More Than In a successful effort to improve the user experience, one cruise company we know talked directly to passengers, analyzed payment data to show which food and activities were most popular at different times, and used AI algorithms on security-camera a Phase: feeds to identify inefficiencies in a ship’s layout. At a medical-technology company, blending sources of inspiration meant talking to a toy designer about physical ergonomics and to a dating-app designer about the design of digital interfaces. These moves It's Continuous helped the company to refine a device so that it appealed to customers with limited dexterity. The resulting product was not only safer and easier to use but also beat the market by more Iteration than four percentage points when launched. 60% "Design flourishes best in environments that encourage learning, testing, and iterating with users." Despite the value of iteration, almost 60 percent of companies in our survey said they used prototypes only for internal-production testing, late in the Almost 60 percent of companies in our development process. In contrast, the most successful survey said they used prototypes only for companies consciously foster a culture of sharing internal-production testing, late in the esign flourishes best in environments that The best results come from constantly blending user early prototypes with outsiders and celebrating development process. encourage learning, testing, and iterating research—quantitative (such as conjoint analysis) embryonic ideas. They also discourage management with users—practices that boost the odds of and qualitative (such as ethnographic interviews). from driving designers to spend hours perfecting creating breakthrough products and services while This information should be combined with reports their early mock-ups or internal presentations. simultaneously reducing the risk of big, costly from the market-analytics group on the actions misses. That approach stands in contrast to the of competitors, patent scans to monitor emerging Design-centric companies realize that a product prevailing norms in many companies, which still technologies, business concerns flagged by the launch isn’t the end of iteration. Almost every emphasize discrete and irreversible design phases finance team, and the like. Without these tensions commercial software publisher issues constant in product development. Compartmentalization and interactions, development functions may end updates to improve its products postlaunch. of this sort increases the risk of losing the voice up in a vacuum, producing otherwise excellent work And the Apple Watch is one among many products of the consumer or of relying too heavily on one that never sees the light of day or delights customers. that have been tweaked to reflect how customers iteration of that voice. use them in the wild. The Business Value of Design 13