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A review by jwsg
Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation by Tim Brown
3.0
I fell in love with IDEO and the concept of design thinking after reading Tom Kelley's The Art of Innovation. Reading my November 2008 review of the book, I see that it says "The book flags somewhat in the middle - there are still plenty of anecdotes about the company's projects, but they're like the flashes of scenery you glimpse through the window of a train - intriguing but you wish the train moved just a wee bit slower so you could see more details. You're left feeling impressed that IDEO was behind so many clever products, but you wish Kelley could have delved a little bit into the backstory to the design and development process, as opposed to the traditional "top 10" list-approach of so many management books."
It's uncanny because that pretty much sums up how I feel about Tim Brown's - the CEO of IDEO - Change by Design. Brown notes that Change by Design is not intended to be a "how to" guide, but that it seeks to provide a framework that will help the reader identify the principles and practices. So like the Art of Innovation, it's a whirlwind tour through the key elements of design thinking - observation and from observation, insight into unmet needs (sometimes looking at extreme users to gain these insights), brainstorming, prototyping. And like the Art of Innovation, Change by Design frustrates because it skims the surface just so and fails to make a convincing case on how and why design thinking works. Change by Design is just littered with examples of companies and organisations that have successfully employed design thinking. But Brown lists these examples like students on the honor roll, without elaborating how exactly they incorporated design thinking into their organisation, and the design thinking journey. They just did and it works! Like Pangea Organics that wanted to sell "the idea of sustainability, wellness and responsibility" that led to a "comprehensive rebranding". Or how JW Marriott applied its insight that it is the "exhale moment" when a visitor enters his room, not his check in, that is the critical moment in the customer journey. Or IDEO's own use of design thinking to reinvent the firm, where they came up with "one IDEO" and the "global practices" model. All these instances (and many more) just leave the reader tantalised, frustrated, wanting to know more but forced to accept the declaration that "design thinking is great. it helped all these firms do better". And at the beginning of the book, Brown states that the book will also touch on how "on occasion, [design thinking] has overreached". I would have dearly loved to read that part but apart from a small paragraph on how the children's toothbrushes that IDEO helped design for Oral B were unenvironmentally friendly and ended up as flotsam in the sea, I couldn't really find anything on this front.
Overall, Change by Design is still an interesting read, but it probably does better preaching to the converted than it does convincing the design thinking sceptics.
It's uncanny because that pretty much sums up how I feel about Tim Brown's - the CEO of IDEO - Change by Design. Brown notes that Change by Design is not intended to be a "how to" guide, but that it seeks to provide a framework that will help the reader identify the principles and practices. So like the Art of Innovation, it's a whirlwind tour through the key elements of design thinking - observation and from observation, insight into unmet needs (sometimes looking at extreme users to gain these insights), brainstorming, prototyping. And like the Art of Innovation, Change by Design frustrates because it skims the surface just so and fails to make a convincing case on how and why design thinking works. Change by Design is just littered with examples of companies and organisations that have successfully employed design thinking. But Brown lists these examples like students on the honor roll, without elaborating how exactly they incorporated design thinking into their organisation, and the design thinking journey. They just did and it works! Like Pangea Organics that wanted to sell "the idea of sustainability, wellness and responsibility" that led to a "comprehensive rebranding". Or how JW Marriott applied its insight that it is the "exhale moment" when a visitor enters his room, not his check in, that is the critical moment in the customer journey. Or IDEO's own use of design thinking to reinvent the firm, where they came up with "one IDEO" and the "global practices" model. All these instances (and many more) just leave the reader tantalised, frustrated, wanting to know more but forced to accept the declaration that "design thinking is great. it helped all these firms do better". And at the beginning of the book, Brown states that the book will also touch on how "on occasion, [design thinking] has overreached". I would have dearly loved to read that part but apart from a small paragraph on how the children's toothbrushes that IDEO helped design for Oral B were unenvironmentally friendly and ended up as flotsam in the sea, I couldn't really find anything on this front.
Overall, Change by Design is still an interesting read, but it probably does better preaching to the converted than it does convincing the design thinking sceptics.