Name: Brainstorm Design 2023: Designing For Scale
Uploaded: 2023-12-07
Duration: 18 min 56 s
Description: Minh Tran, VP of Operations and Academic Affairs, Goodnotes Anouk Sylvestre, Director Design, BCG X

Minh Tran, VP of Operations and Academic Affairs, Goodnotes Anouk Sylvestre, Director Design, BCG X

Brainstorm Design 2023: Designing For Scale

Conferences

Why the principles of design are critical for any new tech company. Anu Sylvester leads the design practice at BC GX Singapore where she advises corporate ventures and start ups. Min Chuan is currently the Vice President of Operations and A Affairs and good notes, a beloved digital note taking app that Wong Apple's 2022 app, ipad app of the year. So please welcome Anu Sa Min Tren and NCO less Gordon my colleague. The stage is yours next. So we we've heard a lot about um about big projects about big name designers and big companies. We want to kind of go a bit smaller scale for this session. Um So, Anu, you know, you work with BC GX, which is its new initiative to kind of work with these early stage companies, smaller scale start ups. Um Why is BC G deciding to work with these with this different kind of organization as opposed to kind of its probably more standard larger corporate clients? Oh, and you have some slides you have to show us. So actually the way how BC GX brings together those two worlds is by the team that is at the foundation of BC GX, we're all from sta start up backgrounds, founder backgrounds, but different disciplines. So, data scientists, um and designers, engineers, and what we bring to the table is that start up experience and we combine it with the corporate. So the the idea is that we really take all the good from the corporate assets and then bring that start up approach so that we can create innovative products and businesses. Um So really looking, what are the assets of the corporate and how can we propel them to find new problems to solve and using that methodology to make it happen? And so not only big fluffy new concept, we really make stuff, we want to make stuff that has impact, that changes people's lives and that also has transformative effects on businesses. Yeah. And, and we were talking earlier about this but the design questions at a start up versus a corporate like a big corporation, they're different. What are those differences? So I think one part is at the crux of anything. Is, is is there a problem to solve or a meaning to fulfill? Um when it's a founder that meaning can come from within, right? It's something that is meaning for, for myself when it's a corporate, that that distance, that perspective is sometimes hard to see. So what we do is as designers, we apply methodology to find a problem or a meaning that is worth solving with the assets that a corporate has. Um so that starting point is quite different. Uh One is more introspective and the other one is more OK, what are interesting target groups that we can look at and what problems do they have that the assets of the corporate can solve? And from there launch a new business and a new product. So I wanna bring in someone from a start up right now, Ming. Um So you're from Good Notes, Hong Kong based start up, you know, Hong Kong pride. You won the 2022 after of the year ipad app of the year award. I went to your office and I held that award. It's very heavy, very surprisingly heavy. Um But tell us a bit more about what good Notes design story is, how that app got it started and you also have something to, to show on screen as well. Yeah, thank you so much. Um We just want to show you what the app actually looks like since we're at the design conference. Um The app got started from our founder, Steven Chan when he was in college and he created Good Notes one by himself in his last semester of college in Australia. Um He is originally from Hong Kong and many people ask us what makes good notes different. Why do we win um app of the year compared to the innumerable other note taking apps out there. It's really our obsession with the user experience, the attention to detail. It sounds almost cliche to say that, but I really do think that's what sets us apart. How do we make the experience delightful and magical? Um And how do we get out of a user's way so that um it can be the experience as simple as they want it to be or as complex and elegant as some of our power users you've just seen do with the app. Um So good not to have thought about design early but um but a new, you know, I think, can I, oh, sorry, sorry. Oh, please. Just one more thing um on this um these numbers, this is show the scale, our session is on designing for scale. Um We started, as I was saying, with just Steven by himself and he worked by himself for five years. Um It's from 2011 to 2014 before he started hiring and today we've grown tremendously. Uh So we're everywhere where there is an ipad and we currently have more than 24 million monthly active users and that's quickly growing. And the number that astounds me the most is the fact that our users spend more than 70 minutes a day in our app. And that's because they're bringing the app from meeting to meeting, from session to session if you're here at the conference. Um And you can see there we are with Mr Cook himself, right? So, um so obviously an app that kind of brought design and design taking on early. Um But au you know, in your experience kind of working with start up, um it feels like I could, I could bet a lot of founders think design, I'll worry about that when I got the product, right. You know, let's get the product right first, then we'll worry about making it look nice and design it nice and, and whatever. Um I assume you think it's probably wrong. So, so, so, so what, what are some of the problems that happen if you don't bring, you know, your design thinking, your design chops and your start up early, it really depends how crowded the space is. So I think the the part that you cannot skip is is there a problem or a meaning that you're bringing? Um and that is a design skill in the sense is that empathy that understanding, but is it necessarily brought by a designer que questionable? I think a lot of us have naturally that, that talent and can add that value at an early stage as Stevenson has done. Um But you almost see it as a graph, right? So the more crowded the space, the more value design can bring. So let's say there's there's a space where OK, we have now different note taking solutions and now it's about making the best possible note taking experience. So that's when experience design starts to become really, really, really important and impactful, right? So I need I as a company need to stand out because I have the best note taking experience. And if you continue going up that slope where there's even more crowded space, then just a great experience alone won't cut it because the overall everyone has kind of nailed at that great experience. So that's when identity design comes in. I think there was a mention about this. Uh when we talked about cars earlier, there, there's a moment where that has flattened out the possibilities, that great experience. Now we need to boost up more of the esthetical values, emotional value so that a user will choose one noting tool over another because they identify with one more. And that's actually I want to bring in me here because because we talked about this earlier, um which is, you know, like design actually is a competitive advantage for apps. So what do you want to explain a bit more kind of how design has helped Good Notes make a name for itself in this very crowded space? Yeah. And for us, everyone is a designer at good notes, including our engineers, you know, we're at a design conference talking about why design is important. So it's quite obvious, right? Um But for, from my perspective, it's not just design um uh but it's also a great engineering because without great engineering, uh which is I think what often sets good notes apart, you can bring that design to life. Uh And we like to say that our designers can imagine anything and then our, our, our engineers can build it. Um But when it comes to finding what our users want, what our users need, um we bring in everybody from the beginning. So it's not just designers, talking user researchers, talking to, to users or non users, but its engineers as well and investing them at the from the beginning on these users stories, these user issues really also empowers the engineers to be problem solvers and solution seekers. So um that's what we love doing. A good enough if it's extremely collaborative. Um And speaking to your point about, you know, what, after you have great design, what sets us apart is that fan, I think, right? Uh Once you have that identity, that emotional connection to, to the experience, um there is that good note fandom out there and we engage with them and we try to, we do serve our fans and try to give them what they want. Um And, and those are really fun moments and, and I want to drill down on this point about, you know, design being a team effort in a second. But before I do that and I went to your office last week and I saw that you'd converted one of your meeting rooms into a classroom. So kind of how is this working for good notes, design future? How are you using this to kind of develop future services. Yeah. So we, we want to be as close to our users as possible and we want it to be a cove process. So we are building something new for teachers um which I can't spoil here on the stage yet. We'll save that for another day. But in but to build that, we wanted to have real teachers, real students coming into our, our and experiencing our uh app as that new product as we were building it. So it is, I mean, that's just fundamental good design uh principle, right? Being extremely close to you, to your users and co developing with them, that's when you, you know, for sure you're solving real problems. Um So I didn't want to talk about this like designs, a team effort point which has come up a lot, I think throughout the day, another point that come out a lot today is that a lot of these new tools are democratizing access to design ability, especially we all saw the sketches being turned into renders in a matter of minutes. Um And it seems like there there is this tension there where there is like it's a team effort, everyone involved in design, but also it's democratizing access. So you don't maybe don't even need superstar designers anymore. And I want to bring in a new to kind of talk about this, this potential tension a little bit between making sure everyone's qualifying design, but also having this like really big democratized access to design tools. So what the different tools are actually allowing us to almost increase that Venn diagram of each person. So if we think of, I love to think of teams, especially in our contact where it's very multidisciplinary, they're not separate circles, they have a high degree of overlapping. So for example, they all need to share that the around the problem, right? But what these tools are allowing us to do is that that overlap increases. Um It can be, for example, by the fact that A I tools allows engineers to be more visual, but a lot of tools are actually also allowing designers to cross more into the engineering boundaries. So for example, there are some amazing no code, local tools that are allowing designers to really push that testing phase more and more and more. So then the interaction between engineering and design actually happens more on par. It's more about are we solving, are we asking the right questions? Are we solving the real problems? And then who uses what tool to go and find out and de risk it that becomes almost secondary because there's such a shared pool of different tools that each of the parties can use. Um M again, we were we we were having kind of our, our, our pre briefing and you mentioned that that good Notes has a very low labor attrition rate. You'll be able to hold on to a lot of your employees um over time and I think I've read about a lot of different design forward organizations for companies that I also be able to do that. And it gives them the opportunity to both teach everyone the design framework that they have, but also giving them the space to experiment within that framework. And so how, what from your experience, the good notes, how important has it been to be able to, to hold on to your talent? Oh It's, it's everything, right. Our team is everything we cannot do anything without our team. Our success is it has everything to do with the incredible team that we have. Of course, it's important to bring in the fresh perspective. Um the outside experience, those are really important too. Um What our OG members, team members do for us is they have that institutional memory. They don't need to do a lot of research on what we've done because they were there. Um And they can so instinctively tell what isn't right based on our past experience. And that is so important in, in when we're going into um breaking new grounds but not losing our roots. Um Anu, you know, we are based here in Asia, in Macau. Um And so I wanted to get a sense from you. What are some of the differences that you're seeing between how Asia Based start ups versus non Asia Based starts how they're thinking about design? Do they approach the problems designed differently. Are they bringing on designers at different times? Are there any differences that you're seeing? So I've been now at this side of the world for, for a while and I'm actually really almost struggling to get away from it because of the incredible energy that companies have over here. Like there's such this much more willing to take risks and much more willing to experiment. And sometimes I think that I'll talk now for, in the case of Europe, I think we have a strong attachment to doing right to philosophizing very deeply on meaning. Um But sometimes if that takes too long and you're not able to create something and see what happens in the real world. A lot of this philosophy kind of falls flat and what I actually learned to really embrace here is finding that balance between getting it out, seeing if what I'm imagining or that whole beautiful strategy that I have in mind actually is converting. Is it making people relate more or talk more or have better social connections or not? Was that just a theory that doesn't apply? And then how do you find though that balance? Right? I think almost coming from, from a world where there's a lot of risk aversion and then moving into the side of the world where there's a lot of risk taking, you're almost like, oh, have we thought this through? OK, let's let's take it step by step. So how can you take that incredible energy but almost like take it bit by bit, especially in, in this context where we're using more and more risky technology that we don't know what impact they're going to have. So how can you can find that space to see what the real life impact is? But without it going haywire. So I want to close by talking about my favorite topic. Your favorite topic? Everyone's favorite topic. A I and I'll give it to a new first to kind of maybe expand briefly. You know, how is A I going to change how we think about start ups and design in the years to come. We didn't talk about designing A I products, which is different than using A I for design. Do you have any kind of quick thoughts on how that's going to change? Yeah. So yeah, I think slight reference before on using A I as tools to design better when it comes to building A I uh products. I think one of the theme that has come up uh today is um there's never been a technology that is so easy to implement as a POC. It's like, oh, I, I need to know if this technology is feasible. Actually, that part is relatively easy as compared to a lot of other technologies. The prob the the challenge is especially when it comes to um Ja I in a context of business transformation. So when you input that in the current flow, the the impact it has on, on the people. It's not just a tool like someone else mentioned, it's almost like inserting the superhuman person. And so therefore the way how a team interacts with a super superhuman versus a tool is very different. So I think we uh we need to demystify this idea of the problem of the technology. The problem is not the technology, the technology is an enabler to solve problems in a way that we have never solved before. But for them to effectively solve the problem, we need to understand how humans interact with this new tool to be able to actually make it happen, especially when it comes to business transformation, closing thoughts on A R. This is such an exciting moment and I, I think all of us are here for it. Um For good notes. What we're doing um with Gen A I is we launch in August. Um The world's first gen A I for handwriting where we can mimic your handwriting style with just one letter that you've written. Um So that is proprietary technology that we have launched. And what we're working on now is integrating uh external LLM that will allow us to make your library of content in good notes. Um A a an easier to access source so you can ask good notes for anything. Um And then we can gen you can imagine anything for you. So that is, that's going to be extremely powerful and useful for our users. What we've been talking about is how do you design the guard rails? How do you design the, the, the caveats to alert users that these are gen A I output? And that's also really well because I was asked about data security. I mean, um well, I want a gen A I to read all of my personal notes. I mean, is that also you think about like in terms of data, like where, where, where the, you know, how to handle all this personal data that's extremely important. Um And it's something that we talk a lot about uh we spend innumerable hours on data protection and also compliance, right? Many policymakers are still reckoning with how to regulate this. Um So we've been engaging with policymakers including the Minister Ministry of Education in Germany just this week, uh for instance. Um and, and, and so that's something that we have to take very seriously. Well, thank you, Anu, thank you m so for talking about how to use how it starts on you. You use design, use it early, make sure you get the product right early. Don't leave it till the last minute. I was like, get get your product wrong. Everyone, please. Thank Anu and Ming for sharing their insight today and move to the next session. Thank you.