A conversation with Vijay Kumar, Professor Emeritus at the Illinois Tech’s Institute of Design and author of 101 Design Methods
“Seeing patterns in the data, that’s where framing insights matter. And the massive amount of data that I’ve collected, what are the insights, the key insights that come out? What are the patterns that I can see, that point to an opportunity for the future? What are the patterns and problems that people are facing that tell me there is a need that needs to be solved? All those questions about pattern finding and then framing insights or design research into usable forms that can frame your ideas for the future are critical, but that’s where I’ve seen a lot of teams and organizations are struggling with.”
Vijay Kumar is professor emeritus at the IIT’s Institute of Design in Chicago, and the author of 101 Design Methods: A Disciplined Approach for Driving Innovation in Your Organization. His entry into the field of design at its early developmental stages has provided him a comprehensive, sound understanding of method-based design that uses research to power insights and create breakthroughs for organizations around the world.
In this episode of Control the Room, I talk with Vijay about 101 Design Methods, vintage typewriters, and framing insights. Listen in to see dynamic systems with design-based structures re-shape how we interact with the world around us.
Show Highlights
[1:00] Vijay’s Background and Experience
[12:13] 101 Design Methods Overview
[16:02] Research and Modes in Innovation
[23:06] Systems Models and Their Components
[39:54] Vijay’s Final Thoughts and Takeaways
Links | Resources
Vijay’s LinkedIn
101 Design Methods
About the Guest
From the IIT’s Institute of Design, Vijay Kumar joins us on the show today. Vijay has studied design and its evolution from the earliest stages, and collaborated with pioneers in the field in both India and America. His years of teaching thousands of students and consulting for countless organizations contribute to a duality of empathy and expertise that is rarely seen, but dearly needed.
About Voltage Control
Voltage Control is a facilitation agency that helps teams work better together with custom-designed meetings and workshops, both in-person and virtual. Our master facilitators offer trusted guidance and custom coaching to companies who want to transform ineffective meetings, reignite stalled projects, and cut through assumptions. Based in Austin, Voltage Control designs and leads public and private workshops that range from small meetings to large conference-style gatherings.
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Full Transcript
Douglas:
Welcome to the Control The Room Podcast, a series devoted to the exploration of meeting culture and uncovering cures for the common meeting. Some meetings have tight control, and others are loose. To control the room means achieving outcomes while striking a balance between imposing and removing structure, asserting and distributing power, leaning in and leaning out. All in the service of having a truly magical meeting.
Douglas:
Today I’m with Vijay Kumar. Vijay is an expert on innovation and professor emeritus at the IIT Institute of Design in Chicago. He is also author of 101 Design Methods: A Structured Approach for Driving Innovation In Your Organization. Welcome to the show, Vijay.
Vijay:
Thank you Douglas, happy to be here with you.
Douglas:
So Vijay, for starters, let’s just talk a little bit about how you got your start.
Vijay:
Yeah, it’s been a long journey for me. When I was growing up back in India, so then, part of India, the design, the world of design and innovation was emerging in the western countries and the rest of the world. It was not very popular in the southern part of India where I was growing up, but it was starting to emerge.
Vijay:
So, I got interested in the idea, what is this design? What is innovation? So I wanted to get my vocation in that, because early on in my life, my interest was on creative activities. Even when I was corp, I was interested in visual drawing and in putting ideas into pictures. And even opening out toys and dismantling everything and studying and putting them back.
Vijay:
So, I got interested in design. And that time, there was no school of design in India. So of course, it is starting at that time. So, I want to be there. So, the interesting story about that school is that, the government of India, when they wanted to start a design school in India for the first time, they wanted to depend on the gurus who know about design, so the government of India invited Charles and Greg Ames. As you know, you’ve heard of them, right? Charles Ames? He’s a very famous pioneering designer from the USA many, many years ago.
Vijay:
He and his wife were practicing innovation in the early stages of that time. So they invited them. They traveled all around India talking to people, getting insights about what kind of design school would be best suited for Indian conditions, and then finally after several months, they submitted a recommendation in the form of a report and presentation to the government of India. It was based on that, the school of India called National Institute of Design was started.
Vijay:
So I got interested in it. That’s where I wanted to go and I got in somehow. So those are the early days of my interest starting to develop in idea, design, and innovation.
Douglas:
That’s amazing.
Vijay:
Then of course the rest of the journey is also interesting. Yes in 1976 when I was in the school, Charles Ames came back to the school just to see how the school was working. So I had the opportunity to meet them and work with them. So I was amazed by how their minds worked. As you know Charles Ames is kind of a phenomenon individual. He is an environmental designer, architect, exhibition designer, information visualizer, toy maker, filmmaker and all kinds of amazing work that he was doing. I was fascinated by his thinking, more than the output that he was creating. I was fascinated by how he thinks about this new stuff? How does he connect dots within his mind about creating this wonderful world in front of him as future?
Vijay:
So I was fascinated by that and that was the beginning of my interest in the process of design innovation. All the metrics and tools and the ways in which we all do innovation. So the tools that we use, the framework that we use, I was fascinated by the idea of how do we do innovation or innovative work? Especially in groups and teams. Innovation is most effective when it is done in teams.
Vijay:
So that is, again, the beginning of my interest in the process or the methodologies for thinking about innovation. So then over the years, I graduated from there and then in 1987 … after graduation I practiced a little bit back in India. I was doing product design so I practiced product design for companies at that time, but nobody has heard of India product designs. It was a struggle early in those days, to practice a new idea for the industry.
Vijay:
While I was doing that in 1987, ’88 or ’86, those years, were a period in which computers were beginning to appear or emerge as a tool for designers, like computer aided design, computer aided manufacturing. Those kinds of ideas started developing. Apple Macintosh was doing desktop publishing and things like that. So I was fascinated by that world and how can computers have the process of design. I could not get that kind of proficiency or competency in the hardware in the Southern part of India where I was because computers were not very accessible in those early days.
Vijay:
So I started looking around the world. Where can I get the competencies? So I got in touch with, of course out of all the research I did, which place, which university or which organization can teach me about the use of computers for designing? So I finally found this National Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology of Chicago as the place that is doing the most cutting edge work on computer supported design processes at that time.
Vijay:
There was this professor Charles Owen. He was leading that effort and he’s a guru, again, one of the original persons who started the idea of discipline and innovation processes including using computers as a structured process. So you see he published a lot of papers. I was reading his papers. I got fascinated with him. So I started communicating with him in those olden days, if you can imagine, there was no email. Nothing of that kind. I had a Remington typewriter, right? So I used to type my letters on that typewriter and mail it to Professor Charles Owen and wait for almost three or four weeks before I get his response. That was the kind of slow communication that was happening and look at the world where we are in today.
Vijay:
But, he was a wonderful person. I established a rapport with him and finally invited me to come to Chicago where he can mentor me or advise me to study computers supported structure and planning techniques. So that’s how I ended up in Chicago. And then, again, another world of opportunity arose there. So I started working under Professor Charles Owen and his mentorship. That’s when I started exploring the idea of making the design process much more structured and much more organized and disciplined. That was the beginning, again, of my focus for the rest of my career.
Vijay:
So after graduating from there in 1990, I started practicing as a consultant based in Chicago, working mainly with pioneering design strategy consulting firm called Doblin in that time. Have you heard of Doblin?
Douglas:
Yeah of course. Yeah.
Vijay:
They are a pioneering design firm, a design strategy planning firm which was doing wonderful, but we had a group of people from various disciplines. From business, from engineering, from technology, from anthropology, social science and English literature, mathematics, things like that. We were all, that was a wonderful radical thinking that I hadn’t experienced where the idea of design to them was craft oriented or intuition oriented. I come out with an idea, I quickly turn that idea into a product or a service or anything. But the idea of creating a disciplined process beyond intuitive technique, make it structured and disciplined, there are different ways of doing research and ideation and prototyping and all kinds of things that are associated with design activities, was emerging at that time.
Vijay:
We were practicing that in those early days, early 1990s. So that is another amazing transformative experience that I’ve had in which I literally saw the field of design shifting from an intuitive feel to a more structured disciplined field. So I was fascinated by that because that was my interest in making the process structured and disciplines.
Vijay:
I got to work with this wonderful group of people at Doblin and then we did very interesting transformative work for a lot of clients, a number of clients, many major companies especially using the human center aspect of business planning. So that is another focus that sort of transformed the idea of innovation during those days.
Vijay:
So 12 years I worked at Doblin as a consultant. That was a wonderful time for me because I could experiment or I could develop new methods and tools and frameworks in the context of actual, real world projects working with these client organizations. So over the years, after 12 years I decided, oh I’ve had enough experience developing these tools and techniques in the context of client projects, so I wanted to expand and broaden my contributions, share my ideas much more widely.
Vijay:
So I joined this Institute of Design as a faculty member in Chicago, where I could teach and develop courses and at the same time conduct workshops for organizations and even do consulting with organizations. So that was the period in 2002 on, work I was doing that, was a period in which I could write. I could learn more about client challenges. I could publish my materials and I could share them much widely to students, company innovators and organizations, leaders, managers and all kinds of people.
Vijay:
So that’s what I’m really enjoying these days.
Douglas:
Excellent. And you published a book that basically pulls together a lot of these concepts around disciplined processes and methods for accomplishing these goals.
Vijay:
Yes, I did. 2012, I suppose. I published a book called 101 Design Methods. That is a compilation of many of the methods that I’ve developed over the years till then, in the context of client projects as I was teaching at the university. So it seems to be quite useful for a lot of people as a reference book for applying design methods in a much more structured way.
Douglas:
There’s quite a lot in there. I think even as the title alludes, it’s 101 design methods, a structured approach for driving innovation in your organization.
Vijay:
Right.
Douglas:
Do you have advice on how folks start? How do they dig into all 100 of these things?
Vijay:
Yes. Really interesting. The way I have found out, the way I have experienced people using the book, so many different ways, so many diverse ways. For example, people use the book to learn about the techniques and the methods. It can be used as a reference, right? You turn on any page and there’s a method that they can learn about and all this 101 methods organized under a common framework. So that shows where you are when you’re using a particular method, which stage of the process you are.
Vijay:
That’s from the learning point of view. But I’ve seen a lot of people, professors and teachers and workshop facilitators and workshop organizers using the book as a way to create curriculum, their own curriculum based on some of the techniques in the book. So they used it in a different way. So they used it in a manner in which they go through the methods and then select the most appropriate method that fits in with their goals for creating a curriculum or workshop or teaching module. Then maybe build on it, modify it, and then compile it for their purpose. That’s what I’ve seen.
Vijay:
But another very practical way of using the book is for applying it to projects. So project teams in organizations or in classrooms use the book to do their project. So when they’re doing the project they have certain constraints. The project is, let’s say, three months in duration. Then we have a team of this many people and we have some limitations or constraints for doing research or whatever constraints, opportunity the project team has for doing the work. Based on that, they select the most appropriate methods from the book and then apply it, actually apply it on their project. That’s another way in which I’ve seen people use the book.
Vijay:
But nonetheless, your question about … it is called 101 Methods, right? Not more can be added to it so you can get carried away by the immensity of the things that you can do with the process. But I always tell people, don’t get intimidated by the volume or the mere size or the mere number of methods out there. But the idea is to be aware of many of them or most of them so that you can tap into … think of a tool kit. You have a large tool kit. When you’re doing a project with a tool kit you use only a few tools to do a project. So similarly, you don’t have to use all these 101 methods in the one project that you’re doing. You choose the best methods that are most appropriate for your project.
Douglas:
What would you say is the most ubiquitous, maybe the one method or tool that you think gets used the most and maybe is the most appreciated, most approachable for beginners?
Vijay:
So for beginners, I wouldn’t be able to talk about just one method, but maybe for beginners go through the whole process of innovation, at least let’s say in a simplified way. You have to do research. You have to look at the research findings and find out some patterns and turn them into some kind of insights. And turn those insights into some ideas that you want to implement. And you move into some prototyping or implementation ideas. So beginners is also a challenge in that situation that they are facing. They may have to look at the most accessible methods in each of those stages. In the book I call modes. The research mode, when you’re in the research mode, beginners can pick out the most interesting, the most valuable research method.
Vijay:
For example, it might be about observational research, right? It’s all about understanding people, right? That’s the key of design innovation. So that’s the most significant part of research. So pick on that tool. How do I do observational research? How do I observe people and understand their behaviors and activities? That’s one tool I can pick from the research mode.
Vijay:
But when you get into, let’s say that ideation mode, right? When you’re creating ideas, even as a beginner, you can pick on probably the most interesting method for creating ideas, let’s say idea generation or brainstorming is maybe one key method that you can pull out from the collection.
Douglas:
What would you say would be one step or method or something that people tend to misuse or tend to challenge that is very common that you’re seeing a lot when you’re doing your consulting or just hearing from readers?
Vijay:
Yes. That’s a great question. What I find most challenging for people are at the stage when they move from research into ideation. That is especially, in my book I call it the framing insights mode. The mode of framing insights is probably the most challenging because the most intuitive or natural way for people to work on innovation projects is, of course I’ve done research. The research is telling me to do this as an idea, as an opportunity or a product or a service. So they quickly move into the idea or product or a services solution very fast, based on their research understanding.
Vijay:
But I think we can add a lot of value there by making it much more structured and disciplined, right? So how do I deal with the research data that I’ve collected? I’ve collected a massive amount of data from the field taken, interviews that I’ve done, the other kinds of contextual research that I’ve done. You are in front of a massive amount of information. So how do you make sense out of all of this? You cannot jump into solutions quickly from there.
Vijay:
So seeing patterns in the data, that’s where framing insights matter. And the massive amount of data that I’ve collected, what are the insights, the key insights that come out? What are the patterns that I can see, that point to an opportunity for the future? What are the patterns and problems that people are facing that tells me there is a need that needs to be solved. So all those questions about pattern finding and then framing insights or design research into usable forms that can frame your ideas for the future is critical, but that’s where I’ve seen a lot of teams and organizations are struggling with.
Douglas:
You know I see that as well and it’s fascinating because I feel like there are folks that are experienced in it or are just naturally gifted at it. I think where a lot of folks struggle is what are some tactics or some really concrete ways that I can slow down and frame it properly? I’m wondering do you have any reframing or any interesting tips on things, a checklist or things that people can do to make sure they are not just jumping past that step?
Vijay:
Yeah. They can do so many things. One key idea that they can apply is that from all of the research that I’ve done, all the understanding my team and myself and everyone together has done, you can pass all the data through some finite number of key principles. One principle might be, out of all these insights, what are the insights that will add a great experience to people, the human center filter? So, run all your data through that human centered filter so that any solution that you think about will be based on a human need, right? That’s one thing you can do.
Vijay:
The other thing is, other mechanics people can use is creating systems, maps of all the data, of all the insights that you’ve generated. Create system maps starting with the mind map, right? Mind map is a visualization of all the thoughts in your mind. But make it slightly more refined because you have done research. You have a lot of understanding about the context, now how can I create a system’s map? What I mean by that is, is that even if you’re working on a, let’s say the design of a simple product, like a mobile phone. Even if you’re working on that simple project, you should not be caught up in looking at the product. Only the materials, manufacturing, and functions and features and things like that. You should not get caught up in that narrow focus on your target.
Vijay:
You should take a step back and look at what is that product in relation to? Where does it exist in a system? Then you can start mapping the system, right? The mobile phone is related to carriers and wireless technology or communication technologies and there are mobile phone manufacturers. There are of course users and groups of users and all kinds of … then of course government and regulations and the culture and the context in which the mobile phone exists.
Vijay:
So that really can, if you can create a system’s model, that’s a great way to sort of get an overview of the research data that you have in front. Now once you have a system’s model then it’s very easy to think about solutions. That’s really part of that model. So that’s the second one. Of course there are a few more filters, that people can use. I’ve just given two examples.
Douglas:
So to help the listeners with a system’s model, to someone who’s never heard of this before it might sound kind of complex or complicated or foreign. Can you break down exactly what a system’s model is and how they might make one?
Vijay:
Yes. The basic components of understanding a system is that any system has entities. That is their classroom. A classroom where the teacher is or a workshop situation, especially teachers teaching metrics. So let’s look at that situation. So it is composed of entities. Entities are tangible elements that are part of the system. So you have to several key entities that make up the classroom or the workshop situation. The facilitator is one entity. There are learners. That’s another entity. There are tools and metrics that are being used in the classroom. That’s the third entity. There are projects that are done in the classroom. The projects are the real entity. So identifying the entities or the most significant tangible parts of whatever you’re trying to solve for is the first step.
Vijay:
Now once you identify the key entities, then you have to think about the relations between them. A system’s map is always about relationships between entities. So what is the relationship between the facilitator and the learner? So you have to define the relationship. You have to understand the relationship. That’s another way to make the system’s model. So you have entities, relationships.
Vijay:
The third part of the system are called attributes. Attributes are measurable values that the entities have, right? For example the student. What are the attributes of the student? What are the attributes of the student? What is their level of education? What are the previous achievements that they have? What are their intelligence or creativity level? They are all attributes. So you have to understand the key attributes of these entities and map them on the system’s map.
Vijay:
Then, of course, you have to look at any system as not static. Systems are already dynamics. Dynamic means changing all the time. Like the relationship between the entities at one instance might change to a different relationship later on in another instant. So over time, what are the changes that are happening in the system? To the entities, to the relationship, and things like that need to be considered.
Vijay:
So I just brought out four fundamental aspects of thinking about systems. Think about all the significant entities. Think about relationships between them. Think about the attributes that make up the entities and the relationships and think of the dynamics, the temporal aspects of the system. So that’s a good start.
Douglas:
Yeah I think the temporal aspects are something that people often forget.
Vijay:
Yeah.
Douglas:
They measure things and expect them to be that way at all times. It’s kind of the observer phenomenon.
Vijay:
Right. Right. Yeah. When people think about this system they’re static and you have to be prepared for changes in the context that you are working with. So being aware of that is a key part.
Douglas:
So I want to talk a little bit about how we do this work in groups, because certainly if we’re wanting to consider some … the design of some new thing, some new solution, some concept, these principles matter as you mentioned. We want to move from intuition to a more disciplined process.
Vijay:
Right.
Douglas:
I think we also have to keep in mind that we need to do this work in teams, in groups.
Vijay:
Absolutely.
Douglas:
This isn’t a craft project that we do at home by ourselves. So I’m curious, what are some things that you, as you’re teaching students or coaching clients, what are some things that you do to help ensure they’re collaborating and working together as effectively as possible?
Vijay:
Right, yeah. That’s where the idea of modes of the process is very key especially when you’re working in teams. Let’s say we are in the beginning stages of a project and I have this team working with me and I’m also part of the team. Then of course, at the beginning we are in the mode of research, let’s say. Research is trying to understand the context and the people in the context. So if you’re in that mode, you have to be cognizant, the entire team has to be cognizant about that mode. So that’s where the mindsets matter a lot. So in teamwork we have to establish a mindset. Mindset is where to think when you’re working in teams.
Vijay:
So in the research mode, we all have to be aligned on having a mindset of we are in the mode of understanding text. We are not in the mode of developing solutions at that time. Right? That will come later on. But the mode of understanding things or the research, we should keep our minds sort of open to be fully focused on understanding things, right? That’s why when we do interviews, the team has to have a common alignment about … doing interviews we trying to understand people and what they tell us. You’re not going to teach them anything. You’re not going to suggest anything.
Vijay:
Like you have to block out all the external things that you might intuitively do in an interview such as suggesting solutions and recommending things. In an interview you have to block out those ideas and just ask questions to understand the people in the interview. So having the most successful meeting is when the whole team is fully aware of the mindset the team needs to be in, so that you don’t go into tangents because focus really matters in a work like this. You’re fully focused on the mode that you’re in.
Vijay:
In contrast, if you’re in the mode of idea generation, you have to put on a different mindset, the entire team has put on a mindset of this is about thinking about the future. It’s about ideating. Coming out with ideas and fantasizing and telling stories about the future, scenarios of the future. So you have to be in that mindset. It’s not about understanding or doing research. It’s all about creating the future.
Vijay:
So that’s one aspect. The modes and the mindsets. Having a clear, aligned picture adds a lot of value to teamwork. The second part that comes to my mind is the teams ought to be people from various disciplines in the organization. For example, when you’re doing research, the natural tendency for us is to create a team that’s good in research, right? Researchers or social scientists or interviewers. That’s the first intuitive step that you take.
Vijay:
But you have to go beyond that. You have to enroll other people who may not be fully aware of the research methods. For example, you may have to pull in a designer, a creative person into the team so that there’s a conversation while you’re doing research and not just about understanding people, but how can that possibly manifest in an idea through creative thinking. Right?
Vijay:
Those discussions matter a lot when you have multiple points of view that happen in a meeting. So, probably you may have to bring in, let’s say, a business expert into the research team. Not for the entire time, but at least when you’re having discussions or team meetings and having those kinds of points of view. Multiple points of view is so important.
Douglas:
Yeah. Those are some good points. I want to come back to the mindset piece because it reminds me a bit about setting expectations and making sure that everyone is clear on what’s expected of them, what they are going to do and how we want everyone to show up. If we don’t communicate the mindset we expect everyone to operate in, then they’re not going to be aligned there.
Vijay:
Right exactly. That’s why we spend a lot of time in our teams, we spend a lot of time initially establishing that mindset or looking at situations or context, other projects that particular mode is done and what have people done there. And having a lot of discussions around that mindset is a good way to have that alignment around all the team members.
Douglas:
You know it reminds me of an interview a few weeks ago with Jan Naviche. He’s done a bunch of research around what he calls thinking structures which is very similar to when you were talking about mindsets. Whereas I think when you were talking about mindsets, it seems like what is the view of how we approach the work? Whereas I think a cousin to what you’re talking about, his thought patterns, is like how are we systematically looking at the world from a, like am I looking at hierarchies or am I looking at relationships or am I looking at … so it’s kind of interesting. I think you combine these two things together and you can get some really powerful outcomes.
Vijay:
Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Yes. That brings another… so the mindsets, and methods, and modes are important but based on your observation, there’s this other area that requires a lot of attention is what I call thought frameworks. Mental models that all of us need to have about context. So the hierarchy, does it need to be a hierarchical model or a flat model? Things like that. Or when we think about, let us say, talking about trends when we do research. How do we wrap our minds about the idea of trends? How can we create a mental model that is almost like a point of view, that can drive my team’s work and everyone can align on that mental model.
Vijay:
So slightly different from the mindset, it’s a mental model that works in compliment with the mindsets and the practice which are the methods.
Douglas:
Yeah I ran across some academic papers on, I believe, was it 75 or 77 design characteristics and they were these ways to kind of reimagine something that you’re concepting or considering.
Vijay:
Right.
Douglas:
I just thought they were a really great way to change your mental model, right? I’m looking at this from a certain way and then this prompt just sends me, just might flip me 30 degrees. And it’s like oh wow. Yeah what if I did incorporate motion. What does that mean to incorporate motion in this thing?
Vijay:
Yes, absolutely. That’s a great way of looking at it. These mental models, ones that are created. That’s a mental model you’ve created to understand. Let’s say this is the mental model in which the current system works. Once you understand that mental model, you can change it. Reframe it. Reframe it pretty easily. Right? But with more competence. So reframing mental models can lead you to great innovative thinking.
Douglas:
I think scampers are a real simple version of that. It’s just a five step version of let’s reframe it from different angles and different prompts. Are we going to substitute something? Are we going to combine things? Just kind of forcing people to step out of this. It’s really easy to get into tunnel vision. I think some of the best advice I was given as a young engineer was “always throw away the first good solution. Throw it away.”
Vijay:
Yeah. That’s key. I have found out that in many of the brainstorming sessions that we have, right? We create a whole lot of ideas, initially a lot of ideas come out. Some ideas come much later based on the idea changing that goes on happens to be much more valuable, right? So that went through a lot of iterations of reframing. That’s why that becomes much more valuable.
Douglas:
There’s been a lot of changes over the last year and especially, I’m really intrigued to hear, given your background and having seen these various kinds of S curves, if you will. You’ve experienced various transformations and I almost feel like we’re on the precipice of some of this when you look at like Autodesk creating tools. What they call the generative design, where computers are creating 1000 different things and the designer is just looking at them. They get inspired by what the computer suggested. AI. All of this work from home and remote collaboration tools.
Douglas:
I’m just curious, someone like yourself, who has clearly been there through a lot of transitions. A critical thinker. Working with a lot of students which has to be inspiring. What kind of hunch do you have right now that you’re kind of poking at and you think it might bear fruit or it might turn into something? Maybe it’s just a notion or just a spark. What’s on your mind?
Vijay:
Yeah a lot of ideas. A lot of thinking that can lead to some good insights. Some of the key things that come to my mind is that if you look at the evolution of design or innovation, things that you can do, as you already mentioned in the early part, just craft. Right? You have a thought, you immediately implement it as a craft solution. Then to intuitive and also designers doing their craft but still doing it in an intuitive way. Then it became much more, we need to add some meaning to how we do our innovative work. Bringing in the user understanding, the humanness of it. They’ve been in that state for some time. The human centered design, whether it’s all being done by the design team or designers.
Vijay:
But in time it formed into, that’s not good enough to succeed. Bring in other kinds of thinking like the business planning and technology thinking and you have to make it more tight disciplinary. So we went into teams and organizational entities doing the design work. Then, of course, lots of metrics and tools. There’re so many metrics and tools and frameworks that will help these multi disciplinary teams do the work. Now we are moving into much more intelligent ways of doing design using AI and big data and the pattern director and also just new insights, which we could not be doing before.
Vijay:
That’s the stage in which … so if you extrapolate that trajectory and what it tells me is that innovations will happen much more, in an ubiquitous way, whether it’s embedded in data or embedded in people doing work anywhere or teams that are constantly changing and dynamic teams or social networks. Teams determined by social networking that are dynamically changing all the time. So in a way work will happen in that kind of way. Much more ubiquitous. Much more open. Anyone can participate in the innovation. I don’t think that designers and design teams are not the only ones doing creative work. It will be done by everyone. Everyone might participate in that open context.
Vijay:
So that’s one direction that I think the world is moving. Does that make sense?
Douglas:
Absolutely. Yeah. So I guess I’m curious. With things becoming more ubiquitous, how do you think that will impact teams and how they work together and approach these things?
Vijay:
Yeah I think it will impact teams. First of all, teams will become themselves transient. Nowadays, you have one team, which is kind of stable throughout the project. But that mental model may have to be re-thought. What I mean by transient is the team composition is changing all of the time. Like if you think about that situation, that scenario, in which a team is completely transient. That people come in and go out as needed. That will be a challenge the team will have to face.
Vijay:
That’s probably a key challenge that they have to face.
Douglas:
Excellent. Well, Vijay, it’s been a pleasure chatting with you today. I just wanted to give you an opportunity to leave our listeners with a final thought or maybe how they can find your work or find your work. What should they know?
Vijay:
Yes. So a couple of things. One is the teams should really appreciate the idea of empathy, right? Teams should really appreciate, each team member should really appreciate the fact that there are multiple view points coming from various disciplines and various expertise, experts. Various ways of thinking. So you really have to open up. You might be really fully focused on a point of view that you want to sort of encourage in a team, but at the same time you have to equally well appreciate other points of view.
Vijay:
Sometimes it is counter intuitive to human nature, right? So that’s one area in which I have found a lot of challenges, especially in classrooms and other areas. So one thing to keep in mind is that okay I’ve got a strong point of view, but everyone else also has strong points of view so how do I be respectful and how do I align? You can disagree with another idea, if it’s a controversial thing that doesn’t fit with your mental model, but if the entire team wants to move in a particular direction, you have to align.
Vijay:
The second one is okay, but alignment is key. That’s where empathy counts. You have to align with other people’s way of thinking, even if you don’t agree with that direction in which that is moving.
Douglas:
It’s been a pleasure, Vijay. Thanks for joining.
Vijay:
Thank you. It was a wonderful conversation. I really enjoyed it. Thank you.
Douglas:
Thanks for joining me for another episode of Control the Room. Don’t forget to subscribe to receive updates when new episodes are released. If you want more, head over to our blog where I post weekly articles and resources about working better together. Voltagecontrol.com
