Design Thinking & Project Management (June 2016)

Design Project Management

Design Thinking & Project Management

Bruce Gay, PMP

05 May 2016 1

Bruce Gay, PMPJune 2016

My Background• Program Manager living in Pittsburgh, PA

• Managed programs across healthcare IT, telecom and military/defense industries

• 10+ years managing teams that incorporated UX Design methodologies

brucegay@verizon.netwww.linkedin.com/in/brucegayTwitter: @brucegay

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A Call to Action

Design Project Management

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Digital Disruption

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Digital Disruption

“…all of the technology required to transform industries through software finally works and

can be widely delivered at global scale.”

Marc AndreessenWhy software is eating the world. WSJ, 2011

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Digital Disruption

S&P 500: Average company lifespan is in decline

Source: Foster & Kaplan

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The Future for PMs

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The future of

Project Management

is deeply linked with

Design Thinking.

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Design Drives Business Value

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Over the past 10 years, design-driven companies outperformed the S&P 500 Index by 219%.

Source: The Design Management Institute (DMI)

Design Helps to Mitigate Risk / Failure

Source: Accenture and CEA 2011

of returned consumer electronic products have no defects…95%

68%worked properly but didn’t meet customers expectations.(They either thought it was broken or it did not work properly.)

In 2011, this represented a $17 billion problem in the U.S. alone.

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Design Reduces Overall Development Costs

1x

10x

100x

RELATIVE COST TO REPAIR

Tom GilbSOFTWARE ENGINEERAUTHOR OF “PRINCIPLES OF SOFTWARE ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT” (1988)

Design (concept)

Development

Released

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Design Promotes Interdisciplinary Collaboration

Design

Engineering Business

Human Sciences

Design facilitates collaboration among these key disciplines

Effective teamwork requires a common language and set of methods and principles that everyone can participate in.

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The Cost of Design is Not All That High

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Source: Nielsen, Jakob, and Landauer, Thomas K.: "A mathematical model of the finding of usability problems,“ Proceedings of ACM INTERCHI'93 Conference (Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 24-29 April 1993), pp. 206-213.

What is Design?What is Design Thinking?

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Examples of Design

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Human Centered Design & Design Thinking is not just something layered on at the end. It’s not lipstick on a pig.

Reference – en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lipstick_on_a_pig

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“ Design is not a one-shot vaccine;it’s an ‘innovation fitness program’ that puts an organization on top of its game.It is not an ‘event’, it is a way of thinking, communicating and doing every day. ”Heather Fraser THE ROTMAN SCHOOL OF BUSINESS,UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO

Design as an “Innovation Fitness Program”

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“Good Design is Good Business”

it’s about building the right thing.

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Design is a cross-cutting product development activity that should be top to bottom.

Project Managers should not run from Design, we should be driving it.

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Key Elements of Design Thinking

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Design Thinking represents the democratization and application of problem-solving methodologies that are integral to Design.

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Key Elements of Design Thinking

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People-centered.

Empathy is at the core.

Key Elements of Design Thinking

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Extensive interdisciplinary collaboration.

Key Elements of Design Thinking

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All about doing & making. Being hands-on.Making to learn.

Key Elements of Design Thinking

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Iterative.

Design Thinking is not magic. There is rigor to it. You can learn it. You can practice it, you can get better at it.

Design is a set of tools to solve problems.

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“Design Thinking stresses the need to rapidly prototype the solution so that the designers can get feedback

as quickly as possible.”

Prof. Sarah SouleSTANFORD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

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Generic Design Model

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DiscoverySynthesisCreationValidation

Iterative

No single process or toolkit serves every case. Design has as variety of processes and tools that people customize to serve their needs.

The five step process from the Stanford Design School is a model that is broadly used and has proven value.

Source: Stanford University Institute of Design

Empathize

Define

Ideate

Prototype

Test

Stanford Design School Method

There are Many Models of Design

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As a Project Manager, you need to understand whatever design process you are using and account for it.

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Design Resources

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• IDEO• Frog Design• Stanford d.school• Luma Institute• IBM Design Thinking

Where to Go for More Information

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Lessons for Integrating Design into Projects

Top 6 Lessons:1. Shield your teams from heavy PM tools and processes2. Design should be involved in the full development lifecycle3. The sequencing of design work is important4. Strive for extensive collaboration and share designs early and

often5. Co-design works6. Evangelize Design by “doing it”

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Key Takeaways

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1.The future of Project Management is deeply linked with Design Thinking.

2.Good Design is about building the right thing, not just making things look pretty.

3.Good Design is about problem solving.

4.Design Thinking is everyone’s job.

5.Design is not magic. There is rigor to it. You can practice it and get better at it.

6.Project Managers should not run from Design, we should lead by understanding it and by using Design Thinking.

When faced with a tough business challenge tackle it as a design problem!

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Thank You.

Bruce Gay, PMPbrucegay@verizon.netwww.linkedin.com/in/brucegayTwitter: @brucegay

DesignProject

Management