I’ve been on a quest for the simplest model that describes design and what it’s for. I mean, the model that I can scribble up on the board, and everyone gets it. Over the years, my models have gotten smaller, with fewer parts and less to explain. Here’s my current model of the world.
The other day, a colleague asked me if a product or service could change from one archetype to another. Of course!
Starbucks is a good example. When Starbucks started out, it was a Genius: a whole new approach to the coffee shop in America (OK, not a whole new approach, but new to most of the people who first experienced it through Starbucks). It had all the Genius hallmarks, including an idiosynchratic look and language, a mental hump to get over (pay how much for a cup of coffee?), and, once over that hump, a great experience that people couldn’t believe they’d been missing.
Over the years, though, Starbucks stopped being so much of a unique experience.
A Genius product approaches a problem–often, an old problem–in a new way. Flor is a great example: they revisited the rug.
Rugs are big, expensive investments. Buy one, especially a large one, and you live in fear of spills, dirt, play-doh: basically, the stuff of life. You can clean your rug with a big machine, but [...]
Many of my clients have too narrow a view of the competition. They tend to only view products that sell on the same shelf, in the same store, as their own as competitors.
A few years ago I did some work for a power-tool manufacturer trying to revamp a product line. The devices sell in places [...]
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