In business setting, asking basic "why" questions can make the questioner seem naive while putting others on the defensive (as in, "What do you mean by 'Why are we doing it this way?' We've been doing it this way for 22 years!"). But by encouraging people to step back and reconsider old problems or established practices, the designer can reframe the challenge at hand-which can then guide thinking in new directions. For businesses in today's fast-changing marketplace, the ability to question and rethink basic fundamentals-What business are we really in? What do today's consumers actually need or expect from us?-has never been more important.
在商业背景下,问一些基本的“为什么”问题会让提问者看起来很天真而让其他人处于守势(比如,“你问‘我们为什么要这样做’是什么意思?”’我们已经这样做了22年了!”)但是,通过鼓励人们后退一步、重新考虑旧的问题或已经建立的实践,设计师可以重新定义手头的挑战,从而引导人们往新的方向思考。“我们处在怎样的商业环境中?”“现在的客户真正需要的是什么?”在当今市场瞬息万变的时代里,质疑并重新思考这些基本问题的能力尤为重要。
Care. It's easy for companies to say they care about customer needs. But to really empathize, you have to be willing to do what many of the best designers do: Step out of the corporate bubble and actually immerse yourself in the daily lives of people you're trying to serve. What impressed me about design researchers such as Jane Fulton Suri of IDEO was the dedication to really observing and paying close attention to people-because this is usually the best way to find out their deep, unexpressed needs.
关注。企业们总是说自己关心客户的需求。但是,若想真正感同身受,你就必须愿意做许多最好的设计师所做的事情:走出公司,真正融入你试图为之服务的人的日常生活当中。像艾迪欧公司的简·富尔顿·苏瑞这样的设计研究人员让我印象深刻的是他们对观察和密切关注他人的专注—因为这通常是挖掘他人内心尚未表达出来的需求的最好的方式。
Connect. Designers, I discovered, have a knack for synthesizingfor taking existing elements or ideas and blending them together in fresh new ways. This can be a valuable shortcut to innovation because it means you don't necessarily have to invent from scratch. By coming up with "smart recombinations" (a term coined by the designer John Thackara), Nike smartly combined a running shoe with an iPod to produce its groundbreaking Nike line, which enables users to program their runs. It isn't easy to come up with these great combinations. Designers know that you must "think laterally"-searching far and wide for ideas-and must also be willing to try connecting ideas that might not seem to go together. This is a way of thinking that can also be embraced by non-designers.
联系。我发现设计师有种归纳总结的本领,他们能够收集现有元素或想法,再以全新的方式将他们糅合在一起。这是一条有价值的创新捷径,因为这意味着你不必从零开始发明。耐克想出了“智能再组合”(这是设计师约翰·萨卡拉创造的一个术语),将跑鞋与iPod巧妙结合到了一起,推出了具有突破性的耐克系列产品,使用户可以对自己的跑步进行编程。想出这些伟大的组合并不容易。设计师们懂得“横向思考”—寻求宽泛的想法—而且必须愿意尝试把看起来不可能在一起的想法联系起来。这是一种非设计师也可以接受的思维方式。