Are you taking shortcuts?
Tactical design is a proven process that creates disproportionate positive value when used appropriately. So it continues to baffle me when we are asked to go straight from idea to outcome, without first asking a number of questions regarding what goal we're really trying to achieve here, or being told that our process isn't necessary.
I had the thought this morning, that we wouldn't apply this same logic to something like, say, a car would we? There is a proven process that we know manufacturers go through to make sure that the final outcome is the best possible. If a company makes a shortcut here, we notice it - it is blatantly obvious. It could be the use of cheap plastics, the glove compartment not lining up, perhaps the seat doesn't extend far enough back for tall people to fit in the front, or not far enough forward for them to fit in the back.
We are universally unforgiving of those who take shortcuts.
Whether they take shortcuts in financial institutes, manufacturing, gaining large volumes of customers on social networks, we simply do not accept people taking shortcuts.
The design process has been tailored over time, and is continually developing, and in a state of prototype and evolution. It incorporates emerging knowledge from all fields of design, but also from business, social sciences, culture, psychology, and when all these elements are brought together, the emerging technologies and software skills required are leveraged to create value that rings bells on all these layers at once.
This is the exciting reality of a powerful design process. It doesn't respond to surface-level tabloid trends, and it is not reactive. It is proactive, and leverages new knowledge to create new value. This is the process we use, and any attempt to shortcut that process omits valuable steps, which can lead to competitors quickly eclipsing you, or, worse still, your new 'design' falling down altogether.
You don't accept shortcuts from others, but are you trying to take them?
Learn more about our innovation and design process here.
