The 70^th anniversary of the start of the Blitz might not be the best day to reflect on the benefits of “creative destruction” (a concept coined by economist Joseph Schumpeter). However, its spectre certainly drifted over the opening session at last week’s dConstruct conference.

As Schumpeter reminded us, sometimes you need to destroy in order to create – a point frequently made in discussions of innovation. And it was the innovation imperative that was the topic of Friday’s first speaker, Marty Neumeier.

If you’re helping your clients to innovate, you’re also helping them to fulfil their mission – developing new (and better) products and services – and standing out from the crowd. In a world with so much competition for attention (and resources), being different – and valuable – is the key to survival, Marty noted. This may well mean rethinking the whole nature of certain products and services and how they’re delivered.

This is hardly new, of course. Marty’s key point was that innovation success is inextricably bound up with design. The principles of design, he argued – thinking through what users want, and giving them a product or service that meets their needs while also being appealing and easy to use – needs to underpin the whole innovation process.

Alas, as Marty lamented, many organisations (or, rather, certain managers within them), often lack the ability – and inclination – to reflect on problems and opportunities. The result? A headlong rush into change (or product/service development) that fails to think through the experience and utility that the customer would value.

Good design and innovation is not just about giving the customer a good experience, in the sense of a user-friendly interface. It’s also about thinking through what counts as value and looking at how this is generated. For the organisation, this may mean challenging existing ways of doing things, and in some cases demand a redesign of structures and working processes, as well as the technologies that underpin them.

The challenge, as always, is striking the right balance. For a start, it’s about maintaining the input and goodwill of employees, while simultaneously asking them to do things differently. But it also involves putting out new products and services that may seem odd or uncomfortable at first, but which provide greater functionality, convenience and productivity once users have got used to them.

Effective innovation, Marty concluded, is about doing things that are good (in the customers’ eyes) while also being different (sometimes radically).

A broader approach to design is essential here. This means looking beyond the product or service, rethinking the systems that create it while also supporting people along the process of change.

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