Exclusive celebration Thursday, January 12th from 7pm till Saucy
RSVP and get in touch with Savannah Peterson for more information
Savannah@d2m-inc.com
Come talk to us about YOUR next big idea and schedule a private showing of the D2M suite. Contact Savannah@d2m-inc.com for more information.
D2M: Design to Matter stands behind co-Founder Bill Burnett one hundred percent. Burnett is a highly respected member of our team, an unparalleled design philosopher, and the creative force behind much of what D2M does. Bill is the kind of leader that any young person with an inspired mind and innovative tendencies yearns to work for. He has been a personal mentor to many of the young engineers and designers in both their professional careers and personal lives.
Co-founder Andy Butler was shocked when he heard of Burnett’s arrest, “the alleged behavior is completely inconsistent with the Bill that I know. Bill is incredibly cautious – he would never take a risk that had the potential to jeopardize his reputation or the safety of his family. He would never put the police in a position where they would have to act any way but calm.”
Bill Burnett is patient, considerate and honest. He is a diligent and empathetic parent, and the safety of his children and their friends has always been his highest priority. We are confident that the facts of the case will exonerate him from wrongdoing and we support him completely. Bill Burnett will remain in his leadership role and in high esteem at D2M:Design to Matter.
Is Design Thinking a “movement” or just last year’s news? Well I just got back from the SVC2LX conference last week where I met a lot of local entrepreneurs and European educators. I was asked to deliver a workshop and a talk on Design Thinking and Entrepreneurship – the way we practice it at D2M and teach it at Stanford. Being so far from home I assumed that, in order to be understandable, I would have to explain Design Thinking from the start. I was delivering my talk in parallel with two others and when I arrived my auditorium was standing room only, the others not so much. I walked on stage and before I started my Keynote presentation I ask for a show of hands on the question, “Who knows what Design Thinking is?” About two thirds of the 125 people in the room raised their hands. Amazing.
And, just before I left for Lisbon I received an email from my LinkedIn account saying that “3256 people list design thinking as part of their skill set” and suggesting that I might want to do the same, the notion being that it would make my resume stand out in a job search. Other than the irony of sending that email to the Executive Director of the Stanford Design Program (memo to LinkedIn – check your algorithm) I think it is notable that design thinking is now considered (1) a skill and (2) a positive differentiator.
So is Design Thinking a “Movement”? It seems like it is. It is great to see that something David Kelley, George Kembel and the gang at the d.school thought up 5 or 6 years ago has reached across the globe and into all parts of human activity. It demonstrates to me that a good idea well conceived can still be a powerful force for change.
D2M is proud to announce the official launch of LandingZone, the latest in our series of engineering and developmental design projects. It is far and away the best MacBook Air dock on the market. LandingZone brings the elegance and refinement to the dock that Apple brought to the machine. It takes the convenience of the MacBook Air and expands its capabilities from netbook to desktop. LandingZone provides the user with four USB ports, an Ethernet port, and a mini display port while also making security a priority with a built in Kensington lock slot. The LandingZone kickstarter campaign recently went live at: http://kck.st/vCllwV where for a contribution below retail price you can keep this project afloat and receive one of the first models ever sold! LandingZone is currently available for the 11″ and 13″ MacBook Air models. Learn more at landingzone.net.
I’m on route to the Silicon Valley in Lisbon Conference to do a workshop with twenty European entrepreneurs and deliver a talk to the 300 or so conference attendees on Design Thinking, the method we use at D2M and at Stanford to come up with big ideas and innovations for our clients. This conference is just one example of the fact that the world looks to Silicon Valley for technology and innovation leadership. I often tell my students that they live in a modern-day Florence and the world looks to them to create the next renaissance and the next Yahoo, Apple, and Google. They seem to be able to do it, over and over again. So, naturally, Portugal (and everyone else) would like to have a “Silicon Valley” that generates the jobs and, more importantly, the thought leadership that Silicon Valley represents.
So what makes Silicon Valley so special? Many have noted the availability of top technical talent and great universities like Stanford, the availability of venture capital, and the public markets that bring liquidity to the whole ecosystem. But when I talk to my European colleagues I note two other important factors: (1) the notion that ideas, in themselves, have value, and (2) that failure is OK, even valuable.
My European friends tell me that neither of these things is true in their world. Financiers, if they are willing to invest at all in ideas, want to own 100% of the venture, effectively eliminating the entrepreneurial incentive. And failure is forbidden in the world of European business. Unfortunately, without these two critical factors you cannot have ground-breaking innovation. European business cultural will have to change if it wants to compete with the idea-engine that is Silicon Valley.
The passing of Steve Jobs has generated a moment of introspection in our country that we find fascinating. Many who knew him well have written much deserved tributes to the man, others who had nothing to do with Apple or the tech industry have turned Jobs into a celebrity. We, like others, hold his business acumen and design judgment in high esteem, but this is not another tribute piece. Neither of us ever worked directly for Steve; Bill’ seven years at Apple were during the non-Steve years and Apple has never been a client of our consultancy, so we cannot comment on Mr. Jobs as an individual. But we would like to call attention to the lessons that can be derived from Steve’s leadership of Apple and reframe them as a call to action to American businesses everywhere.
The famous “insanely great” hurdle Steve Jobs set for Apple, and by default the hurdle he has set for all other CEOs, seems insanely high to everyone who looks at Apple and Steve’s accomplishments. But we who teach design or sell innovation know that what Steve Jobs created at Apple is not “black magic “ or the product of a cult of personality. The design and innovation culture that Steve Jobs created at Apple is a powerful but straightforward approach to innovation – available to any CEO with the focus and energy to make it happen. At Stanford we call this culture “design thinking” and its elements are: seek inspiration from the best people, test everything again and again and never accept less than the best, focus on the user’s experience, fail early/fail often but learn aggressively from those experiences, cannibalize your own products before your competitors do, be bold in your conceptualization but demanding in your execution, and work with teams that are as dedicated as you are. First and foremost, always, always incorporate elements of surprise and delight in your designs. These ideas are not unique to Steve Jobs; you will find them in the work of Dieter Rams at Braun, Richard Branson at Virgin, and in any company where a design culture exists and leaders demand the best.
But one element of Apple’s success and Steve’s focus deserves mention because it is truly rare in today’s corporations. Steve was willing to to make long-term, risky, and significant investments. Few have that orientation. Imagine for a second being the CEO who is advocating a $150M three-year investment that would assign 200 of your top engineers to an effort to launch a product in an overcrowded highly competitive market controlled by third party carriers who change hardware suppliers like an athlete changes his socks. The outcome is uncertain but you believe it is your obligation as the CEO to propose these kinds of industry changing category re-defining projects. How many of you, if you were on the Board of Directors, could honestly say that you’d have the courage to green light such an investment? And how many CEO’s would have the courage to make such proposals to their Boards? You can count the Steve Jobs of the world one hand, and because of that we have the iPhone.
And therein lies the problem: America has become a country where the fast-buck mentality rules. You see it in Wall Street; where we allow split-second trading by computers that extract profits from the market without creating value. You see it in corporate America; where recently the Boards of Yahoo and HP, seeking to please the markets, fired CEOs without a succession plan or strategy in place, You see it in the recent real-estate collapse where middle America homeowners, emulating Wall Street traders, forgot that owning is an obligation and instead flipped houses chasing quick profits. And sadly, you see it when the unemployed spend their last dollars buying lottery tickets. And it is destroying us.
But the great thing about America is its ability to have an honest public discourse and and then effect change. We did it when Steve Jobs was growing up, by confronting our civil rights issues and making significant legal and cultural changes for the betterment of the country. We did it in the ‘80’s when, faced with superior Japanese products and technology, we retooled and ended up dominating the computer and software industries. And for all of our current economic problems it is still reassuring to remember that Steve Jobs is a uniquely American product. Where else in the world could the 21 year old Steve Jobs, the college drop-out, the phone hacker, and the anti-establishment rebel, have had the career and influence he had? Certainly not in Europe or Asia, where degrees and class still determine your fate and no one in the moneyed class would have even talked to this scruffy-looking young man.
They say that imitation is the greatest compliment one can pay to a creative genius. Lets pay this compliment to Steve Jobs by copying these principals of his success. You can create insanely great companies by creating design cultures that value long-term innovation and have the courage to make long-term investments. Nothing magic in this formula – except the courage and focus it takes to make it work. OK, we guess that does make this another tribute piece to a brave and passionate man who died way to young. Steve Jobs, we salute you.
I worked at Apple from 1989-1996, also known as the Non-Steve Years, so I never had the privilege of working for the Steve Jobs. I have many thoughts about what happens to Apple without Mr. Jobs, most of them will cause you to sell your Apple stock, and I’ll post on that later. In this post, I want to talk about one thing that made Steve a great leader. He was a master story teller and he told stories that you remember.
Nowadays at Stanford we teach our design students that it isn’t enough to have the “Big Idea” – you have to be able to tell the story too. And you have to make it stick. Chip and Dan Heath (professors at Stanford’s GSB) in their book called “Made to Stick” came up with a template for “stickiness” and, if you analyze Steve’s keynotes according to their template, you begin to understand what made him such an effective communicator. His messages were always simple, unexpected, concrete, credible and emotional. And the messages were always stories, from the famous 1984 commercial that introduced the Mac to his last iCloud keynote.
The good news is that learning to lead through storytelling is very learnable, the bad news is that so many CEO suck at it. Richard Branson can do it, Larry Ellison can too (sometimes). Two recent CEO’s, Carly Fiorina and Carol Bartz failed, not for lack of big ideas, but for lack of a good story. Someone should send them a copy of the Heath brother’s book.
There are many things that Mr. Jobs was not; the recent authorized biography by Walter Isaacson points out many of his flaws. But there is one thing he did better than any other CEO in modern times, he told great stories. I’ll miss him for that – it was always a pleasure listening.
I read an eye opening article in last week’s Wall Street Journal’s on-line edition (James Simms, Nov. 3rd) that rocked my world view. Sony, the global brand inextricably linked to the Walkman, PlayStation, and flat screen TVs, is, by the numbers, no longer a consumer electronics company. Simms reports ”While its roots and brand name are still inextricably linked to sales of hardware such as televisions…most of Sony’s earnings over the past decade have come from films and music and insurance and banking products.”
Sony? Insurance? You’ve got to be kidding me! Simms goes on to say ”Once this year is done, the company will have lost almost $8.5 billion from selling televisions over the past eight years.”
Having tried (and failed) to start a HDTV technology company (nLighten Technology) I have great sympathy for Sony – it has become almost impossible to make money in the TV business, or any consumer electronics business for that matter. But, given the financial pressure of an $8.5 billion crater, it seems inevitable that Sony, Samsung and others will exit the TV business. That will be a sad day, a sad day indeed.
Andy is an inventor and entrepreneur whose passion and commitment to technology was unleashed at his three companies, SmartLevel, D2M and RoboToolz. Andy’s vision of D2M is to provide an environment where the best and brightest technical talents could thrive and push the boundaries of technology with a singular mission: Innovation with Substance for our customers and internal ventures.
Andy knows first-hand the challenges of designing, developing, and delivering breakthrough products from the sketchpad to store shelves. He has taken over 20 inventions to the market bringing to bear his experience in the following requisite activities: raising capital from institutional and private sources; recruiting of entire engineering teams, structuring and managing strategic relationships with contract manufacturers in China, Thailand, Malaysia and Japan; establishing captive manufacturing facilities in Southern China; developing distribution in both the US and in Europe and managing of big-box relationships. Andy understands effective management of risks in technology, design integrity, manufacturing and business. It is this experience coupled with technical depth and breadth that he brings to his clients. Andy has a B.S. ME from Stanford University.
Bill Burnett is currently a Senior Technical Fellow and Board member at D2M. He served as its General Manger and President from 1996 to 2005. He received his BS and MS in Product Design at Stanford and has worked professionally on a wide variety of projects ranging from award-winning Apple PowerBooks to the original Star Wars toys while at Kenner. He holds eleven utility patents, with 5 others pending, and multiple design patents for his work with D2M clients. He is also currently a Consulting Assistant Professor at Stanford and the Executive Director of the Product Design Program. At Stanford he directs the undergraduate and graduate program in Design at and teaches classes at the The Hasso Plattner Institute, also known as the d.school.
Larry brings over 10 years of direct experience in the design, development and manufacturing of innovative consumer electronics and digital entertainment products. He has developed a wide range of branded products from digital music players to portable speakers with companies such as ReplayTV, SONICblue, Rio, Virgin Electronics, and Flip Video (Cisco) and understands how to lead interdisciplinary and international teams in delivering successful products. He is currently based in the D2M Hong Kong office, speaks Cantonese and Mandarin, and travels extensively throughout the Asia Pacific region.
Larry holds a BA in International Economics, with a concentration on East Asia, from UCLA
Bill has a wide variety of experiences ranging from automatic transmission engineering and semiconductor operations management to supply chain consulting.
Prior to joining D2M, Bill worked for PRTM Management Consulting, National Semiconductor and General Motors. While at PRTM, he conducted a variety of supply chain engagements for leading computer and semiconductor companies, delivering breakthrough results and lasting change. As the CFO and COO at PRTM, he lead the firm through 4+ years of 30% growth and rapid service and geographical expansion.
Outside of D2M, Bill plays lots of tennis and works with the Jean Weingarten Oral School for the Deaf. He has a BSME from Kettering University (formerly General Motors Institute) and an MBA from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.
Fong Ming brings over 20 years of in-depth experience in the design and development of innovative consumer electronics and electromechanical products. He has expertise in high speed digital design, embedded software and system integration. Prior to joining D2M, Fong Ming headed up the Product Development Team of Robotoolz in Hong Kong to develop advance laser measurement and automatic-leveling tools.
Fong Ming holds a Master Degree in Electronic Engineering from Hong Kong University.
Matt has diverse mechanical engineering experience from semiconductor equipment, consumer and business electronics, and ergonomic accessories industries. Matt has held management and leadership positions in companies ranging from small start-ups to mid-sized corporations. In the water industry he designed a high-purity DI water heater using IR technology and developed a patent-pending toilet flushing system.
John is our most experienced technical lead and has worked on a diverse set of projects at D2M – including digital video electronics, machine vision systems, telecommunication equipment, and consumer electronics. While his main focus and interest revolves around digital data, he has developed architectures that span all levels of design, from a FPGA to software stacks. John has also been instrumental in defining power management strategies on several battery-powered appliances. He holds an MS degree in Electrical Engineering and BS degrees in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mathematics from Oregon State University.
Jeff has a diverse background in Program Management and has been shipping award winning products in Silicon Valley for over two decades. He thrived for many years at Apple working with the OS and multimedia teams and was instrumental in delivering the first few releases of the ground breaking iLife set of products. During his tenure at Apple he honed his mantra of simple elegance in all things digital and holds 3 patents in user interface design. He also has driven the development of early Palm smartphones, an innovative eReader, game consoles and more during stints with smaller start-ups. Jeff is passionate about being a dad, has traveled the world, is an avid sportsman and enjoys making music.
Stephen has more than a decade of experience in product development as a design-savvy mechanical engineer and business-minded product designer. With a broad background in mechanical engineering, industrial design, user research, product management, and retail merchandising, he is especially adept at fusing diverse and opposing inputs into well-engineered, fun, and profitable new products. He has designed groundbreaking electro-mechanical user interfaces for Panasonic, engineered a waterproof infrared camera for Raytheon, developed the top-selling iPhone case on the market for Speck Products, and defined profitable new product assortments at Radioshack. Dedicated to innovation, he is named in over a dozen design and utility patents. Stephen earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Southern Methodist University, learned industrial design techniques at a design consultancy, and honed his manufacturing expertise through dozens of trips to Asian factories.
In order to design products, you have to understand people. Though his career path has taken him down the path of design, John got his start with a degree in Sociology. With an emphasis on nonverbal communication and social interaction, John explored the ways in which observation can lead to a better understanding of human interaction, developing research skills that would come into play later on as an Industrial Designer.
With over 10 years experience in graphic design and visual communication, John is a digital imaging expert that has successfully ported his skill set over to Industrial Design. He got his start as a designer in Japan doing work for D-Fens, Inc., a small yet successful design studio with clients such as NTT Docomo, Sony and Warner Music Japan.
After returning to the States, John went on to work in advertising for Stephens Media LLC, contributing as a print graphic designer to several of the media company’s publications. Upon later completing a degree in Industrial Design from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, John went on to do work for Peerless Lighting, contributing as a designer to a line of suspended and wall-hung commercial lighting fixtures. He then went on to work for a Dutch fashion accessories startup where he helped launch the brand into stores throughout Europe with new product designs, POP displays and packaging solutions.
In the world of design, John contributes his expertise by providing invaluable insight into user research methods, color theory, digital imaging and form development.
Savannah was drawn to D2M because of her entrepreneurial spirit. Discouraged by conventional “in the box” corporate roles, she knew the creative minds at D2M could give her more than the status quo. She manages all of D2M’s marketing, public relations and media outreach. She is the project manager for D2M at CES (Consumer Electronics Show) and is the unofficial party planner for shenanigans at the office. A marketer by trade but a psychologist by hobby, Savannah enjoys creating messages that tell a story — one that real people can relate to. Social media has changed the way we consume information forever and only the most considerate brand messaging can permeate these new airwaves. Savannah thrives on the challenges of operating in our ever-changing communicative world.
Prior to joining D2M, Savannah founded her own small business marketing company in Seattle. She found cheap, innovative ways for companies on the fringe to maintain stability in an uncertain time. She also played an integral role in the development of PugetSoundOff.org, the first localized youth civic engagement digital forum of its kind, during her tenure at the Center for Communication and Civic Engagement at the University of Washington. She is a former broadcast intern at Fox Sports Northwest where she interviewed professional athletes, managed staffing for games and produced television packages. She has written for a variety of websites, publications, and media outlets. When not in the office, she seeks spontaneous adventure, immerses herself in beautiful bodies of water and travels the globe. Savannah double-majored in Communication and Political Science at the University of Washington and is still an avid Husky fan.
Alex is a program manager, designer, and mechanical engineer. He has had a broad range of experience in hardware and software design. His work utilizes Stanford Product Design and Mechanical Engineering department’s design process which integrates engineering, design, and psychology with a human centered emphasis.
Ultimately, Alex’s goal is to make seamless hardware-software user experiences that delight and empower users. This depth of knowledge in hardware and software design combined with business knowledge he has gained from completing numerous courses in entrepreneurship/business at Stanford (including the Mayfield Fellows program) make me well suited to tackle the world’s design challenges. Alex has work experience from Lunar Design, Light and Motion, Invuity, and Microsoft as an engineer and program manager.
F (yes, that’s his full first name) started out 4 years ago as an intern here at D2M, and has since become an integral part of D2M’s EE team. He got his degree in Electrical Engineering from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. F’s expertise lies in firmware and hardware design.
Mani studied mechanical engineering at the University of British Columbia and pursued a specialization in Mechatronics, an interdisciplinary program that combines traditional mechanical design with electronics, sensors, actuators, and control system firmware. Mani has worked on a diverse range of products including mobile phones, DNA extraction instruments, and patent pending household devices. He has an entrepreneurial attitude and loves analyzing the world around him to identify new product needs. He is also a certified SolidWorks professional and loves to draft up his product ideas in CAD. In his spare time, Mani enjoys playing soccer, playing the flute, and trading options.
Carey’s background lends herself to both conception and execution interesting and impactful solutions. She has a wide breadth of design experience, from designing radically low-cost intensive care devices for rural healthcare facilities, to building smartcards that promote communal sharing of possessions. She is skilled in connecting with users, enjoys a good modeling problem, and always relishes the opportunity to turn an idea into a prototype. Carey obtained her BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley and her MS from Stanford University.
Irving brings a high level of dedication and skillful execution to each of his projects using his diverse background in product development from concept to manufacturing. He has a strong grasp of the product development cycle from a project management level down to detailed mechanical design. Irving is able to combine his knowledge of manufacturing technologies with his expertise in 3D CAD modeling to make practical design decisions early enough in the design cycle to prevent costly last minute manufacturing changes. He is a hands-on engineer with model making skills in a shop environment. Irving has traveled extensively to China and Taiwan to interface directly with OEM/ODMs to facilitate design transfer, troubleshoot issues on-site, and startup production. Irving’s background is in medical device development giving him a strong foundation in risk analysis and how to mitigate risks through design verification methods such as structural, human factors, and clinical testing. Prior to joining D2M, Irving led project teams at Össur to bring key medical devices from concept to market with great success. The most recent product was awarded a Red Dot Product Design Award. Irving holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University.
Zaafir’s work on a large variety of projects has honed his design skills and problem solving abilities. From creating a modular, automatic transmission system for a bicycle to designing, prototyping and testing a low-cost prosthetic elbow joint for above-elbow amputees in the developing world, he has been able to follow his passion for conceptualizing and building useful products. Zaafir has also worked on medically applicable research projects, one of which resulted in the development of predictive software for corneal surgical procedures to assist in surgical planning. His other research experiments to prevent dark neuron formation in perturbed cortical tissue were published in Acta Neuropathologica in October 2008. Aside from science and engineering, Zaafir is a concert pianist certified by the Royal Conservatory of Music in Canada and has performed in numerous music festivals. Most recently, however, he was seen singing as a tenor soloist in Mozart’s Requiem at Stanford University. He also loves cycling and has ridden hundreds of miles in the Canadian Rockies, central British Columbia, and Prince Edward Island. As a Mechanical Design Engineer at D2M, Zaafir has been at the forefront of bringing new and innovative technology to market. Most recently, he was instrumental in developing a novel toilet flushing system that is now making its way to store shelves. Zaafir holds a B.S.E. degree from Princeton University and an M.S. degree from Stanford University, both in Mechanical Engineering. He continues to use his mechanical design skills and experience to serve the needs of our clients.