We Make Money Not Art (link via Boing Boing) has posted a wide-ranging interview with Peder Burgaard, the Event Manager of Denmark’s Innovation Lab, which organizes the annual NEXT conference on technology and innovation. For the next five months or so, Peder will be interning at the Institute for the Future
(IFTF), a Palo Alto-based non-profit think tank that is mapping the
future for large companies in the Silicon Valley as well as for
governments and companies around the world.
In response to one question from the interviewer about NEXT, Peder
explains how design is becoming an integral part of the product development process:
"The interaction art projects at NEXT are to be seen as an emerging
trend where involvement of artists and designers in the finishing touch
of consumer products will increase. So the gap between pure consumer
development and artist aesthetic expressions will be winding and
eventually join forces. Research studies have shown that more aesthetic
products have a correlated improvement on user interaction. And the
ever increasing demand on technology for ease of use will have artist
leading the way of innovation in the future. Perfect example of this is
the iPod which has a beautiful design and just feels nice and intuitive
to operate."
Check out this podcast; an interview with me about listening and innovation (entitled The Listening Revolutionary).
The whole thing is 25 minutes, but honestly, I haven’t listened to it beyond the first 30 seconds - I start hearing stuff I said that I wish had said differently, or better, or not at all, but the conversation felt good while it was happening, so I’m going to trust that what’s up there now is reasonably interesting and hopefully worth your time.
So i thought i’d put this out to the community… it’s been kindof slow lately here and i thought that to jazz things up readers would comment on some of the areas we’re not covering, or that you would like to see emerge in our conversations… suggestions? comments?
I thought I’d infuse this blog with a pre-weekend fun post… 
it’s been quiet lately…
I thought this was a quite intriguing and clever demonstration of innovation in thinking and product development. A famous London-based tailor has been blogging about his business practice for some time now and now that business is booming and stronger than ever, he has decided to produce LESS suits and asks his customers, most of whom also read his blog, what they thought about the idea. The back and forth conversation in the comments is worth the read and illustrates in a way a “user-centric” approach to business development…
25 or so years experience as a design practitioner has bought its fair share of success [and failure] in terms of business, I often cannot help but think that just maybe design and business do not, will not and possibly will never sit well together. I don’t think it is just me - designers think in particular ways and often if not invariably have priorities, preferences and values that are difficult to align with many business imperatives. Perhaps it is this tension that has and will forever act as the irritant that creates pearls.
The respective headspaces are often for all intensive purposes at least different if not divergent despite objectives seeming the same or at least similar. Is it a right brain/left brain thing? Do business people really "get" what designers do, how they think and the kinds of decisions and contributions they make to a given process. A lot has been said in recent times about it.
Luke Wroblewski has created an interesting and potentially contentious table of comparisons about this very topic - I don’t recall it being referred to at CPH previously…apologies if it has been.
I expect to be disagreed with here so fire away! 
I find it very interesting as an industrial designer that the Kellogg School of Management is offering now a 3 day course on managing product design and development. For the low price of $4500 that includes a talk on “Understanding the value of design as a strategy”, “Ideation and concept selection” and “Essential ingredients for continuous innovation” it makes my bachelor’s degree look pre-industrial : ) or rather really illustrates the steps that business is taking towards understanding design but what about the other way around? What are the available tools for designers? I know my “Professional Practice” class was less than sufficient in understanding the business implications of my creative work. Anyone had a better experience?
ViaPutting People First.