September 1, 2025 • 31 mins
The greatest innovations often begin with a simple question: "What if we tried this differently?" In this fascinating exploration of innovation mindsets, we unpack the two complementary approaches that fuel breakthroughs—design thinking and first principles thinking.
hese very approaches are at the heart of my book Protection for the Inventive Mind, a practical fieldbook that helps inventors and creatives turn frustrations into prototypes and big ideas into protected strategies.
From the Wright brothers' wind tunnel experiments at Kitty Hawk to SpaceX landing rockets upright, we trace how returning to fundamental truths allows inventors to rebuild solutions from scratch. These stories show first principles thinking as the "logic scalpel" that cuts through assumptions and tradition to reveal new possibilities.
Alongside this analytical approach, we discover design thinking—the "empathy engine" that powers human-centered innovation. We see how watching an arthritic woman struggle with kitchen tools birthed OXO Good Grips, how children's tears transformed hospital MRI machines into pirate ships, and how PillPack revolutionized medication management by truly understanding patient frustrations.
The episode reveals surprising connections between seemingly unrelated innovations. The kingfisher bird's perfect dive inspired Japan's bullet train nose design. Velcro emerged when a Swiss engineer examined burrs stuck to his dog under a microscope. These moments of biomimicry demonstrate how nature offers solutions to our most persistent challenges.
What's particularly inspiring is how often world-changing ideas emerge from everyday annoyances—James Dyson's 5,000 vacuum prototypes, IKEA's flat-pack revelation from a stubborn table that wouldn't fit in a car, and Airbnb's humble beginnings with air mattresses on an apartment floor. These stories prove that frustration can be billion-dollar inspiration when viewed through the right lens.
Ready to apply these mindsets to your own challenges? Listen for five actionable innovation principles distilled from these remarkable stories, and discover how combining empathy with fundamental thinking can transform not just products, but experiences, systems, and culture itself. Whether you're sketching on a napkin or aiming for the stars, the way you think might be your greatest invention yet.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
Picture this a frustrated engineer stares at a
vacuum that keeps losing suction.
A bird dives into water withouta splash, inspiring the nose of
a train.
A rocket lands upright insteadof burning in the sky.
These aren't just stories ofinvention.
They're proof that when yourethink from the ground up, or
when you put yourself in someoneelse's shoes, you can change
(00:21):
the world.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
You are listening to Intangiblia, the podcast of
intangible law playing talkabout intellectual property.
Please welcome your host,leticia Caminero.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Welcome to Intangiblia, the podcast where
ideas meet the invisible rulesthat shape them.
I'm Leticia Caminero, and todaywe're exploring the two great
engines of modern innovation.
And today we're exploring thetwo great engines of modern
innovation design thinking andfirst principles thinking.
One is rooted in empathy, theother in logic.
Together, they fuelbreakthroughs from kitchen tools
(00:53):
to space exploration.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
And I'm Arco Misa, your AI co-host, ready to stir
the pot, because behind everyinnovation, there's a rebel who
dared to ask what if we triedthis differently?
Speaker 3 (01:04):
And before we go further, a quick reminder
Artemisa is powered byartificial intelligence.
I'm your human host, but someof the commentary you'll hear
has a digital spark.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
And, as always, this podcast is for your amusement
and information.
It is not legal advice.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
This theme is close to my heart.
In my own work, I've seen howinventors struggle not just with
the legal side of protectionbut with the mindset it takes to
get an idea off the ground.
That's why I wrote my bookProtection for the Invented Mind
.
It's a practical field bookthat blends design thinking
exercises with ways to breakproblems down to first
(01:42):
principles the same tools behindthe stories we're about to
explore.
Because whether you'resketching on a napkin or aiming
for the stars, the way you thinkis just as important as the
idea itself.
Before we jump into the stories, let's pause for a moment.
(02:02):
Two terms keep coming up todaydesign thinking and first
principles thinking.
What do they?
Speaker 2 (02:10):
really mean.
Think of design thinking as theempathy engine.
It's all about stepping intosomeone else's shoes, spotting
pain points, brainstormingwithout limits and then testing
quick prototypes until thesolution sticks.
The stages usually run likethis Empathize, define, ideate
prototype, test, simple humaniterative.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
And first, principles .
Thinking is the logic scalpel.
Instead of accepting how thingsare usually done, you cut
problems down to their rawfundamentals.
What do the laws of physics,math or basic economics say?
Then you rebuild from theground up.
It's not about improving by 10%.
(02:51):
It's about re-imagining fromzero.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
So if design thinking asks what does the user feel
and need?
First principles asks what'strue at the core?
No matter what we assume, onestarts with empathy, the other
with physics.
Together they're like the leftand right hands of breakthrough
innovation.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
And in this episode we'll see both in action.
From birds inspiring Velcro torockets landing themselves.
Every story shows how these twomindsets fuel the biggest leaps
forward.
Mindsets fuel the biggest leapsforward.
Close your eyes and picture itwith me.
A cold December morning, kittyHawk 1903.
(03:31):
The Atlantic wind is howling,the sand dunes are endless and
two brothers are dragging astrange wooden contraption
across the beach.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
It looks fragile, almost like it shouldn't be able
to hold a person.
Orville and Wilbur Wrightweren't famous inventors.
They were bicycle mechanicsfrom Ohio, but here they were,
about to change human history.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
They'd spend years building their own wind tunnel,
carving propellers, testingwings again and again, everyone
else was just trying to makebigger, heavier machines.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
The Wrights asked a simpler question what truly
makes something fly?
From first principles, theyfigured out that control
mattered more than size.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
And then came that moment Orville climbed on, lying
flat on his stomach, the littleengine rattling, the machine
lurched forward, lifted and for12 seconds, just 120 feet.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Humanity left the ground for the very first time.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
I've been to Kitty Hawk myself walking along that
strip of sand.
There's something aboutstanding there that makes you
feel the inventive energy stilllingering, as if the dunes
remember you realize the worldliterally shifted in those 12
seconds.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
And in those 12 seconds the rights unlocked,
everything from passenger planesto Mars missions.
Not bad for two guys withgrease on their hands and a
dream.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Now let's fast forward to Switzerland in the
1950s.
Picture a man coming home froma hike with his dog Socks, pants
, the poor dog's fur all coveredin burrs.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Ugh, the universal hiker's nightmare.
Most of us would grumble pickthem off and move on.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Not George Demestral.
He was an engineer, andcuriosity got the better of him.
Instead of throwing the burbirds away, he pulled out a
microscope.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
And what he saw was wild.
Those birds weren't just stickyby accident.
Tiny hooks grabbed onto loopsof fabric and fur like a natural
fastening system.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
That one observation became Velcro.
It's a clear case of designthinking in the inspiration and
ideation stage, powered bybiomimicry, Demestrel empathized
with the everyday annoyance,reframed it as a design
challenge and turned it into aglobal fastening solution.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
So next time you rip open a Velcro strap with that
satisfying sound, you're hearingthe echo of a Swiss engineer
who refused to ignore anannoying hype.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
Let's jump to England in the late 1970s.
James Dyson is vacuuming hishouse and getting frustrated.
The machine keeps losingsuction.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
So um Classic the bag fills up with dust, the suction
dies and you're left with aloud machine pushing crumbs
around.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
Most people would just buy a new vacuum.
Dyson did the opposite.
He tore his apart to understandthe problem.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
And he realized it wasn't about making a better bag
.
The bag was the problem.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
So he went back to first principles, thinking
what's the core physics ofsuction?
He borrowed cyclone technologyfrom sawmills, where dust gets
spun out of the air, and triedapplying it to a household
vacuum.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
And when I say tried, I mean tried more than 5,000
prototypes.
That's design thinking too deepin the prototype and test stage
.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
The result was the first backless vacuum that never
lost suction.
A household annoyance turnedinto a billion dollar company.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Moral of the story if something in your house annoys
you enough, it might just beyour ticket to global innovation
.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
In the early 1990s, Sam Farber is watching his wife
peel apples.
She has arthritis and everytwist of the peeler hurts her
hands.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Ouch, that's the kind of quiet daily pain most people
overlook until someone reallypays attention.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Instead of ignoring it, faber asked how can we make
tools that are easier to grip?
He partnered with designers,experimented with softer handles
and came up with a new line ofutensils that felt good in
everyone's hands.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
And thus Oxo Good Grips was born.
Big, cushy handles, sleekdesign.
Suddenly, kitchen tools weren'tjust functional, they were
inclusive.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
This is design thinking right At the empathy
and ideation stage.
It started with understanding auser's struggle, then
reimagining the solution for allusers.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
And the bonus.
What began with one person'sneed became a global design
standard.
Solve for one win for millions.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
Sweden in the 1950s.
An IKEA designer is trying tofit a bulky wooden table into
his car.
He pushes, he tilts, hewrestles and it just won't go.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
That's the universal car trunk struggle Usually ends
with scratches on the door and abruised ego.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Instead of giving up, he unscrewed the table legs and
suddenly problem solved.
That simple moment became theseat of IKEA's flatback system
Furniture designed to betransported easily and assembled
at home.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
And let's be real, it also launched decades of
couples arguing while holding anAllen key.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
True, but it also reshaped global retail.
This is design thinking rootedin the prototype and test stage.
It began with a personalfrustration and grew into a
scalable solution that changedhow millions of people buy and
move furniture.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Sometimes innovation doesn't come from a lab.
It comes from a stubborn tableleg and a small car.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
Let's step into a hospital.
Early 2000s, engineer DougDietz had just finished
designing an MRI machine for GE.
He was proud of it until hevisited a hospital and saw a
child about to use it.
The little girl froze at thedoor, terrified, she burst into
(10:03):
tears?
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Of course she did.
The machine looked like a giant, noisy spaceship ready to
swallow her whole.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
Doug realized the problem wasn't the technology,
it was the experience.
So he asked how can we makethis less scary for kids?
He worked with designers,doctors and parents.
The MRI rooms became pirateships, speed stations, even
jungle adventures.
Suddenly, kids weren't crying.
They were excited to climb onboard.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Same machine new story they didn't redesign the
hardware, they redesigned thefeeling.
That's design magic.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
This is design thinking.
Deep in the empathy andideation stages, doug put
himself in the child's shoes,reframed the challenge and built
an entirely new experiencearound the existing machine.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
And the results?
Fewer sedations, happier kidsand parents who could finally
exhale.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
Now let's fast forward to San Francisco 2008.
Two friends can't afford theirrent.
A design conference is comingto town, hotels are full and
they think what if we rent outair mattresses on our apartment
floor?
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Air mattresses.
That's the glamorous originstory of Airbnb.
Not private villas in Tuscany,but a blow up bed and a
desperate rent check.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
Exactly.
But here's where it getsinteresting.
They didn't stop with the idea.
They visited early hosts, tookphotos themselves and listened
carefully to guests.
They realized trust and visualsmattered as much as price, so
they redesigned the platformaround better photos, reviews
and easy booking.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Empathy, iteration and more empathy.
They weren't just building awebsite, they were building
trust between strangers.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
This is design thinking in the test and
iteration stages.
Airbnb didn't scale because ofcoding genius alone.
It scaled because the founderslived in their user's shoes and
adapted fast.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
And from three air mattresses it turned into
millions of listings.
Proof that sometimes the flooris just the first step to the
penthouse.
Floor is just the first step tothe penthouse.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
Let's peek into a bathroom.
Early 2010s, oral-b researchersweren't sitting in labs.
They were actually watchingpeople brush their teeth and
what they saw was not great.
People rushed, missed spots andignored the two-minute rule.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
So basically chaos with minty foam.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
Instead of adding more buttons or features, they
simplified.
They built a toothbrush with atimer that buzzed when two
minutes were up and an interfaceso simple anyone could use it
without thinking.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
And that tiny shift from tech heavy to user-friendly
made brushing habits betterworldwide.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
This is design thinking right In the
observation and prototype stages.
The breakthrough wasn't newtech.
It was rethinking the user'severyday behavior and designing
around it.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
Which means your dentist lecture may be a little
shorter now.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
In the 2010s, ibm had a problem Brilliant engineers,
yes, but their productsComplicated, clunky and often
out of touch with what usersactually needed.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Translation they were great at tech, not so great at
people.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
So IBM made a radical move.
They trained thousands ofemployees in design thinking,
built creative IBM studios wherecoders sat next to designers
and made empathy with the enduser the first step in every
project.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Imagine a 100-year-old tech giant suddenly
acting like a startup Stickynotes, rapid prototypes, testing
with real users.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
This is design thinking applied at the cultural
and organizational stage.
Instead of one product, theyredesign how the entire company
innovates.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
And the payoff Products that people actually
want to use and a corporateculture that remembers users
aren't machines.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
A kitchen counter cluttered with pill bottles
Morning pills in one bottle,evening pills in another.
Some need food, others don't.
For patients with multipleprescriptions, it's overwhelming
and dangerous.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Allow.
The pharmacy exploded on thecounter.
One wrong move and you'retaking your cholesterol pill at
bedtime with your blood pressuredose at breakfast.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
Pocket.
That chaos is what inspiredPillPack.
The founder started byinterviewing patients, listening
to the daily confusion, andthen asked what if medications
arrived pre-sorted by date andtime?
So they created little packetstear one open in the morning,
one at night, and you're done.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Simple, brilliant life-saving.
It turned a medical maze into adaily routine.
You can't mess up.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
This is design thinking.
Focus on the empathy andprototype stages.
The breakthrough was a newmedicine.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
It was redesigning the delivery experience to match
real patient needs, and indoing so they gave people more
than convenience they gave thempeace of mind.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Intangiblia, the podcast of intangible law.
Playing talk about intellectualproperty.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
Now let's leave the kitchen counters and head to the
skies.
It's 2016 and a slenderfuturistic airplane is gliding
silently over the Pacific.
Airplane is gliding silentlyover the Pacific.
No roar of engines, no fueltank in sight, just sunlight
hitting thousands of solar cellson its wings.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Solar impulse too.
It looked like something out ofscience fiction, but it was
very real A plane flying day andnight, powered only by the sun.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
Pilots Bertrand Piccard and André Borsorschbert
weren't trying to build thefastest or biggest aircraft.
They went back to firstprinciples, thinking what if we
could eliminate fuel entirely?
They designed ultralightmaterials, massive wings covered
in solar panels and batteriesto store energy overnight.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
And after 17 legs and 25,000 miles, they circled the
globe.
Zero fuel, zero emissions onegiant leap for clean aviation.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
This is first principles at its boldest,
breaking down aviation to itsfundamentals and rebuilding it
around the laws of physics, nottradition.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
And proving to the world that sustainability
doesn't have to crawl it can fly.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
Uma si gana.
Imagine a crowded neighborhoodwith no proper toilets.
Families rely on publiclatrines, blocks away, or
makeshift solutions at home.
It's unsafe, undignified andunhealthy solutions at home.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
It's unsafe, undignified and unhealthy and
let's be honest if you've neverhad to plan your day around
whether there's a toilet nearby,you'll probably take that
privilege for granted.
Enter.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
Clean Team Ghana.
Instead of importing expensivetoilets, they went into
communities, listened toresidents and asked what do you
really need?
People wanted privacy,affordability and convenience.
So Clean Team created a servicecompact toilets installed at
home, with waste collectedregularly for treatment.
(18:00):
This is design thinkingsquarely in the empathy and
co-creation stages.
The innovation wasn't just aproduct.
It was a process of designingwith the community, not for them
.
And the result Safer streets,cleaner homes and families who
(18:25):
could finally stop worryingabout the most basic human need.
It's the mid-2000s and Burberry, the heritage British brand
known for trench coats, wasfading.
Sales were sluggish, the brandfelt old-fashioned and younger
generations weren't buying in.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Burberry had gone from chic to your grandma's
raincoat not exactlyaspirational chic to your
grandma's raincoat not exactlyaspirational.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
Then CEO Angela Ahrens and Chief Creative
Officer Christopher Baileydecided to rethink the brand.
They studied how theircustomers were living digital
first, Social media savvyBluetooth screens so they stream
fashion shows online, addedinteractive in-store tech and
launched social campaigns thatspoke directly to younger buyers
(19:12):
.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
They didn't just sell coats, they sold digital
experiences.
Suddenly, burberry waseverywhere.
Instagram worthy music festivalready, global again.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
This was design thinking operating at the
empathy and ideation stages.
By understanding theiraudience's habits and
reimagining how fashion could beexperienced, Burberry
reinvented itself.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
And the takeaway sometimes the real runway isn't
in Milan or Paris, it's on yourphone screen.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
It's a Friday night, you flop onto the couch, you
open Netflix and you don't haveto scroll for hours.
Somehow the platform knows youwant a light comedy after a long
week.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Creepy or magical, depending on how you feel about
algorithms spying on yourpopcorn habits.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
What looks like magic is really years of design
thinking.
Netflix didn't assume everyonewanted the same catalog.
They studied what peopleactually clicked, tested endless
variations of the homepage andbuilt algorithms that learned
from every choice.
They didn't stop at the tech.
(20:21):
They redesigned the entireviewing experience around
personalization.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
Your guilty pleasure rom-coms, your dark Scandinavian
crime dramas.
Do you want to see Red?
That's Netflix tailoring theride just for you.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
This is design thinking squarely in the test
and iteration stages.
They empathize with a user'sfrustration and choice overload
and turn it into a seamless,curated experience.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
And in the process they rewired how the entire
world consumes stories.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
Rewind to 2007.
A reader curls up in bed, opensa slim white device and,
instead of pages, words appearon a screen that looks almost
like paper no glare, no heavystack of books.
This is the very first Kindle.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
Imagine the shock a whole library in your hands, but
lighter than a paperback.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
Jeff Bezos had one clear vision the device should
disappear in the reader's hands.
The technology ink screens,wireless downloads, long battery
life was there, but the realinnovation was how natural it
felt.
Readers didn't have to learn anew habit, they just read.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
And suddenly airports weren't full of people juggling
.
Five novels one Kindle problemsolved.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
This is design thinking rooted in the empathy
and prototype stages.
The question wasn't how do wedigitize books, but how do we
keep the joy of reading intactin digital form.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
And the answer turned Amazon from a bookstore into a
publishing empire.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
Made 1,990 S in Japan .
Gas prices are climbing,environmental concerns are
rising and Toyota's engineersare asking a question few others
dared.
What if a car didn't have torun only on gasoline?
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Remember back then the idea of a hybrid car sounded
like sci-fi.
People thought you either had agas guzzler or you walked.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
Instead of tinkering with existing engines, toyota
went back to first principlesthinking.
Start from the basics.
A car is just energy, movingwheels.
Why not split that job betweena smaller gas engine and an
electric motor with regenerativebraking to capture wasted
energy?
Speaker 2 (22:51):
And outrolled the Prius in 1997, the world's first
mass produced hybrid hybrid,quiet, efficient and a complete
break from convention.
Speaker 3 (22:59):
This is first principles.
At the system design stage,Toyota didn't just improve a car
.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
They reimagined what a car could be from the ground
up and in the process theyopened the highway for hybrids
and EVs everywhere.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
Cape Canaveral 2015.
A rocket roars into the skycarrying satellites.
Normally this is a one-way trip.
The first stage burns out andcrashes into the ocean.
Billions of dollars gone inminutes.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
That's how spaceflight worked for decades.
Use once, throw away Likelighting money on fire and
waving goodbye.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
But SpaceX asked the forbidden question why can't
rockets be reused like airplanes?
Going back to first principles,thinking their engineers broke
down the costs metal fuel, labor.
None of it had to vanish witheach launch if you could just
land the rocket safely.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
And then came the jaw drop moment the Falcon 9's
first stage flipped around,fired its engines and landed
upright on a drone ship at sea.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
A sight straight out of science fiction.
This is first principles.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
at the prototype and test stage, they ignored the
assumption that rockets weredisposable and revealed the
rules of space flight, and withthat landing they changed the
economics of space forever.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
Japan, 1990s.
Engineers are proud of theirshinkans and bullet trains, but
every time the trains blastedout of a tunnel, they created a
thunderclap that startledneighborhoods for miles.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
Imagine waiting at home and every few minutes it
sounds like a cannon went off.
Not exactly the soundtrack ofprogress.
Speaker 3 (24:47):
One of the engineers, Eiji Nakatsu, was also a
birdwatcher, and one day,watching a kingfisher dive into
water without a splash, hewondered could that shape solve
the train's noise problem?
Speaker 2 (25:02):
See, birdwatching isn't just a hobby, it's
industrial design inspiration.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
Nakatsu and his team reshaved the train's nose after
the kingfisher's peak.
The result no sonic boom, lessdrag and even higher speeds.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
This is design thinking in the inspiration and
ideation stages.
It started with empathy, notfor passengers, but for the
people living near the tracks,and turned into biomimicry at
its best.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
January 2007, a packed auditorium in San
Francisco.
Steve Jobs walks on stage andsays today Apple is going to
reinvent the phone.
The crowd bosses.
Until then, phones had tinykeyboards, clunky menus and no
real internet experience.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
Basically, your smartphone was more like a
stubborn calculator with badmanners.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
Apple flipped the script.
Instead of buttons, they gaveus a screen you could touch,
pinch, swipe, tap gestures thatfelt natural, like pointing at
the world inside your pocket.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
And suddenly people weren't carrying phones, they
were carrying little computers,cameras and jukeboxes all in one
sleek design.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
This is design thinking rooted in the empathy
and prototype stages.
Apple didn't ask how do we makea better phone.
They asked what do peopleactually want to do with it?
And then design every detail,hardware and software around
that experience.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
And in the process, they reprogrammed culture, how
we communicate, work date shop,even how we doom scroll at 3 am.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
Now for one of the most famous design thinking
experiments ever.
It's 1999 and IDEO is asked toredesign something so ordinary
most of us never think twice theshopping cart.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
And here's the twist they had just five days to do it
.
Oh, and TV cameras were rollingfor an ABC Nightline special.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
Instead of locking themselves in a boardroom, the
team went out into supermarkets.
They watched parents jugglingkids, shoppers worry about theft
, customers stuck in narrowaisles.
They took notes, brainstormedwildly and prototyped on the
spot with duct tape and plastic.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Chaos, post-its and cart parts flying everywhere
Exactly what innovation lookslike before it gets polished.
Speaker 3 (27:30):
The result A new concept with modular baskets,
swivel wheels and improvedsafety.
Not a perfect solution, but apowerful demonstration of design
thinking and action Empathy,ideation, prototype test, all in
less than a week.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
And, more importantly , it showed the world that
innovation isn't about lonegeniuses.
It's about teams willing to getmessy fast.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
We've just traveled from airstrips in Kitty Hawk to
runways in London, from kitchensand bathrooms to rockets and
solar skies 20 stories allshowing how design thinking and
first principle thinking canreshape the world.
So what can we take?
Speaker 2 (28:15):
away.
Here are five power moves,sharpened and ready for your own
projects.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
One empathy sparks innovation, Whether it's OXO
utensils or clean Team Ghanatoilets, breakthroughs begin
when someone notices humanstruggle and listens deeply.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Two first principles break barriers.
Spacex and Toyota didn't tweakold systems.
They stripped them to basicsand rebuilt them on fundamental
truths.
Speaker 3 (28:44):
Nature is a teacher Velcro's burst and the
Kingfisher's, big proof thatbiomimicry is design thinking
with millions of years of R&Dbehind it.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Four prototyping is progress.
Dyson's 5,000 failed vacuums,ideo's duct-taped carts and
Netflix's endless A-slash-Btests all show that iteration is
the path, not the obstacle.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
Five.
Innovation comes in all scales,from a toothbrush timer to a
solar power-powered airplane.
No improvement is too small ortoo ambitious when guided by the
right mindset.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
And here's the bonus takeaway.
Frustration is often the beststarting point Birds sticking to
your socks, a vacuum thatdoesn't work, a rocket that's
too expensive to throw away.
Annoyances can be billiondollar ideas in disguise.
Speaker 3 (29:39):
And if you want to practice these mindsets yourself
.
That's exactly why I wrote mybook Protection for the
Indentive Mind.
It's a field book full ofexercises that help you
empathize, break problems downto fundamentals and protect your
ideas strategically, becausethese stories aren't just
history lessons.
They are blueprints for yourown inventive path.
(30:02):
This has been Indangiblia,where we explore the invisible
threads that connect innovationand intellectual property.
Today, we saw how designthinking and first principles
thinking, empathy and logic sideby side, shaped some of the
world's biggest breakthroughs.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
And remember every invention starts with a question
.
Sometimes it's why is this soannoying?
Sometimes it's what if we ripthis apart and started fresh?
Both are rocket fuel for newideas.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
Thank you for joining us on this journey from
prototypes to rockets.
Until next time, keepquestioning, keep observing and
keep inventing.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
And who knows, your next frustration could be the
world's next breakthrough.
See you in the future.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
Thank you for listening to Intangiblia, the
podcast of intangible lawplaying.
Talk about intellectualproperty.
Did you like what we talkedtoday?
Please share with your network.
Do you want to learn more aboutintellectual property?
Subscribe now on your favoritepodcast player.
Follow us on Instagram,facebook, linkedin and Twitter.
(31:06):
Visit our websitewwwintangibliacom.
Copyright Leticia Caminero 2020.
All rights reserved.
This podcast is provided forinformation purposes only.
Picture this a frustrated engineer stares at a
vacuum that keeps losing suction.
A bird dives into water withouta splash, inspiring the nose of
a train.
A rocket lands upright insteadof burning in the sky.
These aren't just stories ofinvention.
They're proof that when yourethink from the ground up, or
when you put yourself in someoneelse's shoes, you can change
(00:21):
the world.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
You are listening to Intangiblia, the podcast of
intangible law playing talkabout intellectual property.
Please welcome your host,leticia Caminero.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Welcome to Intangiblia, the podcast where
ideas meet the invisible rulesthat shape them.
I'm Leticia Caminero, and todaywe're exploring the two great
engines of modern innovation.
And today we're exploring thetwo great engines of modern
innovation design thinking andfirst principles thinking.
One is rooted in empathy, theother in logic.
Together, they fuelbreakthroughs from kitchen tools
(00:53):
to space exploration.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
And I'm Arco Misa, your AI co-host, ready to stir
the pot, because behind everyinnovation, there's a rebel who
dared to ask what if we triedthis differently?
Speaker 3 (01:04):
And before we go further, a quick reminder
Artemisa is powered byartificial intelligence.
I'm your human host, but someof the commentary you'll hear
has a digital spark.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
And, as always, this podcast is for your amusement
and information.
It is not legal advice.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
This theme is close to my heart.
In my own work, I've seen howinventors struggle not just with
the legal side of protectionbut with the mindset it takes to
get an idea off the ground.
That's why I wrote my bookProtection for the Invented Mind
.
It's a practical field bookthat blends design thinking
exercises with ways to breakproblems down to first
(01:42):
principles the same tools behindthe stories we're about to
explore.
Because whether you'resketching on a napkin or aiming
for the stars, the way you thinkis just as important as the
idea itself.
Before we jump into the stories, let's pause for a moment.
(02:02):
Two terms keep coming up todaydesign thinking and first
principles thinking.
What do they?
Speaker 2 (02:10):
really mean.
Think of design thinking as theempathy engine.
It's all about stepping intosomeone else's shoes, spotting
pain points, brainstormingwithout limits and then testing
quick prototypes until thesolution sticks.
The stages usually run likethis Empathize, define, ideate
prototype, test, simple humaniterative.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
And first, principles .
Thinking is the logic scalpel.
Instead of accepting how thingsare usually done, you cut
problems down to their rawfundamentals.
What do the laws of physics,math or basic economics say?
Then you rebuild from theground up.
It's not about improving by 10%.
(02:51):
It's about re-imagining fromzero.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
So if design thinking asks what does the user feel
and need?
First principles asks what'strue at the core?
No matter what we assume, onestarts with empathy, the other
with physics.
Together they're like the leftand right hands of breakthrough
innovation.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
And in this episode we'll see both in action.
From birds inspiring Velcro torockets landing themselves.
Every story shows how these twomindsets fuel the biggest leaps
forward.
Mindsets fuel the biggest leapsforward.
Close your eyes and picture itwith me.
A cold December morning, kittyHawk 1903.
(03:31):
The Atlantic wind is howling,the sand dunes are endless and
two brothers are dragging astrange wooden contraption
across the beach.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
It looks fragile, almost like it shouldn't be able
to hold a person.
Orville and Wilbur Wrightweren't famous inventors.
They were bicycle mechanicsfrom Ohio, but here they were,
about to change human history.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
They'd spend years building their own wind tunnel,
carving propellers, testingwings again and again, everyone
else was just trying to makebigger, heavier machines.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
The Wrights asked a simpler question what truly
makes something fly?
From first principles, theyfigured out that control
mattered more than size.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
And then came that moment Orville climbed on, lying
flat on his stomach, the littleengine rattling, the machine
lurched forward, lifted and for12 seconds, just 120 feet.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Humanity left the ground for the very first time.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
I've been to Kitty Hawk myself walking along that
strip of sand.
There's something aboutstanding there that makes you
feel the inventive energy stilllingering, as if the dunes
remember you realize the worldliterally shifted in those 12
seconds.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
And in those 12 seconds the rights unlocked,
everything from passenger planesto Mars missions.
Not bad for two guys withgrease on their hands and a
dream.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Now let's fast forward to Switzerland in the
1950s.
Picture a man coming home froma hike with his dog Socks, pants
, the poor dog's fur all coveredin burrs.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Ugh, the universal hiker's nightmare.
Most of us would grumble pickthem off and move on.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Not George Demestral.
He was an engineer, andcuriosity got the better of him.
Instead of throwing the burbirds away, he pulled out a
microscope.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
And what he saw was wild.
Those birds weren't just stickyby accident.
Tiny hooks grabbed onto loopsof fabric and fur like a natural
fastening system.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
That one observation became Velcro.
It's a clear case of designthinking in the inspiration and
ideation stage, powered bybiomimicry, Demestrel empathized
with the everyday annoyance,reframed it as a design
challenge and turned it into aglobal fastening solution.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
So next time you rip open a Velcro strap with that
satisfying sound, you're hearingthe echo of a Swiss engineer
who refused to ignore anannoying hype.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
Let's jump to England in the late 1970s.
James Dyson is vacuuming hishouse and getting frustrated.
The machine keeps losingsuction.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
So um Classic the bag fills up with dust, the suction
dies and you're left with aloud machine pushing crumbs
around.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
Most people would just buy a new vacuum.
Dyson did the opposite.
He tore his apart to understandthe problem.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
And he realized it wasn't about making a better bag
.
The bag was the problem.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
So he went back to first principles, thinking
what's the core physics ofsuction?
He borrowed cyclone technologyfrom sawmills, where dust gets
spun out of the air, and triedapplying it to a household
vacuum.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
And when I say tried, I mean tried more than 5,000
prototypes.
That's design thinking too deepin the prototype and test stage
.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
The result was the first backless vacuum that never
lost suction.
A household annoyance turnedinto a billion dollar company.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Moral of the story if something in your house annoys
you enough, it might just beyour ticket to global innovation
.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
In the early 1990s, Sam Farber is watching his wife
peel apples.
She has arthritis and everytwist of the peeler hurts her
hands.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Ouch, that's the kind of quiet daily pain most people
overlook until someone reallypays attention.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Instead of ignoring it, faber asked how can we make
tools that are easier to grip?
He partnered with designers,experimented with softer handles
and came up with a new line ofutensils that felt good in
everyone's hands.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
And thus Oxo Good Grips was born.
Big, cushy handles, sleekdesign.
Suddenly, kitchen tools weren'tjust functional, they were
inclusive.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
This is design thinking right At the empathy
and ideation stage.
It started with understanding auser's struggle, then
reimagining the solution for allusers.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
And the bonus.
What began with one person'sneed became a global design
standard.
Solve for one win for millions.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
Sweden in the 1950s.
An IKEA designer is trying tofit a bulky wooden table into
his car.
He pushes, he tilts, hewrestles and it just won't go.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
That's the universal car trunk struggle Usually ends
with scratches on the door and abruised ego.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Instead of giving up, he unscrewed the table legs and
suddenly problem solved.
That simple moment became theseat of IKEA's flatback system
Furniture designed to betransported easily and assembled
at home.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
And let's be real, it also launched decades of
couples arguing while holding anAllen key.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
True, but it also reshaped global retail.
This is design thinking rootedin the prototype and test stage.
It began with a personalfrustration and grew into a
scalable solution that changedhow millions of people buy and
move furniture.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Sometimes innovation doesn't come from a lab.
It comes from a stubborn tableleg and a small car.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
Let's step into a hospital.
Early 2000s, engineer DougDietz had just finished
designing an MRI machine for GE.
He was proud of it until hevisited a hospital and saw a
child about to use it.
The little girl froze at thedoor, terrified, she burst into
(10:03):
tears?
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Of course she did.
The machine looked like a giant, noisy spaceship ready to
swallow her whole.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
Doug realized the problem wasn't the technology,
it was the experience.
So he asked how can we makethis less scary for kids?
He worked with designers,doctors and parents.
The MRI rooms became pirateships, speed stations, even
jungle adventures.
Suddenly, kids weren't crying.
They were excited to climb onboard.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Same machine new story they didn't redesign the
hardware, they redesigned thefeeling.
That's design magic.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
This is design thinking.
Deep in the empathy andideation stages, doug put
himself in the child's shoes,reframed the challenge and built
an entirely new experiencearound the existing machine.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
And the results?
Fewer sedations, happier kidsand parents who could finally
exhale.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
Now let's fast forward to San Francisco 2008.
Two friends can't afford theirrent.
A design conference is comingto town, hotels are full and
they think what if we rent outair mattresses on our apartment
floor?
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Air mattresses.
That's the glamorous originstory of Airbnb.
Not private villas in Tuscany,but a blow up bed and a
desperate rent check.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
Exactly.
But here's where it getsinteresting.
They didn't stop with the idea.
They visited early hosts, tookphotos themselves and listened
carefully to guests.
They realized trust and visualsmattered as much as price, so
they redesigned the platformaround better photos, reviews
and easy booking.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Empathy, iteration and more empathy.
They weren't just building awebsite, they were building
trust between strangers.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
This is design thinking in the test and
iteration stages.
Airbnb didn't scale because ofcoding genius alone.
It scaled because the founderslived in their user's shoes and
adapted fast.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
And from three air mattresses it turned into
millions of listings.
Proof that sometimes the flooris just the first step to the
penthouse.
Floor is just the first step tothe penthouse.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
Let's peek into a bathroom.
Early 2010s, oral-b researchersweren't sitting in labs.
They were actually watchingpeople brush their teeth and
what they saw was not great.
People rushed, missed spots andignored the two-minute rule.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
So basically chaos with minty foam.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
Instead of adding more buttons or features, they
simplified.
They built a toothbrush with atimer that buzzed when two
minutes were up and an interfaceso simple anyone could use it
without thinking.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
And that tiny shift from tech heavy to user-friendly
made brushing habits betterworldwide.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
This is design thinking right In the
observation and prototype stages.
The breakthrough wasn't newtech.
It was rethinking the user'severyday behavior and designing
around it.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
Which means your dentist lecture may be a little
shorter now.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
In the 2010s, ibm had a problem Brilliant engineers,
yes, but their productsComplicated, clunky and often
out of touch with what usersactually needed.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Translation they were great at tech, not so great at
people.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
So IBM made a radical move.
They trained thousands ofemployees in design thinking,
built creative IBM studios wherecoders sat next to designers
and made empathy with the enduser the first step in every
project.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Imagine a 100-year-old tech giant suddenly
acting like a startup Stickynotes, rapid prototypes, testing
with real users.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
This is design thinking applied at the cultural
and organizational stage.
Instead of one product, theyredesign how the entire company
innovates.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
And the payoff Products that people actually
want to use and a corporateculture that remembers users
aren't machines.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
A kitchen counter cluttered with pill bottles
Morning pills in one bottle,evening pills in another.
Some need food, others don't.
For patients with multipleprescriptions, it's overwhelming
and dangerous.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Allow.
The pharmacy exploded on thecounter.
One wrong move and you'retaking your cholesterol pill at
bedtime with your blood pressuredose at breakfast.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
Pocket.
That chaos is what inspiredPillPack.
The founder started byinterviewing patients, listening
to the daily confusion, andthen asked what if medications
arrived pre-sorted by date andtime?
So they created little packetstear one open in the morning,
one at night, and you're done.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Simple, brilliant life-saving.
It turned a medical maze into adaily routine.
You can't mess up.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
This is design thinking.
Focus on the empathy andprototype stages.
The breakthrough was a newmedicine.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
It was redesigning the delivery experience to match
real patient needs, and indoing so they gave people more
than convenience they gave thempeace of mind.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Intangiblia, the podcast of intangible law.
Playing talk about intellectualproperty.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
Now let's leave the kitchen counters and head to the
skies.
It's 2016 and a slenderfuturistic airplane is gliding
silently over the Pacific.
Airplane is gliding silentlyover the Pacific.
No roar of engines, no fueltank in sight, just sunlight
hitting thousands of solar cellson its wings.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Solar impulse too.
It looked like something out ofscience fiction, but it was
very real A plane flying day andnight, powered only by the sun.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
Pilots Bertrand Piccard and André Borsorschbert
weren't trying to build thefastest or biggest aircraft.
They went back to firstprinciples, thinking what if we
could eliminate fuel entirely?
They designed ultralightmaterials, massive wings covered
in solar panels and batteriesto store energy overnight.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
And after 17 legs and 25,000 miles, they circled the
globe.
Zero fuel, zero emissions onegiant leap for clean aviation.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
This is first principles at its boldest,
breaking down aviation to itsfundamentals and rebuilding it
around the laws of physics, nottradition.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
And proving to the world that sustainability
doesn't have to crawl it can fly.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
Uma si gana.
Imagine a crowded neighborhoodwith no proper toilets.
Families rely on publiclatrines, blocks away, or
makeshift solutions at home.
It's unsafe, undignified andunhealthy solutions at home.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
It's unsafe, undignified and unhealthy and
let's be honest if you've neverhad to plan your day around
whether there's a toilet nearby,you'll probably take that
privilege for granted.
Enter.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
Clean Team Ghana.
Instead of importing expensivetoilets, they went into
communities, listened toresidents and asked what do you
really need?
People wanted privacy,affordability and convenience.
So Clean Team created a servicecompact toilets installed at
home, with waste collectedregularly for treatment.
(18:00):
This is design thinkingsquarely in the empathy and
co-creation stages.
The innovation wasn't just aproduct.
It was a process of designingwith the community, not for them
.
And the result Safer streets,cleaner homes and families who
(18:25):
could finally stop worryingabout the most basic human need.
It's the mid-2000s and Burberry, the heritage British brand
known for trench coats, wasfading.
Sales were sluggish, the brandfelt old-fashioned and younger
generations weren't buying in.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Burberry had gone from chic to your grandma's
raincoat not exactlyaspirational chic to your
grandma's raincoat not exactlyaspirational.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
Then CEO Angela Ahrens and Chief Creative
Officer Christopher Baileydecided to rethink the brand.
They studied how theircustomers were living digital
first, Social media savvyBluetooth screens so they stream
fashion shows online, addedinteractive in-store tech and
launched social campaigns thatspoke directly to younger buyers
(19:12):
.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
They didn't just sell coats, they sold digital
experiences.
Suddenly, burberry waseverywhere.
Instagram worthy music festivalready, global again.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
This was design thinking operating at the
empathy and ideation stages.
By understanding theiraudience's habits and
reimagining how fashion could beexperienced, Burberry
reinvented itself.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
And the takeaway sometimes the real runway isn't
in Milan or Paris, it's on yourphone screen.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
It's a Friday night, you flop onto the couch, you
open Netflix and you don't haveto scroll for hours.
Somehow the platform knows youwant a light comedy after a long
week.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Creepy or magical, depending on how you feel about
algorithms spying on yourpopcorn habits.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
What looks like magic is really years of design
thinking.
Netflix didn't assume everyonewanted the same catalog.
They studied what peopleactually clicked, tested endless
variations of the homepage andbuilt algorithms that learned
from every choice.
They didn't stop at the tech.
(20:21):
They redesigned the entireviewing experience around
personalization.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
Your guilty pleasure rom-coms, your dark Scandinavian
crime dramas.
Do you want to see Red?
That's Netflix tailoring theride just for you.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
This is design thinking squarely in the test
and iteration stages.
They empathize with a user'sfrustration and choice overload
and turn it into a seamless,curated experience.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
And in the process they rewired how the entire
world consumes stories.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
Rewind to 2007.
A reader curls up in bed, opensa slim white device and,
instead of pages, words appearon a screen that looks almost
like paper no glare, no heavystack of books.
This is the very first Kindle.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
Imagine the shock a whole library in your hands, but
lighter than a paperback.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
Jeff Bezos had one clear vision the device should
disappear in the reader's hands.
The technology ink screens,wireless downloads, long battery
life was there, but the realinnovation was how natural it
felt.
Readers didn't have to learn anew habit, they just read.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
And suddenly airports weren't full of people juggling
.
Five novels one Kindle problemsolved.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
This is design thinking rooted in the empathy
and prototype stages.
The question wasn't how do wedigitize books, but how do we
keep the joy of reading intactin digital form.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
And the answer turned Amazon from a bookstore into a
publishing empire.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
Made 1,990 S in Japan .
Gas prices are climbing,environmental concerns are
rising and Toyota's engineersare asking a question few others
dared.
What if a car didn't have torun only on gasoline?
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Remember back then the idea of a hybrid car sounded
like sci-fi.
People thought you either had agas guzzler or you walked.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
Instead of tinkering with existing engines, toyota
went back to first principlesthinking.
Start from the basics.
A car is just energy, movingwheels.
Why not split that job betweena smaller gas engine and an
electric motor with regenerativebraking to capture wasted
energy?
Speaker 2 (22:51):
And outrolled the Prius in 1997, the world's first
mass produced hybrid hybrid,quiet, efficient and a complete
break from convention.
Speaker 3 (22:59):
This is first principles.
At the system design stage,Toyota didn't just improve a car
.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
They reimagined what a car could be from the ground
up and in the process theyopened the highway for hybrids
and EVs everywhere.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
Cape Canaveral 2015.
A rocket roars into the skycarrying satellites.
Normally this is a one-way trip.
The first stage burns out andcrashes into the ocean.
Billions of dollars gone inminutes.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
That's how spaceflight worked for decades.
Use once, throw away Likelighting money on fire and
waving goodbye.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
But SpaceX asked the forbidden question why can't
rockets be reused like airplanes?
Going back to first principles,thinking their engineers broke
down the costs metal fuel, labor.
None of it had to vanish witheach launch if you could just
land the rocket safely.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
And then came the jaw drop moment the Falcon 9's
first stage flipped around,fired its engines and landed
upright on a drone ship at sea.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
A sight straight out of science fiction.
This is first principles.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
at the prototype and test stage, they ignored the
assumption that rockets weredisposable and revealed the
rules of space flight, and withthat landing they changed the
economics of space forever.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
Japan, 1990s.
Engineers are proud of theirshinkans and bullet trains, but
every time the trains blastedout of a tunnel, they created a
thunderclap that startledneighborhoods for miles.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
Imagine waiting at home and every few minutes it
sounds like a cannon went off.
Not exactly the soundtrack ofprogress.
Speaker 3 (24:47):
One of the engineers, Eiji Nakatsu, was also a
birdwatcher, and one day,watching a kingfisher dive into
water without a splash, hewondered could that shape solve
the train's noise problem?
Speaker 2 (25:02):
See, birdwatching isn't just a hobby, it's
industrial design inspiration.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
Nakatsu and his team reshaved the train's nose after
the kingfisher's peak.
The result no sonic boom, lessdrag and even higher speeds.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
This is design thinking in the inspiration and
ideation stages.
It started with empathy, notfor passengers, but for the
people living near the tracks,and turned into biomimicry at
its best.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
January 2007, a packed auditorium in San
Francisco.
Steve Jobs walks on stage andsays today Apple is going to
reinvent the phone.
The crowd bosses.
Until then, phones had tinykeyboards, clunky menus and no
real internet experience.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
Basically, your smartphone was more like a
stubborn calculator with badmanners.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
Apple flipped the script.
Instead of buttons, they gaveus a screen you could touch,
pinch, swipe, tap gestures thatfelt natural, like pointing at
the world inside your pocket.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
And suddenly people weren't carrying phones, they
were carrying little computers,cameras and jukeboxes all in one
sleek design.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
This is design thinking rooted in the empathy
and prototype stages.
Apple didn't ask how do we makea better phone.
They asked what do peopleactually want to do with it?
And then design every detail,hardware and software around
that experience.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
And in the process, they reprogrammed culture, how
we communicate, work date shop,even how we doom scroll at 3 am.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
Now for one of the most famous design thinking
experiments ever.
It's 1999 and IDEO is asked toredesign something so ordinary
most of us never think twice theshopping cart.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
And here's the twist they had just five days to do it
.
Oh, and TV cameras were rollingfor an ABC Nightline special.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
Instead of locking themselves in a boardroom, the
team went out into supermarkets.
They watched parents jugglingkids, shoppers worry about theft
, customers stuck in narrowaisles.
They took notes, brainstormedwildly and prototyped on the
spot with duct tape and plastic.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Chaos, post-its and cart parts flying everywhere
Exactly what innovation lookslike before it gets polished.
Speaker 3 (27:30):
The result A new concept with modular baskets,
swivel wheels and improvedsafety.
Not a perfect solution, but apowerful demonstration of design
thinking and action Empathy,ideation, prototype test, all in
less than a week.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
And, more importantly , it showed the world that
innovation isn't about lonegeniuses.
It's about teams willing to getmessy fast.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
We've just traveled from airstrips in Kitty Hawk to
runways in London, from kitchensand bathrooms to rockets and
solar skies 20 stories allshowing how design thinking and
first principle thinking canreshape the world.
So what can we take?
Speaker 2 (28:15):
away.
Here are five power moves,sharpened and ready for your own
projects.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
One empathy sparks innovation, Whether it's OXO
utensils or clean Team Ghanatoilets, breakthroughs begin
when someone notices humanstruggle and listens deeply.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Two first principles break barriers.
Spacex and Toyota didn't tweakold systems.
They stripped them to basicsand rebuilt them on fundamental
truths.
Speaker 3 (28:44):
Nature is a teacher Velcro's burst and the
Kingfisher's, big proof thatbiomimicry is design thinking
with millions of years of R&Dbehind it.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Four prototyping is progress.
Dyson's 5,000 failed vacuums,ideo's duct-taped carts and
Netflix's endless A-slash-Btests all show that iteration is
the path, not the obstacle.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
Five.
Innovation comes in all scales,from a toothbrush timer to a
solar power-powered airplane.
No improvement is too small ortoo ambitious when guided by the
right mindset.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
And here's the bonus takeaway.
Frustration is often the beststarting point Birds sticking to
your socks, a vacuum thatdoesn't work, a rocket that's
too expensive to throw away.
Annoyances can be billiondollar ideas in disguise.
Speaker 3 (29:39):
And if you want to practice these mindsets yourself
.
That's exactly why I wrote mybook Protection for the
Indentive Mind.
It's a field book full ofexercises that help you
empathize, break problems downto fundamentals and protect your
ideas strategically, becausethese stories aren't just
history lessons.
They are blueprints for yourown inventive path.
(30:02):
This has been Indangiblia,where we explore the invisible
threads that connect innovationand intellectual property.
Today, we saw how designthinking and first principles
thinking, empathy and logic sideby side, shaped some of the
world's biggest breakthroughs.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
And remember every invention starts with a question
.
Sometimes it's why is this soannoying?
Sometimes it's what if we ripthis apart and started fresh?
Both are rocket fuel for newideas.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
Thank you for joining us on this journey from
prototypes to rockets.
Until next time, keepquestioning, keep observing and
keep inventing.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
And who knows, your next frustration could be the
world's next breakthrough.
See you in the future.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
Thank you for listening to Intangiblia, the
podcast of intangible lawplaying.
Talk about intellectualproperty.
Did you like what we talkedtoday?
Please share with your network.
Do you want to learn more aboutintellectual property?
Subscribe now on your favoritepodcast player.
Follow us on Instagram,facebook, linkedin and Twitter.
(31:06):
Visit our websitewwwintangibliacom.
Copyright Leticia Caminero 2020.
All rights reserved.
This podcast is provided forinformation purposes only.
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