The View from 40,000 feet

Author: Bryon Kataoka, iSOA Group CTO and Thought Leader

Happy New Year!  Its 2016 and I’m already traveling across the country to be a thought leader to our various customers. I have a few resolutions, or action plans, I’d like to focus on this year, but first a few thoughts for 2016, before I get into the resolutions……..

For 2016, I have a feeling that this is going to be a fantastic year for Enterprise Innovation!  With the increase in hiring in 2015 I believe we will start to see new products and innovations.  I also believe cyber security continues to be a battle we must continue to wage war on. With so many events happening around the world we cannot be complacent and stick our head in the sand.  So hang on to your hats, it is going to be a wild ride!

As a thought leader I’m always trying to find better ways of conveying information and providing solutions to my clients.  My first resolution is to try to find ways of making that easier for my customers.  My second and last resolution is to find processes and tools that make my first resolution easier.

So here is what I’m going to start with; the first thing that I’m going to incorporate in my lifestyle (both personal and professional) is “Design Thinking”.  For those of you unfamiliar with Design Thinking, it has helped entrepreneurs and engineers develop and create successful new products and businesses.  What Design Thinking does is help identify the obstacles that are holding you back from achieving your goals.

There are five steps in Design Thinking, the first two being the most important.  First is to “empathize”, that is, understand what the real issues are that you need to solve and the second is to “define the problem”.  Steps 3, 4 an 5 follow a path of brainstorming ideas and possible solutions, prototyping or design a plan and finally test the idea and garner feedback from others.

Design Thinking has been around for some time.  It is taught at Stanford University in the heart of Silicon Valley, which is a veritable think tank for creative ideas.  To find out more, check out this 90 minute crash course on Design Thinking:  http://dschool.stanford.edu/dgift/

For my second resolution I’m going to dovetail with “Design Thinking” and look to implement a tool that would help me with Step 3 of “Design Thinking”.   As I am always looking for ways to keep my brain sharp, I am planning to use “Mind Mapping” tools to help me brainstorm ideas and provide a better way to convey the information.

In the future I’ll follow up on how we are incorporating Design Thinking at iSOA Group and how you might also use Design Thinking in your daily lives.

So there you have it, my resolutions for 2016.

I wish you all a successful 2016, and I hope to see you at the IBM InterConnect Conference 2016 in February.

Bryon Kataoka is the iSOA Group, Inc. CTO sharing his experience as a technical leader for over  20 years.  In his role at iSOA Group, Inc. he is a thought leader as well as a consultant to many companies helping them be successful with their Middleware strategy and implementations.