Notes on Wired to Care by Dev Patnaik

At the dschool, I heard about the book Wired to Care by Dev Patnaik, CEO of Jump Associates and professor at Stanford. The book focused on the subject of empathy, which is the first (and perhaps most difficult and critical) of the five steps of the design thinking process.

I found the book enjoyable and easy to read, and I liked its many examples and stories of individuals at companies finding empathy with others. I found myself wanting more specific advice from the book on techniques for more effective empathy interviewing and observation, as well as how to turn those observations into ideas, how to best document them, and how to best communicate them with others. The book stayed too high level for me, even though it was interesting and well written.

My biggest takeaway is that empathy and a deep connection with customers can make even "uninteresting" products strike a chord, and it can motivate people to work their hardest because they have a deeper goal in mind. I also think the lesson of "the map is not the territory" is very powerful and a great reminder of the importance of seeing things first-hand and doing your own thinking rather than just relying on second-hand information.

Part 1 the case for empathy

Ch 1 intro

• Simulate what it's like to be old to empathize with them to design better fridge
  
• Put on costume and earplugs
  
• Disabilities caused by products, not age
  
• Caring instinct in brain lost when in org
  


• Reflect what you see
  
• Harley parking lot devoted to customer motorcycles
  
• Hire your customers
  
• To understand someone, be like them
  
• Understanding of riders
  

Ch 2 the map is not the territory

• London subway map simplification
  
• Models only good for purpose they're designed for; not equal to reality
  
• Model of behavior different from real behavior
  
• Maps and plans companies make not substitute for direct contact
  
• Coffee industry lost touch with customers
  
• IBM regained touch with customers
  
• Empathy gives gut sense for what in customer minds
  
• See the real territory, not the map
  
• Making abstractions tangible
  
• Disney imagineers
  
• Animal Kingdom
  
• Make concept tangible when selling to team
  
• Make facts tangible by visiting ppl in real world and living life as customer does
  

Ch 3 the way things used to be

• Class at Stanford: need finding
  
• Empathy not a new thing
  
• Rapid prototyping
  
• Lots of convos ongoing with customer yield better solutions
  
• Intimacy with client was way product design was done before
  
• Industrial revolution created rift between producers and consumers
  
• Harder to make products for people unlike you and far away
  
• Zildjian creates drums and cymbals by hanging out with musicians for 300 years
  
• Farmers markets in London
  

Part 2 creating widespread empathy

Ch 4 creating affinity

• Hire your customers
  
• President candidates connecting with public
  
• As companies grow larger, they become less like their customers
  

Ch 5 walking in someone else's shoes

• Moccasins project at class to spend time as someone else
  
• Mirror neurons lights up in our premotor cortex when we see others move body or just tell u about it
  
• Learn by watching
  

Ch 6 empathy that lasts

• Limbic system wired is to care
  
• Steelcase furniture
  
• Understand customers and make them feel like heroes and architects
  
• Always ask, "what are customers telling us"
  

Ch 7 open all the windows

• Open book management of financials
  
• Open empathy organizations
  


• Make it easy
  
• Insert empathy events daily not a irregular events
  
• Nike
  
• Intel ethnography group
  
• Posting end user personae in bathroom stalls
  


• Make it experiential
  
• Nike employees playing sports at work
  
• Smith and Hawken employees doing gardening at work
  
• Create immersive simulation rooms of persona's lives
  

Part 3 the results of empathy

Ch 8 reframe

• Empathy replaces second hand info
  
• 3 kinds of reframed
  
• See world as other sees it
  
• See world as no one else does
  
• Reframe how u see a problem into a different context
  
• Empathy precedes reframe
  
• Nike Presto
  

Ch 9 we are them

• OXO Good Grips
  
• Line blurs between producers and consumers, internal and external
  

Ch 10 golden rule

• Cisco way of ethics by John chambers CEO
  
• Golden rule requires envisioning real people affected by actions
  

Ch 11 hidden payoff

• Calling energizes ppl
  

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