10 Questions to Hartmut Esslinger

Guy Kawasaki interviewed Harmut Esslinger.

1. How does Steve Jobs’s mind work?
2. Why is it that companies with billions of dollars who can hire any designer or design firm in the world put out such crappy products?
3. Can customers truly tell a company how to innovate?
4. What can customers do then?
5. If a company is hiring a design firm, how can it know that it’s picking the right one?
6. If a company is hiring a designer (as an employee), how can it know that it’s picking the right one?
7. What are your top ten products of all time?
8. What are your ten worst products of all time?
9. Why has the One Laptop Per Child project met with limited success?
10. If a young person wants to be a great designer, what should he or she do?

Read the answers at OpenForum: The Inside Scoop on Design: Ten Questions with Hartmut Esslinger

The Top Five Innovation Killers

1. An intolerance of failure.
2. An excessive customer focus.
3. A desire for a magic pill, not a daily exercise regime.
4. An unwillingness to cannibalise sales.
5. A reliance on a small cadre of innovators.

According to Stuart Gross at bnet [read why]