We actually recorded episode 5 last week, just as various colds, flus and what appeared to be the Phage descended on our humble household.

But our household was also invaded by a more benevolent intruder: Alex's new iPhone, which works in Canada thanks to some startlingly well-written instructions she found online. (Link coming soon! Thanks, Hack that Phone!)

Which led us to talk about why there are so many online tutorials that only a developer could love...

...and that led us to discuss practical tips for communicating with developers.

Enjoy! And as always, your comments are more than welcome.

Tonight's symposium featured Michael Alexin, Oberlin College class of '79, V.P. of Softlines Design and Product Development at Target. Yes, this is the man responsible for keeping me clothed during my last pregnancy, and even tougher, the post-pregnancy pre-weight loss months.

Michael's work puts him at the heart of delivering on Target's brand promise of "affordable design", and he stressed that in this day and age, that comes down to the challenge of continuous innovation. He offered a nice summary of the seven key components of innovation:

1. Observation: In focus groups, people often lack the clarity or expertise to articulate their needs. By observing people in various environments you can see what they may not see themselves. Tom Kelley in The Art of Innovation talks a lot about observation. Once you start observing carefully, all kinds of insights and opportunities can open up. Take example of elliptical machine: a GM guy noticed the elliptical path of his daughter's runnning and wondered if you could capture that movement without the impact of running, and sold the idea to Precor, which has turned it into a profitable business. Observation helps you identify problems that need solutions, or white space. Opportunities for true innovation.
2. Imagination: Example of iPod: imagining what it would look like to build a company arouund an MP3 player combined with a music sales service. Imagination is an intuitive process that generates a lot of ideas. In preschool, imagination treated as a skill that has to be nurtured. But that's been lost in American culture, let alone American business. That's something we have to find and nurture in colleagues and employees. Need to create space for imagination. Create "white space" -- quiet time. Everything is going so fast, so how do you create time to allow ideas to spring forth. Need to create culture of idea acceptance not idea judgement.
3. Brainstorming: Everyone says they brainstorm but it's not part of an institution's every day culture. Lots of companies love to go to an off-site...it may be fun, but it doesn't last. A brainstorm generates a lot of ideas in a short time. The more open the process, the more likely that the next big idea will emerge. Guidelines for successful brainstorming:
   • Set ground rules: leave titles at door. Generate not judge ideas. Have fun.
   • Strong moderator who doesn't dominate discussion.
   • Sharpen the focus by starting with a clear statement of the problem that isn't too broad or narrow.
   • Go for quantity not quality. Encourage any thought.
   • Make the process visual. I work with 150 designers; they are visual not verbal. We encourage them to sketch their ideas and put them on the wall. Then as editing process we let everyone vote for their five favorite ideas.
4. Creativity: Sheehy: creativity can be described as the letting go of cdrtainties. Embrace ambiguity and the unknown. Use originality to defeat habit. Defy convention to achieve greatness. Example: I.M. Pei's pyramid for the Louvre entrance. Initially very controversial. Eventually it got built, and the juxtaposition of the modern and the ancient set the stage for a new approach to architecture of Paris -- now the blend of old and new is almost their hallmark.
5. Design. Design is the core of innovation. Success depends on having a funciton, and appeal. "What engineers were to the age of steam, and scientists were to the age of reason, designers will be to our age." Designers are in demand because great design enhances and differentiates. Design must be functional. It's the practical side. Kelly: Design is a way of life. Target: you don't have to have a lot of money to have great design. Target gets a lot of credit for making great design accessible to consumer. Coincides with trend towards upscaling of America. Sometimes seems like we have the right to pursuit of life, liberty and pursuit of luxury. Design is a huge differentiator for Target in the marketplace. Key thing is the emotional connection that gets established with the Target brand.
6. Simplicity: Schumacher: "Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex... it takes a touch of genius to move in the opposite direction."
7. Speed: Consumers want the latest thing know. Need to react quickly to design, market and sales trends. Apparel is pretty low tech so you can't speed it up that much. It's about how quickly you make decisions. Process needs to be quick to react to change. Have to take away bureaucracy to get speed. We reward team members for speed. Bias towards action that encourages people to get it done and get it done fast.
8. Collaboration:Even though one person often has that crackling electric idea, it's really a team sport. One person may have the idea but it takes hundreds to implement and execute. ClearRx idea came from one woman who then brought it to Target. Hundreds of people involved from all parts of organization to make it live. Collaboration + shared focus = innovation.

Hmm. Somehow I ended up with eight. I'm hoping Michael will tell me which of these is the "bonus" component.

I just discovered that Google Docs finally work in the Safari web browser. (Up until now, Mac users had to access their Google Docs via Safari.) I think we may have the iPhone to thank for this; all those iPhone users wanted mobile access to their documents! I wonder what else the iPhone will finally bring to the Mac platform.

If you're not using Google Docs, this is a great time to start! Google Docs let you create, edit, store and share documents and spreadsheets; the word processor feels very much like Microsoft Word, and the spreadsheet editor like Excel, so you'll be right at home. But unlike the desktop versions of those apps, Google Docs let you collaborate with your colleagues. Here are some of the ways we've used Google docs and spreadsheets in our work:

• as part of a strategic planning process: brainstorming results in rows, participants in columns, with each participant marking their favorite ideas
• manage our docket of clients and projects (one client per row, one week per column; each week we insert a new column and add notes, current status, and upcoming actions and status
• capacity planning: clients and projects in rows, weeks/months in columns, to track upcoming hours required
• document creation: one person drafts in word and uploads, others fill in their details/examples