The Deep Dive

1. “From the buildings in which we live and work, to the cars we drive, or the knives and forks with which we eat, everything we use was designed to create some sort of marriage between form and function.”

2. The folks at IDEO state that they are not experts in any given area. But, they do claim to be experts on the "They are the experts on the process to design stuff", which they apply to the innovation of consumer products.

3. After the team of designers is brought together, told the problem, and informed they have five days to “pull it off,” what phase of the design process do they immediately engage in?
The team splits into groups to brainstorm.

4. Give two examples of what the team members did during this phase.

a. The split into different groups and took pictures of shopping carts.

b. They asked questions with experts and users of shopping carts and the builders of them for details.

5. List five rules-of-thumb that IDEO employees follow when they share ideas during the brainstorming phase:

a. One conversation at a time

b. Stay focused on topic

c. Encourage wild ideas

d. Defer judgement

e. Encourage ideas of others

6. Why should wild (and sometimes crazy) ideas be entertained during the brainstorming phase?
It could give other people ideas and show another side of ideas. The wild idea could also maybe work. If they think about it, maybe this idea could work the best.
7. After the brainstorming phase was over, the team narrowed down the hundreds of ideas by using sticky notes for those ideas that were not only “cool” but also build able in a short period of time. What phase of the design process is this called?

8. IDEO believes that the ideas and efforts of a group will always be more successful than the planning of a lone genius.

9. Once the ideas were narrowed down and divided into categories, the group was split into four smaller teams. What phase(s) of the design process was each of these groups responsible for?
Model and build a prototype
10. The leaders at IDEO believe that playful behavior and a fun environment are two important reasons why their employees are able to think quickly and creatively to produce innovative results.

11. Sometimes, people come up with great solutions that work by trying their ideas first, and asking for opinions later.

12. Design is often a process of going too far and having to take a few steps back. What phase of the design process would the critique of the four mock-ups come under?
Refining and communicating results
13. Upon critique of the four teams’ models, it was obvious that none of the teams had developed an optimum solution. However, the people at IDEO believe that it is important to fail often in order to succeed sooner.

14. What percentage of the entire week’s time did it take to fabricate the final prototype?
About 14% of the week's time
15. Instead of showering his design team with a tremendous amount of praise, what did the boss require his employees to do with their new design?
Improve it
16. Of all the things that we are surrounded by every day, what has not been placed through the design process?
Nature
Conclusion

1. What did you find to be the most impressive part of the team’s effort?
It was interesting to watch the teams break off into groups and researched different aspects of the project at hand. This way they could accomplish multiple parts of research at one time.
2. What advantages are there to having a design team with members that have non-engineering backgrounds?
They all have different specialties so they can each contribute differently to the cause.
3. There was a point in the process where a self-appointed group of adults stepped up, stopped the ideas, and redirected the group to break up into teams. Why was this done?
They did this so they could get more research and ideas in a more timely fashion. This could also give the team the option to focus more on the smaller parts of the project.
4. At the end of the video, Dave Kelly states, “Look around. The only things that are not designed are the things we find in nature.” Can you think of anything that would contradict this statement?
Rivers are designed by nature to allow direct flow of water in the direction of gravity.