation is often technically impressive and commercially dead.
Design brings
Desirability, usability, meaning, and human insight.
Innovation brings
New value, technology, business models, and adoption.
Together
Solutions that are novel, useful, and genuinely loved.
The "way of thinking" that permeates
Recall the caveat from Module 10: the full, multi-week Design Thinking method does not belong inside a tightly scheduled NPD project. But the Design Thinking way of thinking - empathy, framing, prototyping, iterating - should permeate every innovation effort. That mindset is design and innovation fused: seeing every problem through the eyes of the human who will live with the result.
In your organization, is design a strategic partner to innovation, or a cosmetic step bolted on at the end? What would change if it moved upstream?
Sources
- Verganti, R., Design-Driven Innovation, 2009.
- Brown, T. & Katz, B., Change by Design, 2009.
- Global Innovation Institute (GInI), Foundations of Innovation body of knowledge.