Those who had access to technology always had an edge over the others who couldn’t have access to, or refused to embrace it. People who had guns won over the people who had swords; farmers who knew rain water harvesting methods make it to market over those who don’t have this knowledge; people who had IT to manage their inventory could scale and deliver to the world – even if it is just sugar water.

Technology, over generations have not only proven to be a key differentiator but have also taken humanity into newer possibilities. Who knew man would reach moon, Mars or discover galaxies beyond the known universe.

Electricity, telephony, clocks, assembly line, money, metallurgy and agriculture are handful of technologies that have impacted our world in the sort of deeply transformative way in a day-to-day world as we know it.

However, Written Language and money are sort of ‘Soft Technologies’, capable of being embodied in a variety of specific physical forms. One can write on sand with fingers, on stone or author a book. One can embody money (value) in paper currency, coins, credit cards.

Possessing these soft technologies are powerful beyond imagination and must be exercised with responsibility.

Software has the same relationship to any specific sort of computing hardware! As a simple example, a 14-year-old teenager today can learn programming, contribute significantly to open-source projects, and become a talented professional-grade programmer before age 18.

Stock markets of the world can be embodied into network of buyers and sellers and can replicate the behavior of physical market. Youtube has changed the way we watch videos and Facebook has changed the way we meet friends. Software can change the way farmers sow/harvest, children in govt. school get access to world class infrastructure and education, unskilled labor acquire skills based on nation’s GDP growth. One result of this increased potential was that technologists began to grope towards a collective vision commonly called the Internet of Things.

Money and written language both transformed the world in similarly profound ways. Software, however, is more flexible and powerful than either.

Writing is very flexible: we can write with a finger on sand or with an electron beam on a pinhead. Money is even more flexible: anything from cigarettes in a prison and salt in the ancient world to modern fiat currencies can work. But software can increasingly go wherever writing and money can go, and beyond. Software can make writing into Wikipedia and can make money disconnect from its hardware (mobile wallets & IMPS)!

The opportunities presented by software are expanding, and the risks of being caught on the wrong side of the transformation are increasing. Those who have correctly calibrated the impact of software are winning.

And the winners are not winning by small margins or temporarily either. And this appears to be true at all levels from individuals to businesses to nations.

Product Development and Design Thinking

November 3, 2015November 3, 2015 SatyamLeave a comment

Working like a designer means that new things are created and then rejected. Then something else is created and rejected. This carries on until a solution is found that solves everybody’s problem, almost everybody’s.

There are products that have served plug gaps in the market and then there are those that have made their own place. Product ideas can be instinctive or intuitive. However, creation of it, is a process which can either be definitive or iterative.

No one can create a product like an iPhone on one’s own. The Salesforce.com isn’t an idea of Benioff alone. The “things” are created, rejected and prototypes are built, improved & rebuilt. iPhone, Salesforce.com aren’t yet products marked “done”. The iterative process has a beginning but no pre-determined end (apart from the agreed deadlines). The process of iteration is so powerful, that a brilliant and revolutionary product “iPhone” was dropped for “iPhone 3G”. And with iPhone 6S, all great phones of their times – are considered dead. The iterative process has a beginner, but who knows who will conclude.

Lot has been talked about “Design Thinking”, read this and this (a slideshare ppt at the end). It seems “Design Thinking” requires an organization culture and a spirit that translate into greatest of products. [Or is it the other way round, while the product is in the process of making – such culture & spirit organically emerge that protects the evolution of the product?] Here is an internal meeting of Apple around the launch of “Think Different” campaign, a glimpse of that spirit & culture.

(In the first half he talks about Product, Marketing & Distribution & how he wants to re-build all three)

I am sure that video digressed us from the topic! 🙂

Beginning and Improving

The one who conceptualizes the product may not be able to even imagine what creators, the observers & the users might turn it into. There are tons of product ideas, far more important is the process of finding the right one – and the process of giving life to the chosen one.

An important component of a successful innovation process is the visualization of ideas. The prototypes, I believe, must be as real and accurate as possible. The prototype must look and feel just like a ~~finished~~ product. Using a prototype calls for observations, constructive criticism & internal sales begin! If however, a prototype is at concept level & too much is left to imagination, it will not make the cut – more importantly it may become difficult to see the enormous potential it may possess had it been a living prototype.

Who Owns A Product?

The conceptualist? The Creator? The User? Or is it an irrelevant question? Who owns Wikipedia?

I believe, the ownership changes with evolution of the product. And once product reaches adolescence, whose characteristics does product possess the most – should be the owner!

The ownership should move from the ideator to creators once creators understand the product better than the original owner. And owner has to take that call of transfer of ownership, and must ensure that creators can take better care! The creators then must assist the product grow in the hands of users before the product is deemed fit for crowd-ownership. Once it is ascertained that the product has reached a phase where the value it provides to the crowed will be missed if not protected by the crowd – the product can then nurture the crowd. 🙂