And I can still smell the fresh paint… Just kidding, it’s only been a year since my last soap! conf appearance! If you’re interested in my 2017 soap! conf experience, just click here (pssst, it’s gobsmackingly magnificent!)! Aaaanddd, now for the main topic – I was back this year, with new energy and new findings! The main theme of the 2018 edition of soap! conference was broadly-defined problem-solving… and what’s the best problem-solving methodology? What, you say? You guessed it, it’s design thinking! And this time, I planned on doing something… controversial?
And I’m pretty proud of my gibberish! I think this was my most emotional presentation to this day. I’m proud of the thought and energy I put into the research, and into the creation, of this talk. I’m pleased I was able to put a more human spin on the topic and talked about innovation from this „everyday life” perspective.
The business of innovation, creativity, agile, design thinking, inventions, Teslas, and other crazy Google Pixels has been in full swing recently. And I love it, and I think – in comparison to how it was (or wasn’t, actually) encouraged when I was growing up – it’s excellent! Without nurturing the creative side, we won’t go far, and I think that much is clear.
I will always support and advertise ideas I believe in. Apart from making our world a better place, that encourage others to exercise their ideas, and who else is going to change the world if not us? I think Marie Sklodowska-Curie, Albert Einstein, Grace Hopper, Amelia Earhart, and many others have proven! All hail the renegades!
But with this, I think there’s a bit of a scare looming when we go the innovation road for the sake of innovating and being cool, but without any substantial reason. Me no like that. There are a few traps we can fall into when we follow any trends blindly.
You can hear more about them in my presentation. But don’t be gloom, I’ll share my ideas on how to make it all better too!
EDIT in 2022: During soap! conf 2018, I also held a small design thinking workshop. For some reason I didn’t deem it worthy to mention it here… But now it’s 2022, we’re after another soap! conf edition, and I stumbled upon this Medium post by Oksana Pervenonok, a content expert and techwriter, titled „Soap! Conference — Reflections through the Years.” And, low and behold, even in 2022, Oksana mentioned my workshop form 2018! This is the best review anyone can get. I hope she’s using „the tricks of design thinking” even now.
I save a pdf version of this article for myself as well, as a reminder for my inner critic!
