Details Make the Experience

I am guided by a few core principles, gleaned from a lot of trial and error (i.e., doing a lot of projects):

Rule #1. Design for oneself first.
Do this not because it's easy, but because it's hard. It also happens to be the most worthwhile kind of design and the best way to produce something that "just works." You are your worst critic, and for that reason, we tend to work on projects we either understand, need, or ideas that simply pique our curiosity. It’s easier to design starting with empathy when you’ve actually walked in their shoes, not just imagined it on a whiteboard.

Rule #2. You are what you mobilize. 
We believe that mobile's built-in scarcity and form factor help simplify the design process, revealing the product's "soul." It helps clarify why the product exists by sharpening its focus, and delivering the minimum viable product.

Rule #3. Design via negativa — adding by subtraction. 
Innovation comes when you can do more with less -- the most loved products ask more of themselves than of their users. Once you've identified what your product or service is all about, it's time to peel everything else away. That means paring down that "wish list" into something actionable and worth doing right. By eliminating superfluous things, we can achieve the clarity to make things better/simpler.

Rule #4. Avoid adding features at the cost of complexity.
Features and updates are important, but the feature of 'simplicity' should remain front and center with every decision. There's a ton of great ideas, just like there are an infinite number of notes on a piano. The trick is knowing what combination of keys and chords to press to produce that beautiful piece of music. The rest is noise.

Rule #5. Small is beautiful.
Big things are essential, but small is beautiful. Whether it's the spacing of a layout, load time, the words on the screen, or the gradient that's just a bit jarring, details matter. They are the all-too-forgotten element of user experience, the collective "Feel" in look and feel. By getting the details just right, simple design becomes invisible, letting your product speak for itself.

Rule #6. Design is a language.
Great experiences are based on the powerful idea that pictures speak a thousand words. In product design, successful products create a visual language that allow us to connect with them (even emotionally sometimes) and they in turn to us. Like a good conversation, the design engages us, guides us, and ultimately becomes as seamless as interacting with the real world, and maybe even easier.

Rule #7. Speed is a feature.
This should be obvious to anyone who's used a website or mobile app, but often overlooked by those creating them. Moore's law holds true for user expectations, too. Fail the speed test and risk losing your users to the next, new thing.

Rule #8. Design for your power users with ADHD.
It's no surprise that the average song length is 3 minutes, and it’s been sinking over the past 15 years. Most users have short attention spans when it comes to technology -- power users are the worst. Win them over, and you'll eventually win the rest. These early adopters help define your product and answer the key assumptions behind your product strategy. Get their attention, and the admiration of others will follow.

Rule #9. Prototype early and often.
Enough said.

Rule #10. Visualize and communicate the product vision
Einstein was right, "Imagination is more important than knowledge." A well-conceived product starts with a clear picture of what the product should be. The idea is one thing, while visualizing it is another. Few people are gifted enough to envision what something should look like. So, if you're not a Steve Jobs, a Hitchcock, or a Michaelangelo, the guidelines above become even more important. 

Here’s to the Doers, Thinkers, and the Crazy Ones

“The people that really create the things that change this industry are both the thinker and doer in one person.”

— Steve Jobs

At the core of innovation is an inventive mindset. This is a person that is eager and capable of attempting countless trials and errors until their vision is achieved. It is an approach that doesn’t work well in the corporate world, where deadlines, budgets, and specialization rule the day.

In early ideation phases, however, an opposite approach is required. Taking an idea, reframing it, and running it through the mill doesn’t play nice with timelines and well-defined roles and responsibilities. To address this problem, we’ve seen the rise of incubator-like groups within larger organizations, with names like innovation labs, accelerators, incubators and research hubs. The goal usually revolves around coming up with ideas faster and better via out of the box thinking.

However, where corporations fail is the unwillingness to promote the inventive, falling-forward mindset. They’re seemingly unable to reconcile that great ideas cannot simply be willed into existence. It also doesn’t instantly appear by throwing so-called innovation leaders, design experts and researchers in the mix. Innovation is not magic, it’s mostly perspiration, and a little spot-on inspiration. And this is where corporate leaders confuse inspired ideas for innovation.

For in the wild, there are no incubators, no walled gardens, and no moats to protect you from failure. It’s the willingness for trial and error, combined with the need to solve a real problem, that keeps the thinker/doer going. In larger organizations, it takes the thinkers and doers working together to make this happen.

Every generation has its Thomas Edisons, Michael Michelangelos, and Sam Farbers (creator of OXO tools) that are able to single-handedly merge the thinker and doer into one person. But these are truly the crazy ones, the brilliant thinkers with a work ethic to never give up. For the rest of us, it takes a team of people constantly ideating on a solution, grinding it out with the right talent to create that new product that moves people. This is the messy reality of innovation.

The inventive thinker/doer isn’t content with merely diverging on ideas in design thinking workshops, but rather in finding real value in converging, and doing the hard work of thinking through a design solution to its end.

And along the way, if you’re lucky enough, you may create a SpaceX rocket, or settle with a flying car. In either case, you’ve done something that’s never been done before, innovate.