Have you ever wondered how to develop products that resonate more deeply with your customers? In a recent webinar, David Robertson, MIT Sloan Senior Lecturer and Cherokee citizen, and Wahde Galisgewi, Cherokee citizen, and manager and developer of adult immersion language revitalization programs for the Cherokee Nation, discussed the similarities between Cherokee traditions and human-centered design processes.
Beyond disruption: building with community
Traditional innovation often emphasizes disruption – creating entirely new products that shake up the market. During the webinar, Robertson challenged that notion, proposing a community-centered approach. By understanding the needs and dynamics of a community, businesses can develop solutions that resonate more deeply and have a lasting impact. Robertson emphasized that these solutions are “much harder for competitors to dislodge.” He shared three examples to demonstrate how considering the community up front or not impacted the success of products:
- UE Boom: This Bluetooth speaker from Logitech was late to market and many other speakers had better sound characteristics, “but one thing that Logitech did that other companies did not do is they focused on the needs, not of the individual, but of the community.” The designers observed people at multiple outdoor gatherings and saw that to keep the party together, they needed to connect multiple speakers to the same music source as the crowd grew. UE Boom created an app that allowed for multiple speakers to pair to a singular source. This feature was what distinguished the UE speakers from others, and the features evolved as they kept watching groups of people using it.
- PlayPlump: This freshwater pump was installed in African countries such as South Africa, Mozambique, Lesotho, and Malawi. It was placed under playgrounds so as children played on merry-go-rounds it would then pump water. Besides the difficulty to maintain the pumps, the initiative did not consider the community values, which negatively viewed this as child labor.
- Chicken productivity: Roberston conducted a deep dive into 26,000 studies of chicken productivity in the hopes of increasing chicken farm profits, and one study stood out: the super chicken study. Researchers observed chicken coops, found the hens that laid the most eggs, and brought them together into the same coop, thinking that they would create “super chicken” coops. However, because of existing hierarchy in chicken coops, the hens that laid the most eggs in their original coops were also the strongest and most aggressive chickens. The result of putting all these hens together in one coop was a violent disaster.
The Cherokee cycle: a framework for innovation
Galisgewi discussed the Cherokee values and traditions that have informed his work and their continued importance in the modern world. He highlighted twelve core Cherokee teachings that are tied to a traditional cyclical approach to planning and living based on the agricultural calendar. Although activities that were part of this traditional cycle–such as building, preparing gardens, harvesting, hunting, and fishing–are no longer as relevant in their contemporary lifestyle, the Cherokees still meet at their ceremonial grounds and follow this traditional calendar. “The cycle allows us to digest the innovation process as a community and create a way of life that enables us to adapt, change, and progress forward in the modern world, as well as hang on to who we are with our traditional identity.” This annual cycle emphasizes renewal and collective action. The goal is to implement solutions that benefit the entire community, ensuring alignment with core values. The four phases of the cycle are:
- Phase 1/Fall season; prune, nurture, and evolve: For the Cherokees, the cycle starts in the fall, a time of renewal and reviewing. During this period, a large meeting occurs to understand what needs to be done to improve their collective lives. Galisgewi explained that they “use Cherokee values to help guide the process of creating a way to find consensus. Everybody’s voice is heard, and agency is valuable.” Galisgewi brought up the concept of pruning during the fall–the idea of cleaning things up. As the Cherokee elders say, "just like the trees in the fall, we have to get rid of those things that don't serve us, and that means that we have to be willing to step out and say: ‘let's not do this anymore, let's do this instead.' A lot of innovation processes come with a challenge or question as a starting point. And this is the time where we evaluate ourselves and determine what the challenges are and what we need to overcome.”
- Phase 2/Winter season; ponder and decide: During the winter, the Cherokees break into smaller groups, and activate their ideas since there is more time to spend together. The importance of finding something special or unique that you admire about a person, instead of finding faults, is prioritized.
- Phase 3/Spring season; connect and execute: Spring is about creating an action plan with specific work groups and the goal is to think about how to motivate one another and work together. Galisgewi explains “we find each other, we learn who the other is, their likes and preferences, and discover the way they want to be treated.”
- Phase 4/Summer season; assess and transition: The ideas and goals created in the fall come to life. Work groups break out into specific job plans and make sure the process works–no matter what. “If you really care about somebody, you will find no reason to let go of them. You will not let anything come between you and that person.”
"The cycle allows us to digest the innovation process as a community and create a way of life that enables us to adapt, change, and progress forward in the modern world, as well as hang on to who we are with our traditional identity."
At every step, the focus is on inclusion. The Cherokee cycle is similar to a traditional design cycle and Galisgewi believes it is a model for innovation that has universal applicability.
Traditional teachings, modern applications
Key innovators in the Cherokee nation had common elements. They thought about what they could do for the community and not just the individuals, they prioritized working and communicating as a team, they valued and encouraged the contributions of women, and they included members of their communities in every single phase of the process to give them a platform. Putting attention on community values and not just the individuals is fundamental.
“As we move from individual-centered design to community-centered design, we should be thinking about how we can involve people from the community,” explains Robertson. “We should be humble about our ability to really understand the values that matter, and our ability to synthesize and capture the way that a community will judge and evaluate whether an innovation is there or not.” Innovators must think about whether an innovation is good for the community and test it.
Roberston shared the example of the customer to illustrate the four-season cycle and teachings that Galisgewi outlined: “In terms of pruning and removing things that aren't necessary we should ask, what would we stop doing that would improve our customers' communities? Moving around to the winter, what do we admire about our customers? How can we let them know that we admire that? How can we communicate that? And, moving to the spring, how can we find more opportunities to not just visit our customers, but really find something sacred and important about them? And lastly in the summer, this almost wrestling with people to make sure that we bring everybody along as we make an innovation happen in our companies or our communities.”
Learn more
David Roberston teaches Revitalizing Existing Products with AI-Driven Innovation. This program equips you with cutting-edge AI tools and proven strategies to turn mature products into market leaders, increasing customer value and driving revenue growth.
Contributed by Elaine Santoyo Goldman