Social by Design
thoughts on social software, design thinking, and business innovation, by John Kembel
blog entry
Welcome to Social by Design. I'm both thrilled and a bit intimidated to kick off this blog. Where to start?
As I usually do, I'll start with a sketch. You may be asking yourself (as I have), "why do we need another blog on social-software-XYZ?" I figured it was appropriate to explain a bit about myself and about the unique point of view I hope to bring to the enterprise social software conversation.
In my current roles at HiveLive and at Stanford's new "d.school", I find myself at the intersection of two very exciting and significant shifts:
- Social Software: there is fast-building momentum and excitement around the power and potential of enterprise social software and business-purposed communities
- Design Thinking: there is a growing hunger (and need) for new ways to collaborate and routinely innovate.
Over the last few years, I've come to see the intersection of these two areas as a perfect-storm opportunity with the potential to substantially impact how businesses innovate -- how they engage and connect with their customers, co-design new products and services, attract and motivate customers, and care for them.
How? Design thinking is inherently customer/people-centered, is fueled by insights and inspiration, and is driven by a desire to prototype/test/iterate (fail early and often to succeed sooner). Communities are likewise people-centered, require a design-thinking mindset to effectively create, nurture, and manage, and, when used to engage and collaborate directly with customers, can be phenomenal sources of insights and inspiration.
SOCIAL SOFTWARE + DESIGN-THINKING = BUSINESS INNOVATION : These are the topics I look forward to discussing here. Again, welcome to Social by Design.
If you know of a great example of a company using design-thinking and community in concert to drive new models of business innovation, I invite you to leave details in a comment below.
Comments
John,
The Web doesn't seem to have any size constraints, so there's always room for another blog, particularly one that looks to be as thought-provoking as this one.
The blog's apt title, "Social by Design," can't help but conjur up a converse title, "Social by Accident." And some communities and networks can be that, at least for a brief period of time. But that's your point...your equation "SOCIAL SOFTWARE + DESIGN-THINKING = BUSINESS INNOVATION" is only *consistently* true when design thinking is used (and prototyped/tested/iterated).
Companies design technology systems, business processes, and just about everything else. It will be great to see a discussion spring up around designing for innovation through social media.
- Matthew
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Hi Matthew,
Thanks for your comment. We'll go ahead and loosen the Web's belt just one more notch to squeeze the blog in :)
Social by Design... Social by Accident... wonderful to compare. I've always thought of design as a way of thinking and working that welcomes, in fact encourages, "happy accidents". Connections and insights that are non-obvious or unexpected usually provide the greatest springboards for innovation. The design process is particularly good at *routinely* teasing these out.
Moreover, in the organic and dynamic environment of community, we should expect to be surprised, and approach the social design challenges with a spirit of discovery and an openness to adapt. By their very nature, communities benefit from the strengths of design thinking... together, a recipe for routine innovation.
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Very much like the thinking here, and glad to come across HiveLive.
Think it was the author Patrick O'Brien who said, "The opinion of a village about one of its members is never wrong." So it goes with products, design. Watching villages (especially those online, where so much communication friction is removed) respond to their members and the products that they consider/adopt, is a rich source of learning for all in (and around) the village. Collaborating with the village to anticipate and respond to their needs, to what's relevant for them, is a big step forward on any pathway to success.
Nokia seems to do some interesting things in this regard. Posting a link here, but will root around for another that's really cool.
http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/aug2007/id20070810_686743.htm
Glad to join the conversation. I'm on Twitter as chep2m and would enjoy cross-pollinating there. Please do advise if you're ever speaking at the dSchool; I spend some time there and would love listening in.
Ellen
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Hi Ellen -- love the quote on villages. It reminds me of Christopher Alexander's work on architectural design patterns (Matthew, I recall that you've referenced his work before too)... how the shape of a building and a town drives the activities within, and ultimately influences the life and character of a community. Very relevant for online communities too.
While helping companies everyday design and build online communities, we continue to be amazed at how different and unique each business-purposed community is. Being flexible enough to capture that unique shape is the greatest challenge, but also the greatest opportunity to design something that truly drives participation and relevance, and that gives life to the community.
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I'm afraid it wasn't me quoting Christopher Alexander. I'm far less sophisticated...the only quotation I know about a village is from Woody Allen's "Love and Death":
Soldier: He was from my village. He was the village idiot.
Boris (Woody): Yeah? What did you do, place?
This, too, though, has bearing in online communities. I can think of one in particular that does have the equivalent of a villiage idiot (although I won't mention it publicly).
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Hi Matthew -- upon rechecking, you're right! My memory was close, but slightly off. It was Patty who posted about Alexander's books: Outside Innovation: Why are Design Patterns Valuable. I suppose even in the world of blog post referencing, the saying is still true: "miss by an inch, miss by a mile." :)
We should start a list of quotes & learnings from villages and physical communities (e.g., towns)... Sounds like a rich area for insights!
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