Product Design | keepingithuman

I recently chatted with Mike Harding, innovator and developer, about creating awesome new products and services. I met Mike when we both presented product and service innovation sessions at The 2012 Silicon Valley Product Camp at eBay in March. He has worked with numerous startups ranging from fruit and produce wholesaling to Java application servers. Mike worked to bring software and developers into the networking world at Juniper Networks. His current startup is re.vu, a personal landing page for your professional brand. When not working, Mike loves to spend time with his family on the California coast.

Kathy Klotz-Guest (KKG): Why do companies often get ‘new’ products and services wrong?

Mike Harding (MH): We are brilliant individually and stupid together. <Laughs!>

That gets magnified with the size of an organization. Take the size of the human brain and apply that to the number of relationships people can maintain with fidelity. Somewhere after about 100 or so people get involved, you break into multiple tribes. Then you get ‘drag’ applied and ideas stall.

We are pack animals. Humans want to be part of a pack and improve their positions in the pack. Products are a symptom of that human condition. I am working on a product now and they (the client) are faced with a huge “innovator’s dilemma.” The investment to do this would be less than $10MM. So the question is do we do the same old thing or really break with the past and dare to do something different?

KKG: How much does risk-aversion tie our hands creatively when it comes to innovation?

MH: It’s huge, as we both know!

KKG: We build in the wrong incentives and reward the wrong behavior.

MH: Yes. You never see anyone publicly celebrate failure or give positive attention to those who champion failures. Failure is an important teacher!

KKG: Some companies do. Like Intuit. It’s the ‘fail fast and fail forward’ mentality.

MH: Wish there were more companies doing that. I was reading about one of the founders of Pinterest…and Pinterest was a pivot. Big companies don’t like having to pivot. It’s too uncertain. And pivoting – they don’t say failing – is often critical to success. Knowing when to do that is tricky and vital. I asked one of my big company clients how much risk they were willing to take on. There is smart risk and dumb risk. If you don’t understand the risk, maybe it’s a dumb risk. There is a certain amount of risk you can’t plan away; you do have to understand what you are dealing with.

KKG: How can organizations of all sizes go beyond the ‘obvious’ product and service extensions – meaning from mere upgrades to products that push boundaries forward?

MH: Get out from behind your computer. Experience the world without preconceived notions. Go smell a flower. Build paper airplanes and see if they work. Play games. Go bowling. How does the path of the ball change down the lane? Go for a walk. Unplug.

Don’t be so tethered to your email. This notion that we are increasingly connected; we are abusing it. The most rare thing today isn’t time – it’s our attention. Too much multi-tasking hurts our ability to be inspired and concentrate well on just a few things. Remember that creation is a holistic process. You need to engage in some creative process physically and that helps the mental agility. Doing mindless task frees us to have insights. Frequently breakthroughs happen when you do something out of character enough to get your subconscious to work. It’s the ping pong table effect, and that is why it’s there in so many break rooms, or used to be.

KKG: You also have to get past this ‘I don’t want to fail…I don’t want to look stupid’ mentality.

MH: No question. I am an introvert, and I can do it! You have to be OK with “pivoting.”

KKG: You quote the great tech pioneer Alan Kay: A change in perspective is worth 80 IQ points. Of course, that can happen in either direction <laughs!> What are some ways companies can change their perspectives in order to create awesome products?

MH: Be genuine about what you know and what you don’t know. Be humble. What you think the market is may not be the market. Companies lose this notion that they have personal responsibility to think about growth. You have to revisit some basic assumptions. And you can’t know what you don’t know. Losing 80 IQ points …that’s usually about analysis paralysis, and a lack of conviction. Some people hope to change their perspective with more data. We often hide behind process, data and data tools….humans do hide behind tools. Unlike metal, these things don’t bend that way. Enlist the power of the story, as you describe it, Kathy. Encourage smart-risk taking. That’s how you change perspective.

END PART 1

Steve Jobs was an amazing creative force. Much has already been written in the last day after his passing and much will be written about his contributions to movie animation, to computing and to music for years to come.

His contributions were far reaching, and among the most profound of those was his insistence on keeping technology (and marketing) simple and “human.” Jobs not only simplified technology, he never forgot that he was creating products for people – to make their lives easier and better. He built the kinds of products he wanted. He started with the “human factor.” How do people use technology and why is so much technology so anti-human? He saw an opportunity to focus on making technology elegant, sleek, and “user-friendly” – Apple’s distinct point of difference compared to its PC counterparts. Apple made “user-friendly” a part of our design and marketing lexicon, and put itself at the center of a customer-centric technological revolution.

Jobs infused a liberal arts-based, anthropological approach to product design. He put users at the center of the product universe; challenging the status quo of computing that forced humans to conquer steep learning curves, regardless of what their “human needs” were. His products helped unleash creativity and the Mac became the platform of choice for artists and designers (and still is for many).

And he simplified not just technology design, he revolutionized marketing. A masterful showman and storyteller, Jobs also made technology marketing fun, exciting and uncomplicated. In his predicable and simple stage uniform of jeans and a black turtleneck, Jobs took the focus off of himself and any CEO largesse. Instead, he put the spotlight on products. They were the star, and yet, with his stamp all over them, his name became synonymous with product and corporate leadership. As the years and evolutions happened, Apple (and Jobs) never lost sight of the fact that “simplicity” and “user-friendly” were core brand attributes that shaped everything it did. And brand control, of course, driven by an unwavering commitment to simple, quality products. And he proved that keeping technology and marketing simple was anything but. That was his genius.

Jobs’ ability to tell a great product story on stage is mirrored by his own life story which parallels Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey archetype. Kicked out of the company he started by 30, Jobs later returned and redeemed it. After a series of missteps and CEOs that brought Apple to its knees, Jobs’ resurgence as chief executive brought a company on the precipice back to runaway financial success. He grew its profits by over 7,000%. And he did it with a singular focus putting humanity and simplicity at the core of Apple’s products.

Jobs’ leadership style has been dissected by the press over and over. He wasn’t the easiest guy to get along with all the time. Few driven leaders are. Jobs is revered as an icon in the leadership literature, and Apple is a classic textbook case study in marketing. His story and the rise of Apple make me proud of my Silicon Valley heritage (born and raised here, folks!).

But the venerated Jobs-as-leadership “model” also gives me pause. You see, how many leaders are there out there like Jobs? Painfully few. Jobs’ passing leaves a vacuum in the Valley in terms of customer-centric leadership. Jobs was one of a kind. But the fact that we cite Apple and Jobs as “THE” model (and it used to be HP in the Valley) makes me ask, “where are the other inspirational leaders in Silicon Valley that champion simplicity and humanity?” We need more similarly-minded leaders, more business culture templates to be written, and we need more storyteller role models in technology. Jobs will always be a model, but if he remains the only one we cite, we’re in trouble.

Because I grew up here, I will always welcome (and agree with!) the Jobs-as-icon accolades. And I want to be able to stand up and say to the world, “We can replicate that success. See, we’re not just innovators in technology! We’re innovators in leadership and in business culture. Look at all these examples.”

If Jobs has inspired nothing else, let it be another human-focused, leadership-led renaissance. After all, it’s part of our innovation heritage.

Creating Awesome Products and Services: Part I, Interview with Mike Harding

Jobs' Genius: Making Technology More Human

Follow Me

+1

News

Keeping it Human Opt-in