Weeknote 626: Thinking more. Thinking different.
“University is the place where you have the luxury of the time to think.” That’s how my first class of Master studies started at Aalto Arts. So naturally I started thinking about thinking, and also the value and ways we can think.
This week Apple was brave enough (again) to publish something that shook the Internet. Apple dared to design something that many see as ‘the most awkward looking lens design’. But Apple was never born to people please, and actually had its worst times when it was desperately trying to please everyone. And no matter if we like their design or not, the key is they got us thinking and talking. Do we like the design or not? What does it remind us of? Why are we feeling discomfort due to a piece of technology?
The hot potato in the design industry at the moment is still Design Thinking. Not just the ways we misinterpret and misuse it, but also what it actually entails. There’s naturally a lot of doing items within the methodology itself, but still the company IDEO, who popularised the term, decided to put emphasis on ‘thinking’. Thinking, but also thinking differently is the reason why Apple today is still the no. 1 technology company in Fortune 500.
I only this week learned about a guy called Robert Taylor. He was an American entrepreneur who thought of the world a bit differently. So who is he then? What did he do? He is actually the one ended up creating soft soap. Something that then revolutionized the way people still today wash themselves and items around them. And all this started simply from Robert having visual discomfort of hard soap ooze all over a nice soap dish.
To make good decisions, and at the end services that are desired, we need to think. And we need to think critically. If we always settle for the first option and don’t push the limits of our thinking, we end up creating solutions that lack purpose, don’t resonate, go unnoticed or even worse, damage our planet. In any of these cases the business involved ends up not living to its full potential, but starts or continues declining, and the world will be left without innovation. And only through innovation, companies can penetrate markets faster, creating unseen value while solving complex problems in a meaningful way.
“If I had only one hour to save the world, I would spend fifty-five minutes defining the problem, and only five minutes finding the solution.”
Albert Einstein
A designer’s skill or maybe even responsibility is to look at the world deliberately from different perspectives, and this is why we have introduced ‘Foresight Strategy & Direction’ to our design offering. In addition we’re working on an insight package called ‘New Normal’ where we explore not only what could be, but also what should be in the Future we have yet to experience. We’re thinking ahead, so we can make those good decisions.
And to think more and differently, we’re also…
Continuing everyone’s personal development plans. Part of being a great designer is to think about yourself. As our manifesto reads “We self-reflect in order to grow and do the best work of our lives”. And hence each Nordkappian has a coach to help broaden their perspectives, challenge them and support them.
Going to conferences. To expand our thinking to some more unfamiliar territories, we enjoy going to conferences and hear out some of the most brilliant minds of the field and outside of it. Just last week some our people enjoyed the Helsinki Joint Futures conference where also one our brilliant minds Sami had a talk.
Experimenting with new formats of thought sharing and collective thinking. We’ve decided to go ahead and try what we call ‘Nordkapp popcorn sessions’. Each month, we have a pre-defined time slot to encourage open ideation, thought sharing and feedback.
You can also become a better thinker by training yourself in thinking. A tip from our founding partner Sami to all the thinkers out there is: “Get to know yourself and how your mind works, what it is made of and most important: who are you.” For example, Sami needs an occasional moment of white noise like a shower, meditation or challenging physical activity to let his brain do what it does best — be elastic and form new unforeseen connections. “Time is the most valuable currency we all have so let’s be conscious about it. Our own, and consequently others”, he says.
But as thinking never goes solo, here’s what our people have been thinking, doing and learning this week:
Mika L is planning together with the team on how to run international co-creation sessions to test our hypothesis for future concepts.
Sari has been multitasking with problem solving, delegating work tasks and discussing design work.
Monika is diving into how a user can get the most value of consuming a service.
Linda has been rethinking a lot — How to improve way of working and design at scale.
Panu returned from holidays. Took a sauna to Burning man, heat and steam was real
Topias has been preparing things for international co-creation sessions, and will spend the rest of this week on quick getaway in New York City!
Liam’s been investigating how we can hear from people in countries, far, far away, and meanwhile trying to understand what all the incoming survey data means alongside his colleagues.
Working at VR, Masha is feeling joyful to be a part of a team, where people show dedication and interest to create awesome user experience.
Virpi has been busy with gazing into the future, engaging with customers, travelling and making travel plans.
Helmi has been gathering insights from a global survey, planning co-creation materials and doing a bit of branding.
Jukka has been enjoying some excellent user feedback from a closed pilot launch of a thing, while brewing new stuff and handling project things.
It’s been a rollercoaster week for Shakti — still designing strong for our EV charging client and setting up coaching and onboarding/handoff sessions for newer designers on team. On the personal front, saying goodbye to family leaving to India whom he’ll join soon in 3 weeks!
Sami has been speaking in Joint Futures Conference Helsinki, Toolfest in Berlin and Gather Festival Stockholm.
And me Meri, I have been thinking about thinking and whether it’s the abstraction of it, that makes people underestimate the value of developing thoughts. Why is the time spend in the problem area not seen valuable (enough)? In addition to thinking, there’s been a fair amount of doing and re-thinking to fill my days.
5 things we read, watched and visited this week:
- Apple Keynote — The beautiful, the odd and the predictable newcomers to Apple’s product portfolio.
- If Your Innovation Effort Isn’t Working, Look at Who’s on the Team — HBR wrote yet another great one on team dynamics.
- Helsinki Climate Live — Who, how and what is gonna make the carbon neutral Futures. Doing tomorrow, starts by thinking today.
- Helsinki Design Week — The Largest Design festival in Nordics. If you missed this year’s edit, come around next year. We promise it’s worth it.
- Handout: How to Do Design Critique — Critical thinking is not about criticism. This guide helps you to critique design the way it should.
Weeknotes are what happened at our studio this week. This week’s weeknote was curated by Meri Raelahti.
Meri is a designer who approaches design problems as Rubik’s cubes, and enjoys figuring out how to make the parts of a solution click into place.
