Chapter 34 Section 33: Make a "Super Wallet" (2)

After the questioning session, each person in the group designs and builds a new wallet for the other - their "customer".Design materials are limited to things like paper, tape, markers, scissors, paper clips, they can use anything else in the room as well.The design process took about half an hour.When the mock-up of the new wallet is complete, they market the wallet to "customers."Basically, a newly designed wallet will solve the biggest problem of the "customer".The new design concept made them very excited, and they said that if there is a similar wallet on the market, they would buy it without hesitation.Some wallets are designed with sci-fi features, such as wallets that can print banknotes. However, it is obviously not enough for such wallets to have excellent designers.

This exercise taught us many things: First, the wallet is a symbol that problems exist everywhere, even around you.Second, finding these problems is not time-consuming and labor-intensive.In fact, people are usually happy to talk about problems.Third, through experimentation, feedback can be obtained quickly, but the feedback information may not be perfect.It doesn't take much effort, resources or time to try.Fourth, even if the solution is not correct, the cost of paying for it is not high. At this time, you only need to start from the beginning and keep trying until you find the correct solution.

I have done this exercise with many people, small teams, large groups, children, doctors, and corporate executives.Attendees are amazed every time they do it, how easy it is to realize that things can always be improved - from wallets, shoes to backpacks, software, restaurants, gas stations, cars, clothing, coffee shops ,etc.Don't wait for someone to give you a task to start looking for ways to improve things, in fact, all successful entrepreneurs do it naturally.They pay attention everywhere, at home, at work, at the grocery store, on airplanes, at the beach, at the clinic, at the baseball field, and so they have ample opportunity to make up for what's missing.

The wallet design exercise revolves around product design, but you can use the same approach to reflect on services, experiences, and enterprise architecture.Teachers at Stanford University's School of Design crafted a program to inspire students to radically rethink issues ranging from elementary school education in the United States to crop irrigation in rural India and the management of innovative businesses .As long as you look at each situation with an kaizen mindset, the opportunities are endless.The next thing depends on whether you can make a decision to accept the challenge and solve the problem.