DESIGNING THE FUTURE

Welcome to our "designing the future" blog where we share our experiences and solutions from over a decade of complex technology-based transformation projects in the justice sector. Our goals here are simple; to share our solutions and experiences with others that might benefit from them, and to engage with others transforming their dispute resolution organizations so that we can advance the sector together. These articles are organized into three distinct "series" that are described below. Scroll to the bottom to view the articles.

The innovation through integration series

Integration is a cornerstone of innovation. To understand this, look no further than the transformational iPhone (or other modern smart phone). Before the smartphone, not only were there stand-alone devices like mp3 players, portable video players, hand-held game consoles, digital video and still cameras, cellular phones, GPS mapping systems, and personal digital assistants - but a lot of these devices were actually pretty great. Then (queue ominous music) these individual devices were intelligently integrated into one device (the smartphone). The result was so much greater than just a sum of the parts that it's only obvious in hindsight. Today you can take a photo, edit it, send it to someone (by text, email or app) and have it automatically backed up on the cloud - and that's just one tiny integration example. As for the fate of the non-integrated devices, most have been relegated to a technology graveyard that older generations reminisce about and our children are astonished by. That's the power of integration.

In this series of articles, we will share some key DMS innovations that were only possible through complex integration.

The comprehensive design series

How important is design to the success of your solutions? These three design quotes sum it up well: "Design is the difference between an assortment of bird parts and an eagle (unknown)", and, "The alternative to good design is always bad design. There is no such thing as no design (Adam Judge)", and, "Design is so critical it should be on the agenda of every meeting in every single department (Tom Peters)".

With the prevalent use of "ability to" statements to compare systems or create agile backlogs, it is far too easy to forget how much more "able" something well-designed is. The reason for this is pretty obvious, "ability to" statements address "what" and sometimes "why", but they are missing the most important element, "how". For example, a classic flip phone has the "ability to send text messages so that anyone anywhere can communicate asynchronously in real time"- which sounds pretty great until you realize "how" it does it - with a number pad and not a keyboard. Press the one key repeatedly to cycle through 1, A, B, C, a , b, c on the screen and then wait 2 seconds and the cursor moves to the next character. Does a flip phone meet the criteria of being "able to" send text messages? Yes. Was this a good design that users willingly adopted? No. Did Blackberry fix this design problem and dominate the industry until something better came along? Yes. That's the power of design.

In this series of articles, we will share the designs for some of our most complex and transformational DMS features.

The adjacent possible series

The majority of innovation does not come from breakthrough technologies, but through the incorporation of existing and available technologies that expand on existing systems and services. Stuart Kauffman, a theoretical biologist, noted this was how innovation in biological systems often occurs and created the term 'adjacent possible'. Do you remember that smart phones initially didn't include powerful features like app stores, biometric security, wireless charging, high resolution cameras, camera zoom, NFC (near field communications), fast charging, shatter and scratch resistant glass, or water-proofing? Smart phone companies continually added available technologies, often created for other purposes, to give us a reason to buy a new phone while furthering the industry. Today, virtually no one would be happy using an Apple iPhone 4 or Samsung Galaxy S from 2010. That's the power of continually applying adjacent possible opportunities.

In this series we will explore new technologies for opportunities to enhance existing systems and services.