It is no mystery to me why Ebay bought Skype for 2.6 billion dollars. Ash Bhoopathy, one of my students at the Institute of Design, is doing an internship in Shanghai this summer. He’s thinking about doing a workshop that includes prototyping of services and wanted to chat about it. We had been trading emails. “I can Skype you.” “Oh…OK, Ash. Sure.” While I have, out of curiosity, research interest, and need set up accounts on MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, and others, I was a bit embarrassed I never tried Skype. Somewhat hesitant to go through the ordeal, I went to Skype’s site. I downloaded the app, started it up, created an account through the app, and called Ash. In a matter of three minutes I was talking with Ash in Shanghai, clear as day. The value to me was immediate, amazing, and profound. I can’t even count the number of other “services” that make you jump through hoops and provide a plethora of meaningless offers on the way to getting what you need. So, thank you Skype. Thank you Google. Thank you 37Signals. Now, what are the principles and values we can identify in these examples and teach to a new generation of innovation leaders?…

“Get out there.” “Immerse yourself in their world.” “Explore the rich context of users.” “Discover unmet needs.” “Get in touch with our inner user.” “Dive deep.”

The catch phrases of user-centerdom are an odd mix between Deepak Chopra and Vasco Da Gama.

The funny thing about these phrases is while they do a good job contrasting from the lack of depth in much quant research, they do a pretty bad job of actually preparing people for meaningful field work. Good fieldwork is not a random walk through the wilderness. It is designed with a point of view. It is framed by objectives and hypotheses. It has its own sense of discipline and rigor.

Before we go do field work at GT, we often:

• Spend quality time determining who we want to observe and speak with.
• We develop hypotheses about what we think will matter and look to prove/disprove.
• We test our protocols to make sure that they “work” and we refine them.

As I crowded gate C20 at O’Hare during a recent United flight to San Francisco, I felt a disturbance in the crowd behind me. An “important” passenger was in a rush was weaving his way through the anxious proletariat. He was an old white guy wearing a suit (shocking!), and walked with swagger of a made man, a 1K or global services passenger. I saw his foot step on that damn little red carpet and it triggered a moment of startling clarity.

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I had breakfast with James Slavet of Greylock recently and asked him how many deals he sees on a regular basis.

mw: “So how many deals do you see a year?”
js: “I meet about 300 companies a year. Most are screened prior to me meeting them.”
mw: “And how many of those do you think are any good?”
js: “Maybe 30 are interesting and will get funding from some one. I’d say 3-4 are actually what I would call good ideas.”

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In the last few months, we’ve seen Dieter Zetsche and Daimler desperately search for ways to channel Heidi Klum and to say “Auf Weidersein” to Chrysler and Carl Ichan leave a nasty board room brawl at Motorola, quoting Arnold Schwarzenegger Terminator-style, “I’ll be back.” Recall just three years ago we heard a very different tune. Back then, the marketplace was buzzing with with RAZRs and 300Cs. Both great products to be sure, but cautionary tales, that while great design sells lots of product, it is not a strategy.

Ketchup. At fast food restaurants, it comes in those annoying little sealed packs. You know, the ones that you open with your teeth while going 75. Spit out the plastic end and pray that you don’t unleash a pressurized ketchup stream, seemingly laser guided to land on your pants on the way to that important sales meeting. Well, if you are a fast food marketer, this represents an interesting dilemma, one that I recently discussed with a market researcher in the industry. The researcher knows that people hate those ketchup packs. She knows that her company could provide ketchup in easy open tubs that perch elegantly in the fry sleeve. But her company won’t do it. Why? Because according to ROI analysis the minor extra cost, simply can’t be justified.

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