Predictable Magic: Unleash the Power of Design Strategy to Transform Your Business

Companies invest fortunes on innovation and product strategy. But, by some estimates, 80% of new products fail or dramatically underperform every year, though a few rare products succeed brilliantly. Why is this the case? Their creators have seamlessly integrated corporate strategy with design. They don’t deliver utilitarian objects: they craft rewarding, empowering experiences. To outsiders, this looks like magic: incomprehensible, and impossible to reproduce. But it isn’t. Predictable Magic presents a complete design process for making the “magic” happen -- over and over again. Veteran industrial designer Ravi Sawhney and business strategist Deepa Prahalad introduce Psycho-Aesthetics, a breakthrough approach for systematically creating deep emotional connections between consumers and brands. Step by step, the authors cover everything from research to strategy, implementation to consumer experience. They also demonstrate Psycho-Aesthetics at work – in case studies from some of the world’s top companies, including Sprint, Medtronic, Amana, and Hyundai. You’ll see how these great companies have used Psycho-Aesthetics to go beyond the utilitarian (or even the merely “beautiful”), to build products that powerfully connect with people… touch them… move them... time and again.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments . . . xv About the Authors . . . xix Preface . . . xxi Introduction . . . 1 It’s the Individual That Matters . . . 1 The Model . . . 3 A Simpler Way to Innovate and Design . . . 4 About This Book . . . 5 PART I: Creation of a Design Strategy Chapter 1 Set the Stage for Success . . . 9 Designing the Intangible . . . 9 New Rules of Competition . . . 10 A New Perspective on Design . . . 11 Overcoming the Hurdles . . . 12 Psycho-Aesthetics®: An Integrated Approach to Innovation and Design . . . 13 The Importance of Emotion—and Action . . . 15 Chapter 2 Enable Your Stakeholders . . . 19 New Stakeholders, New Process . . . 20 Why It Doesn’t Happen Naturally . . . 21 Essential Ingredients for Alignment . . . 22 Process in Action—Amana . . . 24 An Accurate Diagnosis . . . 25 A New Focus on Consumer Testing. . . 26 Building Confidence, Building Success . . . 28 Moving Forward . . . 29 Creating Meaning . . . 30 Chapter 3 Map the Future . . . 33 Designing for Tomorrow’s Markets Today . . . 37 Experience Mapping Guides the Way . . . 38 Mapping Emotions . . . 40 Engaging Interactivity. . . 42 Mapping Out the Possibilities . . . 44 Strategy Based on Understanding . . . 47 Experience Mapping and the Power of Design . . . 47 Chapter 4 Personify Your Consumer . . . 51 Redesigning an Icon . . . 51 Personas—The Mask of the Consumer . . . 53 Personas Fuel Intelligent, User-Centric Design . . . 54 What Goes into a Persona . . . 56 What You Get Out of Personas . . . 58 Using Personas to Guide Design . . . 60 Mapping Personas . . . 61 Getting a Handle on the Right Design. . . 64 A Fresh Perspective . . . 67 Chapter 5 Own the Opportunity . . . 71 On a Wing and a Startup Prayer . . . 71 Understanding a Changing Landscape . . .72 Finding the Opportunity for Follow-Up . . . 74 A Market Winning Strategy . . . 78 Opportunity Is Where You Find It . . . 79 The Benefits of Mining the Gaps . . . 79 Unearthing the Opportunity . . . 82 Choosing the Right Opportunities . . . 85 The True Power . . . 87 Part I Conclusion . . . 91 Amana . . . 94 Flip Cam . . . 95 JBL Professional . . . 96 Vestalife . . . 97 PART II: Implementation and Consumer Experience Chapter 6 Work the Design Process . . . 101 From a Guitar Stand to a Guitar . . . 102 Set Up a War Room . . . 103 Uncovering Aspirations (of Guitar Players) . . . 104 Get Started—Fast . . . 105 The Role of Experts/Lead Users . . . 106 Back to the Consumer. . . 110 Sustainable Solution to Sound Quality . . . 111 Optimized Ergonomics for a Better Playing Experience . . .112 The Final Result . . . 113 Personalized Experience . . . 113 The Importance of Execution. . . 114 Channeling Our Learning. . . 116 Designing a New Way to Market . . . 117 Competing by Helping Others Win . . . 118 Finding a Balance . . . 120 Chapter 7 Engage Emotionally . . . 121 The Importance of Belonging. . . 122 Beyond First-Mover Advantage to “First-Connector” Advantage . . .124 The Hero’s Journey . . . 125 Why We Still Need Heroes. . . . 126 Calling Out the Benefits of a Design . . . 128 Motivating Behavior Change . . . 128 Boosting Memory and Recall . . . 128 The Creation of Heroes . . . 130 What It Takes to Make a Hero . . . 133 Basic Quadrant (Lower Left) . . . 133 Artistic Quadrant (Upper Left) . . . 134 Versatile Quadrant (Lower Right) . . . 134 Enriched Quadrant (Upper Right) . . . 135 Winning Through Creating Heroes . . . 135 Chapter 8 Reward Your Consumer . . . 139 Putting It All Together . . . 139 Greening the Landscape. . . . 140 Enable Your Stakeholders . . . 142 Map the Future . . . 143 Personify Your Consumer . . . 144 Own the Opportunity . . . 146 Work the Design Process . . . 148 Engage Emotionally . . . 150 Reward the Consumer . . . 153 Part II Conclusion . . . 157 Afterword . . . 161 Endnotes . . . 165 Bibliography . . . 171 Index . . . 177

About the Author :
Deepa Prahalad is a business strategist specializing in opportunities at the intersection of consumer experience, technology, and strategy. She has experience in a wide range of industries and has worked as a management consultant with firms from start-ups to large multinationals. Passionate about emerging markets and innovation, she began her career researching how to improve efficiency in UN procurement and later moved to Singapore to become a commodities trader with Cargill. She holds a BA in Political Science and Economics from the University of Michigan and an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.   Ravi Sawhney is founder and CEO of RKS, a global leader in strategy, innovation, and design. Sawhney’s contributions to the industrial design profession are legendary. At Xerox, he was sole Industrial Designer working with a team of 20 cognitive and social scientists to develop the world’s first touch-screen interface. Sawhney has been recognized with nearly every major industrial design award and has helped RKS’ elite clients generate more than 150 patents. He invented the popular Psycho-Aesthetics® design strategy presented in this book, an approach that has been profiled as a Harvard Business School case study.