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101 Design Methods: A Structured Approach for Driving Innovation in Your Organization
The first step-by-step guidebook for successful innovation planningUnlike other books on the subject, 101 Design Methods approaches the practice of creating new products, services, and customer experiences as a science, rather than an art, providing a practical set of collaborative tools and methods for planning and defining successful new offerings. Strategists, managers, designers, and researchers who undertake the challenge of innovation, despite a lack of established procedures and a high risk of failure, will find this an invaluable resource. Novices can learn from it; managers can plan with it; and practitioners of innovation can improve the quality of their work by referring to it.
782 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 31, 2012
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May 25, 2019
I’m not the sort of person who writes one-star reviews — unless it’s something like Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith — so my compulsion to do so for the perhaps equally clumsily-titled 101 Design Methods: A Structured Approach for Driving Innovation in Your Organization is motivated by a keen sense of caveat emptor.
Vijay Kumar is a professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology’s Institute of Design, and his book’s main selling point is that it provides a structured, disciplined process for innovation, because “very few organizations know how to make it a reliable and repeatable practice” (1). The “reality,” he points out, is that “Current innovation practices don’t reliably deliver breakthroughs. There is a lack of a set of reliable tools and methods for creating real breakthroughs rather than incremental or random improvements” (2). In contrast, Kumar provides what he calls a “measured, scientific approach.”
I suppose these are fair assertions to make at the outset, but I did keep waiting for some “scientific” evidence to support them. Heck, I don’t even need evidence; I just want examples. None were forthcoming. While I found Kumar’s distinction between product-focused innovation and experience-focused innovation valuable — the latter emphasizes the users, not the product — questions still remain unanswered. What exactly are these “current innovation practices,” and how do they differ from Kumar’s design methods? Why and how are they unreliable? And what does he mean by “real breakthroughs” (my emphasis)? After all, “incremental improvements,” which he sets up in this sentence as his straw opponent, are the very heart of Agile development, and Agile, I wager, has been reliably used to deliver breakthroughs as well. (And one may say the same for Kumar’s sample projects: the reader is told that his design methods successfully resulted in meaningful insights — hard for me to gauge that, though — but did they lead to “real breakthroughs” for those companies? Were they truly innovative? Not sure.)
I’m detecting a slightly defensive posture in his attempt to impose a structured discipline on “innovation practice:” it’s a science, not an art, as the back cover blurb proclaims, and there are certainly enough diagrams here to impress the suits who may be skeptical about Design Thinking’s loosey-gooseyness. But I’m not sure this book will help with that endeavor.
First, it’s ironic that a book meant to foster “innovation” is based on a “design innovation process” featuring “seven modes” that look awfully familiar. No amount of veiling the concepts in fuzzy jargon hides the fact that we all learned these methods when composing research papers in school. (Here’s a method geared for elementary school.)
Second, the book is so overstuffed with empty, imprecise language — precisely the sort of thing good, disciplined scientists should avoid. (It’s not business jargon per se; it’s business-speak.) Innovation is defined here as “a viable offering that is new to a specific context and time, creating user and provider value” (1).
I know what that means, I think, but the slipperiness of the word “innovation” allows Kumar to slide from describing innovation as an abstract “mindset” that you “drive” — it’s in the title! — to using it as a kind of count noun: it’s neither animal, vegetable, or mineral, but an “offering.” And how does one measure newness? (And why the qualifier “new to a specific context and time?”)
The first of his seven modes — I only really have the patience to write about one — is called Sense Intent. (I had to squint a little to parse the sentence; I think it’s supposed to be an imperative, but without an object.) “Early on in the process,” Kumar writes, “we are in this mode of figuring out where to start” (2). Understood. Presumably doing this late in the process is not recommended. Sense Intent “helps us take a pause before jumping into a project and consider the changing world around us” (2). Got it. But it sounds vaguely like something called… planning.
Kumar dives into each “design method” systematically — there’s that — with a short definition, a series of steps, and an “example project.” But the title of 101 Design Methods in reality delivers nothing more than iterations of the same exercises across all seven modes, most of which are completely interchangeable. There is practically no difference between Concept Scenarios (5.14) and Solution Storyboard (6.7) except that one is part of the Explore Concepts mode, and the other, part of the Frame Solutions mode. But the method is the same.
Within the Sense Intent mode alone, you have Buzz Reports (1.1), Popular Media Scan (1.2), Key Facts (1.3), and so on. (The Key Facts design solution is particularly egregious. Defined by Kumar as “gathering key information to anchor the rationale for an intent statement,” this design method sounds suspiciously like gathering evidence to support a conclusion — again, something high school children are taught at a young age when writing research papers for the first time.)
“Sense Intent,” apparently, is different from the second mode, “Know Context,” which is defined as “gaining a full understanding of the surrounding conditions in which those changes happen” (51). This mode sounds like a “literature review” to me, and it’s borne out in the design methods associated with Know Context, for example:
- Popular Media Search (2.2) — not to be confused with Popular Media Scan above
- Subject Matter Experts Interview (2.12) — also not to be confused with “rends Expert Interview (1.5)
- and my favorite, Publications Research (2.3) — how innovative is that? — defined here as “Finding out what is being written and published about aspects of the context.” You get the general idea.
The overall repetitiveness is bolstered by the fact that the illustrations accompanying each method are little more than variations on the same quadrants and cluster matrices. The photographs are colorful (let’s call that a plus), but again, they could be illustrated with the same captions: “People in front of a whiteboard,” “People in front of Post-Its,” “People in front of a whiteboard with Post-Its.” (I exaggerate, but many of the reproductions of the artifacts from the example projects are so tiny — probably because they’re proprietary information — that they’re of little help to the reader actually gauging the effectiveness of the output.)
The writing also suffers from the sort of padding high schoolers do when writing essays: faced with a two-page minimum requirement, high schoolers fall into a hole of rephrasing previous sentences and belaboring the obvious to hit the two-page mark. The same technique happens throughout the book.
The steps — repeated across all 101 design methods — are practically just variations on the following (though I exaggerate):
1. Make a box.
2. Figure out things to put in a box.
3. Put the things in the box and move them around.
4. Discuss the things in the box.
5. Share what you discussed about the things in the box with stakeholders.
(6. Optional first step: Figure out who should make the box / Figure out how to make the box.)
It helps to be methodical.
101 Design Methods is billed as a “step-by-step guidebook,” so I dutifully read it cover to cover; its flaws, alas, become a little more apparent that way. Best, perhaps, for a budding practitioner to simply dip into the book, choose a method that looks interesting, and try it out in the field. But many of these methods have been used by anthropologists and project managers — and elementary school children — for decades; as someone who has been all three, I found nothing particularly innovative about this book.
Vijay Kumar is a professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology’s Institute of Design, and his book’s main selling point is that it provides a structured, disciplined process for innovation, because “very few organizations know how to make it a reliable and repeatable practice” (1). The “reality,” he points out, is that “Current innovation practices don’t reliably deliver breakthroughs. There is a lack of a set of reliable tools and methods for creating real breakthroughs rather than incremental or random improvements” (2). In contrast, Kumar provides what he calls a “measured, scientific approach.”
I suppose these are fair assertions to make at the outset, but I did keep waiting for some “scientific” evidence to support them. Heck, I don’t even need evidence; I just want examples. None were forthcoming. While I found Kumar’s distinction between product-focused innovation and experience-focused innovation valuable — the latter emphasizes the users, not the product — questions still remain unanswered. What exactly are these “current innovation practices,” and how do they differ from Kumar’s design methods? Why and how are they unreliable? And what does he mean by “real breakthroughs” (my emphasis)? After all, “incremental improvements,” which he sets up in this sentence as his straw opponent, are the very heart of Agile development, and Agile, I wager, has been reliably used to deliver breakthroughs as well. (And one may say the same for Kumar’s sample projects: the reader is told that his design methods successfully resulted in meaningful insights — hard for me to gauge that, though — but did they lead to “real breakthroughs” for those companies? Were they truly innovative? Not sure.)
I’m detecting a slightly defensive posture in his attempt to impose a structured discipline on “innovation practice:” it’s a science, not an art, as the back cover blurb proclaims, and there are certainly enough diagrams here to impress the suits who may be skeptical about Design Thinking’s loosey-gooseyness. But I’m not sure this book will help with that endeavor.
First, it’s ironic that a book meant to foster “innovation” is based on a “design innovation process” featuring “seven modes” that look awfully familiar. No amount of veiling the concepts in fuzzy jargon hides the fact that we all learned these methods when composing research papers in school. (Here’s a method geared for elementary school.)
Second, the book is so overstuffed with empty, imprecise language — precisely the sort of thing good, disciplined scientists should avoid. (It’s not business jargon per se; it’s business-speak.) Innovation is defined here as “a viable offering that is new to a specific context and time, creating user and provider value” (1).
I know what that means, I think, but the slipperiness of the word “innovation” allows Kumar to slide from describing innovation as an abstract “mindset” that you “drive” — it’s in the title! — to using it as a kind of count noun: it’s neither animal, vegetable, or mineral, but an “offering.” And how does one measure newness? (And why the qualifier “new to a specific context and time?”)
The first of his seven modes — I only really have the patience to write about one — is called Sense Intent. (I had to squint a little to parse the sentence; I think it’s supposed to be an imperative, but without an object.) “Early on in the process,” Kumar writes, “we are in this mode of figuring out where to start” (2). Understood. Presumably doing this late in the process is not recommended. Sense Intent “helps us take a pause before jumping into a project and consider the changing world around us” (2). Got it. But it sounds vaguely like something called… planning.
Kumar dives into each “design method” systematically — there’s that — with a short definition, a series of steps, and an “example project.” But the title of 101 Design Methods in reality delivers nothing more than iterations of the same exercises across all seven modes, most of which are completely interchangeable. There is practically no difference between Concept Scenarios (5.14) and Solution Storyboard (6.7) except that one is part of the Explore Concepts mode, and the other, part of the Frame Solutions mode. But the method is the same.
Within the Sense Intent mode alone, you have Buzz Reports (1.1), Popular Media Scan (1.2), Key Facts (1.3), and so on. (The Key Facts design solution is particularly egregious. Defined by Kumar as “gathering key information to anchor the rationale for an intent statement,” this design method sounds suspiciously like gathering evidence to support a conclusion — again, something high school children are taught at a young age when writing research papers for the first time.)
“Sense Intent,” apparently, is different from the second mode, “Know Context,” which is defined as “gaining a full understanding of the surrounding conditions in which those changes happen” (51). This mode sounds like a “literature review” to me, and it’s borne out in the design methods associated with Know Context, for example:
- Popular Media Search (2.2) — not to be confused with Popular Media Scan above
- Subject Matter Experts Interview (2.12) — also not to be confused with “rends Expert Interview (1.5)
- and my favorite, Publications Research (2.3) — how innovative is that? — defined here as “Finding out what is being written and published about aspects of the context.” You get the general idea.
The overall repetitiveness is bolstered by the fact that the illustrations accompanying each method are little more than variations on the same quadrants and cluster matrices. The photographs are colorful (let’s call that a plus), but again, they could be illustrated with the same captions: “People in front of a whiteboard,” “People in front of Post-Its,” “People in front of a whiteboard with Post-Its.” (I exaggerate, but many of the reproductions of the artifacts from the example projects are so tiny — probably because they’re proprietary information — that they’re of little help to the reader actually gauging the effectiveness of the output.)
The writing also suffers from the sort of padding high schoolers do when writing essays: faced with a two-page minimum requirement, high schoolers fall into a hole of rephrasing previous sentences and belaboring the obvious to hit the two-page mark. The same technique happens throughout the book.
The steps — repeated across all 101 design methods — are practically just variations on the following (though I exaggerate):
1. Make a box.
2. Figure out things to put in a box.
3. Put the things in the box and move them around.
4. Discuss the things in the box.
5. Share what you discussed about the things in the box with stakeholders.
(6. Optional first step: Figure out who should make the box / Figure out how to make the box.)
It helps to be methodical.
101 Design Methods is billed as a “step-by-step guidebook,” so I dutifully read it cover to cover; its flaws, alas, become a little more apparent that way. Best, perhaps, for a budding practitioner to simply dip into the book, choose a method that looks interesting, and try it out in the field. But many of these methods have been used by anthropologists and project managers — and elementary school children — for decades; as someone who has been all three, I found nothing particularly innovative about this book.
June 10, 2013
Oh man. Having a lot of theory and rigor under my belt in terms of qualitative analysis this book was a little painful. I thought it was really well written and great for anyone not wanting to publish or reuse the data gathered, so for businesses doing on the fly analysis - great. But anyone trying to truly understand users or the methods to gather user data this book should probably be passed for more meaningful reading. In fact, it is books like this that makes people think that UX and HCI are fuzzy sciences. Oh well. It was fruitful and we'll be discussing it at a book club in Baltimore this week.
April 21, 2020
First, was that "six thinking hats". Then came that book by Toyota folks. Then there was "7 habits" revolution. After that was Jack Welch's 'Gut instinct' stuff. The Lee Iaccoca style blitzkrieg. Many more six sigma, "numbers, numbers, numbers", 80/20 diatribe. So, basically like diet fads, the management world goes through its phase of fads too. Only the ones I mentioned had some modicum of truth and sincerity to them. This one has neither. Just a management fad for the sake of being one.
Frankly, I am surprised that it takes a fad for people to put users ahead of profit. Who'da thunk? Am I right?
I am sure the MBA types are going to send me nasty messages for this review. But who cares. This is one dry book about an even more dryer concept. Thinking it seems.
This for the Ivy league types with a corner view of a golf course. The rest of us worker class can bugger off.
Frankly, I am surprised that it takes a fad for people to put users ahead of profit. Who'da thunk? Am I right?
I am sure the MBA types are going to send me nasty messages for this review. But who cares. This is one dry book about an even more dryer concept. Thinking it seems.
This for the Ivy league types with a corner view of a golf course. The rest of us worker class can bugger off.
June 27, 2021
A good, broad overview, but missing rigor and references that I’d need to apply the techniques in my work. It’s a good starting place.
July 24, 2024
read this for work bc we're about to start a comically large design/UX project. i would have DNF'ed after the intro otherwise. calling this a guide for innovation feels pretty self-important. including things like "user interviews" and "research plans" (literally) as some of the 101 allegedly special, innovation-driving methods makes me think this book was more of a cash grab than anything else. maybe i'm totally off base! i think the methods themselves are reasonable (and mostly extremely basic) but i would rather read a book less obsessed with ~innovation~ and capturing new markets and more focused on how to actually do good design work.
May 22, 2024
2/5.
Okay actually kind of awful... had to read it for school and it's an okay reference book, but not good for reading through front to back (which is what my professor had us do). A lot of the suggested design methods are incredibly obvious and excruciatingly over explained for no reason. A few decent ones, but nothing that is game changing in my mind. Will keep as a reference, but I doubt I will actually ever go back through it.
Okay actually kind of awful... had to read it for school and it's an okay reference book, but not good for reading through front to back (which is what my professor had us do). A lot of the suggested design methods are incredibly obvious and excruciatingly over explained for no reason. A few decent ones, but nothing that is game changing in my mind. Will keep as a reference, but I doubt I will actually ever go back through it.
April 21, 2021
Have you been in a meeting or a class and suddenly appears a framework that you never heard of? Well reading this book will reduce this, To be honest, I found that half of the methods redundant or somewhat hard to use in my professional life, the description of the methods are short and superficial, Read this book to immerse yourself in the world of business design.
December 27, 2017
quick resource for design methods
April 20, 2018
Fun book.
Interesting points.
Interesting points.
November 29, 2020
This is a great book for designers and design researchers. It describes the human centered design process, and defines and describes a large catalogue of frame works to use during the process.
January 21, 2023
A good quick reference for design methods though it's a very thick book.
May 21, 2023
Absolutely brilliant!!
December 30, 2023
Really liking the simple and very creative way of explaining concepts
Read
March 25, 2025MBA 699 ✔️
January 21, 2019
I really liked it. a lot.
March 28, 2020
Great book. The book promised to provide you with innovation tools and fulfilled the promise with a handful practical tools.
I recommend this book for anyone wants to get in the bolts and nuts of innovation. Really liked it and read it in a couple of days.
September 9, 2016
good "tool" research method book
September 7, 2014
Nada más que una compilación de herramientas. Me hubieran gustado menos herramientas y más atención al proceso general.
December 22, 2014
Excellent handbook for design methods.
October 17, 2015
It really provides few useful techniques. However, most of the techniques that I've read is just trivial.
December 31, 2017
very good practice-based book
October 12, 2016
Lacks clarity!
July 16, 2024
As a designer & postgraduate student, I found this book very useful in helping find methods to apply on projects in different situation or scenarios.
January 6, 2015
Easy to read with a lot of practice to exercice
June 10, 2016
Very good resource. More of a reference book, then a book to read. Skimmed it.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews