JULY 1, 2010
My two partners and I recently attended a three-day program, the Innovation Masters Series, presented by the Stanford Center for Professional Development. kapow developed the SCPD website in 2008 and was asked to work with Bill Burnett, Executive Director of the Design Program at Stanford and mastermind behind the Innovation Series, to create an innovative website for the program that would present a compelling message to potential attendees. Stanford invited us to attend the program and, based on the list of speakers and the curriculum, we were thrilled to have the chance to be involved.
The overall theme of the program was innovation—new approaches to problem-solving, both internal (overcoming self-imposed mental blockages) and external (overcoming institutional obstacles). Presenters included design and engineering faculty from the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford, the "d.school," as well as from innovative companies such as IDEO and Timbuk2. Attendees came from all over the world, from a range of universities and companies including Google, Apple, Cisco, eBay, and Intel. Presenters and attendees brought their experiences, opinions and questions, and the three days were filled with lectures, individual and group exercises and challenges, panel discussions, as well as a continuous cycle of feedback from attendees so that presenters could refine their presentations as the program progressed.
For my partners and me, who have worked together for 12 years, it was a chance to step away from the office and reexamine our current processes, gain new insights into problem solving, and come away with new tools to approach our work. We found a number of inspiring ideas in the program which we thought might be useful to our non-profit clients, including these two:
Be Your Audience: Some of the world's most successful companies, such as Nike and Harley Davidson, hire people who use the company's products and live the company's lifestyle—in essence, the customer the company aspires to attract. The employees are able to give the company feedback based on personal experience and empathy, not just statistics and research.
How does this apply to non-profits? Hire people who are members of your audience. Bring on board members who fit that profile. Work with consultants who share your passion. Invite members of your audience to provide feedback. Solicit input that is authentic and based on personal experience, not just market research. Involving your audiences in your decision making process allows you to better understand their needs.
Change Your Perspective: Look for the underlying need in the problem you're trying to solve. When you try to solve the need and not the problem, you have more answers to choose from. A great example was presented during the program: a group of students tasked with developing an infant incubator for a third world country, realized that the underlying issue was keeping babies warm. Instead of creating a high-tech incubator, they devised a low-cost infant wrapper that is effective, reusable, doesn't require electricity and is more likely to be used than an incubator.
How does this apply to non-profits? Reexamine your most troubling, reoccurring problems. Try to uncover the underlying needs that those problems represent. Review other ways that those problems might be solved instead. Continually question whether you're trying to solve the correct problems, or if a different conceptual approach might open up other possibilities and solutions.
These were just a couple of the ideas covered in the program. Presenters also discussed "design thinking" (a tenet of the d.school), brainstorming, creating cultures of innovation, managing change, bridging the generational divide with workers aged 19 to 30 (termed "millennials") and much more.
If you're interested in discussing how your website can better reflect your audience, or if you'd like to set up a brainstorming session to help solve website strategy problems, please contact us at kapow.
— Megan