Innovation Journal: Week One

This is the first installment of my "Innovation Journal" for a class I am currently taking titled "Service Innovation Management".  For those who may have wandered onto this site, I am in the second year of my MBA at the University of Michigan (Ross).  (For those Michigan students wondering what class this is, check out BIT 678).

This class is about learning how to answer the question "What is Design Thinking?" and then learning how to answer the question "So, how do I apply it?"  Having joined the board of the Ross Design+Business Club last year, I've had a head start on these tasks.  Nonetheless, I've welcomed the opportunity to deepen my understanding and get additional opportunities to apply these techniques.

So what is design thinking?  My own definition would be:  it is about learning to think like a designer, which entails customer/user/human centric problem solving.  Before you dive in to problem solve, take a step back and ask "What is the problem?"  Sometimes the actual problem is actually very different than what it appears to be on the service...

We've partnered with Gravity Tank to get the professional scoop on how these techniques are implemented.  The class consists of breaking into student teams and applying the tools to real business problems.  Action-based learning at its finest.

So this class is called "Service Innovation Management".  What are services?  According to Wikipedia, services are intangible commodities.  In other words, services are what you pay someone to do for you.  (Think haircuts.)  In this class, we are mainly studying e-services, or technology-enabled services, like Facebook. (You don't pay for Facebook with money, but advertisers pay for the right to serve you promotions, so you get the service for free.)

The EDCI framework gives structure to class activities. Professor Nigel Melville is the course instructor and designed the EDCI model.  It stands for "Explore, Discover, Concept, Implement".  I've learned that in the design-thinking space, you're not legit unless you have your own framework for how you approach the work, so kudos to the prof for having his own!  I like it because it's simple and succinct.  (Those who study the design thinking space will notice all very similar.  Gravity Tank, IDEO, etc all have their own proprietary frameworks...)

The Explore phase is all about brainstorming.  Getting out of the box, talking to people, observing, starting to understand the space.  It can be uncomfortable because it is unknown.  However, the worst thing that can happen is not talking to enough people and missing the key insight that changes everything.

[Photo caption:  Design Thinking at the d-school, Stanford University]