"Quality" in a product or service is not what the supplier puts in. It is what the customer gets out and is willing to pay for. A product is not "quality" because it is hard to make and costs a lot of money, as manufacturers typically believe. That is incompetence. Customers pay only for what is of use to them and gives them value. Nothing else constitutes "quality.”
Drucker, Peter F. Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Practice and Principles. New York: Harper Row,1986, p.228.
I agree - for me design and innovation is about more - it’s about:
1. Form
2. Function
3. Timing
4. Emotion
How do you frame a good invention/design/innovation?
This might be a bit philosophical but I have been thinking about how the design process is much the same as a democratic political process (should be). The democratic process much like the design process takes basis in the user of the design or policy. In both cases the people (should) rule since when they do they respond with loyalty - to the politician or to the company. However, it seems to me that modern politics are drifting away from this fact in much the same way that cooperations are.
So if we imply that modern politicians really want to get back to the roots of democratcy and get closer to the ones that vote (they do, dont they?) what can politicians learn from the design process? Can the design process secure the relevance, impact and usefullness of the policy the politician want to create? The British Design Council have some really interesting stuff about this that gives some perspective. But what’s your view on this?
Here’s two manholes. The one to the left is from the US and the one to the right is from Japan. That’s pretty amazing.
Now you’ll probably all think I am going nuts, but I really am not. I sincerely hope not.
I just saw this in a blog post and thought it would be a great way of showing that Japan is not fighting us on 1-dollar-an-hour labour, but on creative and innovative themes that we believe is going to save us. Isn’t that pretty simple? To most politicians it’s not.
By the way I got this from Kathy Sierra of the Creating Passionate Users blog. Thanks for observating this Kathy, this is going to turn into one of my best powerpoint slides ever! 