[Music]
Charles and Ray Eames were more than
just fringe furniture designers they
were designed superheroes even if you've
never heard their names I'm sure you've
seen their amazing Eames Lounge Chair
one of my favorites shaped by bending
and molding plywood this
husband-and-wife duo went down in design
history because they were the first to
create functional affordable modern
furniture for American middle-class
households but it was more than just
furniture they used their creative
process to solve problems large problems
and they use design to affect ecosystems
of opportunity sure they made cool
furniture but they were also artists
filmmakers scientists and they ran their
for a much like a one-stop shop for all
types of creative collaborations they
worked with big companies that worked
with the likes of IBM they worked with
Boeing and even the US government and
they showed us that design could solve
problems beyond just the physical object
they took a holistic approach toward
addressing human needs and they changed
the way in which we lived in our homes
how we did business and how we saw the
world now when I reflect on the legacy
the Eames provided I am deeply excited
by the depth of design contributions
they've brought to bear yet I still
think there's a lot of misconceptions
out there about what design really is
and who designers really are design is
not some sketch artist with a notepad
it's much bigger than that design
unlocks solutions to our problems
which is what which is why I believe
that design is not only important but
absolutely necessary to achieve success
in business designers really do have
superpowers that unlock solutions and
inform smart strategies that can cut
through the noise and help lead business
in the right direction let me be even
more direct if you want to succeed in
business you must I mean you must
connect your product your service your
digital platform to your audience
it's really about mapping to their needs
and it's a personal relationship they've
come to expect design plays a huge role
in shaping those emotional connections
now today in business I think you're
seeing more designers earning seats at
the strategy table now I think that's
fantastic not just because I'm a
designer but because I've been able to
see design superpowers through a few
different angles before I became a
designer I was a mechanical engineer in
the nuclear industry and after that
experience I worked in business and
while I think it's smart business to
ensure designers are at that table
there's just one problem
this means that over time the designer
all of a sudden becomes the creative
expert on the team and that means she
starts to wear more hats and for those
that don't fully understand design let
alone the different types of designers
it's all too easy to sort of read into
the designers natural ability to get up
and work at the whiteboard or scribble a
bunch of post-it notes for the team
brainstorm or we might think of design
for outdated notions of what a design
project may have been in the past like
design me a cup or design me a banner ad
and when this happens we're not
leveraging design to its full potential
and businesses might be missing out on
some real opportunities these are people
with really deep superpowers and I think
that if we can better understand these
superpowers and how they work we'll all
benefit when we treat designers as the
problem solvers they are and give their
superpowers rooms to thrive so with that
let's take a peek underneath the cape
designers have x-ray vision yep it's
true often in business we like to
surveys and focus groups to give us a
sense of what customers want but in
reality people have a hard time talking
about their problems let alone coming up
with solutions to fall for them remember
the first smartphones if if I were to
ask early cell phone users what they
wanted in a phone before the release of
the iPhone they would have asked for
bigger thumb keypads and I know I got
big thumbs this is where designers x-ray
vision comes in handy designers like
strategic designers or even ethnographic
specialists are specifically trained to
tap into the implicit behaviors
attitudes motivations affecting people
in the design world would call this
uncovering the deeper why
my design team use their x-ray vision to
help a restaurant chain transform the
way that they attract and retain new
customers we now I'm sure most chains
push menu items or new special deals all
the time just to hope just with the hope
of inspiring customer loyalty and I
think that a lot of us have received the
spam emails whenever we buy anything let
alone over an app but this particular
restaurant chain wanted to deliver super
deep personalized experiences down to
the individual level whether it be
through email or over the application or
even in the restaurant while attempting
to throw technology at that opportunity
we made room for the strategic designers
to come in and do their thing and
through ethnographic research they
really honed in on the tension between
customers appetites for personalized
rewards and not wanting the digital
experience to feel creepy or annoying so
imagine getting a marketing offer that
mistakes you for vegan just because you
didn't eat meat that one Tuesday or
getting a two for one deal that mistakes
your regular lunch friend for your wife
it's creepy to say the least and
personalization quickly gets creepy and
goes there whenever we have more
information than you expected us to know
or we have information that you've never
allowed us to have so our design team
really explored and prototype of a bunch
of scenarios to explore that delicate
balance and our insights helped us
create a machine learning platform that
would balance customer permissions with
the real-time context we can safely
infer about each customer and the user
experience of that platform would then
allow customers the ability to opt in
and share little bits of personal
information about themselves with the
clear expectation force for a benefit
coming back in return so this notion of
giving a little to get a little to
really sort of hone in on this balance
of rewards versus privacy it was very
important if we do that in small doses
we can build a relationship based on
trust and I can say that this restaurant
chain is now successfully using the
platform thanks to the right
human-centered guide rails set by our
design team not so creepy anymore huh
designers have shape-shifting skills
they are excellent at mimicry and
what they're trying to do is really
emulate the behavior of the subjects
that they're designing for so that we
understand what's happening with them
this is more than just putting yourself
in someone else's shoes that's empathy
and it's great but what's even better is
making empathy tangible turning feelings
into products and services is the real
superpower here so my company helped
launch a platform with a medical device
company aimed to help chronic back pain
sufferers and in order to design the
right platform we had to understand what
back pain was like for the patient as
well as what it was like for the
physician treating that patient one of
my strategic designers signed up because
he had back surgery in the past he knew
what it was like to sit in bed or lie in
bed and mobile for three days and not
having help around him another
experienced designer used his method
acting training to get himself in the
mindset of the physician and he studied
the science of chronic back pain so much
to a level that he was almost a doctor
in med school and he was able to talk to
physicians more like a peer rather than
from a naive place and using these
techniques they were the team was able
to break down the friction at a much
deeper level physicians were frustrated
because patients couldn't recount their
medical history in a accurate way they
didn't have the vocabulary and they
couldn't express it in a framework that
resonated with the doctor patients were
frustrated because physicians kept
asking questions they couldn't answer so
we designed an easy logging tool that
would enable the patient to easily log
their pain and attempted treatments
remedies all while delivering personal
insights on how ways that they can
reduce their pain through a wide range
of alternative treatments and then we'd
roll up that medical history for the
doctor in a digestible way we initially
thought the physicians would have liked
to see all the data in fancy charts and
graphs but upon co-creating with them we
zeroed in on the key metrics that
mattered in large fonts color coded for
severity sake and with directional
arrows to highlight the big trends this
made it digestible and super fast for
the doctor to get that read well with
over 150,000 patients and over 4,000
physicians on the platform since it
launched a couple months ago and even
better hearing stories of people's lives
being changed pain reduction learning
healthy habits
we can truly say that we built the right
platform to bridge the gaps superhero
designers can waive their pencil and
make others superhuman building on the
first superpowers we can design
experiences that move people into a
state of flow what do I mean by flow
flows that happy state of deep
concentration and complete absorption
with the task at hand I didn't come up
with that that was esteemed author mihai
Csikszentmihalyi but we've all felt flow
at some point or another flow is that
pianist who's trying to perfect their
piece and doesn't realize that he's
working through the entire night trying
to do it flow is the surgeon that's
about to head into a complicated surgery
but she's fine because of the mastery
that's been built into her hands from
several surgeries prior flow is that
sweet spot between experiencing high
challenge and demonstrating high skill
but when we think about all the products
that we use in our lives very few move
us into that delicate place where we can
truly unlock our human potential
endurance running is a personal passion
of mine so when it came time for me to
design something for my thesis in design
school I wanted to create something for
endurance runners to move to this
beautiful place of flow and when we run
a lot of us would carry music and
coaching applications into the run but
when I think about having to drag out my
big iPhone unlock the screen poking out
a couple apps while I'm running it takes
me out of my groove let alone my stride
and so one thing I should say also is
that I'm not against having music and
apps on the run but what gets in the way
of my superhuman flow is the interface
and so after countless iterations I
designed a finger mounted wearable where
you could control your applications but
without having to look at a screen and
without having to break your natural
running form you stay in flow just by
putting a few tactile buttons at the
right location on the finger we can now
imagine a runner staying in flow with
the help of music or a digital coach
designers have extrasensory perception
what they're trying to do is think of
all the ways to design for what makes us
human and design for our multiple senses
just because we live in a digital age
doesn't mean that we everything that we
create must be an app or a website the
best designers keep in mind what makes
us human
they designed for our hopes our fears
and our multiple senses I have a friend
by the name of Jerry will mink who
started a wearables company wise where
with the goal of creating personal
lifelines for loved ones in emergency
situations and his first offering was a
connected bracelet aimed at the young
fashionable woman's consumer and this
bracelet was a bit different than most
wearables and that it didn't have any
flashy lights or fancy displays it just
looked a part of normal jewelry and what
it succeeded in doing though was helping
give women peace of mind whenever
they're walking alone on a dark street
all she had to do was tap the bracelet
to leave GPS breadcrumbs of her exact
location for her loved ones to know
exactly where she is a smart design
solution that embraced physical and
digital possibilities to take fear out
of a potentially scary situation so in a
way we all have superpowers don't we an
economist
can sense our recessions coming just by
looking at signals from the marketplace
a physical therapist can eliminate our
neck pain just by making one small tweak
to our posture a language translator can
may not realize that she's actually
bridging relationships across oceans
just by her deep translation skills
these are stories we all share where our
superpowers make the difference but in
order for us to benefit from someone
superpowers we have to give them room to
breathe imagine if we gave that room to
designers what could be possible make
these superpowers make these design
superpowers a requirement in your
business in your startup in your
enterprise but give them a platform to
be successful and in doing so this will
ensure our innovations don't just lead
us to some place they lead us to the
right place thank you
[Applause]