innovation

Innovation Through Serendipity

There’s a well-known ‘eureka’ story around the occurrence of ‘serendipity’ or an unplanned discovery. Hiero the monarch of Syracuse, gave a silversmith some silver and gold to make him a crown but the king wasn’t convinced if the silversmith had been an honest craftsman. So he commissioned the famous mathematician Archimedes to check if the silversmith was a fraud or otherwise. He failed to find a solution, but one day as Archimedes was taking a bath and as he settled in the bathtub he noticed some of the water overflowed. He found out that it was the exact amount of weight that occupied his body. That’s how the Archimedes’ principle came into being and humans found a way to keep giant cargo ships floating on the deep oceans.

The definition of Serendipity, in a nutshell, is a happy coincidence, an unexpected event that apparently occurs due to chance, and it often happens when we are searching for something else. Once can be assured that almost everybody in the corporate world might hate to leave things to chance but in especially design as a field it’s mostly common to expect serendipity to occur with or without due process and provided the outcome isn’t driven by expectations alone.

But it has also been mentioned that serendipity isn’t an act of coincidence alone. Rather, in innovative processes, serendipity is more about making “connections or insights that occur when we are searching for one thing to find something else.” So effectively, being serendipitous means discovering what we didn’t know, 1 and Apple is one company. that is notoriously famous for making innovation choices based on the serendipity of extraordinary individuals such as Steve Jobs. 2

Nonetheless, in the sense of the most revealing inventions made through a serendipitous approach they are broadly categorized into three types:3

  • Discovery, that was not sought (e.g. Velcro)
  • Discovery, that was being sought, but found in an unexpected way (e.g. vulcanization)
  • Discovery, whose use is different than originally planned (e.g. Post-It).

Moreover the essence of serendipity can only be explored with an open mindset if not with the larger organization at least within the confines of the design culture. It essentially requires moving beyond our personal customs, culture, and prejudices and observing the external considerations of the customers as well, and by learning to spot the opportunities while simultaneously connecting with the internal views and research. This may appear to be a highly contradictory and an arduous exercise but adding the quality of serendipity to the research spectrum would eventually lead to some surprising results. It’s worth taking a chance.


  1. Collins, R. (n.d.). The Key to Innovation: Serendipity. Retrieved February 29, 2020, from https://optimityadvisors.com/insights/blog/key-innovation-serendipity ↩︎

  2. Medeiros, J. (2018, June 26). Here’s Why Steve Jobs Said Intuition is Absolutely More Powerful Than Intellect. Retrieved February 29, 2020, from https://www.goalcast.com/2018/06/26/steve-jobs-said-intuition-is-more-powerful-than-intellect/ ↩︎

  3. Meige, A. (2015, September 18). Serendipity and Innovation. Retrieved February 29, 2020, from https://open-organization.com/en/2010/04/25/serendipity-and-innovation/ ↩︎

Photo: © Tony Luong

Revisiting Clayton Christensen’s ‘Jobs to be Done’ Theory

On January 23, we lost one of our finest innovation thinkers and scholars, and an icon whom I have revered and admired deeply. I’m referring to the passing away of Prof. Clayton M. Christensen, 67, Harvard Business School professor and the father of the theory of “disruptive innovation” from complications of leukemia. The closest that I’d come to associate myself with the legendary business consultant was during my rather prolonged tenure at Tata Consultancy Services he was serving as an Independent Director enabling the company to achieve greater success globally 1, a position which he held from January 2006 until September 2018. It’s a terrible loss no doubt, but I wanted to personally pay a tribute to “Clay” and remember him through one of his famous theories on “Jobs to be Done” which not only has roots in innovation but also consists of insights for customer experience strategy.

To begin with, in 2007, Christensen popularized the phrase “Jobs to be Done”. In an MIT-Sloan Management Review article, he summarized the peculiar nature of innovation that is steeped in demographical data in the following words:

Most companies segment their markets by customer demographics or product characteristics and differentiate their offerings by adding features and functions. But the consumer has a different view of the marketplace. He simply has a job to be done and is seeking to “hire” the best product or service to do it. Marketers must adopt that perspective. 2

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Design Thinking

‘Patient-Centred’ Experience And Digital Transformation Technologies

Summary

The message coming from every keynote, panel discussion, article or research study is clear that digital transformation is not just imperative for all enterprises but it will permanently alter consumer interactions with their products and services.1 Digital transformation is the application of digital technologies such as mobile data analytics and smart embedded devices to reinvent customer relations and business processes. Worldwide spending on digital transformation related technologies and services is expected to approach $2 trillion by 2022, according to IDC. 2 Hence, the healthcare industry as well, has to transform its processes to respond to the new realities of digital technologies in an increasingly competitive world by continuing to invest in digital technology. But at the same time, there’s a need to reshape patient-care operations in this dynamic environment. Amid the intricacies of digital sophistication, the clamour to put customer services and customer expectations at the centre of all digital and service interactions has grown stronger than ever before. Adopting a customer-centric mindset in unifying products and services through human-insights, and not through digital transformation, is an important piece in the customer experience endeavour.

In the wake of digital transformation, businesses are overlooking consumer behaviour favouring instant gratification through technology hoping customer loyalty and dollars will follow, but they’re missing a fundamental point. Instead of depending upon digital transformation as a means for delivering an exceptional experience they should be focussing on customer needs through gathering & relating human-insights to actual needs. It is therefore important for businesses to build a customer experience strategy that looks at finding insights instead of merely depending upon digital transformation for analytics — the better experience customers have, the more repeat and positive reviews they’ll receive while simultaneously reducing customer complaints and frustrations. 3

In this context, what should be the strategy for the healthcare industry to drive digital transformation from a ‘user-first’ standpoint? What measures must healthcare businesses need to adopt for catering to patient needs & expectations? What parts of their business strategy must need to change for encouraging a positive change & enhancing the quality of healthcare services with technology? Most importantly, could technology alone be adequate in solving human-centred problems? These and many more such conclusions around an overall healthcare optimization planning could be explored by applying relevant phases of the ‘patient-centred design model’.

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Inclusive Society

The Idea of An Human-Centered Capitalism

There’s plenty to appreciate about human-centeredness in design, undoubtedly, if there’s ever an era in our history to look into the depths of human needs to innovate it has come now. We have been doing it all with technology but now it requires us to move away from tech talk and focus on social justice for an inclusive society with ‘human-centered capitalism’.

“We need to move to the next stage of capitalism, a human-centered capitalism, where the market serves us instead of the other way around.”

The “Freedom Dividend”: Inside Andrew Yang’s plan to give every American $1,000

Quoting the Democratic 2020 Democratic Presidential candidate, entrepreneur and non-profit founder Andrew Yang, from an event in New Hampshire. His policy proposal called “Freedom Dividend”, a universal basic income (UBI) plan that aims to provide $1000 per month / $12000 per annum for every American adult above the age of 18. Although the concept of universal basic income isn’t innovative in itself but the idea of designing an economy centred around human-needs does produce an intriguing justification. The task of designing an economy centred solely around human needs & desires, employment challenges, cultural mindsets and based on considerations such as the demographics of the population and their skills would be compelling. Depending upon how it matches up to the potential of some populist dimensions ‘human-centered capitalism’ could be a permanent feature for governments to steer the economy in various directions. And I’m seriously drawn towards making the idea of social justice for an inclusive society through ‘human-centered design’ possible.

“The freedom dividend stacks on top of Social Security, it stacks on top of anything healthcare related, such as Medicare. It stacks on top of housing assistance,” Yang replied. “The things it does not stack on top of are essentially cash and cash like benefits. So this is SNAP, heating oil, other programs that are essentially trying to put cash in your hands to manage an expense.”

The “Freedom Dividend”: Inside Andrew Yang’s plan to give every American $1,000

It means, regardless of whether individuals who are above the age of 18 are employed/unemployed, the government promises to pay $1000 to enable them to pay their bills, which I believe if and when it’s implemented, would be a safety net to safeguard people’s future. It’s a brilliant strategy to put money into people’s hands and set free the future generations from the clutches of rising debt, unemployment, and above all, prevent them from abject poverty and finally, homelessness.

The Crux of Human-Centered Capitalism

Apart from the benefits that I have already outlined so far, the implementation of the UBI plan would instinctively kickstart economic growth and rise in employment. As stated in the brief on “Freedom Dividend” which would “[…]permanently grow the economy by 12.56 to 13.10 percent—or about $2.5 trillion by 2025—and it would increase the labour force by 4.5 to 4.7 million people.” However, it doesn’t mention an important aspect of the UBI which is, there might be a significant drop in the rate of chronic diseases and mental disorders owing to the apparent change in the overall lifestyle choices of the people, that would also stop taxing the economy. There’s no doubt that rolling out the UBI would definitely prove to be a boon for the economically weaker section of the society on a global scale without getting caught in the hype of ‘taxing the rich and gifting the poor’.

What’s An Inclusive Society?

In passing, I loved the definition of an ‘Inclusive Society’ from the draft of a UN’s document on the subject, and I’m going to leave it right here for readers to think about and envision what kind of world they’d like to live in? Most prominently, I’m excited about the possibilities and looking forward to the time when an opportunity would arise to collaboratively design an inclusive society using the principles of human-centered design as a pivoting tool.

An inclusive society is a society that over-rides differences of race, gender, class, generation, and geography, and ensures inclusion, equality of opportunity as well as capability of all members of the society to determine an agreed set of social institutions that govern social interaction. (Expert Group Meeting on Promoting Social Integration, Helsinki, July 2008)

Creating an Inclusive Society: Practical Strategies to Promote Social Integration; DESA 2009
Photo by Papaioannou Kostas on Unsplash

Innovative Thinking And User-Centred Design

The term “innovation” has become the favourite lexicon of corporate executives for any discussion relating to building a vision for their organizations, and obviously the startups who need to raise eyebrows for getting noticed and getting funded. ‘Innovation’ has an aura that sets our imagination rolling, often conjuring up an impression of an impossible modern future replete with robots, gadgets, and automative mechanisms. In short, it’s presumed that innovation would hand out an inventive gadget, service, or product that will make our lives a lot pleasurable with delightful interactions. For instance, skillfully using technologies such as AI to track your location and provide an accurate weather forecast or respond smartly to your question, putting wireless sensors so that you’re able to park your car smoothly. As I write this article there are numerous startups engrossed in experimenting with future technologies in shaping our landscape. Although the role of the ‘customer’ is being diminished somewhere between the business, the investors’ expectations & the discussion surrounding innovative technology. It’s not just a need to involve the target audience in an end-to-end product or service development activity but critically put the ‘customer’ in the centre of every innovation conversation.

Innovation by Design

Innovation Through Customer Insights

Organizations have acknowledged the significance of customer experience in sustaining future innovations, during and after any innovative idea is launched. However, the intrinsic drive of entrepreneurs to solve problems through technology has never gained so much visibility than in recent times as companies make attempts at product development for market dominance & financial gains. At times, this drives focus away from the customer experience and onto developing features that may miss the target audience invariably putting the entire roadmap of the product in jeopardy. For some startups or companies, the issue of relentless product development without managing customer expectations seems to be emanating from their internal challenges that are dictated more or less by corporate decisions. So for instance, on a strategic level, senior stakeholders choose a platform for driving automation for customer needs either without an understanding of the user-base or taking insights from a previous product launch. Eventually, by the time the “idea” percolates down to the tactical phase, one cannot rule out the complexity of its interaction and flow regardless of whether it’s solving any problems based on the experience that it delivers (or it doesn’t). Organizations back their leadership’s decisions of shaping the vision and it’s left upon the dev & design teams to implement the final product, within a strict timeline, despite the glaring loopholes and no understanding of the evolving user base. Designers obviously take a backseat.

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