On the other side of the globe, LPK from Cincinnati presented a brief introduction to trend forecasting.  There were a variety of concepts from the social realm, as well as technology specific trends that will be affecting the product design world.  For example, LPK discussed the emergence of a global middle class that is heavily affecting consumerism on a large scale.  They also brought focus to the current “greening” of brands and the diminshing ability to differentiate between them.  On the technology side, there were diverse examples ranging from purity (in form and perception) to the blur between the offline and online world.  It was an eye opening view of emerging technologies and social trends.

One of the more relevant and impactful presentations was from John Guenther of Hewlett Packard.  His presentation was  detailed observation and analysis of the growth and emphasis on design within their product development process.  There were very detailed examples of challenges they had faced, and overcame, to make design an integral part of the process.  Design should contribute to the business success, yet it should do so without sacrificing art.  Guenther explained the importance of utilizing well researched design as a strategic tool for growing a successful product line that departed from the conventional.  A major challenge was to move away from producing an idea and looking for a fitting market.

The discussion started from the use of innovation in presentation techniques.  This would mean the use of animation, video, or “commercials” to demonstrate and explain products or processes.  Next was the importance of designers pushing the boundaries of manufacturers, to ensure quality and to retain original design intent.  Bruce Clayton brough up an excellent point of “innovate or die”.  This meant the use of innovation to rethink or redesign a product(line) in order to save it from being eliminated in the market and even internally.

There was also significant talk of how to get executive management to accept the risk of innovation.  There were obvious solutions:  using business cases to back up design proposals and using prototyping to effectively illustrate feasibility.  However, aside from these two solutions there were significant questions remaining.  One of the last points made was extremely significant, moreso than other parts of the discussion.  That point was to establish a practice of documenting failures.  It was much easier to learn from past mistakes in order to make future decisions intelligently.