Design Thinking Archives - Succeed Sooner

Who’s Driving Your Innovation Bus?

January 29, 2014September 2, 2020 by Tim Empringham, MBANo Comments

Innovation has become the buzzword of the decade with every CEO, Senior Manager, and CTO beating the drum for "Innovation" in their companies. While I don't disagree with them on the need for innovation, I do have a major issue with the way that many of them are driving that innovation agenda. When tech leaders or business leaders drive an innovation agenda within their own areas of speciality without integrating that agenda with the core value creating areas of the business the agenda is doomed to mediocrity. In addition, in most cases these leaders are not differentiating between "Innovating" (solving problems in new ways) and "Implementing Innovations" (the application of other's innovations within your business). To be fair, I don't actually believe that Innovation is an either/or issue either, there are good reasons to implement other's innovations within your business. P&G has been very successful in knocking down the "not invented here" mentality that can slow the overall growth of an organization. But...

The Application of Design Architecture

February 4, 2013 by Tim Empringham, MBANo Comments

I was speaking with a new team member yesterday, getting to know them a little bit and providing a high level overview of the work and the team and he said something that made me think, and I haven't been able to shake it. As a former developer he related the story of joining the Enterprise Architecture team with very little practical experience in the field, and more importantly what he had learned and applied to his life. For those that aren't familiar with the role, a technology Enterprise Architect is essentially the same as the architect that designs your home, an office building, or a unique design architecture hybrid, only instead of working with building blocks of wood, steel, and glass they use technology systems and logical data models. Many Enterprise Architects come from a software development background, but there is a key and fundamental change that they need to make in their approach when the move from development to architecture...

Design Thinking and The Parable of the Fly Fisherman

December 15, 2009July 10, 2017 by Tim Empringham, MBANo Comments

Sunday night I got started reading my first book in a while (it is hard to get as much reading done when you're not riding the train for two hours a day). Luckily it is one that I've been looking forward to - Change by Design by Tim Brown (CEO of IDEO). I have heard great things about the book before and I heartily recommend it to anyone struggling with the 'old way' of creating in a corporate environment. I believe that design thinking is simply a better term for us internal entrepreneurs who need to pitch a new approach in a more traditional company. It also reminds me of a great story that epitomizes the design thinking process - 'The Parable of the Fly Fisherman'. (more…)...