What you
should expect
Expect software to be
more than functional, it should be likeable,
modern, and satisfying. Innovative
experiences are the core of innovative
technology.
Product innovation - how we
do it
Sphere departs from traditional Systems
Engineering in how we source requirements.
The vast majority of missed innovation
opportunities occur in the system
requirements because the focus is on
features and benefits as the differentiator
of ROI and value.
Features and benefits are no longer
sufficient differentiators. New systems and
products require exceptional user
experiences, conveniences, and creativity.
Sphere puts the human at the center of our
design goals by injecting product design
disciplines and techniques into a stable
well-practiced engineering process. We let
product experiences drive system engineering
- not the reverse.
Principles.
Discipline. Technique.
An amateur can be innovative, but a
professional is innovative on demand.
The same is true for technology designers, a
professional design studio can deliver
exceptional user experiences on demand. We
do this because we are disciplined about
applying proven principles of good design.
What are these principles? Just a few
highlights are: Amplification through
simplification, Tell a story, Make the
common quick, Rule of 3rds, Re-invent the
light bulb, and many more.
The main reason our competitors ship bad
designs is because they have not been
trained to know the difference between good
design and bad design. |
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Outside-in
product development
The outside
of a product or system is how it fits into
the human world. Design elements that have
contact with humans are conceptualized
independently from technical inner workings.
The “outside” is more than Use Cases and UI,
it is every design element that will
ultimately contribute to the experience of
owning or using a system.
Engineers are challenged to bring the
outside concept to life without interfering
with the human experience; all technical
work must fit within the outside design.
Delivery teams innovate daily to implement
differentiating products and enterprise
systems.
Role of the designer
At Sphere our software delivery teams are
piloted by experienced Product Designers.
Designers are responsible for what we build,
not how we build it. By injecting structured
creative processes we ensure that the right
system gets built. Designers are intensely
involved in specification and ultimately are
responsible for delivering differentiated
value. As an Agile company our process
remains customer intimate, ensuring that
customers, users, and subject-matter experts
participate in design, but always with the
guidance of a professional designer.
Where did we get
all this?
We spent a
lot of time studying other industries,
particularly highly creative environments
like industrial design and marketing
studios. We discovered that repeatable
innovation, creativity, and value
differentiation is a matter of daily
business in these industries and we adapted
their techniques to software. Sphere applies
“product thinking” to software applications,
products, and enterprise systems. We use
techniques learned from other industries to
make software better.
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