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Subject To Change: Creating Great Products & Services for an Uncertain World
To achieve success in today's ever-changing and unpredictable markets, competitive businesses need to rethink and reframe their strategies across the board. Instead of approaching new product development from the inside out, companies have to begin by looking at the process from the outside in, beginning with the customer experience. It's a new way of thinking-and working-that can transform companies struggling to adapt to today's environment into innovative, agile, and commercially successful organizations. Companies must develop a new set of organizational qualitative customer research to better understand customer behaviors and motivations; an open design process to reframe possibilities and translate new ideas into great customer experiences; and agile technological implementation to quickly prototype ideas, getting them from the whiteboard out into the world where people can respond to them. In Subject to Creating Great Products and Services for an Uncertain World , Adaptive Path, a leading experience strategy and design company, demonstrates how successful businesses can-and should-use customer experiences to inform and shape the product development process, from start to finish.
200 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2008
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593 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
November 17, 2013
Much of my perspective on User Experience and Agile Software Development has been shaped by the perspective of Adaptive Path.
This hasn't been a conscious mind meld-- but somewhere along the way either through reading blog posts, talks or merely talk titles by members of Adaptive Path (such as Dan Saffer) or perhaps by reading the writing of IDEO, or the books Lean UX, Get Agile and Agile Design. Summarily, somewhere along the line I've become a proponent of designing your way through ambiguity over the course of a software project as opposed to getting the design right up from.
Interacting with static designs is not the same as interacting with software. And the quicker you can get from pixels to software the better- but in the event there is a lead time, no use sitting around, test your hypothesis and gain clarity through the fog of design.
Subject to Change as a composition is a 3 star book. But what it represents is a respected and codified perspective on a more inclusive and less ivory tower lens of design. Great design begins and ends with us. And while there will always be design leaders and organizations that take a more design studio lens of design, Subject to Change gives the entire industry something to point to that says "this highly respected team thinks there is another way"
Additionally while there is a fair amount of unfocused meandering-- due to its brevity and message. I can imagine myself pointing other designers to this book as an example of my perspective.
Two chapters in particular: the Design Competency and The Agile Approach. Communicate as crisply the case and philosophy for Design as Facilitator and Agile Design as any manifesto or article. For that reason this is a four star book.
This book inspired a fair amount of notes as I read. And I suspect that had I come to this earlier in my journey, much of the thinking would have been fresher. But as it seems the perspective is already embedded in much of the more progressive lens of experience design.
This hasn't been a conscious mind meld-- but somewhere along the way either through reading blog posts, talks or merely talk titles by members of Adaptive Path (such as Dan Saffer) or perhaps by reading the writing of IDEO, or the books Lean UX, Get Agile and Agile Design. Summarily, somewhere along the line I've become a proponent of designing your way through ambiguity over the course of a software project as opposed to getting the design right up from.
Interacting with static designs is not the same as interacting with software. And the quicker you can get from pixels to software the better- but in the event there is a lead time, no use sitting around, test your hypothesis and gain clarity through the fog of design.
Subject to Change as a composition is a 3 star book. But what it represents is a respected and codified perspective on a more inclusive and less ivory tower lens of design. Great design begins and ends with us. And while there will always be design leaders and organizations that take a more design studio lens of design, Subject to Change gives the entire industry something to point to that says "this highly respected team thinks there is another way"
Additionally while there is a fair amount of unfocused meandering-- due to its brevity and message. I can imagine myself pointing other designers to this book as an example of my perspective.
Two chapters in particular: the Design Competency and The Agile Approach. Communicate as crisply the case and philosophy for Design as Facilitator and Agile Design as any manifesto or article. For that reason this is a four star book.
This book inspired a fair amount of notes as I read. And I suspect that had I come to this earlier in my journey, much of the thinking would have been fresher. But as it seems the perspective is already embedded in much of the more progressive lens of experience design.
November 8, 2010
More targeted at business managers than designers, this book is a few years old but still very relevant to people looking for in introduction to a more holistic approach to Customer Experience or Service Design. I thought their arguments for developing design competencies in the organisation was probably the strongest aspect.
December 4, 2013
Short and repetitive plus a pretty hard sell for a consulting company. Takeaway - well designed products with a wow factor are a good thing and you should make design a priority. Be Appleish.
June 21, 2020
Reports, where good insights go to die. Really?
Most reports and presentations aren't effective ways to help others develop empathy. This is one of the many interesting insights from this book. Author even develope the Wilkens' law.
Wilkens' law: The effectiveness of a research report is inversely proportional to the thickness of its binding." +Todd Wilkens
In the Funky Business Forever book, authors also claim that in a real-time society, companies keep on publishing reports and balance sheets about atoms – machines, buildings, etc. – but do companies that way really capture the most critical assets by measuring that stuff?
I think integrated reports could by joining environmental, social and governance activities (ESG) as a supplement with required financial statements greatly improve readability, effectiveness and help other to develop empathy (f.e. shareholders in case of annual reports) of the current reports.
As a design manager I believe that by creating and designing reports from the start in mind that in these real[on-line]-times the thickness of the reports binding is only (maybe) necessary but the real report should always be accessible on-line and interactive as wide as possible on every system available.
September 24, 2017
The book is quite repetitive. A little bit of a hard sell for the consulting company Adaptive path. The insights seemed dated in this day and age and could have been summarized by a few blog posts.
November 17, 2009
If you're in the business of software or web application development, do yourself a favor and read books directly on that topic. This book isn't one of them. It was part of Dominion's library so I ordered it because it looked interesting, because it addressed Agile product development, and because I tend to appreciate Adaptive Path's work.
While this is a book for people involved in all aspects of product design, it is focused on the design process behind physical products and services. This doesn't mean that you can't apply the general principles to software or web applications -- except when it does. :)
The best single word to describe this book is wispy. It's devoid of substance. This book has donned the mantle of an almost academic-like book of deadly seriousness about product design. But it its utter seriousness, it completely lacks any substance.
The book is pitched at management but it has not been written with managers in mind. It does not have pat, pithy, easy to digest bites of information. You have to pay attention to read it. You cannot skim. It's just not written that way. There's a lot of emptiness packed into these pages. Worse, from a pitched to managers standpoint, it is not even interesting when the book presents stories of product designs successes and failures. Managers love these stories. And yet, there's not even one decent story in there that a manager will want to remember and pull out of the pocket in order to impress everyone at the next all-hands meeting or elevator conversation.
If you are a product developer, the book is possibly of value only if 1. you make physical products and services (not software or web applications) and 2. You need something to allow you to daydream about what kind of hot air *you* would spout if *you* could run the place and do things the *right* (agile) way.
While this is a book for people involved in all aspects of product design, it is focused on the design process behind physical products and services. This doesn't mean that you can't apply the general principles to software or web applications -- except when it does. :)
The best single word to describe this book is wispy. It's devoid of substance. This book has donned the mantle of an almost academic-like book of deadly seriousness about product design. But it its utter seriousness, it completely lacks any substance.
The book is pitched at management but it has not been written with managers in mind. It does not have pat, pithy, easy to digest bites of information. You have to pay attention to read it. You cannot skim. It's just not written that way. There's a lot of emptiness packed into these pages. Worse, from a pitched to managers standpoint, it is not even interesting when the book presents stories of product designs successes and failures. Managers love these stories. And yet, there's not even one decent story in there that a manager will want to remember and pull out of the pocket in order to impress everyone at the next all-hands meeting or elevator conversation.
If you are a product developer, the book is possibly of value only if 1. you make physical products and services (not software or web applications) and 2. You need something to allow you to daydream about what kind of hot air *you* would spout if *you* could run the place and do things the *right* (agile) way.
February 17, 2011
Meh. This was recommended to me when I expressed interest in reading about user-centered design and user experience topics. Although it's short, I almost didn't finish it because it's, well...boring. Repetitive, not very well constructed or edited. There wasn't a clear progression or building from one concept to another, just a collection of extremely vague case studies about Adaptive Path's work with their unnamed clients (for example, "a financial services firm") with a chapter about agile development tossed in for good measure. Their main points seemed to boil down to: always think about the user/customer, do a lot of research to find out about your users, communicate a lot within your company, and come up with something new and different instead of trying to beat your competitors at their own game. A couple of ideas I found applicable to my own job: Fail early and often, and don't add useless functionality just because it's possible. There, now you don't need to read it.
A little taste:
"Most organizations don't actively participate in design. It's outsourced, delegated, pushed away. Somehow, design isn't seen as a suitable way to confront and solve problems. Instead, we ineffectually flail at these problems with bulleted slide decks, passionless meetings, and soulless reports."(107)
"Ideas are cheap, cheap, cheap; we can think of so very many. All too often, though, our organizations treat them as tender, scarce, and special. We detail them meticulously in requirements documents, making sure we completely and fully understand them before we test them."(125)
"In an environment where exploration leading to a dead end is viewed as an expense to be reduced, true innovation is difficult."(156)
A little taste:
"Most organizations don't actively participate in design. It's outsourced, delegated, pushed away. Somehow, design isn't seen as a suitable way to confront and solve problems. Instead, we ineffectually flail at these problems with bulleted slide decks, passionless meetings, and soulless reports."(107)
"Ideas are cheap, cheap, cheap; we can think of so very many. All too often, though, our organizations treat them as tender, scarce, and special. We detail them meticulously in requirements documents, making sure we completely and fully understand them before we test them."(125)
"In an environment where exploration leading to a dead end is viewed as an expense to be reduced, true innovation is difficult."(156)
October 19, 2008
I got this book about product marketing because I wanted to gain insight on marketing of my own product http://www.code-roller.com so I was a little frustrated by the overall direction and focus of the book which is to motivate the reader into hiring Adaptive Path. All four authors either currently work for or have recently worked for that marketing company. According to the on-line edition of the book, there are twenty eight references to Adaptive Path in the content.
While light on theory, the book does give good advice. This advice is mostly in the form of what not to do. This most probably reflects Adaptive Path's pain points in earlier engagements with customers. Don't use competition as your main driver. Don't depend on novelty. Don't get stuck on research or reporting. Don't get stuck on product design. Don't over-engineer. Don't get too confident about what you think your customers want.
If there is only one important take away from this book, then I believe that it would be this. It's all about the user experience. What you should be focusing your design efforts on is the user experience. What you should be focusing your strategy on is the user experience. The only thing you do that your customers care about is their experience of your product or service.
They heavily advocate using an Agile methodology. They agree with early prototyping, failing fast, and continuous customer involvement. They are lukewarm on the SPARC model.
While light on theory, the book does give good advice. This advice is mostly in the form of what not to do. This most probably reflects Adaptive Path's pain points in earlier engagements with customers. Don't use competition as your main driver. Don't depend on novelty. Don't get stuck on research or reporting. Don't get stuck on product design. Don't over-engineer. Don't get too confident about what you think your customers want.
If there is only one important take away from this book, then I believe that it would be this. It's all about the user experience. What you should be focusing your design efforts on is the user experience. What you should be focusing your strategy on is the user experience. The only thing you do that your customers care about is their experience of your product or service.
They heavily advocate using an Agile methodology. They agree with early prototyping, failing fast, and continuous customer involvement. They are lukewarm on the SPARC model.
December 5, 2016
A very good book on design, user research, and product development from the point of view of the designer. I could quibble with their ideas of what user research is about, but they're mostly on the right track. Dourish and Bell's "Divining a Digital Future" articulates far better how product design can benefit from anthropological user research.
A friend of mine frequently uses this book as a source for explaining what she does (User Research & Design) and loves it. I agree that it's exquisitely quotable to help convey the necessity, bounds, and results of user research for product design.
A friend of mine frequently uses this book as a source for explaining what she does (User Research & Design) and loves it. I agree that it's exquisitely quotable to help convey the necessity, bounds, and results of user research for product design.
May 22, 2008
The book really didn't provide many new insights. That, coupled with the high expectations that I had for the book led to my rating.
The book can be summed up in three bullets points:
- Design is good for your business
- Design products/services with a rabid attention to customer experience
- Employ rapid prototyping (a la IDEO)
Furthermore, the flow seemed disjointed and you are paying $25 for 170 pages (which I wouldn't mind if it were a meaty 170 pages.)
The book can be summed up in three bullets points:
- Design is good for your business
- Design products/services with a rabid attention to customer experience
- Employ rapid prototyping (a la IDEO)
Furthermore, the flow seemed disjointed and you are paying $25 for 170 pages (which I wouldn't mind if it were a meaty 170 pages.)
November 24, 2011
Put forth the concept of product design as a process of designing the user's experience of using the product; a good/bad product is reflected on the user's experience in using that product. Points to a process of continuous experimenation and feedback from customers for this process.
Most mostly targeted for business audience/ People who are familiar with aspects of usability and HCI should be vary familiar with what the authors are saying.
Most mostly targeted for business audience/ People who are familiar with aspects of usability and HCI should be vary familiar with what the authors are saying.
June 29, 2008
Disappointing, few unique thoughts, just seemed to borrow from other books. Unfortunately, the references could have been more detailed, and less about Adaptive Path's conquests. It's a short book, but not much of a fun quick read. I did enjoy the chapter at the end re: Agile vs Waterfall methods. I'm a big fan of AP, but this book sure wasn't what I'd hoped it would be.
March 1, 2018
Adaptive Path's summary of the experience design process. It's a short book and is concerned with giving a broad overview of the discipline and its benefits.
As such it is more written to get converts than to provide those already converted with a lot of new material. The book is filled with argumentation to help you win over the people you have to work with to an experience strategy.
Read
May 9, 2009this book makes some interesting points about how to approach design from a holistic perspective. would love to implement some of these techniques! i'd like to find some real-world examples of how companies convince clients to go for the agile design approach, though.
January 2, 2014
I was pretty disappointed by this book: I walked away not completely convinced that the authors were really talking about the same design process as I do, and I felt like they hadn’t really come up with many interesting insights.
Read
March 1, 2016This book is very simple to read. Its key message emphasizes how the creation of products and services is interdependent on rapid changes within the business environment that influence the product and service evolution. The focus is on the customer experience in the design and development process.
August 12, 2010
I'm actually re-reading this book just now. More to come.
March 8, 2011
This book left me with more questions than answers.
March 29, 2013
Helpful to get the concept of experience strategy and create one.
March 30, 2013
A should-read book on creating and building new products for knowledge workers and entrepreneurs.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews