Staying in touch

So, why have I renewed my interest in writing under this Observations & Insights banner? Well, as usual with me… there’s a story.

I’m recently back from my first trip to Tokyo, and in a way, that trip represented a professional bookend of sorts… or more optimistically, I’ll call it a bookmark–an opportunity to pause and reflect on what has come before.

For those who don’t know me, it’s worth noting that the reason I was in Tokyo was for the EPIC 2010 conference (which I’ll write about at length in a later entry). At the conference, I had the opportunity to see and catch up with many old friends and former colleagues whom I haven’t seen or corresponded with very much in the past few years. Upon returning, I find myself at a moment where a few of my closest colleagues are now moving on to new challenges and new surroundings.

My hope is that writing here may provide this as a venue for:

• continuing the conversations with people who I have (and wish I had) spent a significant amount of time with over the past few years, and
• engaging in conversation a bit more often with the larger design and research community I’m happy to be a part of.

So, there it is… Welcome to the refresh. Whether I know you or not, I hope to talk to you soon… 😉

A day worth blogging about

Yesterday I had the good fortune to be invited to “Made in India.” a lecture put on by Carlos Teixeira at Parsons School of Design. The reason I had that good fortune was by the grace of Sonia Manchanda of Idiom, my collaborator and co-curator for the workshop series at EPIC 2010.

The lecture was fascinating. It was the first in a series related to Carlos’ current project, to understand how Design is developing in emerging markets. Of particular interest is his observation that Design is developing differently in those markets. The lecture put facts to that observation. Much of their recent work at Idiom has been in the “design of business,” through a collaboration with The Future Group, a company dedicated to bringing to the masses what only the rich had before, through a fusion of modern retail business models with Indian culture.

Idiom and Future Group take a particularly aggressive approach to scenario and prototype testing, quickly turning out realistic concepts for introduction to real users in real situations. Some of their innovations include BigBazaar, a big box food retailer that incorporates the local seasonal vendors that Indian communities have come to rely on, and Home Town, a Home Depot / IKEA mashup that makes home design and construction available in a cultural context that does not do DIY.

But that’s not all, earlier in the day, I spoke briefly with a collection of the brightest minds working at the intersection of ethnography and business from Latin America, the US and Europe, some of whom are old friends and some I hope will be. That call was to begin the planning process for the EPIC 2010 program, for which I’m the workshop co-chair. Here’s a secret: the papers deadline is going to be extended. If you’re so inclined, submit something… There’s still time.

Working backwards, I spent the morning doing secondary research on the current state of the Healthcare IT arena here in the U.S. and identifying opportunities for innovation in software and services. I found some inspiring new work and personalities like Dr. Jay Parkinson, a physician entrepreneur whose own pediatric practice has been described as

“Geek Squad with doctors and a Netflix-priced monthly membership subscription fee — it is a branded healthcare “experience” that mixes “concierge service for all,” with house/office calls and web visits via email, IM, video chat, and text messaging.”

This is why I love what I do… It was a good day.