The Deep Dive (1999) - L'émission qui a fait connaître IDEO (VOSTFR)
Summary
TLDRThe video explores IDEO, a leading design firm, as they tackle the challenge of redesigning a shopping cart in just five days. Through a process called 'Deep Dive,' the team collaborates using brainstorming, creativity, and experimentation to innovate. The video highlights the importance of teamwork, chaos in creativity, and a flat hierarchy in fostering innovation. The result is a cutting-edge cart with features like child safety and easier navigation. IDEO's playful, open-minded culture and emphasis on trial and error are key themes throughout the design process.
Takeaways
- 🌟 Innovation thrives in environments that encourage chaos and reject hierarchical structures.
- 🛒 The shopping cart project at IDEO exemplifies rapid prototyping, aiming to redesign a familiar object within a tight deadline.
- 🏆 IDEO is recognized as an influential product development firm, known for creating iconic designs like the first computer mouse for Apple.
- 👥 The team at IDEO is diverse, including experts from various fields such as engineering, marketing, and psychology, which fosters creativity.
- 👶 Safety, especially child safety, was identified as a critical issue in the shopping cart redesign process.
- 🚼 Theft and the average life of a shopping cart were revealed as significant concerns impacting cart design.
- 📈 The 'deep dive' brainstorming session at IDEO involves intense focus, wild idea generation, and building upon each other's concepts.
- 🔍 IDEO's design process emphasizes learning from real users and experts to gain insights that drive innovation.
- 🏢 The culture at IDEO is playful and non-hierarchical, which is believed to be essential for fostering an innovative environment.
- 🛍️ The final shopping cart design by IDEO introduced innovative features like modular baskets, child safety enhancements, and theft deterrence.
- 🏅 The redesigned shopping cart by IDEO was recognized with an award and considered for commercial development.
Q & A
What is the primary focus of the video transcript?
-The video focuses on the process of innovation and design at IDEO, a product development firm. Specifically, it showcases how IDEO redesigns a shopping cart in just five days by applying their creative, non-hierarchical, and team-based design process.
How does IDEO's approach to innovation differ from traditional corporate cultures?
-IDEO promotes a non-hierarchical and collaborative culture where everyone is encouraged to contribute ideas, regardless of seniority. There is no strict hierarchy, and innovation comes from teamwork, not just from the boss or senior figures. Chaos and playfulness are encouraged to foster creativity.
What is the significance of the ‘deep dive’ in IDEO’s innovation process?
-The 'deep dive' refers to IDEO's method of total immersion into a problem. The team brainstorms intensely, generating and refining ideas in a chaotic yet focused manner. This method encourages creativity by deferring judgment and building on wild ideas to find innovative solutions.
Why does IDEO avoid traditional corporate hierarchies in its design process?
-IDEO believes that strict hierarchies hinder innovation. By avoiding hierarchies, IDEO ensures that ideas come from anyone on the team, allowing the most creative and effective solutions to surface. They argue that it is unlikely that the boss always has the best ideas.
What role does playfulness and chaos play at IDEO?
-Playfulness and chaos are central to IDEO’s culture because they foster creativity and innovation. The work environment is deliberately non-traditional and relaxed, allowing employees to experiment, take risks, and come up with out-of-the-box ideas that lead to breakthrough designs.
How does IDEO use trial and error in its design process?
-IDEO employs a philosophy of 'enlightened trial and error,' where failing often is encouraged as it leads to quicker success. This approach helps the team refine ideas rapidly through experimentation rather than relying on a single genius or a carefully planned approach.
What are some key elements of the redesigned shopping cart IDEO created?
-The redesigned shopping cart includes features like hand baskets that can be stacked, improved safety measures for children, and the ability to scan items directly on the cart. The cart is modular, compact, and designed to move more easily in tight spaces.
How does IDEO’s approach to design reflect the importance of collaboration?
-IDEO’s design process is highly collaborative, with team members from various disciplines working together. The team splits into smaller groups to gather information and brainstorm, then comes together to share ideas and create prototypes. This collective effort ensures diverse perspectives are considered.
What are some examples of products that IDEO has designed successfully?
-IDEO has designed a wide range of products, including the first computer mouse for Apple, squishy-handled toothbrushes, Smith ski goggles, and high-tech medical equipment. Their designs focus on both functionality and aesthetics.
Why does IDEO believe that the environment and workspace affect innovation?
-IDEO believes that a playful, flexible workspace encourages creativity and innovation. Their offices are filled with unconventional elements, such as DC3 wings, umbrellas on ceilings, and bikes hanging from ropes. These elements create a dynamic environment where people feel free to experiment and share ideas.
Outlines
💼 Innovation and Corporate Culture Shift
The paragraph discusses how traditional business norms, such as the boss always having the best ideas or climbing the corporate ladder, are being replaced by a culture where innovation comes from creative individuals, regardless of seniority. Companies once avoided chaos, but now it's seen as a space for groundbreaking ideas. Innovation thrives in an environment where creativity is encouraged, rather than stifled by rigid hierarchies.
🛒 The Shopping Cart Redesign Challenge
IDEO, a world-renowned design firm, is challenged to redesign the shopping cart in just five days. The project kicks off in Palo Alto, California, with a diverse team of designers from different fields, including engineering, psychology, and marketing. IDEO's process focuses on understanding user needs through observation and interviews. The challenge is not only about innovation but also about addressing practical concerns like theft, safety, and functionality.
🧠 The Deep Dive Brainstorming Session
IDEO's approach to innovation includes a method called 'The Deep Dive,' where the team immerses themselves fully into the problem. The team generates hundreds of ideas, deferring judgment and encouraging creativity. Wild ideas, such as Velcro pants for kids in shopping carts, are encouraged as part of the creative process. The team narrows down ideas based on feasibility and practicality, focusing on solutions that can be built within the project's time constraints.
🎨 Playfulness and Innovation at IDEO
IDEO's office culture emphasizes playfulness as a core element of innovation. The workspace is designed to be flexible and encourages experimentation, with furniture on wheels and quirky decorations like a DC3 wing. Employees are free to make creative changes, like hanging bicycles on the walls without seeking approval. This playful, open-minded environment fosters a culture where new ideas can thrive, and experimentation is encouraged over rigid processes.
🏆 Final Prototype and Design Iteration
On the final day, IDEO's team reveals a completely redesigned shopping cart, which incorporates elements from all the initial prototypes. The cart features innovative solutions like removable hand baskets and a high-tech scanner for self-checkout. The cart is designed to be safer, easier to maneuver, and less prone to theft. The process of constant iteration, failure, and teamwork leads to a successful design, demonstrating how IDEO's chaotic yet focused approach can result in effective innovation.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Innovation
💡Design Process
💡Deep Dive
💡Teamwork
💡Prototype
💡Hierarchy
💡Enlightened Trial and Error
💡Corporate Culture
💡User-Centered Design
💡Brainstorming
Highlights
Innovation is driven by teams, not bosses, with a focus on creativity and collaboration rather than hierarchy.
IDEO's design process emphasizes the importance of quick trial and error, encouraging wild ideas and deferring judgment.
The process of innovation at IDEO involves multidisciplinary teams that bring diverse perspectives to solve problems.
IDEO's approach to redesigning the shopping cart in just five days exemplifies the fast-paced and iterative nature of their innovation process.
Safety issues were quickly identified as a priority in redesigning the shopping cart, including addressing theft and child injuries.
Designers at IDEO don't have fixed roles, and the lack of hierarchy allows for more fluid collaboration and idea-sharing.
Observation and field research—like talking to store workers and watching shoppers—are key to understanding how products are actually used.
Prototypes are developed quickly, and each iteration incorporates ideas from multiple previous versions.
IDEO's culture promotes experimentation and fun, creating a playful environment that fosters creativity.
The redesigned shopping cart features modular hand baskets, enhanced child safety mechanisms, and improved mobility with wheels that turn 90 degrees.
Designing for theft prevention was a key consideration in creating a cart that has no value if stolen.
IDEO demonstrates that by combining design and function, they can solve everyday problems in new and innovative ways.
Failing often and learning from mistakes is an essential part of IDEO's design philosophy, helping them succeed faster.
IDEO's workspace is deliberately playful and flexible, encouraging the kind of creative thinking that leads to breakthroughs.
The final shopping cart design incorporates elements that improve both user experience and store logistics, marking a significant improvement over traditional carts.
Transcripts
[Music]
it used to be that you deferred to the
boss is it the boss is always going to
have the best ideas not likely here
Nimble fingers alert minds and tireless
machines and it used to be in most
companies that chaos was
discouraged this is where the crazies
live this is where we do our work it's
different good morning good morning used
to be you were supposed to climb the
corporate ladder good morning status is
who comes up with the best ideas not
who's the oldest not who's who's been
with the company longest not not who has
that biggest title if you go into a
culture and there's a bunch of stiffs
going around I can guarantee they're
they're not likely to invent
anything you could stack us up big as
big as you
want that's great thanks a lot and we
had a great time today well forget the
way it used to be tonight the Deep dive
one company's secret weapon for
[Music]
innovation
[Music]
a lot further along in this broadcast
near the end as a matter of fact you
will hear one of the central characters
suggest that we look around the only
thing that's not designed by anybody he
will say is nature actually you could
say the same thing by observing that the
only designs that don't require constant
modification the ones we find in nature
but the point is well taken from the
buildings in which we live and work to
the cars we drive or the knives and
forks with which we eat everything we
use was designed to create some sort of
marriage between Form and Function does
it work and can we make it look
interesting or attractive what is truly
amazing is how long we tend to put up
with things that may not work
particularly well or may look especially
unattractive simply because we're
accustomed to them because no one has
ever suggested redesigning those things
there's an interesting distinction
between design and invention whoever
came up with the idea of dental floss
for example was an inventor but the man
or woman who put it inside that clever
little plastic box that lets you tear
off just the right length that was a
designer now how does the process of
Designing a better product work and
would it be interesting to watch that
process when are we first first
broadcast this program back in February
we weren't at all sure what you would
think but judging by the number of you
who ordered video cassettes of the
program and the number of people who
contacted the industrial product design
firm that is featured in this program
you liked it a lot here was the premise
of the program we went to idio the
product design folk and said take
something old and familiar like say the
shopping cart and completely redesign it
for for us in just 5 days ABC News
correspondent Jack Smith tells us what
happened next 9 in the morning day one
and these people have a deadline to meet
so welcome to the kickoff of the
shopping cart project this is Paulo Alto
California in the heart of Silicon
Valley and these are designers at idio
probably the most influential product
development firm in the world designers
are the reason TVs have square screens
chairs four legs and toothbrushes
nowadays those squishy Handles in fact
it was idio that designed those squishy
handles Ido has designed everything from
high-tech medical equipment to the 25-
Ft mechanical whale in the movie free
Willie and the first computer mouse for
Apple Smith ski goggles Nike sunglasses
NEC computer screens hundreds of
products we take for granted this is a
called the neat squeeze squeeze tooth uh
toothpaste tube which you invented the
man who runs Ido is Dave Kelly a
Stanford engineering Professor with a
Groucho marks mustache a dad of genius
and an approach to Innovation that
usually works oh thank you Fred but not
always thanks a lot I can show you some
products that failed came up with this
idea called Monster shoes where you take
these little monsters and Lace them into
your shoes like this and we built a
bunch of them and um I didn't want those
either so mostly what Ido designs though
does work and it works very well Dave
and his design teams create about 90 new
products every year the point is that
we're not actually experts at any given
area you know we're kind of experts on
the process of how you design stuff so
we don't care if you give us a
toothbrush a toothpaste tube a tractor a
space shuttle you know a chair it's all
the same to us we like want to figure
out how to innovate in in by using our
process applying it and so for the next
5 days the team will apply that process
to bringing the Market shopping cart
into the 21st century I think first we
should maybe all acknowledge that it's
kind of insane to do an entire an entire
project in a week project leader is
Peter skilman a 35-year-old Stanford
engineer project leader because he's
good with groups not because of
seniority he's only been at Ido for six
years the rest of the team is eclectic
but that's typical here Whitney Mortimer
Harvard MBA Peter Coughlin linguist Tom
Kelly Dave's brother marketing expert
Jane Fon Suri psychologist Alex kazak 26
a biology major who's turned down
medical school three times because he's
having too much fun at IO kids climbing
up and doing this kids do that safety
emerges early as an important issue
22,000 child injuries a year which is
and so they're hospitalized injuries I
mean there are many others not reported
in the store that's you actually have to
that's hospitalized right and theft it
turns out a lot of carts are stolen you
know what is the average life of a cart
does it last 2 years 5 years 10 years
and and how big is this theft thing 10:
a.m. as the team works it becomes clear
there are no titles here no permanent
assignments the other side says gives us
a lot of help says be
safe everyone appears to be equal and
they love to mock Corporate America I'll
give you status I'll give you a big red
ball on a on a on a on a post and that
says you're a big guy if you got a ball
you're a senior vice president you know
what do I get the desk red ball it's all
same in a very Innovative culture you
can't have a kind of hierarchy of here's
the boss and the next person down the
next person down the next person down
because it's impossible that the boss is
the one who's had the insightful
experience with shopping carts it's just
not possible according to Kelly even
employees who merely listen to the boss
don't add that much either so you got to
hire people who don't listen to you and
that I don't think Corporate America
wants to hear that right yet I think we
ought to start making those lists about
the kinds of questions that we're going
to ask the team splits into groups to
find out firsthand what the people who
use make and repair shopping carts
really think okay go the problem with
the plastic cart is the wind catches it
yeah and these things have been clocked
at 35 across the parking
lot man that's actually a pretty good
point the the trick is to find these
experts and so that you can learn much
more quickly than you could by just kind
of doing in the normal way and and
trying to learn about it yourself from
everything I read these things aren't
that safe either you know um so probably
the seat itself is going to have to be
redesigned what you're seeing here is
the kind of social science like
anthropologists you know like you go and
study tribes what is it that that they
do that we can learn from that will help
us design a better cart one of the
interesting things for me is looking at
how people really don't like to let go
of the cart except for the a
professional shopper whose strategy is
to leave the cart at various places in
Corporate America many bosses like
measure whether their whether their
people are you know who the good people
or the people who are performing are the
ones that they see at their desk all the
time that couldn't be further from the
truth the people who are really getting
the information are out here talking to
the buzzes of the world going to to meet
other experts much more useful than
sitting at your desk 3:30 in the
afternoon and the group is back at idio
there is no letup
each team is going to demonstrate and
communicate and share everything that
they've learn today um people went off
in the four corners of the earth and are
coming back with the golden keys to the
Innovation a uh shopping car has been
clocked at 35 M an hour traveling
through a parking lot in the wind we
were in the store what 2 hours and and
it was truly frightening just to see the
kind of stuff going on you got to
designate some people to make damn sure
that the store owners pointed is
represented after nine straight hours
the team is tired they call it a day so
um cool well uh that's great thanks a
lot we had a great time today
[Applause]
[Music]
yeah want to get together and start here
day two and the start of idido's unique
brand of brainstorming they call it a
deep dive a sort of total immersion in
the problem at hand ID's mantra for
Innovation is written everywhere one
conversation at a time stay focused
encourage wild ideas defer judgment
build on the ideas of others uh that's
the hardest thing for people to do is to
uh restrain themselves from U uh
criticizing an idea so if anybody starts
to nail an idea they get the bill you
know
the Deep dive begins and for the next
few hours the ideas pour out and are
posted on the walls oh the blind the the
Privacy blind like when you're buying
six cases of condoms no one see nesting
is it sort of has to nest if it doesn't
Nest we don't have a solution how about
velcro pants and and velcro seats for
the kids and you just drop them down on
there velcro seats velcro pants for kids
yeah see you have to have some wild
ideas if then you build on those wild
wild ideas and end up being better ideas
than if you said if you if everybody
only came up with same things you know
kind of appropriate things you'd never
like have any points to take off to to
build a a really Innovative idea it's
organized chaos organized cha it's not
organized um what it is is it's focused
chaos by 11:00 a.m. the group begins
narrowing down the hundreds of ideas
written or drawn on the walls how by
voting for
vote with your poit not not with an idea
that's cool but with an idea that's cool
and buildable um if it's if it's too far
out there and can't be built in a day
then I don't think we should vote on it
why not have you be the judge you're the
because because I'm I'm going to be
wrong it's the team that that's able to
really judge what the best
ideas otherwise ideas wouldn't come out
that's right enlightened trial and error
succeeds over the planning and blown
genius enlightened trial and error
succeeds over the planning of the lone
genius if anything sums up idido's
approach that is it that and the focused
chaos that seems to go with it um I took
a point of view I call it the sport
utility vehicle cart it is noon worried
that the team is drifting what can only
be called a group of self-appointed
adults under Dave Kelly holds an
informal side session so we don't want
to tell them what to build or else we
take away the benefit of the whole thing
what needs should they optimize their
solution to is to refocus the Deep dive
maybe we arbitrarily say we do five
teams four or five team four four or
five teams and we and we give each team
a need area hey can we uh grab everybody
over to the uh wall here there has to be
a Command Decision it becomes very
autocratic for a very short period of
time in defining what things people are
going to work on like it or not the team
is told it will split into groups to
build mockups covering four areas of
concern that been
identified shopping safety checkout and
finding what you're looking for I
noticed that toward the end of the
process the adults took over yeah that's
because we we have no choice but to to
stop that cycle I mean there's um if you
don't work under time constraints you
you could never get anything done
because it's a messy process and go on
forever while the team starts building
prototypes Dave Kelly takes me on a tour
of the rest of Ideo what's happening in
here is uh that's a client meeting
that's a first client meeting that's the
first time we met with a client so we
haven't trained them
yet if if we took them straight from
there into a room where music was
blaring and everybody was throwing Nerf
darts at each other that would be a
little hard to take you know so um we're
warming them up but this is this is
where the crazies live this is where we
do our work it's different you can tell
whether a place is playful in about the
first 15 minutes as you walk down the
hall
being playful is of huge importance for
being Innovative I mean if you go into a
culture and there's a bunch of stiffs
going around they're not I can guarantee
they're they're not likely to invent
anything invent anything like this
futuristic looking instrument for
kids so no matter what you do with that
thing you always you sound great you
always sound good you have to make it so
that this can
happen whoa it didn't break no it didn't
break there's a whole department at Ido
devoted to toys turns out to be one of
its most profitable areas fun too so got
these little wings and no matter what
you do if I get in trouble here it's
always a
spiral at idio they found that fresh
ideas come faster in a fun place not
only is the furniture on Wheels to suit
the needs of the moment but people are
encouraged actually to build their own
work areas and they were designing this
space and they said to me you know we'd
like like to have you know $4,000 extra
in our budget for a DC3 wing and I said
uh DC you have to have that and they
said yeah they have to have it so that's
that's a DC3 Wing piece of a DC3 Wing
yeah and that's just Decor that's Decor
that's um Ambiance you know that says
we're weird and we're proud of it
umbrellas on the ceiling to shade
computer screens from direct sunlight
and bicycles on ropes to prevent clutter
the first guy who hung a bike up on a
thing he didn't come to me and ask me he
didn't ask some facility person was was
okay he tried it and then like he waited
and see if anybody complained if nobody
complained another guy hung a bike up
and pretty soon everybody's got their
bikes up and nobody's complained right
so it's that whole thing of trying stuff
and ask forgiveness you know instead of
asking permission is the way people come
up with new ideas Ido has such a
reputation for Innovation that client
companies are increasingly asking Dave
not just for new products but also to
remake their corporate cultures you may
be looking at the workplace of the
future here it's one thing to be able to
do a product once in a while but if you
can build a culture and a process where
you routinely come up with great ideas
that's what the companies really want
okay Peter we're done back at the shop
it is 6:00 and the four mockups are
ready for showing baskets also can be if
you think you will have more volume
baskets can be put in a modular shopping
cart you pile hand baskets on to a high
tech cart that gets you through the
traffic jam a checkout that you could
mount a scanner on the shopping cart so
that you as the customer as you pull it
off the shelf would scan each item one
that's built around child safety and
another that let Shoppers talk to the
supermarket staff remotely uh yeah where
can I find a yogurt the yogurt over the
da section but the adults again decide
more work needs to be done before the
mockups can be combined at one last
prototype why don't we have all the
cards come up here for a second I think
you'd take a piece of each one of these
ideas and kind of back it off a little
bit and then put it in the in the design
the design is still not there but
there's another motto at Ido fail often
in order to succeed sooner and some of
the team will be up half the night
trying to put together a design that
finally does work
so it is day five and Dave Kelly has no
idea what the final cart looks like only
the team does if they kind of got their
heads down they don't look at me I'm
nervous you know if they say wait till
you see it then I know we're in good
shape so I'm getting wait until you see
it I think it's that'll be good there it
is there it
is so we took the best elements out of
each prototype designed this entire cart
in a day and then this cart was
fabricated in a day with an amazing team
of people in our machine shop pulling
this off working in shifts throughout
the night wow I'm impressed so are
we the cart which is designed to cost
about the same as today's carts is
different in every other way hand
baskets that stack in a metal frame and
major improvements for all you you just
lift the handle up you drop the put the
children in and then you can close the
um the the uh handle right over them and
they instantly have some little bit of a
work surface that they can play with
what do you
think well I'm very proud of the team I
think it's it's great this does this
work for you works for me great it's
also beautiful I mean let's you know
take it over to a local supermarket and
see what they say yeah it works really
well the cart's wheels turn 90° so it
can move sideways no more lifting up the
rear in a tight spot and you shop in a
totally different way rather than taking
your cart everywhere you go in the store
through a crowded store like this uh
much more efficient to take a small
basket rush around to where the the
particular shelves are and come back and
put them back put them here and treat
this as like a center for your shopping
and with a high-tech scanner so that in
the future you skip the checkout traffic
jam here's how you would scan an item
you reach over and pick up anything like
uh like the salad dressing and I would I
would scan it and if I want to accept
that item I would just press plus and
then drop it in my basket because stores
don't yet have those high-tech scanners
the team designed checking out today a
means doing it the oldfashioned way but
the bags are hung on hooks on the cart's
frame remember there is no basket here
why get rid of the big basket the basket
is tyranny the basket is tyranny because
it's not really needed if all your stuff
ends up in bags why need the basket in
the first place talk to me about
theft there's no value in this cart
without the basket because you can't
carry anything in it it's useless to
anybody you can't use it a barbecue so
it's not going to get stolen that's
right so this ought to appeal to store
owners though yes I love it I think it
looks great at first I was a little
shocked but I think it's you have some
fantastic ideas here it needs a little
refining but I think that it's great I
mean we would we would want them it
makes us feel great uh and she also gave
us some really good comments about how
we can make this thing better just
wherever you are look around the only
thing that's not designed by somebody I
like is nature so the trees are not
designed by us but everything you see
everything you see every light fitting
every flower vase every scale every
stand for fruit everything is designed
has to go through this kind of process
and they can do a better or a um a
better or worse job of innovating or
improving but everything is designed it
has to go through this process it wasn't
this effortless oh my God so that's how
it works thing that I saw there it was
actually hard work it's a lot of hard
work um we all love it so it doesn't
look like it's hard work but it's a lot
of hours a lot of hours also an open
mind a boss who demands fresh ideas be
quirky and clash with his a belief that
chaos can be constructive and teamwork a
great deal of teamwork and these are the
recipe for how Innovation takes place
this is Jack Smith for Nightline Apollo
Alto
California I'll be back with a brief
update on our story in just a
moment incidentally the Nightline
shopping cart won a silver award in the
industrial design excellence awards and
there's talk now of developing it
commercially that's our report for
tonight I'm Ted Coppel in Washington for
all of us here at ABC News good
[Music]
night
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