The Human Side of Innovation / Mauro Porcini / Episode #163

When you asked me to play the piano, I can assure you that nothing close to music would come out. Would we, at that point, say that the piano is broken? That would be silly, right?

Somehow, this is the typical approach when organizations bring in design. When design doesn't fully deliver on the expected outcomes, it's the process that is declared faulty.

Mauro Porcini is the Chief Design Officer at PepsiCo. In his career, he has seen many design-driven initiatives fail, and some succeed. This led him on the quest to find out what the differentiator is between the two.

Can you guess the answer? This shouldn't surprise you by now; it's people.

So if that's the case, what kind of people does it take to make design work?

Well, Mauro decided to write a dedicated book about this with the inspiring title: The Human Side of Innovation. The book just got published, and I invited Mauro on the Show to share the key insights with you. This is a good one!

We explored many ideas in this conversation, but one thing that stood out for me was kindness as a competitive advantage. And you know what? It makes complete business sense!

Enjoy the episode, and if you do consider sharing it, someone who might as well :)

--- [ 1. GUIDE ] ---

00:00 Welcome to episode 163
03:30 Who is Mauro
05:00 Lightning round
08:15 How did it start
12:30 The key message
14:30 Why now
19:00 Focus on people
22:15 What to look for
25:45 Reception by business
30:30 Unicorns
33:30 True human centricity
40:00 How to make it bigger
43:00 Design happiness
47:00 Contest announcement
48:15 Final thoughts

--- [ 2. LINKS ] ---

* https://www.linkedin.com/in/mauroporcini/

* The Human Side of Innovation (book) - https://amzn.to/3Opl8h2

* In Your Shoes (podcast) - https://open.spotify.com/show/6u90U1OT6mLdByL0TAYRW6

* Stage Not Age (book) - https://amzn.to/3ETZNcz

--- [ 3. CONTEST ] ---

To enter the contest, head over to the video version of this conversation on YouTube and leave a comment there to answer the question posed in the episode.

https://go.servicedesignshow.com/episode163

--- [ 4. CIRCLE ] ---

Join our private community for in-house service design professionals.

https://servicedesignshow.com/circle