Customer is King

<p>The gap between good intentions and impact of the resulting action (or choice) has been an area of interest to me. A decade ago, a Brad Pitt linked non-profit messed up an affordable homes project [2008-2015] in New Orleans. Meant to be green and sustainable, the homes had severe structural and mold problems. 6 of&#8230;</p>

<p>A feature to allow you to schedule food orders with your preferred food delivery service.</p>

<p>As some businesses get increasingly exploitative, sometimes other businesses and sometimes a divine intervention comes to counter the effect.</p>

<p>With the stopping of production of Segways last year, but its more affordable robotic startup Ninebot doing well, one wonders if affordability must be integral to the success of a business depending on the business model and whom it aims to cater to.</p>

<p>Zomato has a nicely done vertical slider for their filter options on their mobile app. It&#8217;s just simpler, logical and easy to use. Odd how we still have horizontal sliders on apps.</p>

<p>If you are a manager struggling with business growth or stuck with trying to create the next great product or service, till 14th September, head to https://www.ateamstrategy.in/ for relevant options for quick innovation or growth challenge related support on call. No hassles of long, expensive consulting projects. Just simple help with uncomplicating challenges and suggesting ways to solve or innovate.</p>

<p>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Soap Dispenser Design This here is an ancient shampoo dispenser that broke last month. It was a crappy design for a few reasons. Firstly, because of how the pumps are placed (at the bottom). It would not stand on its own when you needed to refill. You either&#8230;</p>

<p>My 9 Step Version of the Design Thinking Process This post about my 9-step version of the design thinking process has been long overdue. It is already explained in my book, ‘Design the Future’, but I also wanted to share it here for those interested. The five-step Stanford design thinking process is arguably the most&#8230;</p>

<p>The pros and &#8220;Cons&#8221; of Storytelling! Storytelling. Steve Jobs wasn&#8217;t the first to talk about, or practice it. Nor was he the first one to focus on the customer and build differentiation. Function and form. And he wasn&#8217;t the first to capture customer personalities, traits and passions in their marketing and communication, instead of just&#8230;</p>

<p>Airline Seats and Behaviour Do you think those extremely uncomfortable airline seats have anything to do with our behaviour when we are flying? Remember the last flight you took. Unless you were traveling business or first class, you can&#8217;t forget the tiny seats. And the armrests, that always seem to have gotten closer from the&#8230;</p>

<p>The Non-Financial Side of Business A call with an industry colleague last week set in motion, thoughts on how we measure individual or business success. As a kid growing up in India in the 80&#8217;s, studies used to be quite a tricky part of life. Studying history, for instance. We had a ton of dates&#8230;</p>

<p>Why Design Thinking is Here to Stay A close friend recently shared this article titled &#8216;Why Design Thinking will fail&#8217;, written in 2013 by Jeffrey Tjendra. Jeffrey is a designer entrepreneur and strategist. Among some of us friends, there was were points of disagreement on the article. Jeffrey does seem to have a good understanding&#8230;</p>

<p>What&#8217;s Your Profession? Did You Bring More Soldiers? In 1970s, according to the TV series Mindhunter at least, the FBI was filled with accountants &amp; lawyers instead of more relevant experts in areas that mattered. That is, in place of behavioral analysts. That seems to have been the case with the Indian Venture Capital industry&#8230;</p>

<p>The Illusion of Ratings and Feedback Life in present times has become an increasingly rapid process of experiences and feedback. Businesses are always asking us to rate the services or experiences they offer. And often, they feel inclined to &#8220;reward&#8221; us for it. While no one&#8217;s complaining about the free stuff or great discounts, are&#8230;</p>

<p>Design Thinking &#8211; Shelters for the Homeless [3.5 minute read] Here&#8217;s the next post, towards sharing stories and incidents around design thinking in daily lives, towards a better collective understanding. My earlier post was about taps at home, and why house helps might be wasting water. If you missed that, here&#8217;s the link. Now, in&#8230;</p>

<p>Design Thinking &#8211; Water Taps at Home [7 minute read] I&#8217;ve had the habit of applying aspects of Design Thinking to my work and personal life for some time now. In fact, off late it is literally a &#8216;permanently on&#8217; app running in my head. I use it to review products or services, or to&#8230;</p>

<p>An idea using a Design Thinking mindset, for Tesla&#8217;s Supercharging Wait Time Problem Tesla has really transformed the automobile industry, cracking the existing fuel industry and automotive heavyweight nexus. And this is despite the first versions of electric motor driven vehicles dating back to 1828! That&#8217;s when Hungarian Ányos Jedlik invented a type of electric&#8230;</p>

<p>Design Thinking: What a Patient Wants Design Thinking is a relatively new concept in many countries including India. It is, however, already some decades old now. And having been practicing it for a few years now, I often get asked what it is about. And for examples of its applications. For starters, design thinking is&#8230;</p>

<p>Image (only used the LG image because I use one of their models at home): source I&#8217;m not exactly on top of the latest microwave oven features. Don&#8217;t think I even know most of the old ones. But if this feature doesn&#8217;t already exist, it would be great to have. I&#8217;m assuming this is how&#8230;</p>