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Blog-It 5 MKT302 | Spring 18
Innovation, Eyes on World
DUE Sunday, Feb 18th @ 11:59 PM
From Whence Innovation?
Where do ideas come from? A combination of seeing, knowing and imagining. Looking around at what
already exists often leads to incremental change. How can we make a television flat, flatter, the flattest? How
can we make the resolution more and more lifelike? It is great fun to look back at where we were to where
we are now. But want about the truly new and innovative? This begins with understanding people, our
planet, and how we interact with society.
While we can learn a great deal from people’s transactional trails (the heart and soul of data analysis) – we
can know what they do and how they do it. But what about the why? These insights are best gleaned by
interacting with people. For Blog-It 5, you will be watching a presentation by Jan Chipchase, founder of
Studio D. Studio D uses consumer research to inform their use human centered design, remote sensing,
prototyping, rapid calibration and many other established and experimental techniques to document and
decipher human motivation. Their projects impact strategy, design, public policy, community engagement,
partnership models and brands. Studio D has offices in San Francisco and Tokyo, although the team spends
most of the time on the road.
Earlier in his career Jan was Executive Creative Director of Global Insights at frog, a global design and
innovation consultancy, where he headed up the global research practice. Prior to that he was Principal
Scientist at Nokia where he specialized in entry level products. He’s worked on products that have
collectively sold over a billion units.
The Assignment
1. Watch the video of the presentation Jan Chipchase gave to PopTech. This is uploaded to Week 6.
2. Take a look through a current posting by Jan: 61 Glimpses of the Future
3. Pick 3 – 5 of Jan’s field notes that you found most striking, write why you think this is.
4. Over the next week, make you own list of striking and curious observations. Min. 31 / Max 61
5. Read through your list, pick a situation that you can imagine could be made better with a new
design or service. Describe your better idea. Bonus: sketch it.
