Package Design - March 2016 - (Page 62)

Debate & Discuss COL L A B OR AT ION Dr i v i ng B r e a k t h r oug h i n novat ion Katie Ozamiz I Brand and innovation designer at PepsiCo Inc. n this editorial, Package Design interviews experts in a variety of roles about how teams can continuously deliver breakthrough innovation and about the evolving role of innovation. This is a preview of a roundtable discussion to be published later this year. How can business leaders enable, engage and empower their teams? It sounds simple, but clear team structures and appointed decision makers can actually make all the difference in making team members feel enabled and not overwhelmed or paralyzed. It's important to always feel like the project is moving in a positive direction, but when roles are fuzzy, every major decision feels like a roadblock. With complex projects that engage cross-functional teams, this can be tricky, because roles and team structures need to shift depending on objectives. If the project is design-led, then design should weigh heavily as decision makers; but if it is a productivity initiative, design should be focused on delivering instead of making the major decisions. Setting these clear expectations help teams manage their own success. How does workload and cadence affect innovation? Innovation takes time and usually relies on the cooperation of large teams. It's hard to complete a true innovation project if workloads are heavy and unbalanced across disciplines. It goes back to empowerment-if progression depends on too many decision makers, projects will lose momentum and teams will feel thwarted. By the same token, working teams have to be able to look at opportunities for innovation and not feel overwhelmed by the processes, resources, and costs needed to get to implementation. If those needs are not supported, people will be resistant to taking on the challenge that innovation brings. What have you done to integrate individual and organizational change? The design function is still relatively young in PepsiCo. One of our major initiatives is developing a process for 62 MARCH 2016 effective collaboration across the different business functions. In the past, ideas have been generated in one facet of the company, e.g., marketing, insights, etc., and passed between the others for evaluation. If we as designers can work with each team to understand the challenges from every angle, then the ideas and concepts that we generate will have a higher success rate when it runs through all of the validation systems. If we take this more holistic view, injecting design into the development process doesn't just mean adding a step, but adjusting the entire approach. Doing so reveals the complexity of innovation projects, they have lots of objectives from different angles and lots of work streams that need to harmonize. Design is crucial throughout this process-we are the thread that connects all the disciplines. We've employed what we call a "brief in a tweet," where we challenge the team to align on a 140-character summary of the project. That way, as teams work concurrently, they have a basis for decision making.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Package Design - March 2016

Package Design - March 2016
Contents
Editor’s Letter
Front Panel
Snapshots
Package Design Matters Series
A Spirited Performance
Patterns of Engagement
Debate & Discuss: Driving Breakthrough Innovation
Product Focus
Field Notes: Party-Ready Package
Sponsored Section: Agencies to Watch

Package Design - March 2016