Anti-patterns for collaborative work and getting design done.
This is a version of a talk that we gave at the Service Design Global Conference 2016 (Amsterdam). The conference theme was "business as unusual", so we took a bit of a subversive approach. We described some simple techniques for sabotaging products, services, and whole organisations... and then turned it all on its head with a description of the anti-problem activity.
2. @francisrowland
@micheleidesmith
SABOTAGE
Anti-patterns for collaborative work and
getting design done
#sdgc16
By Nationalmuseet - National Museum of Denmark from Denmark - Dansk Industri Syndikat i København i brandUploaded by Palnatoke, CC BY-SA 2.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21705601
3. Who we are
Michele Ide-Smith
@micheleidesmith
Product Saboteur at Europe PMC
European Bioinformatics Institute
Francis Rowland
@francisrowland
Senior Sabotage Architect
Sigma Consulting Solutions
4. @francisrowland
@micheleidesmith
By Unknown or not provided - U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Public Domain,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16825469
What is sabotage?
sab·o·tage (săb′ə-täzh′)
1. The deliberate destruction of
property or obstruction of normal
operations, as by civilians or enemy
agents in a time of war.
2. The deliberate attempt to damage,
destroy, or hinder a cause or activity.
8. Managers and supervisors
By Los Angeles Times - Los Angeles Times photographic archive, UCLA
Libraryhttp://unitproj.library.ucla.edu/dlib/lat/display.cfm?ms=uclalat_1429_b47_N36&searchType=subject&subjectID=2
13944, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6967922
12. Office workers and employees
By Unknown - published in Japanese newspaper Rekishi Syashin, Public Domain,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5520475
14. Lowering morale and
spreading confusion
By Palestine Railways, Khoury House, Haifa, Palestine - Report of The General Manager on the
Administration of the Palestine Railways and Operated Lines:1946/1947. Warhaftig's Press. Haifa,
Palestine, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15362402
17. @francisrowland
@micheleidesmith
Well, these tips were taken directly
from a 1940 manual produced by
the OSS (what later became the
CIA)
https://www.cia.gov/news-information/featured-story-archive/2012-featured-
story-archive/CleanedUOSSSimpleSabotage_sm.pdf
20. 1. Mislead customers about
the purpose of the service
By Carbolic Smoke Ball Co. from the Illustrated London News, 10 June 1893. Public domain,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Second_Carbolic_Company_advertisement.png
46. @francisrowland
@micheleidesmith
“If you give someone an
open-ended creative problem
there is great difficulty in
getting started. There is
difficulty in moving at all.”
– Edward de Bono
Mention that what we’ve been talking about are anti-patterns, the opposite of design patterns which are commonly used in architecture, interaction design and software development.
Edward de Bono is a pioneer of methods and approaches for creative thinking. He developed the six thinking hats.
You might want to try reversing the anti-patterns we gave you earlier and thinking about whether any of them apply to your service.