Noise Between Stations

February 2006

  • WOW — I DeSIGN

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    1 min read

    Dr. Charles Burnette’s IDeSiGN — Seven Ways of Design Thinking is the best thing I’ve seen in a while, a curriculum for teaching children how to pursue their goals using different ways of thinking. This is designing. It is a process of creative and critical thinking that allows information and ideas to be organized, decisions…

  • Innovation in poached eggs

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    1 min read

    Surrounded by the twin mystiques of brunch and Hollandaise, Elaine Corn offers a better, simpler cooking method (boil water in a shallow skillet, add vinegar and salt, slide the eggs in and turn the heat off, let cook in covered skillet for three minutes). I can tear that page out of my Betty Crocker cookbook…

  • Use simple tools

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    2 min read

    The tools we use to create and communicate should be so easy to use we rarely ever think about them. With simple tools we naturally focus on what the tool allows us to do. The famous typography designer Matthew Carter has said that when you read you should not see the letters on the page,…

  • Thought for Friday: Relax

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    1 min read

    Two researchers at Pace University here in New York compared results from dozens of studies of thousands of employees in 21 occupations to find which exhibit more stressors. Did fire fighters and police officers come out on top? No. Financial and business people did. We worry more about poor job fit, management problems, and work/home…

  • Frontiers in lower customer service costs

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    1 min read

    As Vonage prepares for their IPO, are they enacting measures to improve their cost structure? Your email is important to us but due to high email volume we are unable to accept your email at this time. For immediate assistance, please visit the Help section of our web site to search our library for related…

  • Architecture and employees

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    1 min read

    I wonder if this flashy, animated building facade — very not-financial services — changes employees’ perception of Lehman Brothers? Could it backfire and make employees more cynical?

  • Blogs are over

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    1 min read

    Advertisement, Manhattan.

  • Gain, v3.0

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    1 min read

    The new & improved Gain — the AIGA journal of business and design — has just re-launched. Congrats to Karen, Jeff, Liz, and the gang.

  • Can large companies succeed with social media?

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    1 min read

    We think so.

  • Your future is older, browner, and more feminine

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    1 min read

    The always entertaining Andrew Zolli has a new article in the current Fast Company mag, expanding on the themes he’s been talking about in person. Essentially he demonstrates the importance of looking through the demographics lens when thinking about the future… The hourglass society will bring an avalanche of new social challenges, cultural norms, and…

  • Hardware companies will learn to be software companies

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    1 min read

    In the past I’ve observed that as processor speed increases, software replaces dedicated hardware. For example, in music or video production programs like GarageBand and Final Cut Pro and a stock Macintosh can replace dedicated rack systems and DSP chips. Now with Web 2.0-ish advances on the Internet, we can go further and say as…

  • Balancing Act: Westin

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    1 min read

    John Holusha of the New York Times profiles Westin’s decision to move to an all non-smoking format in their hotels. I think this rocks on several levels: It’s progressive, recognizing only 6% of customers request smoking rooms (only half of which actually smoke in the rooms), and this segment isn’t key to their success. Also…

  • Tom and Jerry and management

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    1 min read

    My colleague Jim, from a recent interview: I was born in Hollywood and raised in Los Angeles. My father, mother and grandparents all worked in the film industry. My parents actually met when they were both working on Tom and Jerry cartoons. The culture of filmmaking has influenced my approach to design and business. Hollywood…

  • Agile everywhere

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    1 min read

    I’m finding examples of agile work practices in more and more places, and see them as perfectly aligned with the application of design practice in innovation services. Here’s a running list… Agile programming has the most robust expression, including a philosophy, an alliance of various approaches, tools, software, and measured results. Agile project management Get…

  • Dancing elephants: Lockheed

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    1 min read

    I love seeing big companies move in agile ways (because it’s so unusual), even if it only arises from panic of losing their old revenue streams. Here’s an example from Lockheed, whose old culture (despite their Skunk Works-style innovation) included bitter internal fights over whether to pursue unmanned aircraft… …It also designed and delivered the…