"Lets think big
and start small!"
During my graduation project I had the chance to dive into the innovation process of ASICS, a big international company. During my research I analyzed the current innovation process of ASICS, I benchmarked it against best practices in the industry and literature and come up with recommendations on how to improve ASICS innovation process. I was also able to organize a workshop with 20 employees from different backgrounds in Japan (ASICS Headquarters) where I tried to inspire people to develop a new innovation mindset.
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During this project I worked on the following research questions:
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- How are innovation processed currently organized within ASICS?
- How does this compare with other methods (found in literature or from company case studies ) ?
- What are opportunities for improvement of the current innovation process?
- What are interesting directions/opportunities for innovative concept development?
- Can I design a product that helps ASICS to communicate innovativeness to their customers?
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I did a lot of research into different innovation methods like The Delft Innovation Method, Brand Driven Innovation, Vision in Product Design, Design Driven Innovation and Human Centred Design. In addition I described four interesting case studies providing an insight in the innovation approach of the automotive industry, Samsung, Unilever and Philips. Each method and case study is compared with ASICS innovation approach which results in a set of conclusions and recommendations.
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The graduation project provided ASICS with insights into its current innovation process. The results from the strategic phase were translated into interesting directions for future development. A design project was executed as an
illustration of the strategic recommendations. This means the design project started off with a roadmapping session in which interesting visions were developed. Based on one of those visions: “ASICS towards a world of injury free athletes” a more focused analysis phase was conducted. After diverging and converging several times in the design process, a final concept was developed: “Vibe”.
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Vibe is a wearable device which provides the user with meaningful and more intuitive feedback based on data gathered by the RunKeeper app on the users smartphone. Vibe is especially designed for the recreational runner. This target group will most likely not buy an expensive running watch and gets all the needed information about their run from an app like RunKeeper. However, Vibe can give them real time feedback about their performance, and helps them to run with a healthy rhythm. Vibe can be seen as an extension of the RunKeeper app and will be an accessible and low cost wearable.
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In order to be able to test the concept, a working prototype was developed which can be seen on the images below.
