Provoke Helsinki - new address

Provoke Helsinki is now located at Keilasatama 3 (map).

Contact information:
Tel. +358 (0)9 2510 7654
Address: Keilasatama 3, 02150 Espoo, Finland

World will be different after the recession?

A lot will have changed; more regulations, old respected companies disappearing, fresh business models booming, marketing and branding changing through co-creation, viral marketing, community/consumer power?

Agile virtual networks of companies and individuals will boom: why buy an office/factory and hire 1,000 people when you can do the same - or more in a flexible network?

Could be that one common nominator will be adaptability? Building new businesses that have a minimum of fixed costs, yet the capability to scale up rapidly. Moving brands instead of fixed ideas? Integrator-role might become dominant, pursuing solution-driven offerings that can be rapidly adjusted to user needs on the fly.

Sustainability will grow in importance; not only ecology, but social and financial aspects as well.

And people will once again try and build models that would never be hit by another recession again. The next recession will eventually hit people by surprise after some years. But in between, there is going to be an interesting phase of growth; will it focus on financial growth alone - or growth of meaning as well?

Product Development Day.

By Hannes Seeberg

Product Development Days are organized by InnoEstonia - a part of InnoEurope innovation centre which offers ideas for product developers to inspire and support them in creating new value. Fourth event took place on February 12th in Tallinn. Theme for the day was "What products and services are expedient to developed in the year 2009?"

We were there to understand what is being told about product development in Estonia. Participants came from food industry, IT, branding, universities and trade unions - manufacturing industry was missing in the list. As the organizer pointed out, the amount of participants for the event had decreased 2-3 times due to bad economical situation of Estonian companies.

The topics:
■ "Strategics and product development" by Priit Karjus
■ "What is needed to know about competitors and the market in order to make the right decisions for product development?" by Margus Žuravljov
■ "How to effectively remove risks in product development?" by Toomas Danneberg
■ "How to involve users to company´s product development process?" by Alar Kolk

To note, all of the speakers based their presentations to a question "How to do it?", however did not answer to the theme of the day. See their slides (in Estonian).

Previous speakers for InnoEstonia´s Product Development Days include also Steve Chazin, who directed Apple´s comeback-marketing during the end of 90´s. See his videocast (in English).


More info: hannes.seeberg@provoke.ee & InnoEurope

Industry engines.

by Hannes Seeberg

What are the development opportunities for Estonian manufacturing industries? What are the upcoming global manufacturing trends for the year 2018? What should the industries concentrate at?

These were the main questions discussed at The Manufacturing Forum, a high-level public culmination event of Estonian Development Fund´s foresight project "Industry Engines 2018", held on December 2nd in Tallinn. Hannes Seeberg, Managing Director of Provoke Tallinn, was one of the 150 invited industry quests, together creating a preliminary vision of Estonian manufacturing industry with a 10 year perspective.

The outcome: there are two potential areas for global market, where Estonian manufacturing has opportunities:
■ energy-saving and environmentally friendly products;
■ products for healthcare and well-being sectors.

As we in Provoke see it - there is a future need for products, that are produced using less energy and materials, are energy- and cost-effective during their life-cycle - yet add great value for their users.


Speakers for the event were prof. Richard K. Lester (MIT Industrial Performance Center, USA), Antti Herlin (KONE Corporation, Finland), Siim Sikkut (Estonian Development Fund), Mr Joe Harford (Chairman of High Level Group of Manufacturing, Ireland). Day-long event ended with a reception by Mr Juhan Parts (minister of economic affairs and communications in Estonia).

See videocasts and presentation materials (both available in English and Estonian).

More info: hannes.seeberg@provoke.ee & Estonian Development Fund

Design Thinking helps when the economy poses new challenges

by Mikko Kämäräinen

Design Thinking is gaining more popularity among companies wanting to refocus their strategies around end-customers. Cutting costs is obvious - but to keep innovating cost-effectively at the same time is the key to turn the challenges into new opportunities. Understanding real user needs and being able to innovate end-customer value, then test it before going too far in development is crucial as companies face an economically demanding era.
Move On! magazine by Fintra featured a case story about Design Thinking in issue 04/2008. You can download the article (in Finnish).

More info: mikko.kamarainen@provoke.fi

New site

We've updated our site at www.provoke.fi.

Comments are welcome. You can post anonymously your comments here - or send an email to info@provoke.fi.

Provoke Tallinn in Estonian media.

by Hannes Seeberg

„Think how much companies spend on commercials. Take half of million from there and invest it on product development instead! Create a product, that everone wants to buy. If you are not able to do that, advertisements would not help you.“
■ Hannes Seeberg in Saldo, Estonian business magazine, November 2008.

Ask for a scanned article (in Estonian): hannes.seeberg@provoke.ee

by Hannes Seeberg

„We need a product development union, which gathers skills of different occupations. This way Estonian companies could get a advice for their product development from one place.“
■ Hannes Seeberg in Äripäev, Estonian business newspaper, September 2008.

Full article: Aripaev.ee (in Estonian)
More info: hannes.seeberg@provoke.ee

New people

Saikat Biswas has joined Provoke Turku as the newest Senior Industrial Designer. Saikat will work for the Creatives team. He worked previously for Kyocera in India.

Prototype early

by Pasi Mattila

Pasi Mattila talks about fuzzy frot end prototyping in Prosessori Magazine. (In Finnish)
Prorotyping early means you get to test your concepts before investing too much on development. This is the key to iterate ideas cost-effectively. Do not ask users what they want, but DO ask them what they think of your ideas.
A prototype is worth a thousand pictures. Being able to prototype early enables more iteration and more opportunities to create winning ideas.

LiveProto is a tool for creating working proof-of-concept prototypes before HW/SW design.

More info: pasi.mattila@provoke.fi

PRESS RELEASE: Future of mobile phone design unveiled at New York Design Week 2008

by Janne Loiske

HARDCORE New Finnish Design will showcase 20 individual design projects and concepts from Finland presented in collaboration with major Finnish design companies. The exhibition will be the centerpiece of Meatpacking District Design Week May 17-19, 2008.
The HARDCORE exhibition is organized by Design Forum Finland, the Consulate General of Finland in New York and the Finnish Cultural Institute in New York, and presented in collaboration with the Meatpacking District Initiative and Abe NYC, Inc.

Provoke is presenting mobile phone concepts in the curated section of the exhibition.

Mobile concepts 2012

In 2007, Provoke made a conceptual study showing where mobile phone trends are heading in 2012. Mobile concepts 2007 is a collection of clearly differentiated devices for focused end-user segments. Provoke presents three of these concepts: Express, Feel and Share as prototypes at New York Design Week.

A design team focused on the end-users' actual needs innovated differentiating benefits for them. What do users really want to do with their communication devices in the year 2012? Upcoming technologies will enable robotics, sensors and illumination which will transform radically user experiences. The user interface will eventually step out of the display and blur to its surroundings.

The concepts are presented as Live Proto™ devices - fully functional prototypes demonstrating the core innovation of each concept.

Express your mood with illumination

Some people prefer to express their emotions through unique symbols carried with them in everyday life. Could future devices enable new ways to support this behavior and help them gain the social status they crave for?

The Express concept enables the user to enhance his/her current mindset instantly by totally transforming the habitués of the device - changing the color will be possible electronically. The pace and intensity of visual contrast between the different states can be customized to suit personal liking.


Feel the touch of your loved one

Touching is a very intense and personal form of communication. People share their deepest feelings by touching. Feel is a phoneset concept for couples. Tactile sharing trough simulated touch. Real physical communication - what if you could touch your loved one via your mobile phone?

In the future, the user interface will eventually step out of the display. Feel has a specialized user interface and touch simulation to enable deep communication.

Share urban extreme sport challenge

Technology will enable new forms of intellectual networking and augmented reality. The Share concept enables communication and sharing of information through personalized codes formed in subgroups of likeminded individuals.

By tagging content to locations, group members can challenge each other. Actual and virtual worlds will blur. In this example, the Share concept is customized for skateboarders.


Provoke background

Provoke is an award-winning international strategic design house that has doubled its business twice in the last 5 years. Provoke is focused on creating strategies for portfolio management and innovating new concepts. The basis is always the end-customer insight gained by working for the highest valued international brands.


Background for the future concepts

Product development is facing new challenges as end-user lifetime value is replacing the device-centric mindset in progressive companies. Most companies are still creating products without really understanding the needs and values of the end-users. Often the design, the user interface, the linked services and even the marketing message seem to be conflicting, thus blurring the usability and desirability of any new concept.

In many fields of business, companies are focused on overlapping user segments and fighting fiercely over the same customers. Only a few companies are differentiating their products and innovating products with diversity in mind. Choosing among multiple options is always based on differences - but are there too little differences in the offerings?

Also cultural issues are finally emerging rapidly in global markets. Most of the products being sold today are developed by western people for western people, using the outdated way of feature-based product specification. New kinds of products will be created to serve the growing needs of the emerging markets.

For more information, visit www.hardcoredesign.net and www.provoke.fi.

Hi-resolution images and more information are also available from:
Janne Loiske +358 (0)440 - 333 803, janne.loiske@provoke.fi