Bob Pullum

Design by committee kills innovation. Early in my career, I worked on a shoe that had everything going for it. Great materials, sleek design, and a clear vision. Then came the review meetings. Everyone had an opinion. “Make it safer.” “Tone it down.” “Let’s not take too many risks.” By the time it hit production, the soul of the design was gone. It was fine. But no one loved it. No one remembered it. Ferdinand Porsche once said: "Committees lead to creations that have no soul, no clear identity." He was right. Bold ideas don’t come from playing it safe. They come from trusting expertise, taking calculated risks, and having the courage to stand behind a vision. 𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲’𝘀 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁: If you're leading a design (or any creative work), ask yourself: are you making it better, or just making it safer? What are YOU doing to protect your creative vision? ----------------------- Want more insights on design, creativity, and innovation? Sign up for my newsletter for tips you won’t find anywhere else: https://lnkd.in/e5NSmu8e

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Ever notice how Apple sells the iPhone in three storage tiers? Or how car manufacturers offer base, mid, and premium trims? They're all leveraging the brilliance of "good, better, best" product design. Small design changes create big market distinctions. Take these Beyond Design, Inc. thermometer sketches (see image). Same core function, but watch how subtle modifications in form factor create three distinct products for three different customer segments and price points. Here's why this strategy dominates: 📈 Clear value ladder – Customers instantly see the upgrade path 🧠 Reduced decision fatigue – Three choices hit the sweet spot between options and overwhelm 🌍 Complete market capture – Budget buyers, value seekers, and premium customers all covered 🔧 R&D efficiency – One core design, multiple revenue streams 💡 Psychological pricing magic – That middle tier becomes irresistible The genius is in thoughtful simplification. By identifying the key differentiators that truly matter to your customers, you can create distinct value propositions without reinventing the wheel. Whether you're designing medical devices, consumer electronics, or industrial equipment, ask yourself: What small changes could create big distinctions in your product line? Have you seen simple design modifications create unexpected market opportunities? #ProductStrategy #Design #Innovation #ProductDevelopment #BusinessStrategy #ProductManagement

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🎨 What do scientific covers and Renaissance paintings have in common? = Both use composition to guide the eye, and tell a story. At DrawImpacts, one of the tools we use most is intentional composition. Think of it like choreography for the viewer’s gaze: 👁 Where do they look first? 🌀 What do they notice next? 🎯 What feeling does the layout evoke? Think: 🖼 The triangular balance in da Vinci’s Virgin of the Rocks 🌀 The spiral flow of a seashell ⚡️ The diagonals in Liberty Leading the People In science illustration, these structures aren't just beautiful, they're purposeful. They help people understand where to look, what matters, and how everything connects. Strong composition can make a complex story instantly graspable. Cover illustration for #DeveshPants , Jie Jiang et. al. on "ALS-linked KIF5A ΔExon27 mutant causes neuronal toxicity through gain-of-function” in #EMBOReport EMBO Press 🗞️https://lnkd.in/dPJKCd-W #VisualStorytelling #ScienceIllustration #DrawImpacts #CompositionMatters #JournalCovers #ScienceCommunication #ArtInScience #SciComm

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Most employees adapt when they’re told to. (The best ones move before the brief.) In my recent conversation with Jakob Nielsen, one insight cut through the noise. Designers aren't falling behind because of AI. They're falling behind because they’re waiting. Waiting for permission. Waiting for clarity. Waiting for someone else to take the first step. But the real shift isn't in tools. It’s in posture. Design used to be about executing decisions. Now it’s about shaping them. AI flips the interaction model. It moves us from command-based to intent-driven workflows. Which means designers need to get better at defining what matters, not just how it looks. Agency is no longer optional. It is the skill that will separate the next generation of design leaders from those who quietly fade out. The future is already moving, and it won’t pause until you’re ready. What’s one thing you can initiate this week, without waiting for a brief? 🔃 If you found this post helpful, repost it with your network. Follow Joe Woodham for weekly insights on design leadership, business fluency, and influence that lasts.

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Stop outsourcing. Start collaborating. Designing with external vendors is not outsourcing. It’s collaboration. Some of the best design outcomes happen outside your own walls. When you treat vendors as partners, not suppliers, you open up new ways of thinking. They see your brief from a different angle. They challenge assumptions baked into your design language or choice of materials. Too often vendors are brought in late. By then it’s a game of cost-cutting or box-ticking -you lose all that expertise. Bring them in early. Share your ideas. Talk design language and surface quality. Show them the ambition behind the brief not just the spec sheet... They know things you don’t. That knowledge is gold. I have seen brilliant colour matches, tooling workarounds and even new materials come purely from giving a vendor space to think with us. I have also seen poor execution from vendors that are equipped to do better Design is a conversation. Make sure you’re talking to the people who actually make things. How do you work with external partners?.. Pain points, things that do/don't work? --- If you paused, pass it on. Follow Jared Mankelow for more design.

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The Three Pillars for Memorable Motion In our report of 1,300+ participants, three key elements emerged for lasting brand recognition: 👉 Distinctiveness: Unique, signature elements that stand apart. 👉 Consistency: A cohesive motion language across every channel. 👉 Time: Repetition that cements those cues into collective memory. Check out the full results: insights.vucko.co

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I’ve been thinking a lot about how we approach AI at Bluecadet—and wanted to share what we landed on. Curiosity and openness: Start with optimism. What can AI make possible? Acceleration, not substitution: AI can augment our creativity—helping us brainstorm, visualize, and prototype faster—but it doesn’t replace human judgment or care. Responsible adoption, authentic output: Use AI when it adds value. Avoid defaulting to it. And whatever we make should still feel meaningfully ours. Inspired by a tip from Brian Williams at Viget, we’re giving our team a monthly AI subsidy to explore. $25/mo to play, test, and learn. Because the only way to have a real opinion on AI is to use it. Curious how others are approaching this. What’s your studio’s stance?

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Screenless interfaces are closer than we think. Collaborative Fund’s Sophie Bakalar outlines three converging pillars—next‑gen hardware, voice, motion—that will shift tech into ambient, human‑centered modes. Her post was formed over a lunch chat with Emmett Shine. What will it take to return attention to the human? Are we ready to rethink UX from tone to trust? https://lnkd.in/eS9G5G-Y

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I always find things worth sharing in the IDEO newsletter. Today's gem: redesigning retail for the next generation. This bit really resonated: "Brands of the future will serve as connectors, offering consumers an active role in co-creating content and programming. Instead of mass-market activations like yet another celebrity sneaker drop, they’ll invest in community-driven experiences like LEGO’s Ideas platform, which lets fans share what they’ve built, propose new ideas for bricksets, and vote on models built by fellow fans. The next wave of influence and brand building will come from enabling customers to co-author the future of their favorite brand and its products, sharing their identity to inform and build experiences for and with others. Younger customers are drawn back to brands that reflect their identities, because they feel they belong." #cocreation #content #brandbuilding https://lnkd.in/eGXNP2xZ

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I had a realisation while doom-scrolling LinkedIn this weekend: The industry is obsessed with the how. Are we losing sight of the what? We’re hyper-focused on AI collapsing idea-to-build. Instant prototypes. Rapid deployment. Shipping in hours, not weeks. (Myself included) But here’s the risk: you can now build the wrong thing faster than ever. Speed isn’t the enemy. With sharp feedback loops, failure still teaches. But when shipping fast becomes the baseline, your real advantage is knowing what to build, knowing it sooner than anyone else, and then shipping it at pace. That’s product intuition: figuring out the right thing to build, and building it right. It’s always been the thing that matters most. Today, it matters more than ever. Understand fast. Build fast. Fail fast. Repeat. The loop has to start with understanding.

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In my latest piece for Fast Company, I explore the deeper dynamics behind brand loyalty and what we can learn from the formula that fuels enduring super-fandoms.Rather than relying on perks or promotions, true loyalty is built through emotional resonance, community, and cultural relevance. Read the full piece here and let me know what brands you think are getting it right: https://lnkd.in/dQTzEX6y Journey

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Everyone’s talking about being AI-first. But is anyone asking what it’s doing to their brand? In my conversation with Fast Company, I shared fresh insight from the latest FutureBrand research, and the findings point to a warning. While “AI-first” is being used with increasing confidence, it’s often misunderstood, and in many cases, mistrusted. When audiences hear AI-first, they’re just as likely to think of job loss and depersonalisation as they are innovation. AI-forward, not just AI-first, is a principle that has guided our process when integrating AI into our ways of working, helping us unlock better outcomes, without losing sight of the human ones. Thanks to Christopher Zara for such an in-depth piece on a crucial topic. Full article via the link in the comments.  #AIforward #BrandStrategy #FastCompany

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