[TMA] Design Thinking Isn't Dead
From The Sofa of Peter Merholz—
This past week, I spoke at Re:Imagine Retail, an “immersive experience creation” event internal to Sam’s Club. The proceedings took place at Clubhouse, a new building designed from the ground up to enable innovation practices. To my surprise, the conceptual metaphor for the building was “design thinking,” featuring a series of rooms for each phase of the process—learn, imagine, build, test (the last being a 10,000 sq ft space that enables full-scale prototyping). And the event itself celebrated design thinking, bringing cross-functional groups together in a hackathon-like way to ideate new experiences.
My hypothesis as to why Sam’s Club maintained a thriving design thinking practice where other attempts fizzled out, is because it’s a membership organization, and seriously extols the value of being ‘member-centered.’ That mission-driven focus provides fertile soil for human-centered practices to take root.
My host for the event Martin Granstrom, turned me onto a book that still inspires him 15 years later: Roger Martin’s The Design of Business. And while it has some… unfortunate exemplars (RIM, the creators of Blackberry, get a lot of coverage), the book’s core thesis is both strong, and very relevant, particularly for those looking for ways to talk about the value of designerly approaches in a business context. And you can find it used for hella-cheap.
What does a Super Senior IC do all day?
Long ago, I exhorted super-senior ICs to be more public about their work, so they can serve as a model for those interested in that career path, and for design teams considering those roles.
In response, Valentina Ferrari shared the specifics of her role as a Principal UX Designer at Amazon.
Latest Finding Our Way is out!
Yesterday I hit publish on the latest episode of Finding Our Way (episode 50!), featuring Leslie Witt, Chief Product and Design Officer at Headspace.
As Jesse and I probe on the subject of ‘what’s next?’ for design and design leaders, Leslie’s career journey, from architect to IDEO practitioner to design and then product executive provides tons of insight on potential paths forward. Find it in your podcatcher of choice, or listen and read on the web.
A Halloween Costume Idea
In my drafts, I have a post (or at least a lengthy comment) about how service designers, from an org and management perspective, are pains in the ass. I’ll hold off on that for now, and instead share this Halloween costume idea from Jeff Humble:
And, as one reader found out this past week, “Reply” does work if you want to reach out to me. And don’t forget the “Forward” function to help spread the word to those who would benefit what I have to share. Thank you.
—peter