Design Vision: A Tale of Two Companies

by February 16, 2006

Richard Anderson presents two successful case studies of Design Vision in action with two different long-term results.

“In both cases, existing process (or lack thereof) was ignored, an excellent, user experience centered and led research and design process was initiated and followed, and a new product was brought to market. In both cases, market response to the new product was phenomenal.”

In the first example, a process supporting product design vision was embraced.

“At Intuit, much of the new process has become a standard. More new products conceived and designed in a similar fashion are on the way, and the title of the User Experience Lead on the project was extended to include the words, Product Visionary."

In the second example, things turned out quite differently.

“At Alias|Wavefront, non-conformance of the new process with the corporate norms was not well-received, so in spite of the phenomenal success of both the new process and product, Bill - Alias|Wavefront's "Chief Scientist" - found himself out of a job.”

Check out Richard’s post to find out why. Here’s a hint: the importance of executive support Dirk outlined not too long ago.