Introduction to Engineering Design

What is Design Thinking?

Design Thinking is a field where mastery is not possible and relies on modelling. It has three questions to answer:

1. What are your constraints?
2. How to maximize functional utility?
3. How maximize emotional connection?

Capital

The class starts off by asking what is capital? It usually is considered money, but it consists of much more than money. A few other examples are:
1. Monetary
2. Infrastructure
3. Human
4. Idea

Capital can be considered as nourishment and various types of capital can nourish different facets of an organization. So the primary question to be asked is ‘How to mobilize capital to nourish an organization.

Various ideas were touched upon. One of them was how innovation is not entrepreneurship. To understand the difference, I think it’s important to define what they mean. Entrepreneurship is finding a new solution to a problem by exploring new ways(as defined by most websites) whereas innovation is measured by the solution’s reach and impact. It is critical for an organization to be designed effectively and be fast driven to produce innovation. An organization is defined by its culture and the trust among its employees. If these are considered as the body for innovation, capital is the nourishment which helps the growth of innovation and the organization. Additionally, innovation is not a “set of transactions” but an ever-changing “system of continuous/embodied practices”.

Finding your NORTH STAR

The Return on Investment(ROI) for the top 4% of companies is 10X+. The next 6% have 5–10X and the next 25% have a return of 1–5X return. This seems like a risky business considering only the top 35% are actually in a net positive. But it’s all percentages and not numbers. It could include ones which have been awfully bad? It also mentioned that 10X is the minimum return that a VC expects. So being in the top 4% of the companies the minimum requirement is to stay in the game. This is where having a NORTH STAR comes in.

Lacking DEEP self-awareness and extreme behavioral fitness, the design and execution of your organization has ZERO chance of 96% impact…

Thrust-Drag Model

The Thrust-Drag model assumes things which pull you forward and set you back. Your sense of wonder and purpose helps you find the ‘flow’ and get into your zone of genius which is necessary to get to the top 98%. Simply put, do what you like and what you’re good at. The drag or the source of drama is what sets an organization back. If there’s gossip going around in an organization, it’s going on the wrong track.

Its also important to not have a ‘false sense of wonder’. For that, its important to know whats possible and meet every idea with skepticism.

Soft Skills

It’s important to not have disinterest in people you should have had and even when you decide to reject someone, it should be done with positive intent and in an encouraging manner.

Presence of mind is one one the most important skill to develop. It might get annoying to listen to many teams which pitch the same idea and motto. It’s important to visualize how things will come together in the future. The importance of culture comes into the picture again as the organization catches the personality of the leading team. As a VC will be working with an organization for almost 5–10 years, it’s a long bond, almost like a marriage. So, it’s not just about money, but also about the growth and bonding of the team. It’s important to play hard every day even though the importance of the role reduces as the organization progresses in time.

What is Innovation

A question asked was ‘Think of any innovative organizations which come to your mind. Why do you think they are innovative and in which aspect are they innovative?’

Is it just hype, the background, the idea, the requirements of clients, the impact, the flexibility, etc? Innovation is all in the narrative. It is what is sold by an organization and what is followed by the organization. So behaviour is the heart of innovation.

Belief (stimulus)— Behavior (messenger)— Action(response)

Business Model

Here, business model is defined through ‘Delight’. What gives customers delight? How are you going to provide it? What will it cost you to provide delight? and How much is the customer willing to pay for it?

Few things to think about when thinking of a business model:

1. Lifetime Value
2. How many customers
3. Recurring revenue
4. Churn (how many start and quit)
5. Customer acquisition cost

Culture

Organizations are to be thought of as Biological Entities. Culture is the narrative of the organization. Beliefs, values, behaviour… Some thoughts related to this concept are:

1. Inclusivity
2. Radical transparency
3. Employee ‘delight’
4. Awareness of ‘genius’
5. The personality of an organization
6. Environment
7. Variety of elements
8. Consistency in implementation
9. The first 200 employees are considered crucial for maintaining the culture of an organization.
10. An organization can be self-filtering. People with the same mindset as the organization tend to stay whereas ones with opposing views tend to leave.

Style and Energy Management

Enneagram was used to decide the personality of a person. This helps in understanding the thrust and drag of the person.

“An essential individual will be in contact with these [Virtues] constantly, simply by living in his body. But the subjective individual, the ego, loses touch with these Virtues. Then the personality tries to compensate by developing passions.” — Interviews with Oscar Ichazo

Zone of Genius

The standard theory of Genius is as follows:

(Zone of Genius) = (Zone of Excellence)*100

Survival Tools

Humans have developed many tools for survival over the course of human history. They can be categorized into two sections.

1. Reduction/loss of: Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness, Fairness (SCARF)^[1]https://medium.com/org-hacking/scarf-f6989caca331
2. Don’t get too happy (Upper Limit Problem)
   Communities do not like it when someone part of their community fares better and the person might get ostracized.