Yale Fox is a DJ and nightclub sociologist living and working between Las Vegas and New York City. In 2010, while working towards his PhD at the University of Toronto, Yale was contacted by a prominent Las Vegas nightclub – one of the highest rated in the world. So began Yale Fox’s transition from professional student to nightclub experience guru. This year, Yale received a TED Fellowship for his research on how a customer’s behaviors within a system (the nightclub) are influenced by the DJ’s repertoire of song selection – as well as other factors (flashing lights, wait times, architecture, the staff, other patrons and the unholy alchemy of Red Bull and vodka).

Yale Fox

His company, the 194 Group, is part research lab, part experiential branding firm and part talent agency – representing an impressive roster of DJs and party hosts. For Yale, the live booking aspects of the business are more a networking tool and a signifier of their coolness equity, “when (a potential client) asks, ‘how do we know that you guys know what’s hot in music?’ Well our DJs are playing the hottest nightclubs in the world.” The talent agency maintains their presence in the nightclubs, and Yale’s thesis papers provide a theoretical grounding for their services, but “we’re a marketing firm,” he asserts, “enhancing brand experience through music.” The 194 Group refers to 194 dB, the loudest sound pressure level a human ear can perceive without being damaged – and a double entendre suggesting the Group’s ability to amplify a brand through music.

Yale’s business partner Shez Mehra (DJ Wristpect), is a world-class DJ with a b-school vernacular and sensibility, who throws around phrases like “end-user-focused party-rocking.” Shez explains that there is often a conflict between what the client wants and what the customer wants, “A lot of times, the executives from a brand, the promoters or the venue owner, will want to dictate how we should play.” For Shez, mixing songs for the owner of the club, or for the client, would be the DJ equivalent of designing your customer experience around the disposition of the share- holder. It may please him in the short-term, but ultimately goes against his best interests. Of course, both the relationship with end-user and with the client needs to be managed. The latter requires a certain level of trust. “The client has one goal,” says Shez. “It’s either to sell alcohol or to spread the message about their product or service to the people in the venue. We do what we do to resonate with the end-user. Once they trust us to do that, they see it unfold in front of their eyes. They see the vibe. They see the sales and they see people leaving happily with their merch and talking about their experience.”

DJ Wristpect

For Research in Motion, 194 collaborated with Maritz to architect “BBM the DJ,” a series of experiential events to launch the BlackBerry Torch. The parties, exclusively for influencers – celebrities, athletes, bloggers and executives – as well as for sales reps from various retailers and wireless carriers, were designed to get the right people excited about the product. Attendees were given a Torch upon arrival, and could add an account that would allow them to literally BBM their requests to the DJ. A giant television monitor, dressed as a BlackBerry, displayed the requests, at which point the DJ was tasked to play as many of the requests as possible while maintaining the flow of the night. Shez characterizes this task, the improvisational element of creating a customer experience, as, “catering to the situation,” a notion that applies to many business spaces outside of the nightclub.

While Yale’s research papers are distributed and discussed within the 194 Group in the form of white papers and internal memos – both Yale and Shez are quick to point out that competence in moving dance floors is only teachable to a certain point. “Its hard to plan for,” Shez tells me. “In the BlackBerry Tours across North America, every city was completely different. What worked in New York didn’t work in Boston. You have to trust your talent to get into the psyche of the crowd.”

A recent 194 Group signee, DJ Mensa who also happens to have a background in psychology and marketing, adds that DJing is like creating any number of other customer experiences: “You say something with a song. Hopefully the crowd responds. Then you say something with another song and hopefully it perpetuates the conversation. I’ve always considered DJing a customer service. Develop a vibe that will hopefully peak at the right time.”

DJ Mensa

Robert Bolton is a writer at Idea Couture, a global strategic innovation and experience design firm. He is based in Toronto, Canada.

This Article has been taken from The Customer Experience Issue (Issue #3, Fall 2011) of M/I/S/C/ Magazine – a magazine dedicated to design thinking and innovation available in over 25 countries. To purchase a digital copy of the full issue and for other issues please click HERE.

Kiva’s micro-financing model, which allows people to acquire loans of as little as $25, has transformed the way many entrepreneurs in the third world conduct business. For social investors however, the relationship with these entrepreneurs and the products and services they offer can be detached and distant, lacking a real connection with the product being made. Presented with a very brief business biography and engaged with entrepreneurs in little more than a quick transaction, few lenders truly understand the financial context of the seamstress in Tajikstan, the lumber delivery woman in Peru or the rice farmer in Laos.

Here’s a concept that we developed here at Idea Couture (not commissioned by Kiva) to illustrate how social enterprises can apply whitespace mapping to create new customer experiences. From the several strategic themes that emerged from the mapping exercise came the Kiva Tea idea. The Kiva Tea Gallery bridges the investor and the entrepreneur by extending the relationship from lending to spending. This natural extension of the brand connects people across borders through sharing some of the experiences that surround tea and global tea cultures. The Kiva Tea Gallery was designed to create a greater engagement between the cultivators and consumers of tea as well as a deeper appreciation for its economies and gastronomies. Indexing the very best of old and new world Japanese architecture, with past retail experiences, Kiva Tea Gallery offer customers a series of curated tea products, services and entrepreneurial opportunities. More than a teashop, Kiva Tea Gallery makes for a truly fulfilling engaging multi-sensory experience.

Customers are invited to taste teas from independent tea producers from all over the world. Like a certain tea? Buy a bag of it. Better yet, loan funds to the farmer. The same goes for tea paraphernalia. A collection of handcrafted ceramic and cast-iron teapots, cups, trivets and steepers are exhibited and displayed for sale in the gallery. If a particular piece speaks to you, you can purchase it and even lend money to the artisan who crafted it. For the entrepreneurs supported, Kiva Tea Gallery generates increased income by setting them up not only with the resources to produce but an inherent mechanism to promote and sell. The structure is set up so that the partners and wholesale distribution channels bypass layers of middlemen.

Education is a big part of the experience at Kiva Tea Gallery. The physical locations regularly offer tastings, tea-knowledge seminars, pottery classes in the ceramics studio and nursery tutorials including gardening tips and a take-home plant. These programs and events educate the patrons in traditional and regional tea cultures and histories. Kiva Tea Gallery offers something for tea lovers and conscience consumers at all levels of engagement – whether you want to buy a bag of tea, lend $50 to a tea producer, or learn to grow and ferment your own iahpet – the Myanma pickled tea for eating.

For more active lenders, Kiva Tea Gallery offers tea travel and volunteerism programs. How would you like to visit the Sri Lankan plantation where your favorite tea is produced? Meet the farmer, smell the terrain, exchange knowledge and maybe even put in some grunt labor. Perhaps you’re more interested in a month of pottery training from the rural Chinese artisan whose teapot you purchased. Experience fascinating cultures and customs, exotic cuisine – and learn the intricacies of the tea industry – all while you establish an authentic connection through your social investment.

With its interactive platform, Kiva Tea Gallery opens the gateway to new tastes, wellness therapies, social experiences, global stories and business relationships that allow lenders to understand, experience and reap the rewards of their loans. Online visitors can surf profiles, lend money or make purchases and view Kiva-produced videos from tea growers all over the world – sharing healing and wellness knowledge as well as growing techniques. The resulting Kiva experiences can provide new and engaging experiences to anyone willing to enjoy them. The opportunities are limitless.

The name Kiva and its logo are trademarks of Kiva microfunds, a California non-profit public benefit corporation.

Cheesan Chew is VP Head of Digital Innovation at Idea Couture, a global strategic innovation and experience design firm. She spends her time between San Francisco and Toronto.

This Article has been taken from The Customer Experience Issue (Issue #3, Fall 2011) of M/I/S/C/ Magazine – a magazine dedicated to design thinking and innovation available in over 25 countries. To purchase a digital copy of the full issue and for other issues please click HERE.

10 years has seen explosive growth in what is being called the “massification of luxury goods.” Luxury has gone mainstream but does this still make them luxury brands?

Coach literally reinvented itself in 2001 as a fashion-forward producer of mass luxury goods to better compete against stronger luxury brands. They have been incredibly successful and other brands are doing the same thing. H&M had haute couture designers, Stella McCartney, Roberto Cavalli and Karl Lagerfeld design pieces for their retail stores that literally sold out in less than an hour. This is actually a good thing for the luxury market, providing an entry point for consumers into the luxury world.

Luxury brand leaders are trying to find ways to distinguish themselves from other premium brands and some are now pushing prices up to an unprecedented level to maintain their luxury positioning. Can being expensive alone maintain this positioning? Louis Vuitton, Chanel and Hermès are all testing the limit of what they can ask for. The question is how high can you go? And how do you justify that cost to consumers?

Louis Vuitton is maintaining prestige while selling to the masses without ever having an end of season sale. Burberry is doing a phenom- enal job transforming itself into a luxury brand. Chanel is making sure style never goes out of fashion and is never affordable. Tiffany & Co. is still making sure everyone understands what the little blue box means. Hermès offers a true luxury experience with only a limited number of bags to sell each season. Just like a high-end restaurant that holds a table or two for those important guests that drop in without a reservation, a few distinguished customers can purchase a bag in-store, but generally, if you want to buy a Hermès bag, you have to order it. Most bags in the store are just for display. You choose the material: cowhide, ostrich or canvas, and the color of the hardware: silver, gold or diamond-encrusted. As you wait the 6-8 months for your bag, you can excitedly tell your friends what you’ve ordered. They are the masters in making their products desirable.

The key success factor for luxury brands is still quality. It takes three years to train a leather goods craftsman and two years to train retail personnel. If we continue with Hermès as an example, for the past 20 years their craftsmen have grown from approximately 300 to over 2,000. A Hermès bag is going to last a customer 30 years – it isn’t a product, it’s an investment.

In 2010 the total consumption in the Chinese mainland luxury market reached USD10.7 billion, excluding private jets, yachts and luxury cars, making China the world’s second largest consumer of luxury goods following Japan. Roughly 73% of China’s luxury shoppers are under 45, compared with just over 50% in the US, according to McKinsey & Co., as many as 45% of China’s high-end buyers are under 35, compared with 28% in Western Europe. It is not difficult to see where the opportunities are.

If you spend an hour in Shanghai or Beijing you will find plenty of pseudo luxury brands that are working hard to position themselves as true luxury brands using Italian or French names to lure the unsophisticated Chinese consumers. But as Chinese consumers travel overseas, these pseudo luxury brands need to invest in overseas retail to maintain their image. The cost of entry is raised.

If the largest luxury market decides they needed change, or if they take the lead in luxury consumption, China may initiate a powerful shift. The1960s marked a Cultural Revolution in China; the 2010s may just be the Luxury Revolution. The Chinese consumer may acquire and develop their appreciation for luxury and 50% of so-called luxury brands may not pass the test. Shanghai and Beijing have a higher concentration of luxury watch outlets than any other major city in the world. In China, the ‘luxurification’ of everyday life is the new normal. They have a very different definition of luxury and are fast evolving.

Conspicuous consumption is prominent in China – consumers are willing to pay more for publicly displayed possessions to signify wealth, meaning price will be an indicator of exclusivity. This is good news for luxury goods. Luxury consumption always operates at a level of aspiration and imagination, but it can have real effects in facilitating the construction of self-identity. While luxury shoppers are being led by the rational desire to purchase items that are of high style and craftsmanship, eight of the ten top purchase motivators are emotionally driven. Luxury marketers must be reminded that it is vital to tap into deep consumers’ desires for social status and indulgence. In the context of Chinese consumers, marketers need to consider the implications of the needs of national identity and how they construct and maintain social meanings among the emerging upper-middle class. As luxury goods attempt satisfy a social need to project success, we enter the realm of the symbolic, and it is symbolic meaning that is used in the search for the meaning of existence.

Idris Mootee is the publisher and editor-in-chief of M/I/S/C/, a published author, speaker and CEO of Idea Couture, a global strategic innovation and experience design firm. He spends his time between, London, New York, Toronto, San Francisco and Shanghai.

This Article has been taken from The Customer Experience Issue (Issue #3, Fall 2011) of M/I/S/C/ Magazine – a magazine dedicated to design thinking and innovation available in over 25 countries. To purchase a digital copy of the full issue and for other issues please click HERE.

But there is a danger that these marketers may be drinking their own Kool-Aid. Many customers can have a level of enthusiasm towards certain products or brands because we provide them with a great customer experience, but is that love? This is something worth exploring.

Neurologists suggest that the early stages of love, governed by parts of the brain that are used for goal-seeking and reward, resemble obsessive-compulsive disorder. The first time we look at an Apple iPhone, a Burberry trench coat or a Mercedes SLC AMG, our brains are interpreting these objects in a certain way. At the first stage of a romantic relationship activity sparks in the dopamine-rich region of our brain normally associated with motivation and reward. The intensity is proportional to the activity. Advertising may not elicit love for your brand but it can attract attention and interest.

The insular cortex and parts of the anterior cingulate cortex, the parts of our brain associated with emotion, are not activated until the more mature phases of a relationship are entered. In the context of brand marketing, emotive connections require consistent good customer experiences, whether wonderful or awful – or love and hate. Love occurs when the sum of the total interactions that a customer experiences with a brand reach certain thresholds. Starting from the moment when a product is purchased to the moment when joy is shared with their friends on Facebook.

A parallel can also be drawn to kissing. According to Sheril Kirshenbaum, research scientist with the University of Texas in Austin and author of The Science of Kissing, kissing is sort of like Nature’s litmus test – whether it’s consciously or subconsciously, humans use the information encoded in a kiss to decide where a relationship is headed. She goes on to explain, when we kiss, we engage all of our senses. We’re learning so much about a person, not just visually, but we’re engaging our noses, our taste buds, our sense of touch, and through that information, all sorts of signals are being sent to our brain, telling us about the other person. Scientists discovered that women tend to prefer the scents of men who have a distinct genetic code for immunity – something that can only be picked up when in very close proximity, such as kissing. So think about the first kiss equivalent in multi-sensory customer experience – how do you design the litmus test for your brand?

Love is not emotion – it is a strategic capability to gain happiness. And love by itself has no object. It is some invisible and unexplainable energy of consciousness, which at times, we are not even aware of. It is beyond form, yet inclusive of form. Love is a capability that can be developed, nurtured and learned. We develop this capability when we were very young and over the years, we develop the ability to love and care for other people and sometimes even objects.

Emotion is a different animal. It is feelings (or reactions to our brain activity) that are aroused as a result of stimuli. When you see something, an emotion is elicited – you want to touch it, feel it and maybe even own it. As many relationships exist out of convenience or benefits, people remain loyal to certain brands. This may be because there is a lack of choice or simply because there is low involvement the product category.

Sex, love and emotion are three different things. In an ideal world, they intersect to produce ideal results. While it can be one of them, sex is not the single manifestation of love, as the purchase frequency of a product or brand is not necessarily the manifestation of brand love.

Emotions can often get us into trouble but we must recognize them as part of being human and accept them into our consciousness, where they can be cared for and managed. We often use the word “emotive” connections in the customer experience design process but I wonder how many of us know what it actually means.

Idris Mootee is the publisher and editor-in-chief of  M/I/S/C/, a published author, speaker and CEO of Idea Couture, a global strategic innovation and experience design firm. He spends his time between, London, New York, Toronto, San Francisco and Shanghai.

This Article has been taken from The Customer Experience Issue (Issue #3, Fall 2011) of M/I/S/C/ Magazine – a magazine dedicated to design thinking and innovation available in over 25 countries. To purchase a digital copy of the full issue and for other issues please click HERE.

They were not only physically out of control, but mentally liberated from expectations and presumptions. For them there’s absolutely no reason why a frying pan shouldn’t talk about its cooking experiences or why you can’t hold your computer mouse the same way you hold your mobile phone. Their minds are not conditioned like ours and that’s what makes them a genuine source of innovation.

We as adults are generally limited to our past experiences. Any ‘new’ thinking or idea we initiate starts with a set of assumptions that will result in marginal revisions to what we’ve encountered before. Our minds are junkyards of historical observations. Those of us skilled or knowledgeable in a field will certainly be ahead of the game when it comes to decision making or when concepts need to evolve into feasible product. But if you’re a innovation strategist or a designer ideating the future of interaction design, you need to stop thinking about where apple is taking us and instead hang out with a 3 year old.

Seriously! Leave a bunch of 3 year olds with toys and a few colored markers. Do a simple experiment, like having a transparent sheet of plastic in the middle of the room where they can draw on and  play with each other from both sides of the invisible border.

You’ll be surprised!

“Our model at Method is that being weird and different is good. Weird changes the world, and Detroit could use a little more of weird in terms of creative ideas.”

- Eric Ryan, Method Products Co-Founder (AdAge)

I’ve been into the idea of weird lately. It feels like odd and peculiar themes are increasingly breaking through and holding the public’s attention. Somehow, today’s world of endless choice still offers us an oversupply of sameness; so we’re almost begging for non-conformity. If you look to popular culture, the not-so-weak signals are everywhere. Austin’s “Keep [City] Weird” support-local movement is spreading across the US.  The world’s number one pop artist wears clothing made of meat. The LA Lakers’ starting Small Forward is changing his name to Meta World Peace. It seems the novelty of of the unconventional is pushing us to the edges of our relative notions of comfort. And we are liking it.

Unlikely friends have benefits.

One of my more specific interests around weirdness is the uncharted space that odd combinations can lead us to. I realize cultural mash-ups are not a new idea. And yes, they can be excruciatingly bad (think Rap-Rock). But they can also be hugely interesting, inventive and inspiring.

Artists, of course, have been fearlessly blending ideas for centuries. But in the business world we seem more hesitant to look beyond category borders for experimentation and learning. The recent emphasis on Design Thinking and Innovation has more key players preaching the merits of cross-disciplinary collaboration, but in practice this approach is still barely visible.

Recently I stumbled upon Grant McCracken’s Culturematic posts proposing the need for more culture-smashing tools. I think we’re likely to see an explosion of similar Oblique Strategies over the next few years. You can only imagine the fruits of a Large Hadron Cultural Collider. Or an event series that promotes weird cross-industry collaborations like Food & Psychology or Comedy & Finance (call it Funny Money).

A weird little brand case.

One of my favorite new local brands is a microbrew out of Barrie, Ontario. Flying Monkey produces a roster of delicious craft brews like Hoptical Illusion and Netherworld Cascadian Dark. The brand is not just a nod to oddity, it’s built on the idea. Their tagline “normal is weird” is a pledge to the peculiar, and everything they do serves to honour that pledge. The glassware, for example, is littered with little bits of unusual magic like the “Reorder Line” (photo below). The brand purpose extends to its people as well, as is evident in this excerpt from an article on a hot new little Toronto snack spot:

“Peter Aitchison, a salesman with Flying Monkeys Craft Brewery in Barrie, told us that he could sculpt anything. So we said, ‘OK, let’s see you make a draft tap out of a telephone pole.’ And he did, over a span of 12 hours with a chisel.”

Their website also keeps it surreal. Upon arrival you’re unsure if you’ve landed on the brewery’s mainpage or if you’re embarking on a journey to the fantastical underground of the early internets.

Things could (and should) get weird.

The Age of Weird is arriving. The business world is already playing catch-up. We know creative advantage is more crucial now than ever before. Firms willing to move beyond their core comforts, embrace their cultural quirks, and experiment on the fringes will be best positioned for innovation. Yes, this will be a difficult transition for many. But it also promises to be fun, enlightening, and potentially lucrative for those wiling to get a little freaky.

Stay tuned for some IC weird-play in the coming months.

A couple weeks ago, I attended the opening of the “$H!T HAPPENS in Berlin”exhibit in the Toronto showroom of Relative Space & Floorworks. The exhibit explores the aesthetic and technical innovations of creatives in Berlin, showcasing both emerging and established designers. “$H!T HAPPENS” was curated by celebrated architect Juergen Mayer H., who put the exhibit together using the unique curatorial strategy of ‘Chain Curating.’ Says Juergen of the process,

“There are three concepts that are intertwined: the first is to show designers from Berlin because it’s a happening place. The second idea is to have a chain curating concept where we invite four or five voices that we think are relevant, and then they bring in their network. Everyone feels responsible and part of creating the show. The people involved come from different disciplines—graphic design, product design and conceptual fashion. What was important to us is that the designers have an agenda that twists conventions, and that is also why we called the show “$H!T HAPPENS,” which means allowing errors and trials and experimentation as part of a creative discourse or discovery. Therefore, by having accidents or problematic moments in your design process, you might discover something completely new.”

Coming off an extraordinary reception in New York City’s NOHO Design District, the exhibit will be up in Toronto through July 8 2011 at Relative Space, 365 Dupont Street.  Be sure to check it out if you’re in the city.

www.berlinhappens.com

“The Greatest thing by far,” Aristotle declared, “is to be a master of metaphor…. It is a sign of genius, since a good metaphor implies an intuitive perception of the similarity in dissimilars.”

IARPA, the US governmental arm for intelligence research (sometimes described as ‘DARPA for spies’)  announced The Metaphor Program, with an open solicitation to researchers in academic institutions and the private sector. The program, operated under IARPA’s Incisive Analysis Office, aims to examine and extract insights as to what people mean from what they (don’t really) say. Metaphors characterize people’s subjective frames in imperceptible and obvious ways. Whether ‘life’s a playground’ or ‘life’s a bitch’ likely reflects some aggregation of thoughts, feelings and experiences.

IARPA’s investment strategy favors “high-risk/high-payoff research programs that have the potential to provide overwhelming intelligence advantage over future adversaries.”* No surprise then is IARPA’s venture on the road not taken. The Metaphor Program’s official mandate: “Exploit the use of metaphorical language to gain insights into underlying cultural beliefs by developing and applying a methodology that automates the analysis of metaphorical language.”

Poetic and linguistic metaphors are used to express what cannot be put in plain language. They’re used easily in ordinary speech to express complex or abstract ideas—so it makes sense that analyses of linguistic metaphors would be used to unpack what people can’t (or refuse to) articulate outright.  For IARPA, the metaphors you choose in speech and writing determine and are determined by stated and unstated beliefs. The choice to use different metaphors reflect contrastive stances. For example the Metaphor Program briefing references a study that presented participants with a report on crime in a city. “The report contained statistics, including crime and murder rates, as well as one of two metaphors, CRIME AS A WILD BEAST or CRIME AS A VIRUS. The participants were influenced by the embedded metaphor.” Those that read the beast metaphor were more likely to recommend more police and jails, while those in the virus group typically suggested investigating the root cause and establishing community programs. According to IARPA’s briefing, metaphors are associated with affect. And affect influences behavior.

Literally from Greek, metaphor means transference. We transfer the qualities of one thing to another—something normally not considered related to the first thing. IARPA’s program labels the two parts in terms of the source of the metaphor (the metaphorical expression) and its target (the subject or thing being interpreted). Poets call these the vehicle and tenor, respectively. As you like it:

“All the world’s a stage

All the men and women merely players;

They have their exits and their entrances”

The qualities of a stage are transferred to the world. The subject, ‘world’ is the tenor or target, the thing that undergoes the transference. The ‘stage’ is the vehicle or source, which carries the transferred qualities. Making and interpreting metaphors involves an analogical relation which can be mapped out and inferred upon. What do the system of concrete concepts—theatre, actors, stage, etc—say about the abstract concept, life?  Metaphors are a sensemaking tool—using unobvious comparisons to interpret the form, function, motion and feeling of anything and everything.

IARPA’s Metaphor Program intends to devise and deliver methodologies and software prototypes “to automate the handling of data, discovery and semantic definition of metaphors.” As poets have always known—metaphor usage and complex verbal patterns can tell us something profound about how people form images and conceptions of the world. If IARPA is successful in creating a mechanism that deduces biases and unstated beliefs from how people construct everyday language—what will be the implications on how we respond to social issues (like crime in the example above)?

How might poetics and cognitive linguistics studies advance or replace quantitative surveys and focus groups, which reflect conscious knowledge and sample bias?

How can weak signals be identified from conventional metaphors in strategic foresight—revealing hidden cultural tendencies and unmet needs?

What affect do metaphors have on customer and user experience? Would you rather surf or navigate a web or a net? Why do I have files, a desktop and a trash bin instead of interfaces, containers and deletion?

And how far are we from Poetics Thinking as the next big strategic business buzzword?

*Just as further corroboration for my last post, IARPA also mandates that: “Failure is completely acceptable—as long as it is not due to failure to maintain technical and programmatic integrity and results are fully documented.”

Applied Design Thinking practices help manage risks and avoid critical failures.  But it’s not just about mitigating mistakes; it’s about managing and making the most out of them.  Instead of ‘fail early and fail often,’ why not fail strategically?

Greatness embraces mistakes: “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” 
- Michael Jordan

Strategic failure can be designed into an organization’s innovation apparatus. The U.S. DoD’s technology-unit DARPA for example accepts a 90% failure rate against its innovation investments, but the 10% of successful projects have proved to be world-changing technologies, in line with the agency’s mandate of staying on the leading edge globally. Error, when calculated and effectively analyzed—accelerates progress. It’s the rationale for rapid prototyping. Increase your odds with every try, while you learn what doesn’t work, and arrive at surprising outcomes. Says James Dyson of the eponymous appliance manufacturer and bagless vacuum fame: “It’s accident. Serendipity—but the serendipity that occurs through never giving up and through just going on and on and on, testing, searching new avenues—and going up many, many blind avenues!” Error in this case, isn’t failing (an end result); it’s part of the process of design-doing.

Part of organizing for innovation involves giving space for researchers and creatives to break frame—to diverge from predetermined strategies and follow the trajectory of their serendipitous ideas. Google famously provides its employees with Innovation Time-Off (ITO), which allows one day a week to explore whatever projects inspire their attention. The employee-driven apparatus accords the space to create but also to fail without too much fear or consequence. In it self, letting-people-do-whatever-they-want is not sound innovation strategy. There’s no mechanism to mitigate risk and the efforts lack determination. In spite of that, ITO has generated popular applications including Gmail, AdSense and Google News. When ITO initiatives do go unfavorably, Google capitalizes in retrospect—analyzing and harvesting from failed pursuits. Remember Wave—it was supposed to replace email? Well, if you can’t make a mistake you can’t make anything. When Google Wave failed to accumulate users, its successful collaboration and communication features were applied to Gmail and Google Docs. What failed as a disruptive innovation succeeded by providing iterative improvements to existing products.

"Enjoy failure and learn from it. You can never learn from success." - James Dyson

"If you can't make a mistake, you can't make anything." - Marva Collins

Because error really is part of innovation, it’s essential that organizations design a system to harvest from the messy and serendipitous process. Fail hard, fail fast, fail cheap and—fail strategically, in such a way that salient knowledge can be taken away.  If your team really is inventive, there should be some value in what they make—even when it seems to fall flat. Harvesting from failure involves applying purpose to newness. Leveraging assets from error demands a system and culture where employees are unafraid to fail, but more importantly, comfortable reporting on failure.

Avoid making the same mistakes, accelerate progress, and follow the interesting surprises. As the Irish novelist and poet James Joyce put it: “A man of genius makes no mistakes; his errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery.” Make your mistakes with purpose.

"The mistakes make the music." - Miles Davis

"A man of genius makes no mistakes; his errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery." - James Joyce

Mix these all up and what do you get? An global event demonstrating what immense creativity, collaboration, innovation, and an aggressive time crunch can produce — Global Service Jam 2011! Participants from San Paulo, Rotterdam, Oslo, Berlin, Stuttgart, Shanghai, Seoul, Sydney, Barcelona, and of course, Idea Couture office locations, Toronto and San Francisco, were given a theme, (Super) Heroes, and 48 hours to produce service design concepts. The weekend was about pushing the boundaries, pure imagination, and applying the design process to the creation of new service concepts. Post-its flew, coffee was consumed, connections were made, and great fun was had by all.

We at Idea Couture sponsored the San Francisco jam, where 16 participants, mostly strangers, met at the California College of the Arts last Friday to kick off the event. There is no doubt that service design is a growing discipline that corporations around the world must employ to build the most innovative and meaningful experiences for their clients, and we put these tools to practice for our clients every day. Seeing the energy and enthusiasm for this type of work is inspiring for everyone, and we’re pleased to have played a part in encouraging the practice and adoption of service design.

Check out the final service design concepts here, submitted by teams all around the world: http://planet.globalservicejam.org/projects. Bet you can’t stop at just one.

To learn more, follow #gsj11 on Twitter or check out the official Global Service Jam page. May the power of service design continue to proliferate through the world!