The Chakravyuh Effect
There is this behavioural pattern; I'll call it the 'Chakravyuh Effect.' It occurs when parents hold one set of rules for their children while having lived by another, failing to communicate the intentionality behind their…
Category: Life or something like it
The Hit-Making Algorithm: Behavioural Design or Manipulation?
There is something quietly telling about how modern songs are put together. The average English song repeats its central hook three to four times. More recently though, that number seems to have crept up to…
The Innovation Thinking Sandwich
The world has massive problems with "cool" solutions that create even bigger disasters. From the 1950s, we solved convenience with plastic, and now we’re literally breathing it. We solved the fossil fuel headache with Electric…
On Clarity
There's a particular frame of time I'm sure you have experienced. You have a big presentation later today, or you're travelling for a week, and suddenly you have a mental clarity that's often missing from…
Customer is KingDesign ThinkingDTEverydayHuman BehaviourImproveInnovateLife or something like itThe known unknown
When Did We Stop Designing for Humans?
In the past year, customer experience has taken a real nosedive. Big brand products and services making baffling choices. Let's start with recent Panasonic/Google TVs. With any TV including the good old ones, adjust the…
The Return to Innocence
A lot of people go from lighthearted when young to bitter and caustic or indifferent as they get older. They might remain adequately friendly and cheerful in public, knowing well not to cross boundaries or…
Gimme Your Best Question!
A few days ago, I shared how one re-framed question unlocked a breakthrough solution for a pediatric hospital project, and opened up a contest for you to share YOUR transformational questions. I've been thinking about…
A Coupon Code for my Potato Book
My "potato book" was feeling left out with all the posts and coupons for the two design thinking books. So here's a coupon for Main Batata Hoon, a collection of short stories written in a…
Merry Christmas!
This story here has been a favourite for many years now, and I have probably sent it to hundreds of you around this time of the year, either as part of my work mailers or…
My Writing Journey so Far
It’s easy to look at a finished book and forget the chaos it came from. Recently when rummaging through an old box of papers, I found this (top left, circular diagram thing). That was from…
Design ThinkingHuman BehaviourImproveInspireLife or something like itNot So SeriousThe known unknown
On Writing..
One of my favourite fictional characters is Poirot. In the 2023 film A Haunting in Venice, when explaining his method, he says: “When a crime has been committed, I can, by application of order and…
On Re-reading Books..
Most of us don’t read enough. And those who do, often fall into a numbers game: how many books can I finish this year? In this mindset, re-reading an already finished book feels almost wasteful.…
From Quality Revolutions to Design Thinking: Where Did All the Productivity Go?
Back when I was researching for my book, 'Design the Future', that simplifies design thinking for businesses and curious individuals, I noticed something striking. The popular 5-step Stanford design thinking model closely mirrors DMAIC, a…
The Funny Route Life Insurance Companies in India chose to Bridge the Gap in Insurance Cover
Startups often struggle to find a healthy balance between becoming and staying relevant, with marketing and sales, and competition and growth. Their efforts and struggle, while not necessarily always logical, is usually understandable. However, one…
Coin Tossing should be more commonplace
I recently watched the 2006 political action thriller, 'The Sentinel.' It had a character follow this practice that is old, obvious and practical, but is hardly used nowadays. In the movie, a senior Secret Service…