Rebecca Frisch interviewed Tom Dair, co-founder and President of Smart Design, one of the leading design studios in the USA today. Here is the PDF "The Story of Smart Design" and a summary.

We started out as industrial designers, but it's pretty hard to do product development unless you're understanding an interactive experience like how somebody would be working a product or going through a series of steps with a product, and all these products are really about brand - the 3 dimensional incarnation of the brand - how does the brand communicate itself through the product and through the usage, the interactions that people have with it?

Our focus is on designing for people in their everyday lives. When we started, [high-end European design was in fashion] we were designing pots and pans basically, casseroles that you put in your oven, that sold for $9-10, things that were found in every K-Mart, Macy's and early on we realized, for us it was more fulfilling to design for everyday consumers. You didn't necessarily have to create something that's expensive or museum-quality, to create good design. Smart designed Corningware French White cookware 25 years ago and it remains Corningware's best selling line today.

Here is a 5 minute video on Don Norman to commemerate his receiving the 2006 Benjamin Franklin Medal for laying the foundations of user centered design.

Video

Fast Company's September issue is the 2006 Masters of Design special. Here is a summary of this year's selection of masters:

The Mind Reader - Steve McCallion, creative director, Ziba Design, in Portland, Oregon

McCallion, a sharp, linear thinker who speaks in complete paragraphs, argues that it's not enough to study the average user. "We're going for something deeper - to understand why people want what they want," he says. "Our ability to invent is solely dependent on our ability to capture that dynamic relationship between the brand and the culture that finds it relevant."

The Catalyst - Jochen Zeitz, CEO, Puma AG, in Nuremberg, Germany

Struggling to articulate his personal aesthetic, the best Jochen Zeitz seems to be able to do is, not Karl Lagerfeld: "I'm more the person for clean design," says the CEO of Puma AG, in a Teutonic staccato. "I think my taste is very straightforward, as opposed to a Lagerfeld - over the top."

Asked if he considers himself a designer, or even thinks like one, Zeitz shoots back, "No." Yet since 1993, when he took over the now 58-year-old feline brand (at age 30, when he was the youngest chairman of the German Stock Exchange), he has harnessed design to give it still another life.

The Wordsmith - Paula Scher, at the New York offices of Pentagram, where she is a partner

Within the design community, Scher is known both for her passionate populism - she has little patience for esoteric "just those of us who speak Helvetica" snobbery - and for her take-no-prisoners defense of good work. "As a designer, Paula has no particular ideological point of view," says Michael Bierut, her partner at the prestigious design firm Pentagram. "She's really, really eclectic. She only cares about making things that are good."

Go browse through the rest of the issue here.

In Design Group Organization I outlined the structural relationship between Product Leads (designers responsible for a specific business unit's product designs) and Strategic Designers (designers who lead the integration of corporate strategy and product concepts) within a large design team. In this organizational model, Product Leads and Strategic Designers often work on the same product but in different roles and at varying capacities.

During the ideation phase of a new product, the Strategic Designer is heavily involved. They work with key business stakeholders and corporate or product strategy teams to illustrate a vision of success through product concepts. They use the power of narrative and visualization to collaboratively develop a product vision that corporate stakeholders ultimately sign-off on.

During this process, the Product Lead is involved but does not need to absorb the overhead of the strategy development process. As a result, they remain able to direct the efforts of their design team on existing products for which they remain responsible. The Strategic Designer is handling most of the hands-on work and meetings for the new product.

As the ideation phase moves closer to implementation the Product Lead becomes more involved. They begin to work closely with the Strategic Designer on more detailed information architecture and interaction design concepts. Gradually this process generates a complete design spec for the new product. During this period, the Strategic Designer's involvement lessens as the Product Lead takes on ownership of the product.

Read the full post here.

Luke Wroblewski, a prolific writer and design strategist, has written a series on the organizational structure of a corporate design department. He has kindly permitted DD to reblog three of his posts on the topic here.

It's hard to work in a large design team without getting at least somewhat involved in how the group is organized. During my time within such teams, I've been a part of many discussions and iterations of different organization models.

From these experiences, I've developed a model that seems to be able to sustain a large amount of distinct project work and simultaneously support the diversity of the designers within the team.

The model is under laid by the fact that in addition to different skill-levels, designers also have unique strengths and interests in particular types of design work. In particular: product design, strategic design, and design management.

Read the rest of the explanatory text that accompanies this diagram here.

Luke Wroblewski, a prolific writer and design strategist, has written a series on the organizational structure of a corporate design department. He has kindly permitted DD to reblog three of his posts on the topic here.

Based on the previous conversation with Don Norman, author Trenouth then spoke to Craig Vogel about his thoughts on the subject:

Author of "Breakthrough Products", former IDSA president, and Director of Center for Design Research and Innovation, Craig Vogel shared his thoughts on activity-centered design and personas.

Experience design and activity design are the same. But knowing a person's preferences is also important because a functional solution should be complimented with lifestyle attributes.

Norman is a psychologist and not a designer. His focus is on human activity which is fine. I think there is more to products than [just the] action analysis but it is an essential component.

So according to Vogel a study of activity while necessary, is insufficient. Norman says that a study of activity is not only necessary and sufficient, but it is potentially dangerous to look beyond activity as this could prove distracting, resulting in poorer product designs.

In the integrated new product development process outlined in "Breakthrough Products" Vogel says that good product design results in products that are useful, usable and desirable. Norman is a social scientist. As such his professional bias is toward measurability and hence activity-centered design. Usability is easily measured, while utility and desirability are not.

Norman's concern is valid though. Human-centered design and tools like personas can often find themselves distracted by matters irrelevant to the design. Vogel's respose is that the danger is in untrained implementation, and that a human-centered perspective and tools like personas are incredibly valuable in delivering products that are more useful, usable and desirable.

John Trenouth has a masters in design from Carnegie Mellon University and over a decade of experience designing interactive products and systems in both telecommunications and healthcare. Currently he blogs at niblettes and runs a boutique design firm Spire Innovation specializing in product innovation and design research.

Jonathan Ive, CBE, has been extensively covered by BusinessWeek in the September 25th issue. The lead article is an indepth well written look at the design process at Apple followed by the highly reserved Ive and his team. What are the key things about this team at Apple?

They're close-knit and self supportive.

It's a team that has worked in idyllic comfort for many years. Some designers were at the company long before Ive arrived in 1992. They rarely attend industry events or awards ceremonies. It's as though they don't require outside recognition because there isn't any higher authority on design excellence than each other, and because sharing too much information only risks helping others close the gap. [...] "Its good old-fashioned camaraderie -- everyone with the same aim, no egos involved," says British fashion designer Paul Smith, a friend since the late 1990s when Ive sent him a new iMac. "They have lots of dinners together, take lots of field trips. And they've turned these gray frumpy objects called computers into desirable pieces of sculpture you'd want even if you didn't use them.

They're global bringing numerous cultures to the creative table.

And they personally reflect the design sensibilities of Apple's products -- casually chic, elitist and with a definite Euro bent. The team, made up of thirty- and fortysomethings, has a definite international flair. Members include not only the British Ive but also New Zealander Danny Coster, Italian Daniele De Iuliis, and German Rico Zörkendörfer.

They're important - to the company and are treated as such.

Most of Ive's team live in San Francisco, and rumor has it that the starting salary for the group is around $200,000, some 50% above the industry average. They work together in a large open studio with little personal space but great privacy. Many Apple employees aren't allowed in, for fear they'd catch a glimpse of some upcoming product. A massive sound system pumps up the music. Ive invests his design dollars in state-of-the-art prototyping equipment, not large numbers of people. And his design process revolves around intense iteration -- making and remaking models to visualize new concepts. [...] Ive's team at Apple isn't the usual design ghetto of creativity that exists inside most corporations. They work closely and intensely with engineers, marketers, and even outside manufacturing contractors in Asia who actually build the products. Rather than being simple stylists, they're leading innovators in the use of new materials and production processes. The design group was able to figure out how to put a layer of clear plastic over the white or black core of an iPod, giving it a tremendous depth of texture, and still be able to build each unit in just seconds.

Read the rest for a peek into the mind of the man behind the iPod. Or take a look at this slideshow of his work. In fact, go figure out the details of why you really love the iPod.

Last year, Don Norman wrote a couple of articles (Human-Centered Design Considered Harmful and HCD harmful? A Clarification) critically examining what is called user-centered or human-centered design. Instead of being human-centered, Norman says design should be activity-centered. The following is a short interview with Norman on the use of personas and activity centered design.

How does (or should) the thesis of your article, if accepted, affect a group's use of personas as a design tool? Should we forget about personas (except as a communication tool) and concentrate on activities as the driving forces behind product design?

Don: Well, we got along quite well without personas before they became popular. I do not think they are important for the intelligent, observant, designer. As I (and you) said, I think they are useful mainly in communicating the decisions to other people.

I think the emphasis on activities is the key.

Is there perhaps too much growing faith in the power of personas at the expense of in-depth understanding of activities and their associated problems?

Don: Absolutely. The persona still says nothing about how to design.

Is a focus on activities perhaps too mechanistic, and blind to all the nuanced subjectivities of experience that contribute to a product's success or failure, that are better captured between the lines of a persona narrative?

Don: No.

Any single prescription runs the risk of being accepted mechanically. But if you have only average designers, then mechanical solutions are apt to be pretty good -- better than they might produce otherwise.

Is a persona centered design approach even a user centered design approach? Or are many of us simply seduced by ease and economy of them compared with studying actual people?

Don: If you don't study real people, then you can't produce sensible personas! A persona is, after all, a distillation of the knowledge gathered about numerous individuals.

What is a comfortable balance between understanding people and activities in terms of designing better products? Your articles hint at an answer here.

Don: In no way can you understand activities without understanding people. An activity is the set of actions (perceptions, thoughts, decisions, and actions) made within t he context of a set of goals. One cannot separate activities from people. Activities are goal-driven, and goals exist only in the heads of people. A major support need is to handle changing goals, and interrupted goal-driven activity -- and this involves people.

John Trenouth has a masters in design from Carnegie Mellon University and over a decade of experience designing interactive products and systems in both telecommunications and healthcare. Currently he blogs at niblettes and runs a boutique design firm Spire Innovation specializing in product innovation and design research.

Hybrid Organizations as a Strategy for Supporting New Product Development is the title of a research paper by Alison Rieple, Adrian Haberberg, and Jon Gander of the University of Westminster.

A summary of their findings:

This paper focuses on strategic alliances, in which one firm (normally a large, multi-product corporation) obtains critical product-development resources, such as design or technological know-how, from an independent firm (normally a smaller and more specialized design consultancy or a technology developer). The two firms develop a fairly close relationship - perhaps only for the period of a specific assignment, but often over a longer period spanning several projects. These hybrid relationships are governed through informal means, such as unwritten agreements between key individuals, as much as through the more usual form of legal contracts.

Crucial to the success of a hybrid are "boundary-spanners." These are members of the partner organizations who are able to move freely within both, translating the requirements of each into language and behavior that is acceptable to, and understandable by, the other. Trust between the senior managers who set up a hybrid in the first place, and the boundary spanners who maintain the relationship subsequently, is a critical factor. Trust lowers cost and raises productivity. Cooperation increases under conditions of trust, because with trust such costly barriers as formal contracts and detailed monitoring can be removed. The resulting less-formal specifications can also allow the parties to respond more rapidly to any changes in circumstances.

Hybrids protect the smaller firm from the stifling effects of the larger firm, while allowing its creative knowledge to be exploited. This happens through what is, in effect, a "semi-permeable membrane" in which certain features are blocked from movement while others are transferred.

Boundary-spanners, or bridgers, as they are sometimes described, are people who move between both organizations, translating the norms of each into language and behavior that are acceptable to, and understandable by, the other. There is almost no research on the role that boundary-spanners have in hybrid organizational structures, and yet they are likely to be one of the most important factors in the success of those structures. After all, new product development is a social-, collaborative-, and interaction- intensive process involving experimentation and negotiation over the lifecycle of the new product's evolving form, bringing together knowledge, expertise, and technologies from different sources into a whole. Learning involves the negotiated resolution of constraints and generates new knowledge, which may then be embedded in the design of new technologies, products, or processes. Thus boundary-spanners need to be skilled first of all in the nuances of creating a new product.

A perfect example of successful boundary spanners can be found in an article written by Tom Mulhern and Dave Lathrop, of Conifer Research and Steelcase Inc., respectively. Their article,"Building and Tending Bridges: Rethinking How Consultants Support Change," detailed the way in which design consultant Conifer Research used its methodological expertise in furniture and workspace design to improve Steelcase's product innovation and organizational performance. Although Mulhern and Lathrop had not worked together before, they had "worked around each other" and knew a lot of the same people. They were both part of an established network of relationships and reputation, and this is likely to have facilitated the development of trust between the two organizational boundary-spanners.

Mulhern and Lathrop also epitomize the internal boundary-spanner role. Steelcase had previously gone out of its way to seek external perspectives from a "host of brilliant, innovative, but generally outside resources, with the outcome generally packaged as a 'deliverable.'" But in order to achieve the impact they sought, Mulhern and Lathrop recognized that their job would be to inspire insiders to take up the cause. They described this process as developing "experience bridges." The bridges they established linked people, information, and process and thereby "dramatically accelerated" progress through the development of shared understanding.

In conclusion, it seems as though a strategic alliance between a large corporation and a small creative house works effectively for product innovation, with the role of the boundary spanner being crucial to the success of this approach.

Chris Conley was in town last week for a short presentation he made on the behalf of the IIT Institute of Design. DD went to find out more about the work he's doing at his product development firm, GravityTank.

DesignDirectory: Chris, your bio says "At Gravity Tank he leads the development of Integrated DefinitionTM, a way of working that leverages the core competencies of design to enable cross-functional client teams to define new product and service innovations." What exactly does this mean?

Chris Conley: Well, let me start by explaining why clients come to us and perhaps that will lead to some clarity about GravityTank's offer and what we do there. There are three key reasons companies approach us:-

1. When they're looking for new market opportunities - usually within their existing product line or new product categories areas to explore. They know the market opportunity they want to target, such as "baby boomers" or "retail channels" but need help to define the product or product category that would allow them to take advantage of this opportunity.

2. New product or service definition - this kind of program results in a unique document describing what products or services should be developed and why. It provides the essential information, the 'show and tell' that neither the traditional technical specifications documents nor marketing's MRD provide. We deliver a clear design direction that our clients can then take to their favourite industrial design studio for the final design and development work. It's much more than a design brief as it includes strategy elements, related business numbers as well as platform considerations and design criteria to shape the final form.

3. Business challenges - This is the fuzziest of the 'fuzzy front end', when a business is facing a very specific challenge, but doesn't really know why and want us to take look not only at their products and services but their business system to see what can be tweaked.

DD: So your final deliverable is not the design of the product but a waymarker towards that design? It sounds like it's more tangible than the 'blue sky' innovation and brainstorming popular today and yet not the deliverable of an industrial design studio. Yet you prototype, in fact, you're a big proponent of rapid prototyping and it's benefits. How does that fit in with what you do?

CC: I'm always amazed at how hard it is to convey that we use design and prototyping to help figure out what to go and design. Business people use spreadsheets to model a potential business early in the process. But they are not the same folks that implement the actual business system that builds and launches the business in the market. But in design, it is hard for people to understand that while you may not be doing the final production design, design and prototypes are essential to figuring it out what to pursue.

DD: Those are words to remember, indeed. Thank you, Chris.

NewDealDesign office, San Francisco, CA

Gadi Amit, founder of newdealdesign, has just published his opinion piece on Core77 where he asks "What is Industrial design?". In his bio is an intriguing statement that informs us that New Deal Design is not just the name of his San Francisco based industrial design studio but also the company motto and underpinning philosophy behind their work. DD went to find out more about Gadi's "New Deal".

DesignDirectory: Gadi, could you tell us a little more about NewDealDesign's motto and philosophy? What is the new deal in design that you are offering?

Gadi Amit: Our philosophy of New Deal Design emerged from our experience in working with very large design consultancies and corporate departments.

The essence of good industrial design, in my mind, is being able to create [produce] well designed, everyday products that are affordable and accessible to all. IKEA comes to mind as an example of a company that fulfills this promise. This motivation was the seed behind starting the studio - to form a team of talented designers that were passionate about designing good looking products within the constraints of a certain price point. And our philosophy does not stop there, the end result is also very important to us. Whatever we design must sell, else why invest in industrial design?

DD: So you're saying that good design that sells the product is the new deal you are offering? Isn't that the function of industrial design everywhere?

Gadi: Yes and no. We approach industrial design with almost a craftsmanlike passion - our first question always, is, "Is this appropriate?". Is this design strategy appropriate for the market our client wishes to reach, is this design appropriate - for it's intended function, for cost effective manufacture, for the environment in which it will be used in, for the culture and society of the intended customer.

We aren't focused on creating good looking products that win awards. The fact that our products have consistently won awards *and* are successful in the market, profitable for our clients, supports our philosophy. Industrial design has a very important role to play in business and does not require large teams of designers or numerous offices to demonstrate those results. What it does need is committed, talented designers who are passionate about their work. That is our new deal in design.

Thomas Friedman articulates this fascinating list of the seven categories of skills he's identified that the global workplace will need as it evolves and changes. From the exclusive interview at YaleGlobal,

One is great collaborators. When so many more things are going to be made in global supply chains, the ability to be a great collaborator, to be able to work cross-culturally and multinationally,there's going to be a huge number of jobs around managing and coordinating these global supply chains.

Second are great leveragers, people who can leverage technology, so one person can do the job of twenty. Rather than competing with India or China, where twenty people might do the job of one, you make up for the labor cost by leveraging technology.

Third are great explainers. Boy, there's going to be a whole industry in explaining. Because there's enormous complexity out there, so whether you're a teacher, a manager, a journalist, the ability to explain this complexity is going be in huge demand.

Fourth, I would call great localizers. Great localizers are people who can localize the  global. What does that mean? They can take the power of this global platform and turn it into a local business. Now that's everything from the eBay entrepreneur, [...] to the garage owner in New Haven, who goes online one day and says to his partner, "Hey Bill, did you see this? We can get out hubcaps for half-price from Romania at half the cost that it would take us to get them from Rochester." So they're leveraging the global platform, by localizing the global.        

Fifth, I'd say, are gonna be people who are great adapters. People who can stay one step ahead of the forces of digitization and automation. And that's going to apply to a lot of people in a lot of industries.       

Sixth would be what I would call people who are passionate personalizers. If you can bring real passion and a personal touch to any vanilla task, there's going to be a job for you in the flat world.       

Seventh I would call anything green. Nayan, anything green, and there is a job for you in the twenty-first century. Because green technology is going to be the industry of the 21st century.

In short, excellence in

• Collaboration across cultures, globally.
• Leveraging both knowledge and relationships.
• Communication (explaining complex concepts with clarity)
• Localization (understanding users?  )
• Adaptation (design thinking? tweaking of prototypes based on user feedback?)
• Passionate Personalization (Empathy?)
• Sustainability (solutions bubbling upwards?)

South Africa's vibrant design industry is a surprise when you first discover it. Typical impressions of the Dark Continent don't usually include one of the world's best advertising and communication design industries, but local studios regularly make off with Clios and Cannes Lions.

Other creative industries do equally well; Time magazine called South Africa the number one destination for fashion design in 2003. A government initiative to create greater value from South Africa's gold, platinum and diamond mines is stimulating the jewelry design industry. A booming retail sector combined with record property prices and huge growth in construction is driving interior design and architecture.

Cape Town's International Design Indaba reflects the explosion in South Africa's creative industries with this annual 3-day conference joining the A-list of global design gatherings. Speakers now comprise the most important names in design from around the world, as noted in the May 2006 issue of ID magazine.

One gets the feeling that the design world may be warming to a dose of earthy, rich, African flavor. From London to Dubai to Singapore, South African designers are being noticed. This is a testament to the world-class education and multi-cultural sensitivity of local designers.

Until now, the euphoria hasn't extended to South African product design. South Africa's manufacturing industry struggles to absorb the 15-odd graduates each year and the local opportunities for product designers are mostly in supporting the media and branding industry with 3D skills.

However things could be changing for South African product designers. Recently some South African product design studios have started to grab international attention. Csape Town-based studio XYZ had its condom applicator displayed as part of MOMA's SAFE: Design Takes On Risk exhibition in 2005/6. Durban's Egg Design was rated by GDR in London as one of the Top 10 Young Design Companies' to watch in 2001 and exhibited successfully at 100% Design.

When Pretoria-based Readymade won a Red Dot Award and a Chicago Athenaeum Good Design Award last year for product design, they were surprised to find out that they were the first African company ever to do so. From this unlikely position Readymade has been effective in designing for global brands that need unique ideas.

Could this be is the beginning of South African product designers emulating their world-beating peers in the other creative industries? Maybe that's South Africa's next surprise.

About the author: Tasos Calantzis is a South African product designer and founder of Readymade.

The essential concept for this terracotta home composting unit called The Daily Dump is that is has been concieved as an open source design project. One where you can choose to download the design drawings and arrange to have the product made by your local potter (at least in India). Thus, believes the designer, Poonam Bir Kasturi, the IP is available for all to use, benefiting the individual potters, the environment and the households who begin to hygenically process their compostable waste. The Daily Dump offers a regular maintenance service for a small fee in Bangalore.

A detailed case study of the local, social and larger environmental impact will be available soon.

Here is a round up of some upcoming events, workshops and conferences to note on your calender:

May 22-24, 2006, Boston MA

The 4th Annual Front End of Innovation conference co-sponsored by the PDMA and the Institute for International Research. The keynote speaker line-up includes Clayton Christensen, Professor and Author of "The Innovator's Dilemma" and "The Innovator's Solution"; Terry Jones, Founder and Former CEO of Travelocity; Tom Kelley, Author of "The Art of Innovation: Lessons Learned from IDEO" and "Ten Faces of Innovation"; Claudia Kotchka, Vice President of Design Innovation and Strategy at Procter & Gamble; Renee Mauborgne, Professor and Author of "Blue Ocean Strategy"; and many more. Peter A. Koen, Associate Professor in the Wesley J. Howe School of Technology Management, Stevens Institute of Technology, will chair.

May 26-28, 2006, Pacific Grove, CA

The Overlap is an un-conference for anyone who wants to learn more about merging business practices with design-centric problem solving and customer understanding. Speakers include Clement Mok, Lorraine Justice, Brad Nemer, Tom Mulhern, Richard Farson, Erin Liman, Chris Conley and Kristian Simsarian. Space is very limited and registration is by invitation only, please contact Victor Lombardi for more information. Organizers include Steve Portigal, Jess McMullin, Dirk Knemeyer, John Zapolski and your editor.

June 6th, 2006, San Francisco, CA

Products exist in a vast, often-messy environment of services, brands, cultures and competitors. But successful companies are realizing that deliberately and strategically designing products for the context in which they live can result in more imaginative, better integrated, and ultimately more humane offerings. From MP3 players and gaming consoles to kitchen appliances and office furniture, this panel discussion will focus on how to incorporate holistic thinking into product development, creating objects that are not only sensitive to their surroundings, but often define them. Moderator: Jessie Scanlon, BusinessWeek; Panelists: Diego Rodriguez, IDEO & Metacool; Steve Portigal, Portigal Consulting; Peter Rojas, Engadget; Robyn Waters, RW Trend

Register now!

Creativity Courses in Europe: Summer 06

The Creativity Workshop helps people believe in and develop their imagination through using a unique series of exercises in memoir, creative writing, visual arts, sense perception, brainstorming, and storytelling.

Crete: June 19 - 28
Provence: June 29 - July 8
Florence: July 9 - 18
Barcelona: July 19 - 28
Prague: July 28 - August 6
Dublin: August 6 - 15
Bruges: August 15 - 24

In the news today,

Venture capitalist John Doerr made his name and fortune with early investments in Netscape Communications, Amazon.com , Google and other pioneering tech firms that went from scrappy start-ups to household names.

Now, he and his firm, Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers, are placing big bets on an emerging sector he calls "green technology," one he believes could become as lucrative as information technology and biotechnology.

Menlo Park-based Kleiner Perkins plans to set aside $100 million of its latest $600 million fund for technologies that help provide cleaner energy, transportation, air and water.

"This field of greentech could be the largest economic opportunity of the 21st century," Doerr said. "There's never been a better time than now to start or accelerate a greentech venture."

As one of Silicon Valley's most respected investors, Doerr's decision to champion green technology as the next big thing is generating buzz in the venture capital community.
[...]
VCs point to the global forces driving greentech investment: the rising cost of fuel, the economic expansion of China, India and other Asian nations; and growing worries over global warming.

"In my opinion, it's one of the most pressing global challenges we face," Doerr said. "It's causing the nations of the world to put an even higher priority than we have now on innovation."

How can you begin to incorporate 'green' principles in your product development process? Start with an introduction to Green Product Design and it's benefits to your entire firm then steps to implement it.

This research on how teams work, (PDF link) and what makes them successful from Northwestern University, published in the journal Science, focuses on creative teams in the arts and sciences. These findings unearth some intriguing points that I can see being transferred very easily to the creation of a successful innovation team.

Highlights of this research study :

• They discovered that the composition of a great team is the same whether you are working on Broadway or in economics.
• The researchers [...] found that successful teams had a diverse
  membership - not of race and gender but of old blood and new. New team
  members clearly added creative spark and critical links to the
  experience of the entire industry.
• Unsuccessful teams were isolated from each other whereas the
  members of successful teams were interconnected, [..], across a giant
  cluster of artists or scientists.
• "Do people go out of their way to collaborate with new people?"
  said Luis A. Nunes Amaral, associate professor of chemical and
  biological engineering and the corresponding author on the paper. "Do
  they take this risk?
• "We found that teams that achieved success [..] were fundamentally
  assembled in the same way, by bringing in some experienced people who
  had not worked together before. The unsuccessful teams repeated the
  same collaborations over and over again."
• "We discovered that assembling a successful team depends on
  choosing the right balance of diversity and cohesion - achieving the
  bliss point intersection of the two." Diversity represents new
  collaborations while cohesion comes from repeat collaborations.
• "The entire network looks different when you compare a successful
  team with an unsuccessful team," said Amaral. [Unsuccessful teams]"
  form a network broken into small, unconnected clusters while the
  [successful ]teams give rise to a giant, connected cluster. A strong
  correlation clearly exists between team assembly and the quality of the
  team's creations. You need someone new to get the creative juices going
  so you don't get trapped in the same ideas over and over again."
• "If your systemic network has teams with only incumbents, and
  especially incumbents who have worked together repeatedly, your field
  tends to have low impact scores. The fact that we found this across
  fields with equally powerful minds suggests that how the brain power of
  a field is organized into different kinds of networks determines the
  field's success."

Gad Shaanan, founder of Gad Shaanan Design, shown above, contends that customers make up their minds about a product in just three seconds. From this news article,

The industrial design firm focuses on that crucial three seconds they say a product has to connect with consumers. That connection, says chief executive Gad Shaanan, is made with the heart, not the mind.

"There are so many products out there, and salespeople know less and less," Shaanan said. "You need a detail that a consumer can relate to, something that creates a bond with the consumer."

That detail is unlikely to be what the product's engineers are most proud of - the power or speed of the operating system, for instance - and more likely to be some seemingly mundane aspect that makes the user's experience more pleasant.

It's why someone will walk into a car dealership with a budget of $20,000 and walk away with a $25,000 car, or why someone spends $3 on an angled, rubber-grip toothbrush when any dentist will tell you the straight-handled 99-cent version works just as well.

Our first in the series "Ask the Expert", we spoke to Anaezi Modu, founder of ReBrand and director of ReBrand 100. She is former SVP, Brand Experience and Strategy Director at Bank of America (previously FleetBoston Financial). Here's a bonus link to her case study for Icograda titled "Where strategy meets design".

DesignDirectory: Anaezi, would you share with us the most important piece of advice that you would give to someone who would be starting the search for design services? Say, for example, your successor at Bank of America - the person responsible for shaping the global brand strategy.

Anaezi Modu: I'd tell them that the most important thing they need to look for in a potential strategic branding partner is evidence of user centeredness. Design firms talk about being user centric, being empathetic to their user's needs, sensitive to the nuances of the marketplace and being open minded and observing without judgement. But do they realize that we are their users?

DD: By "we" being their users, you mean yourself in the client's position?

AM: Yes. Often a design firm will come in and give their spiel about design and branding, which of course, is their area of expertise, but fail to realize that our business (financial services, in my case) is our area of expertise. Many feel that if they have done work for one banking brand, they can correlate that experience to another bank's brand. That may not be true. Each bank, financial services institution, (or business) has its own focus areas and its own strategy and this where it becomes important for you to evaluate whether this is a design partner who is willing to listen, to understand your business and your strategy, to demonstrate that they are indeed empathetic, open minded and willing to learn. Sensitivity to the changing nature of the audience is also important. Vendors should be aware that clients, especially corporate ones, observe the make-up of the work team, and note if the team is representative of the diverse make-up of their customers. I just don't see that very often and it's often very frustrating to get that message across. Bank of America sought to reach out to all our customers, around the world, how can we say we're a global brand if we don't support it with our brand strategy?

DD: What about evaluating their portfolio or previous experience? Any tips on what to look for when choosing a firm?

AM: Yes. There are two key things to look for in a firm's portfolio - first, ask to see examples of their work where they have demonstrated that a brand is an evolving entity, not a dramatic change from the past. Often, as was the case in Bank of America, our brand has a history and heritage, an existing relationship with our customers, we cannot suddenly make a 180 degree turn. Customers don't like it. The design firm should be able to show a natural evoluation towards the strategic objective over a period of time rather than a sudden change.

The second is ask to see example of where their design effort has effected a change in the way the brand is perceived. In the market, with the customers, with the audience. Ask them to demonstrate successful rebranding efforts, if that is what you are seeking, or successful examples of using design to achieve the objective for which you are seeking a design firm.

DD: You mean if it were a product to be designed and their objective was to increase lagging sales, they should ask for demonstrations of where a design studio had successfully managed to achieve that for a prior client?

AM: Yes. Instead of asking for examples of similar products or industry examples, ask to see similar end result examples, regardless of product category or industry.

DD: Wow. That really makes sense. Thank you so much Anaezi Modu, for being this week's expert.

From FORTUNE's InnovationInsider, eight tips for dealing with mavericks in the workplace. While the original article in ComputerWorld refers to the classic 'maverick' in the IT department, the lone programmer or software designer, if a large part of your responsibilities include managing designers, "the creatives" or "innovators", these tips can prove a useful guide on what to expect.

1) Engage them. Draw out their ideas, listen to their questions, and provide them with the information they need to fully understand initiatives rather than brushing them off.

(2) Coach them. Help mavericks learn to navigate office politics and present ideas in ways that are appropriate for the company's culture.

(3) Enlist peers. Ask a colleague to do some peer mentoring.

(4) Work with their strengths. Give mavericks "their own place to play" - a role where their restlessness and skepticism can be channeled to good use, such as working on a team that's dealing with an intractable problem.

(5) Give them space. Mavericks need challenges and the leeway to meet them.

(6) Beware of the Peter Principle. Mavericks often find that the demands of management don't mesh with their style.

(7) Show respect. Don't label mavericks as complainers or troublemakers. Don't ignore them, either, by passing them over when making assignments to key committees and the like.

(8) Draw the line. Decide how much maverick behavior is too much.

Once you strike the right balance and learn to work with your mavericks rather than against them, you may find that they're a secret weapon in the war against mediocrity.