Category Archives: Innovation

Applying Human-Centered Design to Create Innovative Solutions

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Applying Human-Centered Design to Create Innovative Solutions

GUEST POST from Art Inteligencia

Innovation is the lifeblood of any successful business. In today’s competitive market, organizations must stay ahead of the curve in order to remain competitive. In order to do this, companies are turning to Human-Centered Design (HCD) to create new products and services that meet the needs of their customers.

At its core, HCD is a process that focuses on the customers’ needs and wants in order to create meaningful products and services. This process involves understanding the customer’s experience and expectations, defining the problem, and then creating a solution. HCD is not just focused on creating products; it is also used to create processes and services.

The goal of HCD is to create innovative solutions that are tailored to the customer’s needs. By understanding the customer’s experience, companies can develop products and services that accurately reflect the customer’s needs. This helps to ensure that the solution is not only effective, but also attractive and attractive to the customer.

HCD is an iterative process that involves several steps. First, companies must understand their customer’s needs and wants. This can be done through market research, surveys, interviews, and focus groups. Once the customer’s needs are established, companies can begin to develop a solution.

The next step is to design the solution. This involves creating a prototype and testing it with customers to gather feedback. The feedback can then be used to refine the design and make improvements. The goal is to create a product or service that is intuitive, efficient, and suitable for the customer’s needs.

Finally, companies must ensure that the solution is tested and verified before it is released for use. This helps to ensure that the product or service is safe and effective. The feedback gathered during the testing phase can also be used to further refine the solution if necessary.

As you design your product using human-centered methods, be sure and keep in mind the five secrets of successful product design:

1. Understand customer needs and develop a product to meet them: The first step in creating a successful product is to perform market research to gain insight into customer needs and preferences. Develop a product that meets those needs and provides a solution to a problem.

2. Create a unique product: Research the market and make sure the product you are creating is unique and different from what is already available.

3. Focus on quality: Quality is essential for a successful product. Ensure that your product is reliable and meets the customer’s expectations.

4. Utilize effective marketing: Marketing is a key factor in the success of any product. Utilize effective marketing strategies to spread awareness of your product.

5. Listen to customer feedback: Getting feedback from customers is essential to understanding the strengths and weaknesses of your product. Use the feedback to refine and improve your product.

Human-Centered Design is an invaluable tool for any company looking to innovate and create solutions that meet the needs of their customers. By understanding the customer’s needs and wants and developing a solution that reflects those needs, companies can create products and services that are attractive and effective. HCD is a powerful tool that can help companies stay ahead of the competition and create meaningful solutions for their customers.

SPECIAL BONUS: Braden Kelley’s Problem Finding Canvas can be a super useful starting point for doing design thinking or human-centered design.

“The Problem Finding Canvas should help you investigate a handful of areas to explore, choose the one most important to you, extract all of the potential challenges and opportunities and choose one to prioritize.”

Image credit: Pixabay

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Design Thinking and Its Benefits for Businesses

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Design Thinking and Its Benefits for Businesses

GUEST POST from Art Inteligencia

Design thinking has become an increasingly popular concept in business circles in recent years, primarily due to its potential to help businesses drive innovation and create successful products and services. Design thinking is an approach to problem-solving that emphasizes the human element and focuses on understanding the needs of customers. It involves elements from both design and engineering, and encourages collaboration between product developers, engineers, designers, and other stakeholders to create new solutions.

1. Design Thinking Creates Customer-Centered Problem Solving

At its core, design thinking involves putting the customer at the center of the problem-solving process. Rather than starting with a solution and working backwards, design thinking encourages businesses to look at the problem from the customer’s perspective and work towards a solution that meets their needs. This allows businesses to create products and services that are tailored to customers’ needs, and that offer a unique experience.

2. Goes Beyond Traditional Problem Solving

One of the main advantages of using design thinking is that it allows businesses to move beyond traditional problem-solving methods. By examining the problem from the customer’s point of view, businesses can come up with innovative solutions that may not have been possible using traditional approaches. Additionally, by collaborating with different stakeholders, businesses can ensure that all relevant perspectives are taken into account when designing a product or service.

3. Helps Create More Efficient and Effective Products and Services

Another benefit of design thinking is that it can help businesses create more efficient and cost-effective products and services. By understanding the customer’s needs, businesses can design products and services that are more likely to be successful in the marketplace. This not only allows businesses to save money on research and development costs, but also helps them ensure that the final product meets the customer’s expectations.

4. Fosters a Culture of Creativity and Collaboration

Finally, design thinking can help businesses foster a culture of creativity and collaboration. By involving multiple stakeholders in the problem-solving process, businesses can encourage employees to think outside of the box and come up with innovative solutions. This can lead to higher levels of engagement and motivation, which can in turn lead to better products and services.

5. Conclusion

In conclusion, design thinking offers a number of benefits for businesses. By involving customers in the problem-solving process and encouraging collaboration between different stakeholders, businesses can create products and services that are tailored to customer needs and are more likely to be successful. Additionally, design thinking can help businesses create more efficient and cost-effective products, as well as foster a culture of creativity and collaboration. For these reasons, design thinking is an invaluable tool for businesses looking to drive innovation and stay ahead of the competition.

SPECIAL BONUS: Braden Kelley’s Problem Finding Canvas can be a super useful starting point for doing design thinking or human-centered design.

“The Problem Finding Canvas should help you investigate a handful of areas to explore, choose the one most important to you, extract all of the potential challenges and opportunities and choose one to prioritize.”

Image credit: Pixabay

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What is Qualitative Research?

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What is Qualitative Research?

GUEST POST from Art Inteligencia

Qualitative research is a type of research that deals with the collection and analysis of non-numeric data. This type of research is used to explore and understand the experiences, beliefs, and motivations of individuals or groups. Qualitative research is often used to gain insights into social, cultural, and even political phenomena.

Qualitative research is used to explore a variety of topics, including culture, values, beliefs, and behavior. By using qualitative methods, researchers can capture the complexity of human experience. For example, qualitative research can be used to investigate how people make decisions, what motivates them, and how they interact with their environment. Qualitative research can also be used to uncover deeper insights into how people think, feel, and behave.

Qualitative research can take many forms, including interviews, focus groups, and observational studies. Each of these techniques has its own strengths and weaknesses, but all involve collecting and analyzing data from participants. Interviews involve asking questions and gathering responses from participants, while focus groups involve gathering a group of people together to discuss a particular topic. Observational studies involve observing participants in their natural environment.

Qualitative research is an important tool for gaining insights into social and cultural phenomena. By using qualitative methods, researchers can capture the complexity of human experience, which is often difficult to measure using quantitative methods. Qualitative research is also useful for exploring emerging trends and developing new theories. Ultimately, qualitative research enables researchers to gain deeper insights into their topic of interest.

Image credit: Pixabay

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The Value of Using Futures Research to Drive Innovation

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The Value of Using Futures Research to Drive Innovation

GUEST POST from Art Inteligencia

The world is changing faster than ever before, and businesses must innovate to stay competitive. To stay ahead of the curve, businesses must look to the future and anticipate the needs of their customers. Futures research is an invaluable tool to help businesses stay ahead and drive innovation.

Futures research is the practice of predicting and researching potential changes in the future. It involves scanning the environment to identify signals of change, understanding potential scenarios, and exploring emerging trends. It is an invaluable tool for businesses to understand and anticipate customer needs, stay ahead of their competition, and develop strategies to drive innovation.

Futures research can help businesses better understand their customer base and anticipate customer needs. By understanding the trends in their industry, companies can create products and services that are ahead of the curve and meet customer demands before they become apparent. This helps businesses stay competitive, as they can create solutions that meet customer needs before their competitors.

Futures research can also help businesses understand emerging trends. By understanding the emerging trends in their industry, businesses can identify opportunities for innovation and develop new products and services that will meet customer needs. By anticipating customer demands, businesses can create solutions that are ahead of the curve and keep them competitive.

Finally, futures research can help businesses develop strategies to drive innovation. By understanding the trends in their industry and the customer needs, businesses can develop strategies to create innovative solutions that will meet customer needs. This can help businesses stay ahead of their competition and create solutions that their customers need.

In today’s ever-evolving world, businesses must stay ahead of the curve to remain competitive. Futures research is an invaluable tool to help businesses stay ahead of their competition and drive innovation. By understanding customer needs and emerging trends, businesses can anticipate customer demands and create solutions that are ahead of the curve. This will help businesses stay ahead of their competition and create solutions that their customers need.

Bottom line: Futurology and prescience are not fortune telling. Skilled futurologists and futurists use a scientific approach to create their deliverables, but a methodology and tools like those in FutureHacking™ can empower anyone to engage in futurology themselves.

Image credit: Pexels

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A Deep Dive into Horizon Scanning

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What It Is and How It Can Help Your Business

A Deep Dive Into Horizon Scanning

GUEST POST from Art Inteligencia

Horizon scanning is a powerful tool that can help businesses anticipate and prepare for future changes in their operating environment. It involves researching, analyzing and predicting future trends, developments and opportunities. This process can provide businesses with insights into potential risks and opportunities, allowing them to plan accordingly and maximize their chances of success. In this article, we’ll take a deep dive into horizon scanning, exploring what it is and how it can benefit your business.

What is Horizon Scanning?

Horizon scanning is a process of identifying and analyzing emerging developments, trends, and opportunities that may affect a business in the future. It involves researching and gathering information from a variety of sources, including the news, industry reports, and experts. This data is then used to identify potential risks and opportunities. The goal is to provide businesses with advance notice of changes that could affect their operations, allowing them to make informed decisions and plan accordingly.

How Horizon Scanning Can Help Your Business

Horizon scanning can provide businesses with a number of benefits, some of which include:

1. Improved Strategic Planning: By researching and analyzing future developments, trends, and opportunities, businesses can gain valuable insights into potential risks and opportunities. This allows them to make informed decisions and develop effective strategies for dealing with these changes.

2. Enhanced Competitiveness: Horizon scanning can provide businesses with an edge over their competitors. By being aware of potential changes in their operating environment, businesses can be better prepared to take advantage of opportunities and minimize the impact of potential risks.

3. Improved Decision Making: By predicting future changes, businesses can make more informed decisions. This can help them make the right decisions at the right time and maximize their chances of success.

4. Increased Efficiency: Horizon scanning can help businesses save time and resources by providing them with the information they need to make informed decisions. This can help them reduce costs and increase efficiency.

5. Building Resilience: By preparing for potential risks and opportunities, businesses can become more resilient and better able to cope with changes in their operating environment. This can help them remain competitive and profitable in the long term.

Conclusion

Horizon scanning is a powerful tool that can help businesses anticipate and prepare for future changes in their operating environment. It can provide businesses with a number of benefits, including improved strategic planning, enhanced competitiveness, improved decision making, increased efficiency, and greater resilience. By researching and analyzing potential risks and opportunities, businesses can make informed decisions and plan accordingly.

Bottom line: Futurology and prescience are not fortune telling. Skilled futurologists and futurists use a scientific approach to create their deliverables, but a methodology and tools like those in FutureHacking™ can empower anyone to engage in futurology themselves.

Image credit: Pixabay

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What is Horizon Scanning?

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What is Horizon Scanning?

GUEST POST from Art Inteligencia

Horizon scanning is the process of monitoring, analyzing and predicting potential future events and trends that have the potential to affect a given organization, industry or sector. It is a proactive approach that helps organizations anticipate emerging risks and opportunities. This article will explore what horizon scanning is, its key characteristics, and how it can benefit an organization.

Characteristic 1: Proactive Analysis

The main purpose of horizon scanning is to be proactive in preparing for potential future events. It involves looking at the current environment and predicting upcoming trends and events that can affect an organization. It is not a reactive approach that only responds to events after they have occurred.

Characteristic 2: Systematic Process

Horizon scanning is a systematic process that involves identifying, analyzing and monitoring potential future events and trends. It involves looking at factors such as economic, political, technological, environmental and social. This helps organizations identify risks and opportunities before they become apparent to the general public.

Characteristic 3: Analyzing Data

Horizon scanning involves collecting and analyzing data to help identify potential future events. Organizations use a variety of data sources such as newspapers, magazines, industry reports, surveys and other sources to help identify emerging trends.

Characteristic 4: Interdisciplinary Approach

Horizon scanning requires an interdisciplinary approach that involves collaboration between different disciplines. This could include marketing, finance, operations, research and development, and other departments. By working together, organizations can identify potential trends and events that may affect their operations.

Characteristic 5: Benefits

The benefits of horizon scanning are numerous. It can help organizations stay ahead of the competition, prepare for potential risks, identify new opportunities and develop strategies to take advantage of them. By being proactive, organizations can anticipate the future and be well-prepared for any event that may occur.

In conclusion, horizon scanning is an important process for organizations to stay ahead of the competition. It involves a systematic and interdisciplinary approach that involves monitoring, analyzing and predicting potential future events and trends. By taking a proactive approach, organizations can identify potential risks and opportunities before they become apparent to the public.

Bottom line: Futurology and prescience are not fortune telling. Skilled futurologists and futurists use a scientific approach to create their deliverables, but a methodology and tools like those in FutureHacking™ can empower anyone to engage in futurology themselves.

Image credit: Pixabay

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What is Human-Centered Design?

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What is Human-Centered Design?

GUEST POST from Art Inteligencia

Human-centered design is an iterative process that focuses on the needs of people and their environment when creating solutions to problems. It is a user-centric approach to product design and development that puts the user at the center of the entire process. This form of design puts the user’s needs, wants and desires first and foremost in the design process.

This type of design philosophy is often referred to as ‘design thinking’ and it involves taking a step back from the product, to gain an understanding of the user’s needs and desires. This allows designers to come up with solutions that are tailored to the user’s individual needs.

The process of human-centered design begins with research and understanding the user. This involves gathering information about the user’s needs and desires. This can be done through interviews, surveys, focus groups, and other research methods. Once the research is complete, the designer can begin to create a prototype or concept that meets the user’s needs.

The process of human-centered design is iterative, meaning it can be repeated over and over again until the best possible solution is found. This allows designers to make adjustments and improvements to the design until it is perfect.

The goal of human-centered design is to create products that users can easily understand and use. It should make the user’s experience as easy and enjoyable as possible. This type of design should also be intuitive, so users can quickly and easily understand how to use the product without reading a manual or instruction guide.

Human-centered design is becoming increasingly popular in product design, as companies realize the importance of putting the user first. By creating products that are tailored to the user’s individual needs, companies can create products that are more successful in the long run.

SPECIAL BONUS: Braden Kelley’s Problem Finding Canvas can be a super useful starting point for doing design thinking or human-centered design.

“The Problem Finding Canvas should help you investigate a handful of areas to explore, choose the one most important to you, extract all of the potential challenges and opportunities and choose one to prioritize.”

Image credit: Unsplash

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What is the Cost of a Failed Change Initiative or Innovation Project?

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What is the Cost of a Failed Change Initiative or Innovation Project?

by Braden Kelley

It seems like a simple question.

One that you would expect to lead to some risk mitigation behavior, but it doesn’t.

And when you consider that companies are spending an increasing amount of their budget on technology and working to transform their operations to be more digital in order to provide a better experience for customers, employees, partners and suppliers while simultaneously creating a more efficient and effective business, you would think that companies would do everything possible to make sure that these projects succeed, but they don’t.

Everyone knows that a lot of technology projects fail to achieve their intended objectives, timings, and budgets. This fact and the increasing investment levels should cause more executives to look for ways to de-risk these technology investments in digitizing the business, but they’re not.

Why is that?

Are we really so afraid of learning new ways of doing things that would dramatically reduce the risk and expense of project failures that we will continue using the old ways even though we know they don’t work?

Even though there are incredibly inexpensive and easy ways of reducing both the risk of project failures and the cost of project execution, patterns of behavior are not changing…

Perhaps you see the world differently.

Perhaps you’re fed up with project failures and want to increase the speed of both change execution and change adoption.

Consider answering these five simple questions before spending a single minute on your next innovation project, change initiative, or digital transformation effort:

  1. How much is an hour of your time worth to the company you work for? (multiply this by the number of hours you expect to invest in this project or initiative)
  2. What is the fully-loaded monetary value of the time that employees are going to spend on this project or initiative?
  3. How much do you pay to a single contract project manager to spin up a project before the first minute of actual work begins? Over the life of the project?
  4. How much are you planning to spend with consulting companies on this project or initiative?
  5. How much are you planning to spend on contractors to staff this project or initiative?

Get access to the Change Planning Toolkit for less than $100Have you got the numbers in your mind?

Now, are any of these numbers $100 or more?

I’m sure they are, unless of course you’re going to do the project yourself in less than an hour and don’t value your time very much.

So, what if I told you that for less than $100 you could plan and execute your change initiatives, innovation projects and transformation investments in a much more visual and collaborative way and simultaneously reduce the chances of project failure and the cost of executing your project?

Well, you can. You just have to be willing to challenge orthodoxies and use a new set of tools, a new approach, that will feel very natural and empowering if you’re already comfortable with the Business Model Canvas, Lean, Design Thinking, or the Lean Startup.

All you need to get started is a copy of my latest book Charting Change and a $99.99/yr license for the Change Planning Toolkit™ (which comes with a QuickStart Guide). In exchange you’ll get tools worth more than $1,200 and will help to support the creation of the Human-Centered Innovation Toolkit™.

It’s as simple as that.

And to get you started if you’re still unsure, go ahead and grab the 10 Free Downloads and the poster-size Visual Project Charter™ and the poster-size Experiment Canvas™ from the under-construction Human-Centered Innovation Toolkit™.

Let’s change change and keep innovating – together!


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What is Quantitative Research?

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What is Quantitative Research?

GUEST POST from Art Inteligencia

Quantitative research is a type of research that focuses on the collection and analysis of numerical data. It is used to assess relationships between variables, measure changes over time, and develop predictive models. Quantitative research is often used to generate statistically significant results, which can help inform decisions and guide strategies for businesses, organizations, and governments.

Quantitative research typically involves collecting large amounts of data from a variety of sources and then analyzing it using tools such as surveys, interviews, focus groups, and experiments. The data is then analyzed using statistical methods to measure relationships between variables and assess trends.

Quantitative research is often used to answer questions such as “What is the average age of customers in my store?” or “What percentage of my customers are female?” It can also be used to measure the effectiveness of marketing campaigns or to predict the success of a new product.

Quantitative research is an invaluable tool for understanding and predicting human behavior. By collecting and analyzing large amounts of data, researchers can gain insights into trends and relationships that would otherwise remain hidden. The results of quantitative research can help organizations make better decisions and develop more effective strategies.

Image credit: Pixabay

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8 Design Thinking Flaws and How to Fix Them

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8 Design Thinking Flaws and How to Fix Them

by Braden Kelley and Adam Radziszewski

Design Thinking attempts to extract the mindset of a designer, an artist, a creator, or even a child into a series of steps that can be applied to any discipline (even business or politics) to solve human-centered problems. Its steps are so logical that we can’t imagine anyone opposing them.

  • Why wouldn’t you speak with customers and observe them?
  • Why wouldn’t you collect diverse perspectives and research before choosing a problem to solve?
  • Why wouldn’t you come up with lots of ideas, prototype the most promising and test those prototypes?
  • If you’re selling to people, to humans, why wouldn’t you use a human-centric approach?

Because people can quickly understand the power (or promise) of Design Thinking, companies, consultants, and universities have latched on to the methodology and quickly accelerated it to the top of the hype curve. This has created a lot of problems for both expert Design Thinking practitioners and for the methodology itself.

So, let’s look at eight Design Thinking flaws and how to fix them:

Click here to continue reading on CustomerThink.com


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