Summary
Sam Yen, Chief Design Officer for SAP, talks to Enterprise UX 2017 about how human-centered design is driving technology and ultimately, change within an organization.
Key Insights
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Doug Engelbart’s original vision emphasizes technology as amplifying human capabilities, not replacing humans.
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SAP’s user experience was once so disjointed it amassed over 300,000 unique screens, hindering usability.
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SAP’s early founders organically used design thinking principles long before the methodology was named.
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Executive sponsorship is necessary but insufficient to drive design transformation; grassroots and customer engagement are critical.
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Design thinking’s greatest value lies in problem finding—identifying the right problems—before problem solving.
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Introducing design artifacts and enforceable design gates in enterprise processes significantly raised product quality.
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Organizational psychology shows stressed teams need comfort zones before they can embrace exploratory innovation.
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The enterprise sector faces a severe shortage of designers compared to consumer tech, with ratios sometimes at 1 designer per 1000 developers.
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SAP uses design thinking not only internally but also as a consulting method to help customers build their innovation capabilities.
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Democratizing design education and fostering diversity in design are essential to creating lasting impact across industries.
Notable Quotes
"Are we excited to go to work in the technology industry to remove jobs and eliminate the human from the equation?"
"Technology should not aim to replace humans, rather amplify human capabilities."
"In a nuclear war, the only things that would survive on Earth would be cockroaches and these old SAP screens."
"Innovation equals creativity times execution."
"Most organizations are good at execution, but struggle to scale creativity throughout their teams."
"Design thinking is simply doing a little problem finding before problem solving."
"Talent hits a target that no one else can hit; genius hits a target that no one else can see."
"Introducing design gates allowed us to finally stop the shipment of bad products."
"Space matters, but don’t start with the space; start by changing people, processes, and mindsets."
"If your best customers say they want to engage through design thinking, that’s where you get the most traction."
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