Manuscript for the final PhD Seminar 18 January 2013 Doctoral student: Marcus Jahnke HDK, School of Design and Crafts, Business & Design Lab The Faculty of Fine, Applied and Performing Arts University of Gothenburg Sweden Opponent: Stefan Meisiek, Associate Professor of Leadership, Copenhagen Business School. Tutors: Ulla Johansson, Professor, Business & Design Lab, HDK - School of Design & Crafts, University of Gothenburg. Håkan Edeholt, Professor, AHO, Oslo School of Architecture and Design Maria Elmquist, Associate Professor, Center for Business Innovation, Chalmers University of Technology. Draft Document – Please Do Not Quote Without Permission. 1 “Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, `and what is the use of a book,' thought Alice `without pictures or conversation?'” (Carrol, 1865) 2 The illustration on the previous page is from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (1865). Illustration title: Alice, key in hand, finds the door to Wonderland drawn by Sir John Tenniel and engraved on wood the Brothers Dalziel. In the photo on the front page is Magnus Reinhold of Macro International AB standing in one of the full size sketch showers made in one of the workshops in the “Macro intervention”. 3 A MESSAGE TO THE READER ....................................................................................................... 7 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................ 8 PERSONAL AND PRACTICAL BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY ........................................................................ 8 Bumping into design: A personal background ................................................................................. 8 Pivotal events: The practical background ...................................................................................... 11 CONTEXTUAL AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND ...................................................................................... 14 Design and innovation in the design management discourse ................................................ 15 The rise of design thinking ..................................................................................................................... 22 Emerging design and innovation concepts ..................................................................................... 25 Discussion ...................................................................................................................................................... 27 PURPOSE AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS ........................................................................................................ 29 THE STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS .................................................................................................................. 32 A MIXED MEDIA METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH .............................................................. 34 THE METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH ............................................................................................................ 34 A bridging research approach ............................................................................................................. 35 The notion of the experiment ................................................................................................................ 36 A resistance inspired approach ........................................................................................................... 39 Interventionist research .......................................................................................................................... 40 Reflexive methodology ............................................................................................................................. 42 Phenomenological reflection on lived experience ....................................................................... 45 Summary of the methodological approach .................................................................................... 47 PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS REGARDING THE RESEARCHER ROLE .................................................... 48 CONCLUDING THOUGHTS ............................................................................................................................... 49 INTERLUDE – THE STORY OF AN EMERGING SOMETHING ............................................. 51 A REFLECTION ON THE PERVASIVE CONCEPT OF PROBLEM SOLVING ...................... 54 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................................ 54 THE METAPHOR OF PROBLEM SOLVING ..................................................................................................... 54 THE PROBLEM AND THE EXPERT ................................................................................................................. 58 THE LIMITS OF PROBLEM SOLVING ............................................................................................................. 60 PROBLEM SETTING .......................................................................................................................................... 62 BEYOND THE PROBLEM .................................................................................................................................. 65 DESIGN AS A HERMENEUTIC PRACTICE ................................................................................ 69 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................................ 69 4 BACKGROUND TO HERMENEUTICS IN DESIGN THEORY ........................................................................... 70 AN ANALYSIS OF SCHÖN’S “REFLECTIVE PRACTITIONER” ...................................................................... 71 GADAMER’S HISTORICAL HERMENEUTICS ................................................................................................. 72 PAUL RICOEUR’S CRITICAL AND POETIC HERMENEUTICS ....................................................................... 75 RICOEUR’S HERMENEUTICS IN RELATION TO DESIGN THEORY ............................................................. 78 A NOTE ON AESTHETICS AND MEANING MAKING ..................................................................................... 84 ENGAGING IN MEANING MAKING ................................................................................................................. 85 CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................................................................... 87 THE DESIGN OF THE EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ..................................................................... 89 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................................ 89 THE DESIGN OF THE STUDY .......................................................................................................................... 89 THE PRACTICAL DESIGN OF THE INTERVENTIONS .................................................................................... 91 ANALYSIS OF THE EMPIRICAL MATERIAL ................................................................................................... 93 WRITING ABOUT THE INTERVENTIONS ...................................................................................................... 96 THE INTERVENTIONS .................................................................................................................. 98 THE TRANEMO WORKWEAR INTERVENTION ............................................................................................ 98 Tranemo Workwear – a family affair ............................................................................................... 98 The workshop process ............................................................................................................................ 102 Epilogue – design as business ............................................................................................................. 117 THE ALFA LAVAL INTERVENTION ............................................................................................................. 119 Alfa Laval – all about technology ..................................................................................................... 119 The first workshop process .................................................................................................................. 123 The second workshop process ............................................................................................................ 125 The third workshop process ................................................................................................................ 128 Epilogue – continued cooperation .................................................................................................... 142 THE IDESTA FOODTECH AB INTERVENTION ........................................................................................... 144 Idesta Foodtech AB – stainless steel at the core ......................................................................... 144 The workshop process ...........................................................................................................................