A brief talk about the theory and practice of failure in design, creativity, and innovation.

1. Failing to innovate
Darryl Gray, DNA
darryl.gray@dna.co.nz
darrylgray.wordpress.com
021 754 837

2. By way of intro:
- We all design or create stuff
- sometimes we need to be ‘innovative’ and do something new
- if you don’t need to be innovative, this talk might not be for you.
- if you do need to be innovative or unique
- this talk is might be very useful
- I think the concept of failure can help enormously

3. The Theory

4. - uh-oh
- failure is normally associated with lack of success, things not working properly, etc.
- generally has negative connotations!
- but is there ‘good failure’?
- I think so:
- two categories

5. Unintentional failure
1(aka ‘Happy accidents’)
- surprised if this hasn’t
happened to you!

6. - For me, it’s usually in Photoshop, etc.
- Accidentally press the wrong key combo

7. - “Wait a minute!”
- Surprised at how many discoveries have been made accidentally
- (The word ‘discovery’ implies surprise)

8. LSD
Teflon
Viagra
x-rays
brandy
penicillin
Cellophane

9. brandy
penicillin
Cellophane
Scotchgard
NutraSweet
potato chips
microwave oven
vulcanised rubber
Columbus’s discovery of America
Etc.
- Historical importance of these accidental discoveries is HUGE
- Tend to think scientists plan everything
- But the biggest leaps are always usually unexpected and unplanned

10. All things
Known things
- easy to see why:
- it’s extremely difficult to conceive of what you don’t know
- how can you know what you don’t know?

11. - I always use the example of the horse:
- Ask someone in 1850 what transport they wanted:
- “Faster horse that can go longer”

12. - No-
on
e
sai
d
a
ca
r

13. - DEFINITELY no-one thought of this!
- Anyway, we rely on accidental discoveries to leap forward.
- This notion is well-described by ‘serendipity’

14. - Not, not that Serendipity

15. serendipity
— the chance development of events in a beneficial way

16. “It is true that my discovery of LSD was a chance
discovery, but it was the outcome of planned experiments
[...] It could better be described as serendipity.”
— Albert Hoffman, Swiss chemist

17. “Chance favours the prepared mind.”
— Louis Pasteur, French chemist

18. Opportunities present themselves...

19. ...but you have to see them.

20. How many have you missed?

21. Intentional failure
2Failure as an innovation strategy
- This is about deliberately carrying out
failure as a tool.

22. All things
Known things
- Remember our diagram
- We know that innovation happens out here
- There are a few great solutions
- But lots of lemons
- To innovate, you need to be prepared to fail

23. - It’s like a game of chance
- Lotto: the more you play, the more likely success becomes
- Lotto is like a really ground-breaking innovation:
- Be prepared to fail a lot
- Winning $2 on Instant Kiwi is a much smaller innovation, much more achievable
- You need to factor this into your timelines and way of working

25. “Try everything – see what works.”

26. Active Failure Strategy
Don’t bank on one approach
Expect to fail many times
Learn from your mistakes
Limit failure fallout/fail small
- limit failure fallout: make sure you
never fail too large

27. “Fail early, fail often”
— IDEO mantra

28. failure
time
bad :(
good :)
- green line: IDEO model
- red line: ‘systematic failure’

29. Prof. Jack Matson
— Pennsylvania State University
- Innovative Engineering
Design course

30. Failure 101.
- requires students “to build and attempt to sell outlandish and frequently useless products”
- like a hand-held barbecue pit.

31. - Prof Matson takes IDEO further:
- Fail faster
- Maze analogy:
- blindfolded person in maze will make frequent mistakes
- will eventually get there - faster mistakes, faster to get there

32. - Makers found players were a bit bummed out about dying
- By giving players info about how they died and how to improve
- Death became a valuable and positive experience for players!

33. Failure is a positive experience
if we can learn from it.

34. - How can we leverage failure in our line of work?

35. Failure = :-)
- Finally, intentional failure has great effect on culture
- Proven to be less stressful, happier, more fun

36. - Failure can give us a laugh

37. Failure = :-)
and more productive too
- BUT it’s also proven to be more productive way to work
- There’s a company doing quite well who adopt failure strategy
- Each employee has time to try stuff out, no pressure.

38. - You probably haven’t heard of them.

39. - If it’s good enough for Google ...

40. So...
- To sum up the theory:

41. The failure paradox
Failure is likely when you’re trying to succeed
Success is likely when you’re trying to fail

42. Bad failure is an outcome.
- it’s the end result
- not good

44. Good failure is a process.

45. - tries lots of small things
- the strong ideas survive
- and become stronger

46. Innovative
Old news
- and because innovation only happens out here...

47. Innovation is impossible
without embracing failure.

48. The Practice
- So, very quickly!
- What are some pragmatic things to help you fail like champ?

49. Eliminate fear
1
- Creatives say: “Don’t pressure me, man” and “I need my freedom”
- Those creatives are often the ones that deliver gold
- They intuitively understand...

50. Being free = lack of fear

51. Lack of fear = it’s okay to try and fail

52. Trying and failing = more likely to strike gold
- So when that monkey in a suit is holding a gun to your head...

53. - Explain that to him.

54. Know about design management
2
- But you’ll probably need to compromise with that monkey
- Design management is simple but not understood

55. - Give people 100% freedom when creating
- No talk of deadlines, budgets, etc.
- No idea is a bad idea
- Critical part of brainstorming
- But, once a direction or solution is agreed upon...

56. - It’s relentless pressure.
- This pressure causes the brain to tune out other ideas and focus on delivering.
- This is the compromise, and it is a good one in general.
- I’ve had great success with this in the past... it's never let me down

57. Don’t be cool
3

59. “Don’t be cool”
“Forget about good”
— Bruce Mau
“Trying to look good limits my life”
— Stefan Sagmeister
“The good is the enemy of the great”
— Milton Glaser
- When needing to be innovative or unique, good constrains you to the known and therefore you bad fail.
- Note inversion of Milton Glaser quote

60. - If you don’t try, you won’t fail ... or succeed.

61. Start anywhere, don’t stop
4
- So start now! Start anywhere - go, go, go!
- A common form of paralysis is not knowing where to start.

62. “Begin anywhere”
“Keep moving”
“Repeat yourself”
“Stand on someone’s shoulders”
“Imitate”
“Work the metaphor”
— Bruce Mau
- All from Bruce Mau:
- Note: do what you know, or copy someone.
- Go from there...

63. Disclaimer-ise
5

64. “I know this is ridiculous, but ...”
- Keep face by prefacing everything with:
- Tell them you’re about to be stupid.
- Disarm them.

65. Thanks :)
darrylgray.wordpress.com