I have visited slideshare quite a few times in the past, but really didn’t capture it’s full potential until today. I was originally linked into this presentation on “Death by Powepoint” by Alexi Kapterev.
I then looked at the associated links ala youtube style. It was interesting to see the wealth of presentations when you search for innovation. This is really a way you can cross-pollinate and get outside what you are used to without leaving you computer. For those of you on LinkedIN check out “leveraging Social Networks for Results below”
I found the presentation to be quite refreshing and eye-opening. She specializes in designing solutions for the other 90% of the world. Engineering solutions to common, but life-threatening problems in developing countries. Highlighted in the talk are designs for cleaner burning cooking fuels made from local resources that achieve equivalent performance to wood based charcoal.
For those of us that develop products or design something for a living, it was a kick in the teeth. Many of us work very hard to solve difficult problems (sometimes very niche I must admit) with some of the very latest technology at our disposal. This is a reminder of:
#1 Try to solve those problems that are important.
#2 Get your head up out of “the way” things are done and look at what works.
#3 Look at how to match your resources, methods, and economics with the environment and situation at hand.
This is pretty simple but at the same time quite stimulating. I ran across this app that looks to be a front-end for images.google.com. It is called the “Google Image Ripper“.
I am not sure of the original motivation for building it but I find it fabulous for random association generation. For example search for a word that you think you have an idea of what a search would return. Here are some simple exaples.
I don’t know about you, but you see some of what you expect, but ever 4-5 images you get something that doesn’t make sense at first glance. Why is that here? Where is article for the image? What story can I tell about the image? What does the image tell me?
Next time you need a new direction or perspective, give it a try. This also works with Flickr or some of the other photo sites, but I really like this clean interface.
Jeffrey Phillips has a story on his blog “Innovate on Purpose” entitled “The Empathy Gap”. It basically starts by talking about what one politician calls the Empathy Gap.
One idea in particular caught my attention - his concept of the empathy gap. “The Politician” suggested that there was an empathy gap - simply not enough empathy for people who have less, earn less, have fewer educational opportunities.
He then goes on to equate this to an empathy gap that exists between a business and its customers. In many cases we can’t shake our own world-view as the producer of a good or service, to really see through the eyese of our consumers.
This was a particularly thought provoking item:
Generally we think of empathy as something that is exhibited when others are sick or hurting in some way. We may think of nurses or caregivers as empathetic. How often do we think of product managers or product designers as empathetic?
I think he hit this spot on in that word empathy has a connotation of weakness or at the very least something exploitable. On the contrary to really make products that win, we need to see through or empathize with customers instead of being confrontational.
If you thought like your customer, how much easier would pricing negotiations, sales, new product introductions, and customer support be?
