designlead.

Most often than not, I see people, communities and even brands struggle with this idea. Its always a pleasure to see yourself on a ride upwards but everyone knows that what goes up comes down. I too have come to ends where philosophically saying, you get to where to what to go and then the question inevitably comes to 'What next?' I suppose everyone gets here. And this then becomes from just a question to one has to come to deal with in a positive. While most people, they tend to circle around. They do the same things over and over again as it becomes comfortable and you know what happens at the end. Like getting into a fight with someone, over and over again over the same thing. I have learnt over many cycles that there no way out of this expect one. Having a vision for your life. Keeping to a larger goal of finding that one thing that can keep you motivated, happy and keeps you moving onwards. So what happens right after you reach a place, wherein you reach a goal tha...

I was rather surprised at the rather the simplicity by which the session took place. Although I would say that it was not lesser than a crash course into understanding Direct Taxes but really an idea opener. Like consider the idea of crowd sourcing funds for your startups, wherein the money invested by each person is very low but with the right number, one can generate enough funds to work around the whole  gestation period. In thought, it sounds very great but as  Prof Sridhar  puts it forward, quite straight on the face that the idea in principal is of banking and hence, it will require licensees of the same nature by the RBI and SEBI before you jump into it. What you are intending to do in crowding sourcing funds, is nothing less than taking money from people and using it to pay them 'interest' or 'dividends'. His quick advises on financials for any startups were a super relievers, I have no words to explain the relief I have to know that I attended the session...

The media always plays itself to get the most TRP. The game is always been that. I often think that its not for us to decide what is more a loss but its quite apparent in the numbers that Boston is nothing compared to the massacre that was done at Palestine, Iraq and the likes. I wonder not what the media does, I often worry only on why us, the citizens of the world don't see the truth more often.

I have seen quite a few jugaad and that really makes me think how well we really do these smaller inventions through simple things that make our lives better without much. The sheet of paper / cardboard redirects air to the driver and that his way of getting fanned without draining the battery or eat fuel. Just one of the brilliant example of jugaad. 

I move the fastest, when I stay still. The farthest, without moving an twitching a bit. My sight is without the eyes, My listening, without the ears. In contradictions, I florish.  In similarities, I disengage.  I am but in the passing wind,  The gentle whisper of coming rain, The thought of rich harvest. I am cause of Him. I am

Well, we hosted it again. It was double the fun and double the action. You can say that this time too, there was much that happened and made it bigger and better. We had close to around a 100 participants. Adam and Markus had come over... though a little late. We as a team had done its comeback and together we do stand quit invincibly. I had much to learn this time as well, the model was slightly different from the last one. From a free event to a paid one, though its sounds much too easy its actually too much pain to handle for a free event. The best part was for me in the overall game was the whole new learning area. I have been in service design thinking for now three years, and have core only practised it in India for around 1.5 years. You can say that there is both lack of opportunity and purity of practise in India. So, Adam's small sessions and the time I could get to have a chat around with him and even Markus, were quite a revealing thing for me. Service design tr...

I haven't been able to blog much in the recent months and nor have I successfully taken off time to transfer all my previous blogs on the one platform, but nevertheless I keep telling myself I will soon will be able to do all that. Like I said, there is much that has happened that has enriched me in spiritual, entrepreneurial and my personal life that it seems to be becoming rather complicated to say what has happened. But the highlights of the matter is that I am starting up, organizing the global service jam blr 13 and also hosting the global headquarters at the bangalore center. Though the story till this point has been quite heroic, painful and hopeless in some places yet there have been some rather astounding revelation for me in my personal outlook, religion, people and how things work. All this and more will come soon onto the blog and the adventure tales will grow more epic as I begin writing again. Till then, see ya. Ps. Link to the  Global Service Jam

This is a pretty old one though, I had worked with Jan Chipchase some years back on research project that spanned a few countries and in the indian chapter, I was a part of. This was one of my first experiences in research and design and was one of the best. Working with Jan and his team, was a huge learning. I was awed completely by the way the team was organized with even the smallest of details. Here is the preview, Jan had put up sometime back. This is the Nokia Open Studio is crowd sourcing ideas from consumers. A good way to let the consumer participate and express their views creatively. This is on the research. Francis

Finally, after months of struggling with our day jobs, sneaking out of work for this, working cross geographies the GSJ Bangalore 12 video is out.  Have a look and let us know what you feel. (Bows downs and curtains close) Thanks a lot to Aaron for making such an awesome video and Sunhera to doing brilliant work with us on the design and otherwise.

We hosted the Global Service Jam: Bangalore Chapter a couple of months back and we all really had a blast. I think I have worked before in a lot of things, but this one experience for me also has been something that has transformed me. I may never be able to see the design in the way I used to before this particular event. And I am sure, I am not the only one who felt the transformation. Some participants felt a critical change in the way the approached life and their daily work. One particular jammer, felt empowered towards her life. For her, the whole experience led her to see that she often would not use her weekends to something productive while on this particular weekend, she worked with a diverse group of people and ended a creating a service ( though still hypothetical) For a some jammers, it was a kick to see that their ideas which they had developed looking at needs and problems they identified were actually in the market. The feeling that if they could possible create ...

A Ted talk about Design thinking.