Sometimes we get so focused on winning the small victories of the present that we fail to plan for a project’s bigger challenges. This is the story of my journey with a team who faced failure after slamming up against the hard realities of disruptive innovation.

1. Robert Barlow-Busch
VP User Experience, Boltmade
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Designing for Disruptive Innovation

2. Photo by MonkeyC.net
vs
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3. What would it mean
to“ship”a document
online?
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4. Photo by Michael Verhoef
People value security
The big assumption
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5. Document exchange website
The preconceived solution
Recipient
Receive email alert
Log in securely
Sender
Log in securely
Upload document
Specify the recipient Download document
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6. Meet Joanne
The hero of our story
Product Manager
We’re going to build the best damn document
exchange website we can.
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Photo by Ricky Tang@becubed

7. How did Joanne know
this was the right
product?
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8. Photos by Chris Smith, David Yu, and Thomas Hawk
Focus groups!
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9. What we heard
“Security is a huge concern.”
“We never send documents by email. Are you crazy?”
“It’s the biggest problem we face today.”
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10. Hell, yeah!
Give me a secure document
exchange website
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11. Meet Steve
The villain of our story
Consulting technologist
Photo by Esther Mari
We know what to do. So I’ve told
my guys to start building it.
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12. Okay, fine.
Grumble, grumble.
—Hold on, buddy.
We’re going to do
this right.
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13. Field studies
20 users in USA and Canada
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14. Goals
Tasks
Habits & Behaviours
Pain Points
Relationships
Tools
Environment
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15. Photo by Nick Carter
Convenience trumps security
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16. Photo by Theen Moy
Email as filing system
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17. Photo by slimmer_jimmer
Large files suck
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18. Opportunity!
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19. The design concept
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20. Photo by Keith Ellwood
Reaction to prototypes
Hooray!
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21. Wait for it…
Hooray!
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22. So Joanne took the project for executive approval
Solid customer insight
Differentiated product
Evidence of market demand
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23. How will this increase
shipments in our
trucks and airplanes?
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24. –Um, it won’t.
–That’s kind of the point.
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25. Won’t this encourage
people to ship online
instead of in airplanes?
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26. –Um, probably.
–That’s kind of the point, too.
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27. No!
Project cancelled.
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28. WTF?WTF?@becubed

29. We got blindsided by…
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30. Disruptive innovation
Low-end disruption New-market disruption
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31. The very processes that
create a market leader can
cause it to fail in the face of
disruption

32. What business are we in?
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33. What’s the job to be done?
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34. Be the canary in
the coal mine
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35. Robert Barlow-Busch
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