設(shè)計(jì)思想形成的四個(gè)階段

What ingrained habits
are linked to a designer's ability to turn original ideas into innovations?

What can people in
business learn from studying the ways successful designers solve problems and
innovate? On the most basic level, they can learn to question, care, connect,
and commit—four of the most important things successful designers do to achieve
significant breakthroughs.

Having studied more
than a hundred top designers in various fields over the past couple of years
(while doing research for a book), I found that there were a few shared
behaviors that seemed to be almost second nature to many designers. And these
ingrained habits were intrinsically linked to the designer's ability to bring
original ideas into the world as successful innovations. All of which suggests
that they merit a closer look.

Question. If you spend
any time around designers, you quickly discover this about them: They ask, and
raise, a lot of questions. Often this is the starting point in the design
process, and it can have a profound influence on everything that follows. Many
of the designers I studied, from Bruce Mau to Richard Saul Wurman to Paula
Scher, talked about the importance of asking "stupid questions"—the ones that
challenge the existing realities and assumptions in a given industry or sector.
The persistent tendency of designers to do this is captured in the joke
designers tell about themselves. How many designers does it take to change a
light bulb? Answer: Does it have to be a light bulb?

In a business
setting, asking basic "why" questions can make the questioner seem nave while
putting others on the defensive (as in, "What do you mean 'Why are we doing it
this way?' We've been doing it this way for 22 years!"). But by encouraging
people to step back and reconsider old problems or entrenched practices, the
designer can begin to re-frame the challenge at hand—which can then steer
thinking in new directions. For business in today's volatile marketplace, the
ability to question and rethink basic fundamentals—What business are we really
in? What do today's consumers actually need or expect from us?—has never been
more important.

Care. It's easy for
companies to say they care about customer needs. But to really empathize, you
have to be willing to do what many of the best designers do: step out of the
corporate bubble and actually immerse yourself in the daily lives of people
you're trying to serve. What impressed me about design researchers such as Jane
Fulton Suri of IDEO was the dedication to really observing and paying close
attention to people—because this is usually the best way to ferret out their
deep, unarticulated needs. Focus groups and questionnaires don't cut it;
designers know that you must care enough to actually be present in people's
lives.

Connect. Designers, I
discovered, have a knack for synthesizing--for taking existing elements or ideas
and mashing them together in fresh new ways. This can be a valuable shortcut to
innovation because it means you don't necessarily have to invent from scratch.
By coming up with "smart recombinations" (to use a term coined by the designer
John Thackara), Apple has produced some of its most successful hybrid products;
and Nike smartly combining a running shoe with an iPod to produce its
groundbreaking Nike Plus line (which enables users to program their runs). It
isn't easy to come up with these great combos. Designers know that you must
"think laterally"—searching far and wide for ideas and influences—and must also
be willing to try connecting ideas that might not seem to go together. This is a
way of thinking that can also be embraced by non-designers.

Commit. It's one
thing to dream up original ideas. But designers quickly take those ideas beyond
the realm of imagination by giving form to them. Whether it's a napkin sketch, a
prototype carved from foam rubber, or a digital mock-up, the quick-and-rough
models that designers constantly create are a critical component of innovation
—because when you give form to an idea, you begin to make it real.

But it's also true
that when you commit to an idea early—putting it out into the world while it's
still young and imperfect—you increase the possibility of short-term failure.
Designers tend to be much more comfortable with this risk than most of us. They
know that innovation often involves an iterative process with setbacks along the
way—and those small failures are actually useful because they show the designer
what works and what needs fixing. The designer's ability to "fail forward" is a
particularly valuable quality in times of dynamic change. Today, many companies
find themselves operating in a test-and-learn business environment that requires
rapid prototyping. Which is just one more reason to pay attention to the people
who've been conducting their work this way all along.