Meet Jonathan Kelley, a recent EDI alumnus
Innovation, perhaps the most overused buzzword in the contemporary business press, just so happens to be my career plan. All the hype is great, as employers are eager to create Directors of Innovation and new VP’s of Consumer Experience, but society often misses what it means to be an innovator. Innovation is the practical application of the creative process, leading to a working business solution. The User Centered Design (UCD) process allows professionals to successfully incorporate the needs of stakeholders, gradually refining products to meet those needs in creative ways. The essence of the Engineering Design and Innovation (EDI) program is to train students to become New Product Development professionals – using UCD to innovate throughout their careers.
Design is the most intellectually stimulating work I have encountered. It brings together engineering, psychology, aesthetics, and many areas of business.
I’ve always been a bit of a split personality – struggling between a humanities student and an engineer. I graduated from the University of Virginia in 2004 with a BS in Electrical Engineering. I craved the challenge of engineering, so I embarked on a career in government Research and Development while completing an MS in EE at Johns Hopkins University. Before long I was working on electronic RADAR systems. The technical problems were incredibly challenging, but the work didn’t resonate with my broader interests in psychology, business, and product design. At every opportunity, I found myself drawn to work on projects that had some sort of user interface. It was time for a change.
I began exploring programs looking for 4 things:
- A broad set of coursework with interactive discussions and team projects.
- User Centered Design Focus
- A passionate faculty
- An intense program that could put me back in the work force as soon as possible
EDI had them all in spades.
Our class was five students from various science and engineering backgrounds: Industrial, Electrical, Mechanical, and Bio-Medical. Kellogg students attended many of the core classes, adding a breadth of experience to our peer group. In our studio classes, we worked closely in teams along with the faculty and local design experts to learn the design methodology. Research – Analyze – Synthesize – Iterate. We repeated this process on each project to learn how iterative design can produce remarkable results. The highlights of the education for me were the work we did in product research and design, an increased understanding of business concepts, and our team experiences. Underlying it all was Dan Brown’s pronouncement that New Product Development was the new gold rush. Future leaders in business must understand the complete process of new product commercialization to compete.
Since EDI, I have embarked on two paths. First, I work full time at Incisent Technologies, where I am a Product Development Analyst, designing and prototyping new product concepts in the automotive software industry. I am also part of a local startup called ElementBars.com. I joined forces with a team member from our Medical Innovations class to create a company that makes custom energy bars (www.elementbars.com). Together, we developed the overall business including website, marketing, baking, and everything else a budding enterprise needs. In providing a design voice, I am responsible for maintaining a focus on serving our customers’ needs, tuning our website, helping with product packaging and shipping, and prototyping manufacturing tools. We took 4th place in the business plan competition at Kellogg and now sell bars across the country.
The various concepts covered in EDI appear again and again each time something goes wrong or even right at work. It is the new product development professional’s responsibility to steer businesses toward better User Centered Design. I’ve found this internal design challenge one of the most difficult and rewarding aspects of the workplace. One day, my background from EDI will help me lead new product development organizations that thrive because of User Centered Design. EDI has given me this great foundation from which to grow, and I recommend it for anyone with a desire to create the businesses and products of tomorrow.
