The Art of Innovation: Lessons in Creativity from IDEO, America

1
Project Innovation An Example from IDEO Karl A.
Smith Purdue University/ University of
Minnesota ksmith_at_umn.edu Brigham Young
University College of Engineering
Workshop January 2007
2
The Innovation JourneyVandeVen, Polley, Garud
Venkataraman, 1999.
The innovation journey is a nonlinear cycle of
divergent and convergent activities that may
repeat over time and at different organizational
levels if resources are obtained to renew the
cycle, p. 16.
3
IDEO Deep Dive Video

• ABC News Nightline - 7/13/99Available FromABC
  News Storewww.abcnews.comKelley, Tom and
  Littman, Jonathan (2001) The art of innovation
  Lessons in creativity from IDEO, Americas
  leading design firm. New York Random House

4
IDEO The Deep Dive

• IDEO has been identified as Americas Leading
  Design Firm.
• IDEOs special ingredients
• Teams
• Culture
• Methodology

5
IDEO The Deep Dive

• Viewing Perspectives
• Teams
• Culture
• Methodology
• Videographer

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THE DEEP DIVEFive Days at
7
Components of IDEO process

• Creation of Hot Teams
• Brainstorming
• Rapid Prototyping
• Observing Listening from Customers
• Thinking of products in terms of verbs, rather
  than nouns

8
IDEOs Teams

• Named Hot Teams.
• Multidisciplinary.
• Group leader is assigned based on their abilities
  to work with groups.

9
Seven Secrets for Better Brainstorming 1. Sharpen
the focus 2. Playful rules 3. Number your
ideas 4. Build and jump 5. The space
remembers 6. Stretch your mental muscles 7. Get
physical
10
Playful Rules

• One conversation at a time
• Stay focused on the task
• Encourage wild ideas
• Go for quantity
• Be visual
• Defer judgment
• Build on the ideas of others

11
IDEOs Culture

• Employees design their own working areas.
• Employees have interest and skills to work with a
  wide range of people.
• No hierarchies.

12
Build Your Greenhouse

• Building Neighborhoods
• Think Project, ThinkPersonal
• Building Blocks
• Inspiration from Adversity
• Prototype Your space
• Create a Team Icon

• Watch Your Body Language
• Simple Team Space
• Hierarchy is the Enemy of Team Space
• Give Your Workers a View
• Tell Stories
• Make Your Junk Sing

13
Build Your Greenhouse

• Building Neighborhoods
• Areas of Congregation
• Lounge / Common Area
• Mainstreet
• Forced Interaction
• Need for Privacy
• Quiet Areas
• Individuality

14
Five steps to IDEOs innovation

• Understand the market/client/technology/
  constraints
• Observe real people in real situations
• Visualize new-to-the-world concepts ultimate
  customers
• Evaluate refine prototypes
• Implement new concept for commercialization

15
IDEOs Method
www.ideo.com
16
Innovation Resources

• Additional Perspectives on Innovation
• DEC - Schein, Edgar H., et.al. 2003. DEC is dead
  Long live DEC The lasting legacy of Digital
  Equipment Corporation. San Francisco
  Berrett-Koehler.
• The Innovation Journey Van de Ven, Andrew H.,
  Polley, Douglas E., Garud, Raghu Venkataraman,
  Sankaran. 1999. The Innovation Journey. New York
  Oxford University Press.
• Organizational Change and Innovation Processes
  Poole, Marshall S., Van de Ven, Andrew H.,
  Dooley, Kevin, and Holmes, Michael E. 2000.
  Organizational Change and Innovation Processes
  Theory and Methods for Research. New York Oxford
  University Press.
• Weird Ideas that Work Sutton, Robert I. 2002.
  Weird Ideas that Work 11-1/2 Practices for
  Promoting, Managing, and Sustaining Innovation.
  New York Free Press.

17
DEC Culture of Innovation

• The DEC culture emphasized
• Creativity
• Freedom
• Responsibility
• Openness
• Commitment to truth
• Having fun
• Culture is a complex force field that influences
  all of an organizations processes. We try to
  manage culture but, in fact, culture manages us
  far more than we manage it, and it happens
  largely outside of awareness (p. 31).

Schein, Edgar H., et.al. 2003. DEC is dead Long
live DEC The lasting legacy of Digital
Equipment Corporation. San Francisco
Berrett-Koehler.
18
Sutton Weird Ideas that Work

1. Hire Slow Learners (of the organizational
   code). 1-1/2 Hire People Who Make You
   Uncomfortable, Even Those You Dislike.
2. Hire People You (Probably) Dont Need
3. Use Job Interviews to Get Ideas, Not to Screen
   Candidates
4. Encourage People to Ignore and Defy Superiors and
   Peers
5. Find Some Happy People and Get them to Fight
6. Reward Success and Failure, Punish Inaction
7. Decide to Do Something That Will Probably Fail,
   Then Convince Yourself and Everybody Else That
   Success is Certain
8. Think of Some Ridiculous or Impractical Things to
   Do, Then Plan to Do Them.
9. Avoid, Distract, and Bore Customers, Critics, and
   Anyone Who Just Wants to Talk About Money
10. Dont Try to Learn Anything from People Who Seem
    to Have Solved the Problems You Face.
11. Forget the Past, Especially Your Companys
    Successes.

Sutton, Robert I. 2002. Weird Ideas that Work
11-1/2 Practices for Promoting, Managing, and
Sustaining Innovation. New York Free Press.