10 Lessons for Design-Driven Success [Fast Company]
Fast Company released their 10th annual issue dedicated to what they call Innovation by Design. Today, for businesses to thrive, a new kind of creativity is required. The 10 lessons they highlight in the article are listed below. To read the full article, click here.
Photo from fastcodesign.com
1. DESIGN STARTS AT THE TOP
Successful design-driven organizations are often distinguished by a close personal rapport between the top business leader and the top designer.
2. THE APPLE MYTH IS POWERFUL–AND INCOMPLETE
“The greatest business story of the past two decades is completely misunderstood,” Chafkin writes. As it turns out, the integration of disparate efforts–each often devised in secrecy–has defined Apple’s process.”
3. TODAY’S DISASTER IS TOMORROW’S TRIUMPH
Apple’s introduction of the Cube in 2000 flopped, but, “it set the foundation for almost all of our future products.” As Rubinstein explains, “We learned a lot about materials, curved plastics, touch switches.”
4. ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL
If there is any overriding model to design-driven solutions, it is that there is no single overriding model for anything.
5. YES, VIRGINIA, PENNY-WISE IS POUND-FOOLISH
If Apple hadn’t embraced a design vision, Genius Bars might never have been. And Apple Stores might not boast the highest sales per square foot of any retailer.
6. DESIGN HUNGER IS REAL
Retailers such as Target have long capitalized on the appeal of well-designed products, and today’s consumer is more discerning–and more responsive–than ever.
7. THERE’S SOMETHING NEW UNDER THE SUN
In an era of big data, we can convince ourselves that if we just watch consumers closely enough and look at the numbers the right way, all our problems will be solved. But consumers will rarely alert us to opportunities they have not yet seen.
8. A WELL-DESIGNED PRODUCT DOES NOT EQUAL A WELL-DESIGNED BUSINESS
Beauty is way more than skin-deep. Apple has thrived not simply because each of its products is lustworthy, but because of the way they reinforce one another (unlike at enterprises such as Microsoft).
9. THE BIG PICTURE IS A MASS OF DETAILS
“Jenna [Lyons] is a designer all day long,” says J.Crew brand president Libby Wadle of the company’s executive creative director, “but she can also have conversations about real estate, about parts of running the business. . . . Her head is not in the clouds.”
10. IT IS STILL DAY ONE
Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, uses the expression “day one” to describe how far along his enterprise is in its maturation: Despite two decades of success and growth, Bezos contends, Amazon is at the beginning.
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