The Ten Faces of Innovation
This morning I finished The Ten Faces of Innovation by Tom Kelley, the general manager of IDEO.
Kelley takes the reader on tour of the IDEO design studio through his explainations of the ten personas that he believes make innovation happen. I’ve never really thought of working anyplace else after I joined IBM, but the types of work and the culture he describes in the book make IDEO a real contender if I ever was to leave IBM.
The personas he describes are applicable to any environment, not just IDEO. They are personas, and not job roles. He makes this very clear. Someone can be a software engineer and also manifest a number of the personas described.
The Ten Faces are:
The Anthropologist observes the way people behave with a “beginner’s mind” to observe nuances that provide a deep understanding of how people interact with their environment.
The Experimenter prototypes, and prototypes again. Often in real time drawing on diverse resources to build and test out ideas. This desire to prototype goes as much for objects as it does for services and experiences.
The Cross-Pollinator explores other industries and cultures and then translates what they find into the fields they are responsible for. Cross pollinators are also called “t-shaped” people because they have depth in at least one area and breadth of knowledge in many fields.
The Hurdler works to overcome obstacles and roadblocks by outsmarting them. Budgets, adversity, bureaucracies and failures are all challenges that The Hurdler may come up with ingenious ways to overcome.
The Collaborator “often leads from the middle of the pack” to bring people together and build new solutions. Collaborators work with teammates, colleauges and even competitors. This is similar to Gladwell’s Tipping Point notion of a ‘connector’
The Director brings together talented people and provides an environment and direction fo them to spark their creative talents. They give the spotlight to others and rise to tough challenges, using brainstorming as a way to let talented people shine.
The Experience Architect looks to appeal to people’s deep needs by developing compelling experiences. The focus on key elements of an experience that are crucial to its succes.These trigger points can be as simple as the alarm clock and bed in a hotel room.
The Set Designer creates environments that allow team members to do their best work. The realize that the work environment is an important element of what makes people productive. They make things like brainstorming lounges and dynamic work environments possible.
The Caregiver looks to serve customers in a way that is beyond standard service. They anticipate what customers will need and plan for it in advance.
The Storyteller carries on the tradition of sharing narratives that communicate fundemental emotions or values. They eschew the ‘fast path’ where a story would be more appropriate, avoiding ‘cutting to the chase’ when they can instead engange people in a dialog that moves them. This crowd is not a big fan of Powerpoint 
The book’s attention aestetic to detail is refreshing – from the glossy paper and color photos, to the cleaver use of color and pull quotes. The content does not fall short either. Not only is the book a great endorsement for IDEO, but for general innovation techniques that really appear to work. The personas described in the book are bolstered by a number of examples that bring them to life.
A definite recommendation.