Ever wondered what it's like growing up as a middle-class Black kid in a predominantly white neighborhood and making it big in the world of design and innovation? Curious how a passion for art, science, and math can lead to a career that influences global brands, from Nike to IBM? Want to know how creativity and resilience can redefine the future in the face of systemic failures and the disproportionate impact on marginalized communities? Dive into the captivating journey of a multidisciplinary Black professional navigating biases, embracing diversity, and transforming design on a global scale.

Reimagining Design: Unlocking Strategic Innovation

In 2020, the world faced immense challenges, from the COVID-19 pandemic to acts of police brutality and systemic injustice. Amid this turmoil, many lost loved ones, jobs, and health, revealing the failures of our institutions and the disproportionate burden on Black and Brown communities. Despite the rhetoric of emerging stronger, the pain and suffering are undeniable and will linger for years. 

Moving forward, we must question the impact of our behaviors and systems, striving to reimagine and create meaningful change. This book, "Reimagining Design: Unlocking Strategic Innovation," is a message of hope amid uncertainty. It champions creativity and critical thinking as catalysts for progress, encouraging us to envision equitable, sustainable, and culturally imaginative futures.

Drawing from personal experiences, the author, a multidisciplinary Black professional, shares a journey shaped by curiosity and resilience. Despite facing indifference, microaggressions, and covert bias, the author leveraged curiosity to connect with others, experiment, and navigate pivotal career decisions. The journey was not easy, marked by moments of being undermined and judged, but it ultimately led to unique opportunities to help others solve new problems.

The book speaks to those who have felt like "the other" due to their background, race, gender, or identity. It validates their experiences and urges them to keep pushing forward. It also calls on the "majority" to commit to antiracist, antisexist, and antiageist behaviors, promoting diversity and inclusion in leadership and organizations.

Creativity is emphasized as a vital muscle to exercise, often stifled by traditional norms. The book encourages professionals from all disciplines to embrace creativity and innovation, which can revitalize careers and businesses. It offers frameworks for strategic design to enhance innovation, fostering multidisciplinary collaboration.

Through personal anecdotes and practical insights, the author illustrates how design transformed their life and can transform organizations. The journey is not linear but full of serendipity, surprise, and growth. This book is a guide for leveraging creativity and diversity to shape a better future for individuals and organizations alike.

Can Creativity and Diversity Lead Us to a More Equitable Future?

Growing up in a predominantly white neighborhood in downriver Detroit, Kevin Bethune, the author, was one of the few middle-class Black kids. His parents ensured he understood his African American history beyond the limited and often derogatory narratives in school textbooks. Trips to museums and learning about Black history were a staple of their family vacations. Creativity was Bethune's outlet, and drawing became his passion, blending with his interests in science and math.

Two pivotal moments sparked Bethune's early fascination with innovation: a Nike Air Max commercial showcasing the shoe's airbag technology, and a visit to GM's World of Motion exhibit at EPCOT Center. These experiences planted the seeds of curiosity that would guide his career.

In high school, Bethune excelled in math and science, leading him to pursue mechanical engineering at Notre Dame. It was a challenging journey, especially being one of the few Black students in his cohort, but he persevered, driven by the desire to inspire others. After graduating, Bethune joined Westinghouse Electric Company, where he worked on nuclear reactor systems, learning the importance of precision and teamwork.

A growing curiosity about business led Bethune to pursue an MBA at Carnegie Mellon, thanks to a fellowship from the Consortium for Graduate Study in Management. This opened doors to creative companies like Nike, where he initially worked in global business planning but yearned for a more hands-on role in product design.

Nike's culture allowed Bethune to explore his creative side, leading to a mentorship with Dr. D'Wayne Edwards, who helped him design a real product—the Air Jordan Fusion 8. This experience confirmed his passion for design, prompting him to pursue further education at ArtCenter College of Design.

Bethune's journey took him to BCG Digital Ventures, where he led a team of strategic designers, merging business, technology, and design to create innovative solutions. After several years, he founded dreams design + life, a think tank focused on human-centered design and innovation.

Throughout his career, curiosity has been Bethune's guiding star, helping him navigate challenges and seize opportunities. This journey taught him the importance of following one's passions and continuously exploring new horizons.

From Nike Air Max to Air Jordan: A Journey of Creative Innovation and Inspiration

When Bethune first ventured into the world of design, his perceptions were shaped by his friend Jason Mayden, a celebrated footwear designer at Nike. Mayden's insights revealed a complex, multifaceted landscape that extended far beyond the stereotypical image of designers as mere sketch artists.

Initially, Bethune believed designers lived glamorous lives, blending fun with work, but his experience at Nike shattered that myth. The process of designing a sneaker was intricate and demanding, involving collaboration with product marketers, engineers, and factory developers. Designers had to balance creativity with market expectations, producing numerous sketches and navigating extensive feedback.

Nike's triad model, where designers, product managers, and engineers worked as equals, highlighted the critical role of each discipline. This collaborative approach was evident in every product launch, with designers often juggling multiple projects across different seasons.

Bethune's journey continued at ArtCenter in Pasadena, where the rigorous curriculum honed his design skills through relentless practice and project-based learning. His thesis on endurance running, which combined physical, digital, and service-related solutions, attracted investor interest and showcased the power of multidisciplinary innovation.

Despite the challenges of proving his hybrid professional identity to potential employers, Bethune found opportunities to apply his unique skill set in strategic conversations at companies like Microsoft and IBM. His experiences underscored the varied roles of design within organizations and the need for design to be an equal partner in strategic decision-making.

Inspired by pioneers like the Bauhaus school and modern exemplars like IDEO and Nike, Bethune advocates for a holistic approach to design. The future demands diverse, inclusive teams that leverage design to influence positive change. By elevating design beyond traditional perceptions, Bethune believes that we can foster innovation and collaboration across all disciplines.

How Did Jason Mayden and Nike Transform Bethune's Perception of Design?

Creating the future is an idea that excites many, but achieving it within an enterprise requires more than just ambition. Vanessa Wolfe-Coote, a former colleague of Bethune, once asked his team what drives them, and the answer was "creating the future." This notion, while inspiring, is complex and needs multidisciplinary collaboration.

The harmony between design, business, and technology is often depicted in a Venn diagram, where the convergence of desirability, feasibility, and viability forms the core of innovation. IDEO and Stanford's d.school highlight the importance of aligning these principles to ensure meaningful, practical, and profitable solutions. However, in large enterprises, the convergence is challenging due to specialized roles and internal politics that hinder cross-departmental innovation.

Effective innovation demands bringing together diverse talents to collaborate productively. This process, however, is fraught with friction as team members from different backgrounds learn to work together. Successful teams address this friction head-on, setting clear expectations and understanding each other's working styles and philosophies.

Leadership in multidisciplinary teams is crucial and often dominated by those from investment banking or top-tier consulting backgrounds. However, the competitive tension between business and technology, as seen in the dynamic between Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, can drive creative disruption.

Design, though often perceived as a final touch, plays a vital role in strategy and problem-solving. The holistic approach of designers like Ray and Charles Eames, who tackled complex problems systematically, is a model for integrating design deeply into the innovation process.

Multidisciplinary teams offer unique advantages by viewing the future through various lenses: people, industry paradigms, trends, and exemplars. For example, understanding stakeholders' value criteria helped Bethune's team develop a personalized service for Starbucks, balancing customer satisfaction with operational efficiency.

Industry assumptions should be questioned to foster innovation. Tools like the Business Model Canvas help break down and visualize business mechanics, opening up possibilities for new value creation. For instance, Nike's exploration of rapid prototyping to meet personalized consumer demands illustrates challenging conventional production methods.

Broader societal impacts of business decisions should also be considered, as emphasized by the Impact Canvas. This tool encourages teams to think about the ethical and environmental ramifications of their actions, aligning with modern consumers' values.

Trends, often driven by technology, should be examined holistically using frameworks like STEEP (social, technological, economic, environmental, and political trends). Curating and understanding these trends helps teams anticipate future scenarios and innovate accordingly.

Exemplars, or real-life examples of trends, provide tangible proof and inspiration for future-oriented problem-solving. For instance, collaborating with research institutions and observing venture deal flows can reveal emerging trends and opportunities.

In short, fostering future foresight requires creating capacity for multidisciplinary collaboration, questioning industry norms, considering broader impacts, and leveraging trends and exemplars. These principles guide teams to innovate effectively, balancing immediate needs with long-term vision.

Steve Jobs and Wozniak: Driving Innovation Through Multidisciplinary Collaboration

Inventing, building, and scaling with design can start at two extremes: potential inventors or entrepreneurs with a fresh idea and large enterprises seeking innovation amidst the challenges of managing a core business. Imagine a journey through ambiguity, like a nebula, where new stars (ideas) are born.

For startups, it's about navigating emotional and mental challenges to bring an idea to market. For large enterprises, it's balancing innovation with managing scale, akin to pivoting an ocean freighter. Both face disruption and must adapt to changing market conditions, like the pandemic's impact on business operations.

Growth is a key goal, not in terms of "grow at all costs," but achieving traction and market relevance. Gary Vaynerchuk's tweet encapsulates this: "The market doesn’t care about you... Sucks to hear, but it’s true!" Market relevance requires humility and a first-principles approach to ensure value propositions resonate with people.

Systematic respect in growth is vital. Not every dollar is equal. Take Nike's example: balancing retro shoe releases with innovative new products to avoid market saturation and maintain financial performance. Growth impacts a company's financial model, and labor and material costs are rising, adding to the complexity.

Innovation begins with discovery and ideation, visualized by the double diamond approach. It’s about creating desirable, viable, and feasible offerings. Storytelling is crucial, as Andy Ogden emphasized: "Tell me the movie. Show me the movie." Stories reflect interactions and experiences, shaping the innovation journey.

Large enterprises may need a portfolio approach to uncover a range of opportunities, addressing all types of growth—reengineering, creating attacker models, reimagining the core, and building new ventures from scratch. The goal is to navigate the fuzzy front end, using creativity and diverse inputs to reveal new opportunities.

Once an innovation concept excites stakeholders, the transition to incubation begins. This involves building the real offering, leveraging lean and agile methodologies. Lean manufacturing, from the Toyota Production System, emphasizes respect for front-line employees and validated learning. Agile methodologies break projects into manageable pieces, allowing for flexibility and continuous improvement.

Commercialization scales the offering to a broader audience, requiring more resources, technical know-how, and infrastructure. It’s a steep uphill climb without a finish line, demanding sustained effort and investment. Key capabilities include product, price, place, and promotion, all integrated with the brand’s promise.

Branding is essential, shaping the mission, vision, and emotional characteristics of the offering. The three C’s—commerce, content, and community—create stickiness and relevance. Successful commercialization involves hiring for various roles, from sales to supply chain management, ensuring continuity and momentum.

In short, inventing, building, and scaling with design involves navigating ambiguity, respecting systematic growth, leveraging lean and agile methodologies, and maintaining a strong brand promise. It’s a continuous journey requiring creativity, resilience, and strategic investment.

Can Gary Vaynerchuk's Brutal Truth Propel Your Startup to Market Success?

To make meaningful innovation happen, we must balance the breadth and depth of our design and innovation capabilities. Imagine our teams as orchestras. Sometimes, the conductor (team leader) might let different section leaders (design, engineering, business) take charge during different parts of the performance. This collaborative spirit fosters creativity and ensures each discipline contributes its expertise.

Breadth involves the team’s ability to communicate, collaborate, and align strategically across disciplines. Depth is about leveraging each team member's deep expertise to create valuable concepts, prototypes, and validated learning exercises. For instance, teams that balance breadth and depth often have dynamic workspaces filled with stakeholder profiles, journey maps, and prototypes, while individual team members are busy working in their specialized areas.

The most effective multidisciplinary teams exhibit an organic rhythm, like a train depot, where members come and go, contributing their expertise at the right moments. This balance is crucial for meaningful creativity and innovation.

Different disciplines bring unique strengths to the table. Business experts often excel in communication and project management, engineers provide critical technical insights, and designers offer creative leadership and problem-solving. However, it's essential to recognize and support the deep work each discipline requires. For example, designers need time to conduct thorough research, create detailed wireframes, and develop prototypes beyond just facilitating brainstorming sessions.

Designers, in particular, have unique superpowers that need room to shine. These include uncovering deeper insights, empathizing with users, creating flow in experiences, and engaging all senses in design. Bethune's TED Talk, "The 4 Superpowers of Design," emphasized the importance of giving designers the space to exercise these capabilities.

Ultimately, by recognizing and supporting the breadth and depth of each discipline, we can unlock the full potential of multidisciplinary innovation, seeing future possibilities in inspiring ways.

Unlocking Innovation: Insights from The 4 Superpowers of Design TED Talk

Design Transformation isn’t simply about rearranging an org chart. It's about embracing change in a strategic and inclusive way, recognizing the importance of design in fostering multidisciplinary innovation. John Maeda's annual Design in Tech Report, rebranded as the CX Report in 2020, highlighted design's growing influence on computation and its impact on business and society. 

2020 was a year of profound upheaval. COVID-19 forced us into isolation and fear, while the murder of George Floyd sparked a global civil rights movement, exposing systemic racism. These events underscored the need for organizations to address diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) as critical business imperatives. Nikole Hannah-Jones's "The 1619 Project" further illustrated how systemic racism is embedded in American institutions.

As a Black professional, Bethune has witnessed overt and covert racism, from his family's experiences to microaggressions in the workplace. This systemic injustice extends into technology, where biases in AI and facial recognition have led to wrongful arrests, like that of Robert Julian-Borchak Williams. If we don't eradicate bias in design, we risk creating systems that exacerbate inequities.

Design studios often hire for "comfort fit," perpetuating exclusion. However, leaders like Aida Davis, founder of Decolonize Design, and Kat Holmes, author of "Mismatch," advocate for recognizing exclusion and learning from diversity. At BCGDV, Bethune hired diverse talents like La Mer Walker and Ronald Clark to push his thinking. True DEI requires a cohesive strategy and rigorous implementation at every step.

The gatekeeper vs. servant leader dichotomy in leadership is crucial. Servant leaders, as coined by Max De Pree, ensure their teams mirror the marketplace with agility and inclusivity. This leadership style fosters innovation and relevance. We must also nurture T-shaped hybridity in our teams, balancing breadth and depth of expertise.

Design transformation involves educating and leading teams towards a new paradigm, balancing compliance with vision. We need methodologies that serve as guideposts for multidisciplinary teams, allowing flexibility and continuous improvement. For example, at BCGDV, Bethune codified methods to guide new teams through innovation processes, adapting and improving them over time.

Enabling multidisciplinary teams requires thoughtful infrastructure and tools. At BCGDV, Bethune designed innovation studios with hexagonal team rooms for nonlinear collaboration. Virtual tools like Miro and Slack also facilitate collaboration across locations. As leaders, we must anticipate and provide the necessary enablers for our teams' success.

Ultimately, transforming design means integrating it with DEI, fostering multidisciplinary collaboration, and ensuring our methodologies and enablers support this transformation. It’s about leading with courage, embracing risk, and nurturing both breadth and depth in our teams and ourselves. By doing so, we can create more inclusive, innovative, and resilient organizations ready to face the future.

How Did John Maeda and Nikole Hannah-Jones Inspire a New Era of Inclusive Design Transformation?

2020 was a year marked by the COVID-19 pandemic and heightened awareness of systemic injustices, disproportionately impacting marginalized communities. This period underscored the need for substantial change in our behaviors and systems. Moving forward, fostering creativity and critical thinking is essential for reimagining equitable and sustainable futures.

The journey of a Black multidisciplinary professional highlights the importance of curiosity, resilience, and leveraging personal experiences to navigate challenges and drive innovation. For those who feel marginalized, this serves as a call to persist, while urging the majority to commit to inclusive and diverse practices in leadership and organizations.

Creativity is crucial and should not be stifled by traditional norms. Embracing innovation across disciplines can revitalize careers and businesses, with strategic design frameworks enhancing collaboration and innovation. The author's experiences illustrate how design can transform both personal and organizational trajectories, advocating for a holistic approach to design that integrates diverse perspectives and fosters equitable change.

Effective innovation requires multidisciplinary collaboration, challenging industry norms, and considering broader societal impacts. Tools like the Business Model Canvas and frameworks like STEEP are invaluable for visualizing and anticipating future scenarios. The journey from ideation to commercialization involves navigating ambiguity, respecting systematic growth, and maintaining a strong brand promise.

Balancing the breadth and depth of design and innovation capabilities is essential, fostering an environment where multidisciplinary teams can thrive. Recognizing and supporting the unique strengths of each discipline unlocks the full potential of innovation. Design transformation involves strategic change, integrating design with diversity, equity, and inclusion, and enabling multidisciplinary collaboration through thoughtful infrastructure and tools.

Overall, embracing creativity, fostering inclusive leadership, and leveraging strategic design can drive meaningful innovation and create more resilient organizations ready to face the future.

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