While a new book from Wharton School Publishing, The Design of Things To Come: How Ordinary People Create Extraordinary Products, is focused on innovative products, the story is really about people. As the authors write, "Innovation is about people." The products are a bridge between the creative ideas of innovators and the demands of the market. In the book, the authors describe the people who created products such as the F-150 truck, a $300 KitchenAid waffle baker, New Balance ultra running shoes, and BodyMedia's medical monitoring devices. They also describe the customers who use these products.

The three authors combine perspectives from business, engineering, and industrial design. This means they are able to address the balance among beauty, function, and profit that is essential to effective design. Two of the authors, Jonathan Cagan and Craig Vogel, are the authors of Creating Breakthrough Products. Vogel is director of the Center for Design Research and Innovation at the University of Cincinnati, and Cagan is a professor of mechanical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. They are joined by Peter Boatwright, a professor of marketing at Carnegie Mellon. This combination of these diverse perspectives is essential in achieving what they call "pragmatic innovation." This is "a pragmatic sense of balance between the pressing needs of business and the open-ended possibilities of product opportunities."

The authors discuss the concept of achieving the correct "pH" balance in design. A design that is too "basic" will not excite the customers. A design that is too "acidic for the public to digest" will turn them away. A product with the right balance will lead to profits, eliciting the desire of customers and ultimately their dollars.

They point out that good design, large and small, has a real bottom impact in meeting the demand for organic growth. Design can extend product lines or create new multi-million-dollar markets. Even fairly minor design changes can have a significant impact. For example, new faceplates on a pager by Motorola in the 1990s added $15 to the price tag. The more attractive styling of the Palm V designed by IDEO commanded a $150 premium and expanded the market by appealing more to executives and women.

Among the strategies they identify for successfully designing "things to come" are:

• Identifying Tomorrow's Trends: Apple's iPod recognized the opportunities of shifts in music listening as a result of digital music, and Herman Miller's Mirra ergonomic office chair recognized that older customers with back problems would pay extra for a more comfortable design. A wide range of social, economic, and technological trends can point the way to design opportunities.
  
  
• Design for Desire: The authors note that we are not just in an "experience economy," in the words of Pine and Gilmore, but are in a "fantasy economy" where fantasy has become a driver of product and service purchasing. For example, OXO redesigned a vegetable peeler that appealed to users as well as making food preparation easier for older chefs with arthritis and a salad spinner that works like a child's top. This appeal to fantasy can also be seen in the success of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series and Starbucks cafés. In an examination of B2B products, they also point out that fantasy even can be used in industrial products. For example, when RedZone Robotics developed a robot for repairing sewers, it paid attention to design, even though the machine spends most of its life running underground. The company recognizing that that design affects purchase and also that the robot would stand outside the tunnels where people would see and interact with it.
  
  
• Involving Stakeholders: Companies not only have to design for customers but also other relevant stakeholders who can have an impact on a product's success. The authors describe a "powers of 10" analysis to move from a micro view of the product and production to the macro view of the customer and context. For example, Lubrizol's new PuriNOx fuel required consideration of processing equipment, workers, advertising, customers, and local residents and political leaders around plants as well as the global context of concerns about global warming and ozone depletion.
  
  
• Focusing on Profit: The early planning stage is filled with complexity and chaos. For example, a new car design involves roughly 20,000 parts. Using a StageGate process and working closely with customers, designers can narrow the many options to identify the best one. The authors emphasize the need for interdisciplinary decision making to meet the delicate balance of "chaos within structure."
  
  
• A Process for Product Innovation: The authors draw together the principles above into a systematic process of effective product innovation. This process moves from the "fuzzy front end" of product development to product approval. The process involves identifying product opportunities, understanding the opportunity for creating value, conceptualizing the opportunity, and creating a detailed plan to package and present the new product.

The authors also address strategies for protecting intellectual property through patents and other mechanisms. Finally, they consider whether to handle design inside the organization or look for outside insights from consultants such as IDEO.

Good product design, as the authors point out, defies simple recipes and check lists. But it can follow a systematic process and adhere to certain principles. The authors present such a process to create, in their words, "comprehensive solutions that consumers respond to emotionally, cognitively, and then economically. "

• Wharton School Publishing

• Wharton Executive Education
  
  
• The Wharton School

This month's articles:

• Wharton Fellows
  Organizational architect Lars Kolind discusses the power of matching design to the purpose of the organization.
  
  
• Thought Leaders
  Wharton's Marketing Department has combined science and art to become the most published and cited marketing department in the world.
  
  
• In the Classroom
  Alliances are hot again, and Wharton executive education can help increase the chances of success.
  
  
• Wharton School Publishing
  People are at the heart of great design, according to the authors of a new book, The Design of Things To Come.
  
  
• Education à la Carte
  Redesign your own career.
  
  
• Conferences
  Wharton will sponsor the World Business Forum and World Negotiations Forum.