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<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>Venture Capital Elevator Pitches I left my job at a venture capital (VC) firm in 2010. After freelancing for a bit I then worked with a high-technology company in the robotics space. I then started my own strategy consulting practice, which over the years has matured into an interesting blend of design thinking, management strategy&#8230;</p>

<p>&nbsp; The Entrepreneur in a Venture Capital World Imagine a food connoisseur has a vision of opening a restaurant. Selling a carefully crafted list of delicacies, whose preparation has taken years to refine. This aficionado has thought of everything. The cutlery that would highlight the preparations, what the entrance to the restaurant would be like, the&#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>Pigs Rule I recently found myself around a humorous discussion around politics at a relatives&#8217; home.A grand aunt asked another relative if they planned on getting into politics. The relative laughingly retorted that for one to be in politics, they must be prepared to hit and to be hit. As an example, he cited a&#8230;</p>

<p>Number Fifty-Four&#8230; &#8230;The bike with a bamboo core! What does it take for innovation to be possible? Simply, just the intention. You need to want it badly enough to make it possible. I happened to see this online a long time ago. I am still in awe of it though. People in Ghana find themselves&#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>Vulnerability of Tech Processes and Human Decisions Here are two interesting incidents I came across online in the last week. One, about a seemingly harmless vulnerability in an online service&#8217;s process. The other, a possible vulnerability in human decisions in a human-dependent, traditional business. First of, a French literary buff, conducted an interesting experiment. It&#8230;</p>

<p>India has seen an almost meteoric rise in the number of SUVs and compact-SUVs in the last few years. Perhaps the size fits in well with our gradually growing economy, disposable incomes, and egos. Among things that haven&#8217;t grown, is our sense of driving and responsible presence on the road. India&#8217;s roads are getting more&#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>Image: source A Design Question: Turn Indicators on Cars As cars get sleeker, so do its lights. But I&#8217;ve noticed that the entire rear light cluster has been shrinking in size on some cars. And in some, the turn indicators are designed or placed in a way that possibly defeats its purpose. A car&#8217;s rear&#8230;</p>

<p>Our Right to Privacy Image source Towards the last week of August this year, here in India there was a landmark Supreme Court verdict that a lot of you must have heard/read about. It had something to do with the citizens of India, and our right to privacy. After the initial petitions that were filed&#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>Form or Function? How about Form and Function? The eternal fight between form and function. Between show and effectiveness. Between being followed by a herd with questionable loyalty, and walking with a small group with unwavering conviction in your vision. Here&#8217;s a fancy looking video by HBX, Harvard&#8216;s online programs platform. Professor Christensen undoubtedly sounds like&#8230;</p>

<p>More women in labour and new mothers die in the US than in any other high-income country. And the CDC Foundation estimates that 60% of these deaths are preventable! 60%!! In one of the most developed countries in the world. And since 1990, only 13 countries in the world have seen a rise in maternal&#8230;</p>

<p>India&#8217;s Roads and Bottlenecks Bottlenecks and traffic jams on the streets. Are they an unavoidable phenomenon, or something we caused or created? Same with the lack of lane discipline in Indian drivers. Are drivers always to blame? Or could it be, that some part of the problem is because of how our roads are designed?&#8230;</p>