1. “From the buildings in which we live and work, to the cars we drive, or the knives and forks with which we eat, everything we use was designed to create some sort of marriage between the product and the consumer.”
2. The folks at IDEO state that they are not experts in any given area. But, they do claim to be experts on the problem solving process, which they apply to the innovation of consumer products.
3. After the team of designers is brought together, told the problem, and informed they have five days to “pull it off,” what phase of the design process do they immediately engage in?
The team immediatly begins to work on the brainstorming process.
4. Give two examples of what the team members did during this phase.
a.the team gave ideas of possible solutions.
b.the team made design sketches to show their ideas.
5. List five rules-of-thumb that IDEO employees follow when they share ideas during the brainstorming phase:
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
6. Why should wild (and sometimes crazy) ideas be entertained during the brainstorming phase?
Wild and crazy ideas should be entertained because you might be able to get a good idea from them, and that way no one feels left out and that their thoughts arent being heard.
7. After the brainstorming phase was over, the team narrowed down the hundreds of ideas by _____________ for those ideas that were not only “cool” but also _________________ in a short period of time. What phase of the design process is this called?
8. IDEO believes that the ideas and efforts of a group will always be more successful than the planning of a lone genius.
9. Once the ideas were narrowed down and divided into categories, the group was split into four smaller teams. What phase(s) of the design process was each of these groups responsible for?
10. The leaders at IDEO believe that good behavior and a clean and nice environment are two important reasons why their employees are able to think quickly and creatively to produce innovative results.
11. Sometimes, people come up with great solutions that work by trying their ideas first, and asking for suggestions later.
12. Design is often a process of going too far and having to take a few steps back. What phase of the design process would the critique of the four mock-ups come under?
13. Upon critique of the four teams’ models, it was obvious that none of the teams had developed an optimum solution. However, the people at IDEO believe that it is important to fail often in order to succeed sooner.
14. What percentage of the entire week’s time did it take to fabricate the final prototype?
15. Instead of showering his design team with a tremendous amount of praise, what did the boss require his employees to do with their new design?
16. Of all the things that we are surrounded by every day, what has not been placed through the design process?
Conclusion
1. What did you find to be the most impressive part of the team’s effort?
2. What advantages are there to having a design team with members that have non-engineering backgrounds?
3. There was a point in the process where a self-appointed group of adults stepped up, stopped the ideas, and redirected the group to break up into teams. Why was this done?
4. At the end of the video, Dave Kelly states, “Look around. The only things that are not designed are the things we find in nature.” Can you think of anything that would contradict this statement?
