Author: Michael Higdon | 03.11.2009

I finally have a chance to sit down and write about the Future of Journalism Think Tank at the Reynolds School of Journalism‘s J Week. To make it easier to digest and easier to write, I’m breaking it up into six parts, that way if you don’t care about certain sections you can skip them. If you want the whole story, you can read it all.

To make it all easier, here’s a table of contents for the six parts:

1. The Process
2. Discoveries and highlights
   
3. Group 1 prototype
   
4. Group 2 prototype
5. Group 3 prototype
6. Critique & launching point

THE PROCESS

IDEO has a particular approach they use to invent or redesign products. They are a design firm with clients ranging from Bank of America to bicycle stores to cleaning companies.

Here is part 1 of a video about IDEO’s process. You can find the rest on YouTube:

The video provides examples of things IDEO has invented: neat-squeeze toothpaste tubes, Keep the Change(R) Bank of America savings account, Swiffer the first Microsoft mouse and the first Logitech mouse, etc. The video also gives you a brief look into how IDEO works its magic.

IDEO uses hundreds, maybe even thousands of post-it notes per client in order to accomplish the below tasks quickly. Watch the video to understand their work environment.

I will quote a breakout box (abridged) from a Business Week story on IDEO (in print, sorry) to put the rest of the entries into context:

Start quote

Step 1: Observation

IDEO’s psychologists, anthropologists and sociologists team up with corporate clients to understand the consumer experience. Some of IDEO’s techniques [basically be an investigative journalist or professional stalker]:

• Shadowing [...]
• Behavioral mapping Photographing people within a space, such as a hospital waiting room, over two or three days.
• Consumer journey Keeping track of all the interactions a consumer has with a product, service or space.
• Camera journals [...]
• Extreme user interviews Talking to people who really know – or know nothing – about a product or service and evaluating their experience using it.
• Storytelling [...]
• Unfocus groups [using diverse groups instead of homogenous groups.]

Step 2: Brainstorming

An intense idea-generating session analyzing data gathered by observing people. Each lasts no more than an hour. Rules of brainstorming are restricted and stenciled on the walls [this is some of the most important rules at IDEO]:

• Defer judgment Don’t dismiss any ideas [there is a time for judgment, now is not the time].
• Build on the ideas of others No “buts,” only “ands.”
• Encourage wild ideas Embrace the most out-0f-the-box notions because they can be the key to solutions.
• Go for quantity [...]
• Be visual [draw when you can]
• Stay focused on the topic [...]
• One conversation at a time [...]

Step 3: Rapid prototyping

Mocking up working models helps everyone visualize possible solutions and speeds up decision-making and innovation.

• Mock up everything [...]
• Use videography [...]
• Go fast [...]
• No frills [...]
• Create scenarios [...]
• Bodystorm Delineate different types of consumers and act out their roles

Step 4: Refining

At this stage, IDEO narrows down the choices to a few possibilities. Here’s how it’s done:

• Brainstorm [again but faster and more focused]
• Focus prototyping [...]
• Engage the client [...]
• Be disciplined [...]
• Focus [...]
• Get agreement [...]

Step 5: Implementation

Bring IDEO’s strong engineering, design and social-science capabilities to bear when actually creating a product or service.

Tap all resources [of the company]

The workforce Employees have advanced degrees in different kinds of engineering: mechanical, electrical, biomedical, software, aerospace, and manafacturing. Many are experts in materials science, computer-aided design, robotics, computer science, movie special effects, molding, industrial interaction, graphic and Web information, fashion and automotive design, business, communications, linguistics, sociology, ergonomics, cognitive psychology, biomechanics, art, therapy, ethnology, management consulting, statistics, mediciine and zoology.

End quote

The IDEO approach often can take anywhere from 3 weeks to 3 years depending on the client and the project. We only got 36 hours. But they sent four IDEO people to our think tank because they are just as interested in the Future of Journalism as journalists.

See the table of contents for how IDEO worked with us and what we actually did in that little room for 36 hours.