Enterprise Innovation is in a Crisis

INNOVATION HOT TAKE

For enterprise transformation to work, the products and experiences you develop must fulfill the needs of end users. If you’re not designing software that helps people do their jobs better, then one of two things will happen. Either the product will fail to deliver the productivity, process or profitability improvements you expect, or it won’t get used at all. In both scenarios, the return on investment will be at or close to zero.

Designing with users in mind is a crucial goal — and thus a crucial part of digital transformation.

At the same time, “user experience” has become a mess of an expression. One big mistake is companies thinking that user experience is something that you add in late in the development process — “sprinkling some UX on it” is a very problematic (and costly) notion. Additionally, the conflation of UX design with visual design, as if adding a few fonts and buttons is equally problematic.

Digital transformation fails 70% of the time.

In the energy sector, that number rises to 89-96%.

It’s clear that what we’re doing now is not delivering business results.

And it may be a tragedy waiting to happen.

– McKinsey, Why Do Most Transformations Fail?

A related mistake is simply not understanding what user-centered design is or that there are different roles involved in the process. It would be fantastic if a single designer could do everything, but it’s an unrealistic expectation. Just as you wouldn’t substitute a gastroenterologist if you needed an ophthalmologist, yet enterprise innovation methodologies are geared up to try and make that happen.

How did we get here? There are a few reasons, which we’ll explore... But before we jump into the details, it’s worth asking...

Excerpt taken from Design at the Extremes