Plan B

I literally grew up working at Intel. This means that tattooed just under my worldwide ID (not telling where!) is a template for my MBOs – management by objective. Those who know me and my similarly brainwashed husband would attest to the almost dogmatic way we use this planning structure to achieve our visions for our careers, family, and personal aspirations. Hey – it may be sad to have a kid with a balanced scorecard – but it’s worked for us.

Until now.

Turns out, sometimes the only way forward is reactionary. Throw the plan out the window. Don’t bother with a new one. Do what you need to do, as you need to do it. This is my life at the moment. The details aren’t relevant to this forum (other than explaining my long radio silence), but the implications for design and product development are.

I have alluded to it in past posts, and the jungle drums are beating louder (see Verganti, Norman, et al). Incremental and radical change don’t come from the same place, process, or mindset.

Neither is more privileged. They both make buckets of money and are fun and fulfilling to do. You do both better with designers, and design research, and cultural knowledge built in. But confuse them at your peril. They co-exist in the context of actual products and business strategies in the marketplace, but we’re talking houndstooth check here, not shades of grey.

So, when I strip away the structures of the corporation, quarterly objectives, and annual reviews from my life, what am I left with? My original tools: I read, watch, think, write, design, create, and revise, and revise, and revise some more.

I’ll share as much as I can here and through other channels, and see where it takes us.