Design Thinking uses elements of the designer's toolkit such as empathy and experimentation to come up with innovative solutions.
AVIXA
Design Thinking was a topic that was very much addressed during the InfoComm 2018 fair, held in Las Vegas this year. To better understand this trend and why so many colleagues in the AV industry already embrace it in their day-to-day lives, we spoke with Lisa Perrine, Experience Designer and CEO of Cibola Systems.
AVIXA: In a nutshell, what is the concept of Design Thinking?
LISA: Design Thinking is both a point of view and a way of approaching a project or a problem. It helps you do something challenging and break it down into parts to create innovative and valuable solutions. There are five disciplines in Design Thinking – empathy, definition, idealization, prototyping and testing. I think of this as an interactive process rather than a consecutive process. For example, you can test something as your point of view is defined and you can use empathy while prototyping. Although it may be a bit new to the AV industry, Design Thinking has been used for a long time and is not a new concept; in fact, it is a process that many of us learn in design school, but which has been renamed a few years ago as Design Thinking.
AVIXA: Why should an AV professional implement Design Thinking?
LISA: In the AV industry we reapplied the same solutions repeatedly. Design Thinking offers an opportunity to create something much more exciting and more valuable for all customers. Design Thinking does not happen in a bubble, so it is a cooperative process that includes all users. Customer engagement is a critical part of the process. By the way, when customers participate in the process, they feel responsible for the end result.
If you are interested in planning/creation design, you should know how to approach it. Adding this qualification is an opportunity to differentiate your company or create value for the brand. Thinking about your own work, giving yourself the opportunity to learn or think about design, is an opportunity to create or participate in something exciting and satisfying.
AVIXA: Why are creative and design skills so important in today's AV industry?
LISA: Change is happening faster than some people perceive. The "Amazon effect" is increasing commoditization in our sector. As the products are commoditized, you can succeed by further differentiating the services. You can leverage these skills and become an expert in the subject in a niche area. Creative skills will also be more important if programming and other technical tasks are automated in the future.
AVIXA: What's the most exciting AV project you've been involved in?
LISA: It's hard to choose from thousands of projects over the years. Condé Nast's headquarters in New York is one of my favorites. We helped them figure out how all their magazines could collaborate in one place when they've never done business before. Another project that comes to mind is the Annenberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles. The client was really involved and we made a huge number of prototypes with a beautiful end result. We envelop photographers as part of the team, to discover how their photographs should be reproduced in different digital media.
AVIXA: What else do you like in the AV industry?
LISA: I'm not a top-tech person. I love it when we find intuitive, fun, and immersive technology that changes the way people work. The workplace and customer experience fascinate me – I love helping people do their best work.
AVIXA: What advice do you have for those who are just starting their careers in the AV industry?
LISA: Find an organization that allows you to experience various things, gives you new opportunities, and supports your professional development. I think that's the starting point for people to stay in the industry. Some of the work is exciting for one person, but not for another, so what you need is to find what you like. At Cibola we like to work with interns. We had an AVIXA intern recently and encouraged him to serve in several different positions. Like many of our employees, he came in thinking he wanted to do something different from what I actually end up doing and liking it. For a young man just starting out, this discovery is invaluable.
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