How to Build an elegant product. Ideas and Inspirational Stories on how elegant products evolved.

1. Building an elegant solution
Inspired by the book “The Elegant Solution” – by Matthew E May
Gautam B Ramamurthy

2. Secrets of Success
Loyalty
Dedication
Positive Attitude
Goal setting
Leadership
Motivation
Relationships
Planning
Strength
Pride
Passion
Belief
Knowledge
Skills
Innovation

3. One million
ideas per year!
The quest for the elegant solution shapes true innovation

4. Toyota’s 3 underlying principles
• Ingenuity in craft
• Pursuit of perfection
• Fit with society

5. Define: Elegance
Creativity
Simplicity
Intelligence
Subtlety
Economy
Quality
aha!
- Elegance is the simplicity found on the far side of complexity

6. What is Innovation?
- Innovation is not about technology
- Customer’s don’t want products and services,
they want solutions to problems
“Innovation is trying to figure out a way to do
something better than its ever done before”
- David Neeleman (Founder of JetBlue)

7. The Art of Ingenuity
View opposition as an inventive challenge
Always ask “Is there a better way?”

8. The Pursuit of Perfection
• It’s the discipline of increments and just plain hard work
• Optimal solutions result from a rigorous search – not magic
• Its not just about choosing between taking small steps or big
leaps, but its how to achieve big leaps through small steps
The story of Toyota’s Lexus brand

9. The Rhythm of fit
What is a great innovation?
• It’s the ability to serve the great needs of society with a valuable &
meaningful contribution
• Great Innovation – fits the times; fits within a larger system; shapes
attitudes and behaviors of people; changes how people think & work;
allows people to see in it their own opportunity for a new life
• Its like great leadership, aims to create change that matters

10. Ingenuity
Why?
- The current business environment demands it
How?
- Dig your own job!
“Observe…without preconceptions and with a blank mind. Repeat “Why?”
five times to every matter”
- Taiichi Ohno

11. Chasing Ingenuity
Ingenuity -> Creativity + Application
Engagemen
t
Exploration
“where to dig?” “how to dig?”

12. Ingenuity is all about asking the right questions
The story of Clear Rx – How can I make medicine bottles more safe and
user friendly?

13. Business innovation & Evolution - 1
Henry Ford’s Assembly Line
Continuous flow Conveyor BeltsStandardized parts+ +
(mills & canning factories) (machine tooling) (meatpacking & breweries)
“I invented nothing new. I simply
assembled into a car the discoveries of
other men behind whom were
centuries of work” – Henry Ford

14. Business innovation & Evolution - 2
Example of similar traits converging into one new organism
Most of the so-called revolutionary discoveries are in reality smaller ideas
combined, synthesized and adapted to a new application

15. Getting to the chase
- Pursuit of Perfection
Toyota Way – Start with an idea > work backwards > remove
anything that stands in the way
“What’s blocking perfection?”
“What can we improve?”
Lexus Story – They weren't building a car, they were redefining perfection
The Perfect Plan:
1. Assemble the A team (the best of creative minds within Toyota)
2. Identify the target (Mercedes S class & BMW 7 series)
3. Understand the customer (on-site research)
4. Revolutionary design
5. Build the perfect luxury car

16. Tools – IDEA loop
Investigate
What? Why?
Design
Ideas/Best solutions
Execute
Solution pilot/Prototype
Adjust
Access & Improve
question
solve
test
reflect

17. genchi genbutsu
- go and see
Problem: Solutions don’t work as imagined
- There’s a gap between what’s offered and what the customer needs!
Cause: The facts aren’t clearly understood
- We think we know what the customer wants. Telling isn’t showing
Solution: Learn to see
- Live the customer’s life. Watch the problem in the context and environment
within which it occurs
genchi genbutsu!

18. Work through creative tension
- You can’t fail in the ‘attempt’, only in the ‘outcome’!
• We are obsessed with solutions, but not with the process of
generating the optimal one
• Without thinking, there is no innovation. Thus, no elegant
solution
Exercise: Turn this incorrect roman-numeral equation made up of ten sticks
into a correct one by moving as few sticks as possible
XI + I = X
Focus on asking the right question, not seeking the right answer

19. Kaizen – Continuous Improvement
- Its all about idea submission and not acceptance
The 3 step process to achieve Continuous Improvement:
• Create a Standard
• Follow it
• Find a better way
Repeat it!
Kaizen = Ingenuity + Perfection + Fit

20. Start thinking Lean
- Doing more of what matters by eliminating what doesn’t
• Be-all, end-all, feature-rich solutions almost always miss the
mark – because they are over scoped and too complex
• Complexity destroys Value, which is what matters most to
customers
• Lean = Start with the ideal and little by little remove
everything blocking the path to achieve it
“Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but when
there is nothing left to take away”
- Antonie de Saint-Exupery