[.ca] The Art of Innovation: Lessons in Creativity from IDEO, ... (ISBN 0385499841)

From Amazon.com:
IDEO, the world's leading design firm, is the brain trust that's behind some of the more brilliant innovations of the past 20 years--from the Apple mouse, the Polaroid i-Zone instant camera, and the Palm V to the "fat" toothbrush for kids and a self-sealing water bottle for dirt bikers. Not surprisingly, companies all over the world have long wondered what they could learn from IDEO, to come up with better ideas for their own products, services, and operations. In this terrific book from IDEO general manager Tom Kelley (brother of founder David Kelley), IDEO finally delivers--but thankfully not in the step-by-step, flow-chart-filled "process speak" of most how-you-can-do-what-we-do business books. Sure, there are some good bulleted lists to be found here--such as the secrets of successful brainstorming, the qualities of "hot teams," and, toward the end, 10 key ingredients for "How to Create Great Products and Services," including "One Click Is Better Than Two" (the simpler, the better) and "Goof Proof" (no bugs). But The Art of Innovation really teaches indirectly (not to mention enlightens and entertains) by telling great stories--mainly, of how the best ideas for creating or improving products or processes come not from laboriously organized focus groups, but from keen observations of how regular people work and play on a daily basis. On nearly every page, we learn the backstories of some now-well-established consumer goods, from recent inventions like the Palm Pilot and the in-car beverage holder to things we nearly take for granted--like Ivory soap (created when a P & G worker went to lunch without turning off his soap mixer, and returned to discover his batch overwhipped into 99.44 percent buoyancy) and Kleenex, which transcended its original purpose as a cosmetics remover when people started using the soft paper to wipe and blow their noses. Best of all, Kelley opens wide the doors to IDEO's vibrant, sometimes wacky office environment, and takes us on a vivid tour of how staffers tackle a design challenge: they start not with their ideas of what a new product should offer, but with the existing gaps of need, convenience, and pleasure with which people live on a daily basis, and that IDEO should fill. (Hence, a one-piece children's fishing rod that spares fathers the embarrassment of not knowing how to teach their kids to fish, or Crest toothpaste tubes that don't "gunk up" at the mouth.) Granted, some of their ideas--like the crucial process of "prototyping," or incorporating dummy drafts of the actual product into the planning, to work out bugs as you go--lend themselves more easily to the making of actual things than to the more common organizational challenge of streamlining services or operations. But, if this big book of bright ideas doesn't get you thinking of how to build a better mousetrap for everything from your whole business process to your personal filing system, you probably deserve to be stuck with the mousetrap you already have. --Timothy Murphy

This is the way I would run my company:
This should be the first book you read when you get out of college. Much of what Tom Kelley says would probably make your boss turn away, going against many theorems taught in management classes. But just maybe he is re-defining the perfect environments for the the ideas that change the way we interface.

Entertaining, Not Very Useful:
It must be nice to live in IDEO's world. I can imagine that if I had access to the unlimited time and money that seem to permeate IDEO, the question of "how best to innovate" might be a pressing one. While I don't discount that IDEO started from scratch and became a powerhouse using the methodologies described in the book, I would assert that their techniques and suggestions are only valuable to design firms, consultants, and high-end designers within very large corporations. Some of the ideas are neat and can be incorporated into other structures - particularly the advice on brainstorming. But much of the work is simply not feasible for the average project or department manager. I do understand the inefficiencies that come from poorly executed innovation, prototyping, etc., but as far as functional guidelines go, a basic Product Design textbook has more useful and more flexible process descriptions. Nevertheless, the book is at least entertaining, and is probably another route to making loads of dough for the IDEO guys, which, after all, is what IDEO seems to do best!

a handbook of innovation:
It is a handbook for innovation, the book share the experience of IDEO, the methods and the work practice to generate new ideas and the process of turning ideas to product. The first one is observation, people many ignore this point or pay little attention on that point. Tom mentioned a point that, we should user-oriented. Observed people how actually use a product instead of only interview them. Because some of customers are lacking product knowledge they cannot express the difficulty of using the product, even they do not fully utilize the product, so you may only get limited insight from interviewing them only. I know that many people know the term of Brainstorming, which is a method of ideas generation. However, how to have a good brainstorming is a difficult task. The third process is making prototype. It helps to solve the problem in 3-D, and let you know the problem or mistake in early stage of the process. The last insight is about the quality of the team members. They should broad in their skills and interests, deep in their knowledge and experience in one or more disciplines. All these could enhance the cross-pollination. All they should accept the divest within the team.

Waste of time.:
Reading this book is a waste of time. I know, It is tough to explain how someone can do innovating thinking etc. But this book does not help any. Read books on mindmapping instead.

Good food for thought, but not terribly practical:
Ideo is a fascinating company, and just reading about its adventures and ways is enjoyable. Beyond that, this is a great book to give you some creative nudges. Frankly, I think the title and subtitle oversell it. This isn't really some kind of guide that you can apply and become more creative. Not to say that it's not helpful in that way, but only in the most general sense of the word. Still, it is absolutely worth reading and enjoyable because an inside look at Ideo is not to be missed.