The Unified Theory of Product Development: Part 2

Brian Boys
Aug 31, 2018 · 6 min read

Innovation, creativity and the power of reframing

I kept six honest serving men
They taught me all I knew
There names are
What, and Why and When;
and
How and Where and Who.

Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936).

I took a walk this afternoon around my neighborhood. I like to walk and think. I ended up stumbling upon a wonderful store that has just moved in about a mile from my house. It occupies the ground floor of an old brick building and spreads itself out over 3 contiguous shops. You walk in the front door and your are greeted by an eclectic range of beautiful objects. Stuff for your home. Stuff for your head. Stuff for your feet. All Japanese made, all thoughtful and exquisite in that perfectly Japanese way. I browsed, compelled to pick up and feel all sorts of objects. I was surrounded by objects of craft.

I rounded a corner into an exhibition space showing works by an artist named Mitsuru Koga. Hung uniformly on the walls were images of flattened shipping boxes and paint cans in neat frames. The art was a wonderful examination of simple, ordinary things through an artists eye. Shelves held beautiful wire trees in glass jars by the same artist that were so fragile and delicate and perfect that they made my heart stop. Here was art. I didn’t buy anything but I walked out feeling different, lighter, inspired.

What struck me in a really simple way as I walked back home was how the store owners and the artists and the crafts people who had object displayed had worked out not only the why of their crafts but also the how. Hiking back up a steep hill to my place, in my mind I drew analogies between what I had just seen and what I have been thinking and writing about in relation to how to develop products. If art represents the expression of emotion and craft represents the creation of tangible objects with the use of hands and brains then what we, as product designers, product managers, engineers really are is craftspeople. I had never thought of my profession, the thing I have been doing for 20 years this way. I have always framed my skill set, my interests in terms of business. But what I do, what we do is turn ideas into something real. It feels so obvious to say that I almost balk but it’s feels like a truth. It made me feel good about myself. It also helped me reframe some of what I have been thinking about in relation to product development.

When you are building something new you are innovating. That sounds pretty straight forward but there’s a lot to unpack when it comes to innovation. Sean Johnson at New Intent summed up your obligation as an innovator when he stated “new solutions have to either be dramatically better than the status quo, or have to completely reimagine the experience to dislodge an incumbent and carve out space”. This requires a lot more than just a really good idea. This requires innovation.

For a lot of people innovation is a scary word. Kinda like doing 50 pull ups or the splits, you know its possible but you probably think it’s outside your capabilities. But innovation is really just something new, so in many ways coming up with your idea, your why means you are already half way there. Congratulations.

Much like the physical feats described above, innovation is the product of discipline and hardwork. Unlike pull ups or the splits, however, innovation is a group activity. Dispel immediately from your mind any notion of the lone genius creating by themselves. Every Steve has a Woz. Every Sergey has a Larry. Innovation is a group activity. I would go as far to say that collaboration is an essential part of innovation. You can’t innovate without the collaborate.

INNOVATION = (CREATIVITY + WORK)CULTURE

If my equation is correct then Innovation equals Creativity and Work to the power of Culture. And if I remember my 8th grade math order of operations accurately, the first things you need are the creativity and the work. When you multiply this by culture and you have something awesome.

Like innovation, creativity feels like a loaded word. But this is where the craft comes in. Craft is often differentiated from art by the actions of process and learning. There are repeatable techniques and outcomes to craft.And if we reframe creativity as problem solving then there are repeatable techniques and outcomes to help us solve problems.

To me, there are four main elements to creativity. I call them The Four Main Elements of Creativity. They are:

  1. Do it in a group. This is vital. Best ideas come from groups. You need to create a space where people feel comfortable to express ideas and you need a way to collect and rank all these ideas. There are a tonne of articles about how to run these meetings (call them brainstorms if you want). Find the one that works for you and use it. But you needs lots of people to get good ideas.
  2. Effective diagnosis. You need to understand the real problem you are trying to solve. You need to ask the right questions to solve the right problem. The other way to think about this is not necessarily seeing if you can find the ‘real’ problem but seeing if there is a better one to solve. Make sure you get thing in writing here so you are sure that everyone understands the problem in the same way. Assumptions can kill you.
  3. Reframing. Reframing really helps with this. Reframing is one of the fundamental skills that every product person should have. In fact, I would go as far to say that your ability to elegantly and successfully reframe a problem will go along way to whether you are able to developing.
  4. Experiment. The final element of creativity is the willingness and ability to test your ideas quickly and cheaply. You need to be able to prototype rapidly. This should be as lo-fi as you can possibly make it. Don’t go overboard here. I would suggest that you don’t even need to write a line of code to effectively prototype. There are lots of different ways to do this. Again, read, ask and find. There is no one answer as to how to do this but just know you need to experiment. In the past I have often done things on paper with pens. Bring outsiders in and get their feedback. Fresh eyes can be invaluable at this point. If you are at a company grab one of the glue people. Every company has these, they are keepers and managers of company culture. They are probably the people who do things might make cupcakes for peoples birthdays. Get them in and try out your ideas. You are looking to get the best outcome you possible can. You will know when this happens.

Reframing is really just a way of viewing and experiencing problems to find more positive alternatives. But its really hard to do. The problem with problems is that when people face them they tend to jump to solution mode as a default response. This can often mean that they don’t really understand the problem they’re trying to solve. Reframing is a method that helps you avoid that by taking a second to go in and ask two questions: 1)What is the problem we’re trying to solve? and 2) Is there a different way to think about what the problem?

The classic Harvard Business Review example of reframing is the slow lift problem. You own a building. The tenants are complaining that the lifts are too slow. You think about how to solve the problem. Bigger motors would work. Maybe more lifts. Expensive, time consuming solutions. But reframe the problem as not slow lifts but that people don’t like waiting for lifts and the solution can becomes simpler and cheaper. Install mirrors so people can adjust their look or remove that piece of kale from their teeth before the meeting. Now the waiting doesn’t feel as long. The problem wasn’t slow lifts. It was people hate waiting. But distracted people perceive time differently. Problem solved.

One thing to point out here. If your company or group is unfamiliar with reframing then you need to establish the legitimacy of reframing within the group. Otherwise it can degenerate into nay saying. Establish legitimacy by using examples. Give your team brooks to read and time to read them. I love to give books to people that I work with). This will establish legitimacy in the process. I would encourage you to read anything and everything you can on reframing. As an example the book Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans has a wonderful section on reframing within the context of building a well-lived life. The subject matter may not be relevant to you but the principles.

Give this process the weight it deserves. Hard work here can save you a lot of time down the road. At the end of this process everyone should be able to clearly explain the why of what you are doing and how you plan to solve it. Now you are going to have to actually go and do it.

The Unified Theory Of Product Development: Part 3

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade