http://www.cheskin.com/blog/perspectives/ en-us http://www.cheskin.com/blog/blog/archives/001117.html Since Roger Martin and I co-chaired a DMI conference on Design Thinking in June, I have been hearing and reading a lot of very good designers respond by expressing their discomfort, mounting all out attacks, and some even denying the existence of the subject. While there are a larger number... Innovation & Design Darrel Rhea 2010-01-10T15:34:56-08:00 http://www.cheskin.com/blog/blog/archives/001116.html Most of my career has been spent on the front lines of commercial design where the rules and standards are quite clear. Design needs to be clearly understood by the masses. I am in Miami attending two events this week; Art Basel and Design Miami where the rules are very... Innovation & Design Darrel Rhea 2009-12-05T15:22:59-08:00 http://www.cheskin.com/blog/blog/archives/001111.html Thursday night my wife Nancy and I stood at the edge of a 3000 ft. cliff over looking Yosemite Valley. A full moon and sky full of stars lit Half Dome and the sheer walls of the valley below. We had Glacier Point to ourselves, not a person within many... Meaningful Experience Darrel Rhea 2009-11-08T20:23:26-08:00 http://www.cheskin.com/blog/blog/archives/001106.html Wouldn't it be great if we could just tap into the body's physical responses to design by leveraging the best technology, software and science? We could remove all the messy, subjective and mysterious parts of understanding how people are influenced by aesthetics. It has long been a promise of science... Methods & Techniques Darrel Rhea 2009-08-26T10:53:12-08:00 http://www.cheskin.com/blog/blog/archives/001093.html Here is a short history about the integration of design and research practices…… In the olden days, not so long ago…. Mars & Venus. Consumer Insights professionals and Designer were from different worlds. They attracted different types of people, different ways of thinking and problem solving, and different processes. The... Innovation & Design Darrel Rhea 2009-07-25T21:40:36-08:00 http://www.cheskin.com/blog/blog/archives/001083.html The business world has woken up to the need to manage their relationships with customers with a more holistic framework than “products services and brands.” And many of us in Design have long been asserting that “experience” is the way to think about and guide the organization on their value-creation... Meaningful Experience Darrel Rhea 2009-05-31T14:32:31-08:00 http://www.cheskin.com/blog/blog/archives/001079.html Following my last post, I recently met Roy Green, Dean of the Business School at UTS (University of Technology, Sydney, an impressive B-school with over 10,000 students). Roy is leading the enlightened charge to bring Design Thinking to Australia’s academic world. While Australia has some great design talent, the country... Innovation & Design Darrel Rhea 2009-05-03T16:48:17-08:00 http://www.cheskin.com/blog/blog/archives/001078.html Today I visited the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western. I had meetings with 10 of the faculty and have a half a dozen students in the MBA and Doctoral programs. Like other leading Business schools, Weatherhead is integrating Design Methods with more traditional B-school curriculum. Why? They certainly... Innovation & Design Darrel Rhea 2009-05-02T12:34:42-08:00 http://www.cheskin.com/blog/blog/archives/001076.html I’m not sure how I ended up on the stage at the Design Museum in Milan, an imposing temple to Italy’s product design genius, flanked by internationally renowned Italian designers. Sitting next to me was Stefano Giovannoni (a best selling Alessi rockstar), Francesco Lovo (Pininfarina’s design head), Luisa Bocchietto (President... Innovation & Design Darrel Rhea 2009-04-13T05:30:55-08:00 http://www.cheskin.com/blog/blog/archives/001035.html This morning I’m painting a landscape in Photoshop, trying to overcome my early training as a technical illustrator to get loose and wet with the ‘paint.’ It is clear that when I tighten up my painting style, it becomes both more technically accurate/realistic -- and totally uninteresting. When I use... Innovation & Design Darrel Rhea 2009-02-01T13:40:14-08:00 http://www.cheskin.com/blog/blog/archives/001033.html When the result of thoughtful synthesis reveals a basic truth and presents it with elegant simplicity, it often appears in retrospect to be obvious. There is something about that level of intellectual coherence that becomes irresistible. This is especially true with consumer insights work and design research, but it also... Innovation & Design Darrel Rhea 2009-01-25T17:29:46-08:00 http://www.cheskin.com/blog/blog/archives/001027.html Stepping back and looking at the practice of innovation more broadly, what is shifting? A lot of big things are happening. Anyone who reads knows that innovation and design have been getting a lot of attention in the media in the last couple of years. Not surprisingly, we learn that... Innovation & Design Darrel Rhea 2009-01-19T17:31:09-08:00 http://www.cheskin.com/blog/blog/archives/001029.html It’s always satisfying when one’s work is acknowledged and spreads within a community. Since writing Making Meaning with Steve Diller and Nathan Shedroff, the ideas we put forward have been widely embraced. We’ve had dozens of positive reviews, with scores of articles and books referencing or quoting our book. One... Innovation & Design Darrel Rhea 2009-01-07T21:20:06-08:00 http://www.cheskin.com/blog/blog/archives/001026.html Given the unprecedented changes in the economy, is innovation still relevant in this environment? Fundamentally, innovation is about finding new and better ways to attract and delight customers. It’s about being more effective and more competitive in producing value. In an economic contraction such as we are experiencing, the environment... Innovation & Design Darrel Rhea 2009-01-04T17:23:20-08:00 http://www.cheskin.com/blog/blog/archives/001024.html Recently, Roger Martin, Dean of Rotman School of Management, and I shared a conversation on stage at The Commonwealth Club. We discussed innovation from various angles, such as why companies should leverage innovation during times of economic stress. But it’s not just the economy that is making innovation an imperative.... Innovation & Design Darrel Rhea 2008-11-25T15:10:12-08:00