Shipulski On Design

Search Results

Do it for them, then explain. When the work is new for them, they don’t know how to do it. You’ve got to show them how to do it and explain everything. Tell them about your top-level approach; tell them why you focus on the new elements; show them how to make the chart that […]

What if the most profitable thing you could do was work that reduced the rise in the earth’s temperature? What if it was most profitable to reduce CO2 emissions, improve water quality or generate renewable energy? Or what if it was most profitable to do work that indirectly made the planet smile? What if while […]

If it’s not different, it can’t be innovation. With innovation, ideas are the easy part. The hard part is creating the engine that delivers novel value to customers. The first goal of an innovation project is to earn the right to do the second hardest thing. Do the hardest thing first. Innovation is 50% customer, […]

Innovation isn’t achieved by creating more ideas. Innovation is realized when ideas are transformed into commercialized products and services. Innovation is realized when ideas are transformed into new business models that deliver novel usefulness to customers and deliver increased revenues to the company. In a way, creating ideas that languish in their own shadow is […]

Ideas are cheap, but converting them into a saleable product and building the engine to make it all happen is expensive.  Before spending the big money, spend more time than you think reasonable to answer these three questions. Is the problem big enough? There’s no sense spending the time and money to solve a problem […]

Where’s the Marketing Brief? In product development, the Marketing team creates a document that defines who will buy the new product (the customer), what needs are satisfied by the new product and how the customer will use the new product.  And Marketing team also uses their crystal ball to estimate the number of units the […]

I stand by my statement that trust is the most important element in business (see The Trust Network.) The Trust Network are the group of people who get the work done. They don’t do the work to get promoted, they just do the work because they like doing the work. They don’t take others’ credit […]

If you want things to change, you have two options. You can incentivize change or you can move things out of the way that block change. The first way doesn’t work and the second one does.  For more details, click this link at it will take you to a post that describes Danny Kahneman’s thoughts […]

You could be a subtle leader if… You create the causes and conditions for others to shine. And when they shine, you give them the credit they’re due. You don’t have the title, but when the high-profile project hits a rough patch, you get called in to create the go-forward plan. One of your best […]

The people within companies have development plans so they can learn new things and become more effective.  There are two types of development plans – one that builds on strengths and another that shore up shortcomings. And for both types, the most important step is to acknowledge it’s important to improve. Before a plan can […]

A culture that demands predictable results cannot innovate.  No one will have the courage to do work with the requisite level of uncertainty and all the projects will build on what worked last time.  The only predictable result – the recipe will be wildly successful right up until the wheels fall off. You can’t do […]