Subject To Change: Creating Great Products & Services for an Uncertain World: Adaptive Path on Design

Subject To Change: Creating Great Products & Services for an Uncertain World: Adaptive Path on Design

3.65 of 5 stars 3.65  ·  rating details  ·  156 ratings  ·  15 reviews
To achieve success in today's ever-changing and unpredictable markets, competitive businesses need to rethink and reframe their strategies across the board. Instead of approaching new product development from the inside out, companies have to begin by looking at the process from the outside in, beginning with the customer experience. It's a new way of thinking-and working-...more
Hardcover, 192 pages
Published April 22nd 2008 by O'Reilly Media (first published March 26th 2008)
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Margot
Meh. This was recommended to me when I expressed interest in reading about user-centered design and user experience topics. Although it's short, I almost didn't finish it because it's, well...boring. Repetitive, not very well constructed or edited. There wasn't a clear progression or building from one concept to another, just a collection of extremely vague case studies about Adaptive Path's work with their unnamed clients (for example, "a financial services firm") with a chapter about agile dev...more
Kelley
If you're in the business of software or web application development, do yourself a favor and read books directly on that topic. This book isn't one of them. It was part of Dominion's library so I ordered it because it looked interesting, because it addressed Agile product development, and because I tend to appreciate Adaptive Path's work.

While this is a book for people involved in all aspects of product design, it is focused on the design process behind physical products and services. This does...more
Glenn
I got this book about product marketing because I wanted to gain insight on marketing of my own product http://www.code-roller.com so I was a little frustrated by the overall direction and focus of the book which is to motivate the reader into hiring Adaptive Path. All four authors either currently work for or have recently worked for that marketing company. According to the on-line edition of the book, there are twenty eight references to Adaptive Path in the content.

While light on theory, the...more
Lisa
Jan 16, 2009 Lisa rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: People who make stuff and want to do it better
Recommended to Lisa by: Adaptive Path-Brandon
Shelves: 2008, work-related, 2009
This is a well-written book that articulates the idea that having a design/creation process focused on user experience can help a company gain competitive advantage. They advocate agile methods of iterative design. It's probably most suited to someone needing an introduction to this approach.

I got this book when I took the Adaptive Path UX Intensive course, so my reaction to it is heavily colored by the fact that I got a ton of information in that course, in much greater detail than the book and...more
Alper Çugun
Adaptive Path's summary of the experience design process. It's a short book and is concerned with giving a broad overview of the discipline and its benefits.

As such it is more written to get converts than to provide those already converted with a lot of new material. The book is filled with argumentation to help you win over the people you have to work with to an experience strategy.

Rahmad
Put forth the concept of product design as a process of designing the user's experience of using the product; a good/bad product is reflected on the user's experience in using that product. Points to a process of continuous experimenation and feedback from customers for this process.

Most mostly targeted for business audience/ People who are familiar with aspects of usability and HCI should be vary familiar with what the authors are saying.
Tracie
May 09, 2009 Tracie added it
Shelves: design
this book makes some interesting points about how to approach design from a holistic perspective. would love to implement some of these techniques! i'd like to find some real-world examples of how companies convince clients to go for the agile design approach, though.
Lori Grant
A should-read book on creating and building new products for knowledge workers and entrepreneurs.
Daejun Chung
Helpful to get the concept of experience strategy and create one.
Justin McDonald
This book left me with more questions than answers.
Robert
Short and repetitive plus a pretty hard sell for a consulting company. Takeaway - well designed products with a wow factor are a good thing and you should make design a priority. Be Appleish.
Mark
The book really didn't provide many new insights. That, coupled with the high expectations that I had for the book led to my rating.

The book can be summed up in three bullets points:
- Design is good for your business
- Design products/services with a rabid attention to customer experience
- Employ rapid prototyping (a la IDEO)

Furthermore, the flow seemed disjointed and you are paying $25 for 170 pages (which I wouldn't mind if it were a meaty 170 pages.)

Nicole Califano
Disappointing, few unique thoughts, just seemed to borrow from other books. Unfortunately, the references could have been more detailed, and less about Adaptive Path's conquests. It's a short book, but not much of a fun quick read. I did enjoy the chapter at the end re: Agile vs Waterfall methods. I'm a big fan of AP, but this book sure wasn't what I'd hoped it would be.
Leisa
Nov 08, 2010 Leisa rated it 3 of 5 stars
Shelves: ux
More targeted at business managers than designers, this book is a few years old but still very relevant to people looking for in introduction to a more holistic approach to Customer Experience or Service Design. I thought their arguments for developing design competencies in the organisation was probably the strongest aspect.
Kip
There's a lot of good solid material in the book: talking about the Kodak camera as an experience design (no iPod-speak here!); the relationship of research to design (actionable and durable!); case studies that are off the beaten path.
Elaine Roberts
I'm actually re-reading this book just now. More to come.
Victor
Jun 06, 2013 Victor marked it as to-read
Terri
May 31, 2013 Terri is currently reading it
Harshada
May 31, 2013 Harshada marked it as to-read
Jorge Camacho
May 27, 2013 Jorge Camacho marked it as to-read
Shelves: design
Kamal
May 25, 2013 Kamal marked it as to-read
Pam
May 24, 2013 Pam rated it 3 of 5 stars
Shelves: non-fic
Vladimir Nikolov
May 15, 2013 Vladimir Nikolov marked it as to-read
Dane
May 13, 2013 Dane marked it as to-read
Liz
May 10, 2013 Liz marked it as to-read
Chris Wang
May 08, 2013 Chris Wang marked it as to-read
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Subject to Change: Creating Great Products & Services for an Uncertain World: Adaptive Path on Design (ebook)
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