A case study on why Design Thinking is 99% common sense and how even large companies like BMW can get lost in the self-illusion trap.

People often ask if Design Thinking is really necessary after all, large companies use their most brilliant minds to develop innovative projects and acclaimed professionals with many years of experience are part of the project team, how can they get it wrong?

I found this article on LinkedIn This is the future of motorcycling and I believe this is a perfect showcase why companies urgently need Design Thinking and today more than ever and why common sense helps innovators avoid the self-illusion trap.

How scientists and technicians are caught in the self-illusion trap.

We expect from scientists and technicians to dream of achieving the impossible and of imagining things that still don’t exist. At the same time, they must neglect obvious constraints that currently make everybody believe the idea does not work.

Naturally, each invention will start with a novel hypothesis of how a problem can be solved or how a new thought can change the world. Moreover, it is also natural and necessary that innovators brush away obstacles or assume they will find a workaround to make the innovation happen when they start out on their journey.

Innovators tend to see connections and opportunities others cannot see, and once they make the observation, it will change the innovator's perception of the world. This improved understanding is part of the innovation process, and it is a precondition to achieving the goal.

Suddenly things that didn’t make sense before start making much more sense in the new context. Problems that seemed unsolvable appear in a new light and solutions become possible.

If the innovation succeeds the benefit is, that what originally only was part of the inventor's imagination can be shared with the world. Thus, if you want a definition what an invention is you could state:

• An invention is an insight observed or discovered by one human that changes the way all people perceive the world in the future and furthermore there is a common consent that this new observation is correct.

The drawback of seeing the world in a new context is that innovators who fall in love with their idea start stretching their imagination. They sometimes stretch their imagination so far that it ridicules the original idea and makes others ask if the inventor has lost his mind.

• If this happens, they have missed the second half of the equation “….. there is a common consent that this new observation is correct.”

A perfect example how innovators totally lose their connection to reality is to be seen in This is the future of motorcycling.

• It shows how technicians lost in the self-illusion trap start fabricating nonsense arguments that should be good reasons justifying the invention.

They desperately look for yet another argument to justify their distorted perception of reality, and any argument even those that defy common sense are highly welcomed.

• They are so detached from real life that they fabricate an elusive world where all reasoning perfectly fit their vision.

What they desperately need is somebody to free them from self-deception. A person who makes those innovators see how they have been caught in the self-illusion trap seeing things not the way they are but the way they wish they were.

• If they would dare to involve potential customers and users in the design phase, I guarantee that would be an eye-opener guiding them away from what they wish would be helpful to find things that are meaningful to the next generation of motorcyclists.

Three examples why “This certainly is not the future of motorcycling.”

The inventors of the bike claim they were trying to remove all restraints and dream of a bike the way it might look fifty or hundred years from today or perhaps eighty years ago?. For me, that looks like an excuse not to use common sense.

Nr.1: The concept shown resembles a BMW concept bike from 1937

If I compare the BMW 1937 concept bike with the 2017 vision, I am not sure the 2017 version is a groundbreaking design, yes there are new and different materials used, but except that, the emotional design language has hardly changed.

Nr.2: The motorcycle will be so saved there won’t be any accidence anymore.

BMW claims that in the future motorcycle riders do not need a helmet anymore because the bike will be so safe there won’t be any accidence anymore. This claim proves those technicians are in the self-illusion trap.

It is apparent this claim will never hold, and anybody who knows only a little about motorcycle accident statistics knows that the bikers harmed in many cases are not responsible for the crash in the first place.

Also, we are aware there are many incidences even the perfect connected bike cannot predict.

• Wrong way drivers
• falling trees
• road blowups
• lost cargo
• animals
• drunk drivers
• crazy weather conditions
• medical incidence where the drive gets ill
• the driver him self-doing something stupid, etc.

Moreover, there are many more of these situations that cant be predicted in advance, and where a resulting accident will kill the driver who only has a “VISOR” with little to no protection to the head, instead of a helmet.

Nr.3: The self-balancing bike

The third nonsense innovation is the self-balancing bike which is only useful when the bike stands. There are many much simpler options, for example, putting your foot on the ground when you stand and stabilizing the bike. Avoiding your biker boots touching the ground when the bike stands still is not worth the trouble and effort invested in self-balancing a bike.

Nr.4: The fully connected bike and the blinker

Forth, they show an example of the fully connected bike where the woman lifts her hand to activate the rear blinker. Again that is neither new nor helpful. There are many circumstances where a driver might move his hand to one side without planning to make a right or left turn and this, in turn, might create misunderstanding and cause an accident.

Also when you signal a left or right turn, you should have both hands on the handlebar to have a secure grip, and in this case, a simple button or switch will do the job.

To sum it up what’s desperately missing in this concept is real empathy and-and attempt to find what is useful and meaningful for drivers. It is my impression this projects brief was

• Design a Bike we can use to show off at a motor show with as many new and cool features possible. Don’t waste time to think about real motorcycle riders and what they need in the future.

I am sure that if the project team had used a correct Design Thinking approach, interviewed bikers and asked them what they are dreaming of they would have created an outstanding motorcycle instead of something totally useless where real innovation has been sacrificed for pretending to be cool.

If the project team dislike Design Thinking or perhaps never heard of it common sense would have been a great alternative as well. 

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