DISQUS

Caddell Insight Group Blog: We have an innovation problem, and it is miles and miles of indistinguishable stuff

  • wimrampen · 2 months ago
    Hi John,

    Great post. I think you touched some of the most important marketing nerves. I could not agree more with the majority of your post therefor.

    I do not understand though, what your last paragraph is about. Tim Brown and many other great marketing, designers, innovators, managers, teachers etc etc, advocate a design thinking approach to problem solving. Nothing wrong with that.

    What I am trying to say: Design Thinker is not a profession nor a job. Design Thinking is a mindset, an approach, a way of working (together). On top of that it is a creative process and that makes working the Design Thinking-way fun for me too.

    My suggestion: If you do not seem to find the right solutions to your problems over and over again, or you want to test a new approach to see if there is more to gain, you may want some "design thinkers" to support you, or join you, on your journey.

    By definition Design Thinkers that take over your problem and solve it for you, do not exist.
  • Russ Hatfield Jr. · 2 months ago
    Like Wim, I agree with most of your post. Though, "design" does extend beyond the product and should include the entire "experience". So, it's certainly true that product managers and developers have been doing A PART of this traditionally, but the experience is end-to-end so, by definition, also extends outside their scope of work and even influence.

    Since reality is perception in many cases, I can imagine that sometimes it's easier(not necessarily "better", but easier) to change the perception of a product/service via marketing than to actually innovate the product/service itself. The TED talk by R. Sutherland speaks to this: http://www.ted.com/talks/rory_sutherland_life_l.... Diamond Shreddies. Hilarious -- but imagine that!

    And what of "demand". That is, as much as we might see me-too, copycat products we also see consumers buying me-too, copycat products and services. There stands great opportunity to differentiate yourself if you can "snap" customers out of this sometimes-lazy, sometimes-pragmatic thinking(see Apple and iEverything). But we also need to change our expectations as consumers. Marketers create the market to some extent, but I guarantee that as soon as consumers truly demonstrate they seek innovative solutions(and are willing to pay for them) we'll see a flow of innovation unleashed.

    Great post. Has given me lots to think about!

    Thanks!
    Russ
    Seattle, WA
    http://www.twitter.com/russhatfield
  • jmcaddell · 2 months ago
    Guys, thanks for your thoughts. I'm maybe being a little unfair to Tim Brown in saying that his view of design thinking is tilted toward design consultants like IDEO. But those are his examples, and the one example I've read thus far (in the first 180 pages of the book) of IDEO helping a company institute the culture internally is not very successful.

    At any rate, I agree with both of you that Innovation is too important to be left to the marketing department. But at the same time if marketing ceases to involve innovation and is limited to packaging, pricing and promotion, I will find another profession!
  • Russ Hatfield Jr. · 2 months ago
    As "interesting" as Brown's(and IDEO's) case studies are I am often left wondering just how workable these are on wider scales. We can certainly gain some insight by studying these examples but, as you imply, I agree there are many ways to "skin this cat" ; )

    And I sure hope you're leading the innovation efforts as a marketer. Just don't leave it to the engineers, ala The Big Three ; )

    Thanks again!
    Russ