Observation the Key to Innovation

I have long contended that artists and comedians had extraordinary powers of observations.  My sister is a talented artist and she notices the smallest details, which of course lead to her unbelievably realistic artwork.  She notices how many petals are on a flower, what direction lies the fur on a dog’s back lies, or the hills just in the distance.  Those details easily lost on the more casual observer.

Some of my favorite comedians seem to have a similar knack.  In fact, Jerry Seinfeld made a whole TV series by observing the obsurdities of every day life. 

In Denis Hauptly’s Something Really New, he outlines three simple steps to creating truly innovative products, which pretty much center around thoughtful observation.  What tasks do people try to accomplish?  How can an innovative product, service, or combination of things streamline and remove steps from the task?  He points to lots of great examples, but all center around letting rich observation and behavioral research (like the ethnography studies that I have seen done at many companies) lead to new categories of product.  Only by observing a busy mother managing her day and using products, can you really empathize with her and design new products to make her life easier.

In planning for Remarkable, we are actively taking this approach.  How many steps are involved in the task as currently implemented?  Ask a lot of questions.  How can the creative application of technology make the task easier and faster by eliminating steps?  The final product will benefit from lots of observation (not to mention the fact that I am designing this product for myself, really see the need for it, and can’t wait to use it).  Actively and thoughtfully streamlining the workflow will help the product stay simple and relevant.

10 Laws of Simplicity and the Business of Undoing

I just finished John Maeda’s The Laws of Simplicity.  This MIT professor also keeps a blog on the same topic.  The ten laws are as follows:

• Reduce: the simplest way to achieve simplicity is through thoughtful reduction
• Organize: organization makes a system of many appear fewer
• Time: Savings in time feel like simplicity
• Learn: Knowledge makes everything simpler
• Differences: Simplicity and complexity need each other
• Context: What lies in the periphery of simplicity is definitely not peripheral
• Emotion: More emotions are better than less
• Trust: In simplicity we trust
• Failure: Some things can never be made simple
• The One: Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious, and adding the meaningful.

I couldn’t help but draw a connection between John’s laws and the book Blue Ocean Strategy, which proposes that to create uncontested markets, one must purposely NOT do what the obvious competition does.  Features must be taken out.  Different elements must be emphasized.  Like the example in the book of contrasting Cirque de Soliel with traditional traveling circuses, one must decide what they are about and prune the rest (take out the animal acts and appeal to adults, instead of children, for instance).  If you have ever seen a Cirque show you can attest to the emotion, context, and differences that make all the difference.  They were able to dance around the elephants in their industry, so to speak, and deliver a whole new experience and create an amazing franchise.

This is a lesson for any new business, especially one finding a space in between other established players who are always seeking to do more, appeal to more customers, and create more noise.  To be successful, I firmly believe that one must thoughtfully and purposefully “undo” the competition by doing less, but doing it better. 

Simplicity will be the hallmark of Remarkable.  It will do something better, faster, and more satisfyingly (is that even a word?) than all the other alternatives.  Simple.