Well, for once I have to admit that I had a nearly perfect flight experience this morning; the flight was on time, the airport was empty, the seat was great, the bags were waiting for me once I got through passport control. The only thing that made it slightly less than absolutely perfect was landing in a cold and snowy Duesseldorf having been in South Africa for two weeks ;-).
Whilst trying to warm up in a freezing cold flat, I stumbled across an interesting online book this morning that provides insights into the design process for creating applications for knowledge work. From Flashbulb Interaction, it aims to support the product development team in the early concept phase ("100 Ideas for Envisioning Powerful, Engaging, and Productive User Experiences in Knowledge Work"), but from my perspective it offers a more complete view for application design than that.
What I really like about the book is that it is built around three concrete "knowledge domains" (building for architects, clinical research and financial trading). Although I guess this is more a product of the experience of Flashbulb as an organisation than a conscious decision of these industries as good examples. The domains make the concepts much more concrete. That said, by far the best element of this beautifully presented framework are the "Application envisioning questions" for each of the ideas.
It is available for download as a PDF, or as an online reference.
Sunday 23 November 2008
Saturday 8 November 2008
Business model design & another disrupted flight
Predictably enough, I had another problem with flights today (see previous posts for the saga of my experiences on a weekly basis on flights between Germany and the UK). Today's installment was the diversion of my flight from Duesseldorf to London Heathrow to Amsterdam. In fairness this was due to a medical emergency and I was really impressed with the way the staff on board handled it, but nevertheless I do begin to feel ever so slightly unlucky with my air travel!
I am now at Heathrow slowly getting into holiday mode and was just checking through the latest feeds on netvibes when Osterwalder's busines-model-design blog jumped out at me again. I already wrote a little bit about this blog a while back (see here) and I have been really impressed with the clarity of his approach of using a simple framework to inspire business model innovation. His latest blog entry is on google book search (which is in general a really cool and interesting thing!) - he does a really good job of simplifying down the motivation to this new product and what it could mean in a highly competitive industry. Take a look here.
My flight out has just been called, so wish me luck.
I am now at Heathrow slowly getting into holiday mode and was just checking through the latest feeds on netvibes when Osterwalder's busines-model-design blog jumped out at me again. I already wrote a little bit about this blog a while back (see here) and I have been really impressed with the clarity of his approach of using a simple framework to inspire business model innovation. His latest blog entry is on google book search (which is in general a really cool and interesting thing!) - he does a really good job of simplifying down the motivation to this new product and what it could mean in a highly competitive industry. Take a look here.
My flight out has just been called, so wish me luck.
Sunday 2 November 2008
Killer innovations blog
Another weekend, another wedding. This time near Cambridge in a beautiful castle / private school a la Hogwarts. And guess what, the flight to and from the UK was delayed (as I have already warned here and here, this is definitely going to be an underlying theme of many of my blog entries!).
And once again, this gave me an opportunity to catch up on a view podcasts. I really enjoyed a recording of a livecast given by Phil McKinney (www.killerinnovations.com) about the creative economy. His message was simple; creativity is not innate, it is a skill and can be learnt. He provided a couple of ideas on how to do this in the presentation, but on his website he provides loads more.
I rather liked his "FIRE" approach to innovation (Focus innovation search, Ideation, Rank ideas, Execute), having failed frequently to get the most out of "creative" sessions with both colleagues and clients. In particular, the "Ideation" step (basically asking sufficiently difficult questions to force a more challenging discourse) got me thinking. It is so easy for "innovation" to become "trial and error" or "change for change's sake".
Phil McKinney has been doing Killer Innovations for quite some time now (though I have only really followed it for the last year or so, since a colleague recommended it to me). What I like about the cast is McKinney's enthusiasm and his passionate belief in what he is saying; I don't always agree with everything he says, but it is consistently thought-provoking! Give him a try!
And once again, this gave me an opportunity to catch up on a view podcasts. I really enjoyed a recording of a livecast given by Phil McKinney (www.killerinnovations.com) about the creative economy. His message was simple; creativity is not innate, it is a skill and can be learnt. He provided a couple of ideas on how to do this in the presentation, but on his website he provides loads more.
I rather liked his "FIRE" approach to innovation (Focus innovation search, Ideation, Rank ideas, Execute), having failed frequently to get the most out of "creative" sessions with both colleagues and clients. In particular, the "Ideation" step (basically asking sufficiently difficult questions to force a more challenging discourse) got me thinking. It is so easy for "innovation" to become "trial and error" or "change for change's sake".
Phil McKinney has been doing Killer Innovations for quite some time now (though I have only really followed it for the last year or so, since a colleague recommended it to me). What I like about the cast is McKinney's enthusiasm and his passionate belief in what he is saying; I don't always agree with everything he says, but it is consistently thought-provoking! Give him a try!
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