Something cool that the Kellogg School of Management & Dell share
Image: Shriansh Shrivastava

Something cool that the Kellogg School of Management & Dell share

 

…apart from me and a bunch of other folks interning or working there at the moment, I mean.

But before I get into that, let me introduce myself. I'm a Kellogg MMM student - that's Kellogg's awesome dual-degree program. My primary degree is your regular, albeit high quality, MBA. But the second one is what makes it exciting - it's a Master of Science in Design Innovation. Design Innovation in a nutshell is what makes the experience cutting edge, whacky and all-round fun.

MMM marries Design Thinking, Human Centered design, research-design-build and all those fun concepts with MBA smarts.

 

Here's my take on Design thinking: at the core, you're designing a solution that'll work better for Humans. You could make the world's best ever innovation, something that'll make the people at the Nobel Prize widen their eyes, arch their eyebrows in awe and scream out "otrolig

But, if it doesn't work for Humans (you, me and other interesting folk evolved from apes), it's not going to succeed. And this applies to every field - from technology, to food, to healthcare, to human resources - any and every place innovation is possible.


When you use design thinking as a framework, you agree to a few core principles.
  1. CORE: You'll never, ever, ever, jump to a solution early. If a million light bulbs light over your head, an exclamation mark appears in thin air over your head and you feel the urge to yell 'eureka' and run, erm, down the street. Don't.
  2. RESEARCH: You'll observe, really observe, how people behave and interact in the area you're researching. You'll try and be inconspicuous, and learn. For example, say you want to create the world's best Champagne glass. Instead of heading to your industrial designers and dictating "Make me a glass, minions!” design-thinking-you will head to places where you can observe people interacting with champagne. Could be one of the swanky post-Oscars galas (!) filled with the world's best entertainers. Or could be the dorm at Northwestern University the night after graduation filled with celebrating undergrads. You'll then observe. How they grip the champagne glass. Where they put it. How often they drop it. Do they fill it to the top? Do they even use a glass? How long does a glass stay in a person's hands? Etc. etc.
  3. DESIGN: Good observations will bring you to good insights. You'll then use the insights to design - rapidly. Say you observed that most people grip the glass by its rim, rather than the stem. Your insight? You need to do something tremendously sexy with the rim of the glass that makes it look better and slip less when held from the rim. Now is when you design your product.  And they key here is rapid prototyping. You build a model, take it to a quick focus group. People think your Champagne glass 2.0 is too top-heavy. Back to the drawing board. Back to research. Back to observations. It's a blurred mishmash or high-speed, human centered design.
  4. BUILD: Finally, you've got the best design possible that is amazing in every sense - usability, looks and awesomeness. 

And that's Design Thinking in a nutshell. Phew. Not rocket science, is it? (for a more professional explanation - try this)

Ah, but you say: what does Dell have to do with designing Champagne glasses? Is there a new buy-a-laptop-get-a-glass-free deal coming along soon?

Well, Dell designs a lot of stuff. From the awesome new laptops that people are familiar with, to brand new thinking around the Internet of Things, to processes to manage inventory better, to training they give their channel partners. So it's an all-round design house most of the time.

But wait, you interrupt (again)… Dell's also a large corporation. It can't be fast and agile like IDEO, Frog, or even the awesome Kellogg MMM!

Ah yes, readers and evolved humans, it can! Did I tell you, that 2 days after I started my internship at Dell, I had to attend a session on design - wait for it - thinking? (conducted by Rick Menchaca )

Dell has adopted and is acing at something that most of the creative world considers can only be done by high-paid design consultancies. With design thinking, they’ve tackled supply chain management issues, inventory shortages, re-engineered organizations, created new management tools and a lot more. (They might not be the most exciting areas you can think of. I'll even understand if they don't get your pulse racing and palms sweaty. But in the grand scheme of things, they probably have a bigger impact on the business than any one spiffy product)

But what is even cooler is that Design Thinking has management support, and clearly is promoted at Dell 

And this is great news for programs like the Kellogg's MBA/MSDI, Stanford's D-School, IIT Chicago's ID and USC's Design Program. Coming into a corporate environment where Design Thinking is practiced not only is ideal for students in such programs, it also gives us a running start. I have new respect for the prograMMM I already loved, and Dell!

Now, anyone feel like funding a startup on making Champagne glasses? I may have a few ideas…

 

Nathan Brower

Accelerating the world's transition to sustainable energy

8y

Or perhaps they hold the glasses by the rim because there's something wrong with the stem... nicely written :-)

Jennifer Jones Newbill

Global Talent Acquisition Leader at Dell Technologies currently leading emerging talent (campus recruiting) and diversity programming.

8y

What an interesting post Shriansh Shrivastava! Here is to my next glass of champagne!

Swati Shrivastava

Strategy & Operations - Social impact initiatives

8y

What have you done in school that involves design thinking? Other than at Dell how have you used it?

Alyssa Lorenz

Senior Marketing Manager at Johnson & Johnson MedTech

8y

Thanks for sharing! How does a big company like Dell rapid-prototype and test its ideas?

Anand Joshi

Manager at BNP Paribas India Services Ltd

8y

Good one.. Now someone is really having a go for core designing.. Neat and concise writing excluding standard MBA jargon..

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