FEI - Claudia Kotchka

Claudia Kotcha, Vice President, Design Innovation and Strategy, Procter & Gamble Co. led a session on Design Thinking and quoted Bruce Nussbaum, Editorial Page Editor, BusinessWeek, who stated that innovation in the 90s was about technology but today it's about design.

While admitting that design thinking could be another buzz word, Claudia proceeded to outline the five attributes of Design Thinking, which tracked well with the principles of innovation outlined on the InnovationNetwork's InnovationDNA.

1.  User centered -- designers develop a deep understanding of the customer and tend to see the customer as one person with specific physical and emotional needs rather than a set of analytical data.

2.  Collaborative -- design is a team sport.

3.  Challenge Mental Models -- a designer says don't ask me to build a bridge, show me the canyon.

4.  Abductive Thinking -- What could be? Start with the solution and then find out if it would work.

5.  Experimental -- use visual prototypes to stimulate a dialog with the user and advance the thinking process.

Claudia provided several ways to learn more about Design Thinking:

• Spend a day at a design school
• Take a field trip with a designer.
• Read magazines that are outside your normal field.
• Attend conferences outside your normal field.