DG590

Disruptive Business Processes

In this assignment I learned the meaning of disruption in design and especially how to use it in design. There are many companies that sell a product that is very popular. But if this product is becoming less popular and the company did not improve the product or really disrupt the product, then there is a chance they will go bankrupt. This means that one most innovate and keep up or even go ahead on competition to stay a financially healthy company.

In the first week we had to reed a paper about a company that did something disruptive. My group had the paper from Mahler & Rogers. It is about a company in telephone marketing and their approach was very new and before never seen so it changed the world of marketing. This is what makes it disruptive.

'Paper Presentation (Mahler & Rogers) - ok to good group result. Paper was read and presented well. Unfortunately not able to answer (yet) how 'disruption' related to the technology adoption lifecycle model. Next time when you have to read a paper, make sure you also dig a bit deeper (e.g. Google who the author of the paper is, what he writes about mostly, his ideas etc.) and reflect on how this relates to your perspective on the subject matter. If you would have done this, you would have found the theory of full technology adoption lifecycle model.' - M.M.R Peeters

The next week learned about four different economies: the industrial economy, experience economy, knowledge economy and the transformation economy. These are all different ways companies are dealing with costumers and the whole process of design.

Week three we had find a product that we thought that disrupted the world. We chose the first commercial flight as our disruption. This changed the horizon of the concept traveling. People could go see the world and discover even more. I think this is the first serious step toward globalization. This is the movie we made instead of a usual presentation.

'Presentation of an example disruption - good group result. Example of disruption in aviation (business) was chosen and presented extensively. Well done. Nice video. Although your story very much concentrated on the changes in business models and user experience of airlines, be aware that other (side-) effects also occurred because of the development of the aviation industry (for instance the possibility to travel in/to space). Keep in mind that disruptions (can) impact society heavily.'- M.M.R Peeters

The last weeks we had to design our own disruption. We came up with the idea to make a shape out of cardboard just as the television show Hole in the Wall and we put this in front of an elevator or doorway to make people more aware of what they are doing and where they are going. We filmed this and made a movie out of the images.

'Disruptive design - good group result. You created a very interesting disruptive proposition: a carton mock-up of a silhouette of a person that was placed in front of the elevator of the main building. People who wanted to take the elevator first had to move through the silhouette before they could actually enter the elevator, resulting in all kinds of interesting behavior and reactions. Well done. You disrupted people while they wanted to take the elevator. It's pity you only observed and videotaped people's behavior. Besides putting the silhouette back in front of the elevator again, you didn't do any substantial successive design interventions based on your personal observations, video data etc. That's really a pity. It would have been really interesting if you would have gained deeper insight in people's behavior (and motivations) while doing multiple interventions and design iterations (although a different silhouette was created but found not appropriate). Take this as advice for future projects! Moreover, as said also during the meetings, your data acquisition could have been more extensively and richer. Also food for thought for future (research) projects.'- M.M.R Peeters

For the finishing the assignment we had to write an essay about the assignment and what we had learned. Everyone had to print their essay on A3 and put it up the wall. Then we got three green stickers and we could choose the essays we thought were the best. I am proud to say that I got about seven stickers and ended on the third place with my essay.

'Essay - ok individual result, although you didn't really write an essay around the topic of disruptive business process. Your story mostly summarizes the activities done and some accompanying reflections and insights you gained throughout the assignment. Next time, try to take a real design stance, possibly use some references and reflect on for instance how these relate to your own perspective on the subject matter. Also, spend some time on graphic design next time. Your honest reflections about the assignment will be used for further development of it. Thanks.'- M.M.R Peeters