With the ever increasing complexity involved in today’s technology, designers and developers are having to become more and more specialized. The greatest potential for innovation lies at the intersection between disciplines. Traditional brainstorming, used for decades and based on rapid idea generation free from critique, no longer is well suited to tackle the big sticky questions when everyone in the room is approaching the problem from the same knowledge base. Balanced teams of representatives from multiple disciplines focused on collaboration and continuous delivery have a greater chance of solving problems than siloed specialists. This talk will dive into strategies both new and old drawn from a variety of domains that can be used to facilitate creative group thinking and drive innovation. These techniques are drawn from and inspired by companies large and small, the arts, design firms and case studies from my work at Carbon Five. They will show how conflicting views

1. Balanced Teams
How Conflicting Perspectives Hatch Creative
Solutions
chemphill
courtney@carbonfive.com
Courtney Hemphill

2. chemphill
courtney@carbonfive.com
Hi!

3. Industrial
Revolution
Digital
Revolution

4. Efficiency
at Scale
Knowledge
at Scale

5. The
Service
Revolution

6. Internet of Everything
Homes, Cars, Cameras, Hospitals,Watches....

7. Apple
“Our method was to develop integrated products,
and that meant our process had to be integrated
and collaborative”
- Steve Jobs
- Steve Jobs

8. Multidisciplinary
Collaboration

10. Networks
“Nobody creates a Broadway musical
by themselves”
- Brian Uzzi

11. •Varied skills (veterans)
•Expanded product team
(newcomers)
•User testing (reach out to
your small world)
Networks

12. Proximity
“The cross-pollination of ideas is really
the valuable part of co-working”
- Jacob Sayles of Office Nomads

13. “...10 times the righteous nerdly
swagger of any other building on
campus...”
Photo MIT / webmuseum.mit.edu

14. Pixar
Photo courtesy marcfalken | CC BY

15. •Co-located Teams
•Visual Radiators
•Full Team Reflections
Proximity

16. Empathy
“The broader one’s understanding of
the human experience, the better
design we will have.”
- Steve Jobs

18. Shopcraft
as Soulcraft
“Always try to hire people who yearn to
be master craftspeople...”
- Jason Fried, 37 Signals

19. •Everyone’s a manager
•What if?
•Hypothesis Based Sprints
•Frequent Feedback Loops
Empathy

20. Practice

21. Project Management
Research Strategy Design Build SupportRelease
Discovery
Handoff
Design Engineering
Handoff
Waterfall
Handoff

22. Project Management
Research Strategy Design Build SupportRelease
Discovery Design Engineering
Handoff Handoff
Waterfall
Known Problem
Known Solution
Large Team

23. Handoff
Project Management
Research Strategy Design Build SupportRelease
Discovery Design Engineering
Handoff Handoff
Agile XP

24. Project Management
Research Strategy Design Build SupportRelease
Discovery Design Engineering
Handoff Handoff
Agile XP
Known Problem
Unknown Solution
Mid-sized Team

25. Product Team
Learn Build Measure
Lean Startup

26. Product Team
Learn Build Measure
Lean Startup
Unknown Problem
Unknown Solution
Product Team (3)

27. Design
Development
FeatureDevelopment
Time
Product Owner
}Product Team Skills
1 week 2 weeks 3 weeks

28. Design
Development
FeatureDevelopment
Time
Product Owner
}Product Team
1 week 2 weeks 3 weeks

29. Design
Development
FeatureDevelopment
Product Owner
}Product Team
Iteration 0
Discovery & Planning
Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri
Reflect & Define Specify Build Build & Prep Test

30. Techniques
•Provisional Personas
•Experience Mapping
•Sprint Experiment Planning
•Bang vs Buck 2x2 Matrix
•BDD Story Writing
•Hybrid Prototyping
•Living Style Guides
•User Testing

31. Process
Evolution

32. Check out...

35. 1. Brian Uzzi, The Myth of the Brainstorm
(http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/01/30/120130fa_fact_lehrer?currentPage=all)
2. HBR “Want collaboration? Accept & actively
manage conflict.”
http://hbr.org/2005/03/want-collaboration-accept-and-actively-manage-conflict/ar/5
3. “How creativity works. What Broadway
musicals really teach us about collaboration.”
(http://www.slate.com/articles/life/do_the_math/2012/03/
how_creativity_works_what_broadway_musicals_really_teach_us_about_collaboration_.html)

36. chemphill
courtney@carbonfive.com
Courtney Hemphill
Carbon Five