HOW Design Conference 2010 Process Imporvement

Dave HolstonDesign Management ConsultingThe Strategic Designerwww.the-strategic-designer.comdave@the-strategic-designer.com

Design process improvementHOW Design Conference, June 2010, Denver, CO

About me

Dave Holston• Director of Strategic Design Management at The University of

Texas at Austin• Owner/Design Management Consultant at The Strategic

Designer• Creative Director for Wavefly• Creative Director Blue Byte Software• Senior Art Director at Signature Communications• Design Lead at General Electric, Martin Marietta and Lockheed

Martin Government Services

Who are you?

Agenda

What you’ll learn• Discover the six steps to process improvement• Develop a more effective and efficient process• Increase customer satisfaction• Align your staffs understanding of your goals and their roles• Create a framework for continuous process improvement

Agenda

• Process improvement overview– The importance of design process– Exercise: Collaboration is key– Exercise: Common designer and client frustrations lists

– Exercise: Process improvement - Airplanes– Exercise: Communication is key

• 10 minute break• Refining your process

– Exercise: Writing a persuasive kick off speech

– Exercise: Create the “as is” flow chart

– Exercise: Four lenses– Exercise: Create the customer report card– Exercise: Write the “magic wand” process– Exercise: Create the refined process

Getting into teams

Teams• Elect a leader – facilitate, keep on track, present ideas• Elect a scribe – document• Elect a Kaizen master

Why process is important

Growing design firms need structure• Most design firms start from one or two people• As they grow there is a need to make implicit process explicit• Design organizations are about people working collaboratively• Process is a key tool for making collaboration successful


Big firms or departments need structure• Refine their in-house processes• No formalized process

– making it up as they went along– Reinventing the wheel– “Building the plane while it was in the air”


Design process improvement process• Interview players in the creative process• Constructed a workflow chart• Identified three tiers of of work• Created individual workflow diagrams for each tier

– Workflow, roles and responsibilities and detailed description of the work

• Trained the design team


Why• Standard operating procedures• Training tool for staff• Tool for clients• Allows the client to see the repercussion of their actions

– A small change can add up to several hours– The change may take a minute, but the process provides for

quality protections for the client


“Process is more important than outcome. When the outcome drives theprocess we will only ever go to where we've already been. If processdrives outcome we may not know where we’re going, but we will know we

want to be there.” - Bruce Mau

The value of process

TRUST


DESIGN IS A DISCIPLINE,

NOT AN ARTISTIC INDULGENCE


Clients want assurance

“Gut instinct scares the crap out of (business) people, because you

might be wrong. If you’ve taught all your life that process equals

success, then you will naturally want to know that the people you are

engaging with have a process, that you can understand so you can

make a rational judgment.”

Dave Mason, Principal, SamataMason


Design thinking is process driven

“design skills and business skills are converging…It's time to

embrace a new value proposition based on creating -- indeed, often

co-creating -- new products and services with customers that fill their

needs, make them happy, and make companies and shareholders

rich.” Martin goes on to say that the design skills of “understanding,

empathy, problem solving” are what business need today.”

Roger Martin, dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto


A tool for collaboration– Transparency– Gets everyone on the same page– Inclusiveness– Alignment– Working in cross-functional

teams– Death of the design egotist


On a side note:

HOWARD ROARK

MUST DIE

The value of process - collaboration

The Drawing Game: Collaboration rules

• Choose a partner• Work silently• Take turns drawing parts of a face,

one feature at a time• When you hesitate, stop drawing • Now write the first letter of this

characters name• Keep going till someone hesitates

The value of process – client centric

Audience perspective– Working with audiences to gain insight– Testing concepts with audiences– Understanding audience values

– Hallmark• What resonated with audiences• Increase presence within retail environments• Have audiences draw the logo to see what they recalled• Have audiences pick the color• “incorporate the customers voice”

The value of process - speed

Speed– Provides a framework for moving forward– Mitigates confusion– Aligns stakeholders at the beginning of the process

– Lucent Technologies• IPO date approaching• 12 weeks to re-brand the company• Naming and identity• Lucent’s IPO ended up being the largest in US History, raising roughly

$2.9 billion.• Landor stuck to their process

The value of process - risk

Risk– Process manages risk– Risk management tools

• Sign offs• Design briefs• Change orders

– Kraft Foods• 13 people responsible for 220 brands• 175 design jobs simultaneously• Targeted and well crafted

The value of process – work issues

When something goes wrong at work,

what is our first reaction?

The value of process – work issues

EXERCISE: Common designer frustrations

• List your top ten project frustrations

EXERCISE: Common client frustrations

• From a client perspective list your project frustrations

The design process

DesignResearch

Concept Development

DesignDevelopment

ProjectInitiation Measuring ROI

Brainstorming

Brain sketching

Concept screening

Visualization

Prototyping

Sign offSign off

Design metricsSituational analysis

Business analysis

Interviews

Focus groups

Ethnography

Setting the expectation

The value of design

Establishing the relationship

Project requirements

Design Process: Bielenberg

John Bielenberg

THINK WRONG

Design Process: Bielenberg

• Heuristics are pathways in the brain• Trying to disrupt the orthodoxies • What people pay attention to is what is different • What is good is typically based on what they’ve seen previously

Construct a debris field

Find thebig idea

Make things then

get out

Build a brief Select and do it

THINK WRONGTHINK WRONGTHINK WRONG THINK WRONG

Create a vivid pictureof the problem to be

solved and the results to be achieved

Show the environmentwhere the solution will live Generate disruptive

Content and design ideasQuickly bring ideas to life

Seek outside influences

Design Process: Beruit

Michael Beruit

MAGIC

Design Process: Beruit

• Intuition and iteration• Artful making: cheap and rapid iteration rather than on intensive

up-front planning• Elevating collaboration and iteration as key parts of the design process. • An “emergent” approach

Magic Justify solutionDevelop other

solutionsListen

Design Process: GSD&M

GSD&M

DYNAMICCOLLABORATION

Design Process: GSD&M

• The process is collaborative, engaging as many “smart people” as possible. – The first step is to admit that you don’t have the corner on “smarts.” – Ideation lab online collaboration tool– Anonymous– Top ten ideas

Look forcollaborators

Onlinediscussion

DesignDevelopment

Admit you don’t have all the answers

Exercise: Refining your process


Scenario

Your team is one of several airplane production lines that are in direct competition

with each other in the production of paper airplanes. You will begin with the raw

materials and produce airplanes as quickly as you can.

Game flow• The game will consist of three rounds. Each round will have three phases:

– Phase 1: You will produce airplanes– Phase 2: Kaizen master will provide you feedback– Phase 3: Make changes in the production process to increase efficiency

and quality for the next round

Exercise: Refining your process - Kaizen

The Kaizen Master– Kai (change), zen (become good)– Elimination of waste and inefficiency

Kaizen five elementsTeamworkPersonal disciplineImproved moraleQuality circlesSuggestions for improvement

Kaizen five frameworkSeiri – tidinessSeiton – orderlinessSeiso – cleanlinessSeiketsu – standardized clean upShitsuke - discipline


“Stand in a circle” method• The Kaizen master will stand in a circle• The rest of the team will build airplanes

Goals• Eliminate waste • Identify “Non value” activities• On a piece of paper find 10 things to improve each phase• Choose one of the improvements and address it immediately


Seven types of waste• Overproduction – Use more resources than you

need to deliver to your customer.• Unnecessary transportation – Moving the product

creates risk• Inventory – Materials that are not producing income• Motion – Too many motions to create the product• Defects – Defects equal extra costs in rework and

rescheduling• Over-processing – Creating more than what the

customer wants• Waiting – Whenever projects are waiting to be

worked on

無駄(muda)


Folder Wing Maker Paint Department

Paper Clip Kaizen manager/Observer

Time keeper/Quality control

Pull one sheet of the appropriate colored paper from stock (to your right)

Place the paper in front of you so that the long edges are at the top and bottom

Fold the paper in half by matching the right edge with the left edge

Fold the right edge toward the center, creating a 45-degree angle

Fold the left edge toward the center, creating a V shapeRefold the paper in half

Dots should be placed according to the following production schedule:

Blue planes get one dotYellow planes get two dotsOrange planes get three dots

Place paper clips on the leading edge of the plane in the center of the fuselage according to the following production schedule

Blue planes 1Yellow planes 3Orange planes 2

KaizenObserve the productionWrite 5 process related actions that can be modified

.

Quality controlAfter each phase note how many planes were created to spec, and how many where not to spec

Keep time.


Round 1In four minutes

have four team members build…

8 Blue planes with 1 dot and 1 paper clip

8 Yellow planes with 2 dots and 3 paper clips

8 Orange planes with 3 dots and 2 paper clips

Exercise: Refining your process - Lean

Round 2In four minutes


8 Blue planes with 1 dot and 1 paper clip8 Yellow planes with 2 dots and 3 paper clips8 Orange planes with 3 dots and 2 paper clips

Exercise: Refining your process - Lean

Round 3In three minutes


8 Blue planes with 1 dot and 1 paper clip8 Yellow planes with 2 dots and 3 paper clips8 Orange planes with 3 dots and 2 paper clips

5 principals of process redesign

• Mange work structure• Information flow• Design guides• Organizing people• General guidance

1. Manage work structure

• Design the process around value adding activities• Single point of contact• Reduce rework and waiting• Reduce setup times• Use concurrent design processes whenever possible• Reduce checks and reviews• Build quality in at the beginning• Don’t let anything disrupt the value stream

2. Information flow

• Bring downstream information needs upstream• Capture project data once, and share it widely• Share all relevant information

3. Design guides

• Involve as few people as possible in the process• Ensure 100 quality at the beginning of the process• Test the process to see where it will break• Install metrics and feedback to correct problems• Standardize process

4. Organizing people

• Co-locate your team• Use multifunctional teams• Use multi-skilled teams

Design process improvement workshop

10 min break(Incubation time)

The Process Improvement Process

Create the“As is” chart

Four LensesAnalysis

Customer Report card

Build theteam

New processchart

Step 1: Create the process improvement team

Build the team• Compliance vs. Commitment• Design staff knows the job the best and can…

– Address frustration– Bottlenecks– Bureaucracy – Simplify processes– Increase teamwork

• Make a list of who you would have on your design process redesign team

Step 1: Create the process improvement team

Design staff and clients

involved in the change

will help support it later on(this is your mantra)

EXERCISE: Writing a persuasive kick-off speech

Getting people onboard is critical• Change is hard for some teams.

– Honor the past– Highlight past successes– Highlight people’s contributions– Highlight the attitudes that help– Show appreciation for everyone’s hard work


Talk about the present• The current situation• Problems and issues• Who’s involved• Why the problem occurred• What will happen if nothing is done


Talk about the future• The target goal – the reason for change• What past traits will help with the future• What new traits are needed• Improvement is

– Quality– Service – Cost– Time– Features


Talk about what staff can expect• Job description• Work location• Pay levels• Workload• Potential job loss• Let people know that everyone will have a part to play

Wrap up• Acknowledge that mistakes will be made – learning experiences• Get staff buy-in• Promise to keep staff informed

EXERCISE: Create a macro level flow chart

The big picture• Create a macro level flow chart of the main process• Define what excellence looks like at each step• What organizations are doing a good job at each step?• Is there a “gap” between current performance and excellence?• How do you close the “gap.”

DesignResearch

Concept Development

DesignDevelopment

ProjectInitiation Measuring ROI

Sign offSign off

Step 2: Create the “best practice” process chart

How• Choose a project: Web design, brochure design, brand identity design• List the project staff along the left side of the page (Client, art director,

designer, Web programmer…)• Write the macro level phases at the top of the page• Start with the first phase – discuss what should happen first, second

third…)• Repeat for the remaining phases

Step 2: Create the “best practice” process chart

Step 3: Review through the four lenses - Frustration

Why frustration• People can clearly see the process• People can communicate about their concerns• Problem areas become visible• People are able to offer ideas for improvement• People gain buy-in to the process


How• For each process step ask “ is there anything frustrating about

this step?”• Write the number of the step, and problem on the flip chart• Have team members write ways to eliminate the problem.


Sorting the ideas

High

Value to the customer and

impact

Low

Cheap and easy Expensive and difficult

Step 3: Review through the four lenses - Time

Why• Time is a critical dimension of customer satisfaction• Getting clients their designs quickly is a value adding activity• Inspection, moving, setup, rework and waiting create added

costs


How• For each step consider what percentage your time is spent

– Processing time - actual work– Setup time – work done prior to the actual work (setting up

equipment, locating files, collecting data)– Wait time – answering calls, email, meetings– Inspection time – client reviews, internal reviews– Rework time – time spent correcting quality issues


Step no. Processing Time

SetupTime

WaitTime

MoveTime

Inspecting Time

Rework Time Total

1Project initiation

15 min 30 sec 1 min 15 sec 16 min, 45 sec.

2Determine

budg/sched

5 min 5 sec 4 hours 4 hrs, 5 min, 5 sec

3Set up

Discovery meeting

17 min 15 min 5 min 5 min 42 min

Process cycle time sheet

Step 3: Review through the four lenses - Quality

Why• Quality is ranked as most important by customers• Identify quality issues and rank them, and find their root cause• Try to produce quality without review an inspection

How

1. Describe the problem in detail ( errors, rework, excessive client reviews).

2. What is the effect on customers, staff and others?

3. What do you do to fix the problem?

4. How often does the problem occur – daily, weekly, monthly?

Step 3: Review through the four lenses - Cost

Why• Lets you calculate the return on your redesign investment• Lets you see what steps in the process consume the most money?• Allows for activity-based costing – see how much time and dollars

Step 4: Create the customer report card

Customer report card• Ask customers what they need from the process• Pick a group of customers to give feedback on customer

satisfaction• Ask customer to rank their wants • Ask them to grade how well the process performs each of their

criteria ( A,B,C,D,…)• Ask the customer what an A grade looks like for each item.

Step 4: Create the customer report card

Ranked criteria Process performance

What an “A” looks like

Competitor 1 Competitor 2

On time delivery B Delivery on or before the date defined in the contract

Meets deadlines 80% of the time.

Does not meet deadlines. Many disruptions in the schedule

High quality design A Sophisticated, branded, tested

Meets brand standards. Provides multiple options. Provides testing

Meets brand requirements

Inclusion/collaboration

B Listening, questioning, feedback, review time

Empathic and inclusive in their approach

Works in a vacuum.Limited communication

Service C Friendly, reliable and proactive

Friendly, reliable and responsive

Friendly service, but limited communication

Step 5: Write the “magic wand” story

Write a story about the new process.• Make believe you have a magic wand and can do anything.• Don’t worry about current realities.• Read the story aloud.• Once the story is read, team members can “bring it back to

reality” to make it doable.

• Ask “What aspects of this story can be altered so that it can be done?”

Step 6: Create the new process chart

• Make changes based on feedback• Refine into one design• Test the design through role-playing, simulation or practice• Review the new process with management

– Review, questions, suggestions and implementation options• Share the final design with staff

– Review, questions, suggestions and implementation options• Share the final design with clients

– Review, questions, suggestions and implementation options

Step 6: Create the new process chart

• Role-playing– Each team member assumes the role of client, designer, Art

Director, programmer.– Send fake projects through the system to see where it will

break

• Practice

– Use real project inputs– Use real project participants

Dave HolstonDesign Management ConsultingThe Strategic Designerwww.the-strategic-designer.comdave@the-strategic-designer.com

Design process improvementHOW Design Conference, June 2010, Denver, CO

HOW Design Conference 2010 Process Imporvement

Business

refined process

process equalssuccess

continuous process improvement

value of processon

value of processclients

value of processtrust

design egotist

design team