Harvard Business Review, June 2011, Martin, Roger, p.82
Intuit, a California based software company, was struggling to attain new customers in 2007. CEO, Scott Cook, was aware he was not Steve Jobs but strived to be innovation driven. Cook coordinated a 2 day off-site meeting for their top 300 managers, called, Design for Delight. The purpose of the meeting was to strategize new ways to attract new customers and create new ways for existing cutomers to recommend Intuit products. After 5 hours of PowerPoint presentations, there was little energy in the room and the meeting failed to accomplish it’s mission. Following the off site, Cook worked with a consultant who led an design exercise for the managers. They worked together to create prototypes, gain feedback and fine tune their design ideas. The hands on exercise created excitement, collaboration and creativity.
The end result was the creation of a 9 member team of design thinking coaches, called, “innovation coaches”. Their role is to create protypes, conduct experiments and work with customers. The process included:
- Painstorming: Determine the customer’s challenges with Intuit solutions
- Soljam: Generate new solutions
- Codejam: Write software code within 2 weeks to present to customers
Design for Delight has allowed Inuit to engage their customers, work creatively, and move beyond “customer satisfaction”. Intuit learned that although Cook is not a Jobs, there are other ways to creative innovation, engage your employees and customers, and encourage creativity throughout their organization.
